Former US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said Democrats might have fared better in Tuesday’s election if President Joe Biden had exited the race sooner.

Pelosi – one of the most powerful politicians in Washington – told the New York Times that “had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race”.

Her remarks are the latest finger pointing from Democrats after the party lost hold of the White House and potentially both chambers of Congress on Tuesday.

Pelosi is widely reported to have led the Democrats’ push to oust Biden, who ended up leaving the race at the end of July after weeks of pressure following a poor debate performance against Donald Trump.

As Biden ended his campaign, he quickly endorsed Vice-President Kamala Harris to take his place. She suffered a bruising defeat to President-elect Trump on Tuesday.

Pelosi told the New York Times: “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary.”

An open primary would have involved a number of Democratic candidates competing to be elected by party members to succeed Biden as their White House nominee.

Pelosi argued that Harris would have done well in such a primary process and it would have made her “stronger going forward”.

“But we don’t know that. That didn’t happen. We live with what happened,” the California congresswoman, who was re-elected to her 20th term in the House on Tuesday, said.

“And because the president endorsed Kamala Harris immediately, that really made it almost impossible to have a primary at that time. If it had been much earlier, it would have been different.”

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Speaking to political news outlet Politico, Harris aides also laid the blame at Biden’s feet and said he should have bowed out sooner.

“We ran the best campaign we could, considering Joe Biden was president,” said one unnamed aide. “Joe Biden is the singular reason Kamala Harris and Democrats lost tonight.”

However, a former Biden aide told Axios, another political news outlet, that Harris was making excuses.

“How did you spend $1 billion and not win?” said the aide, adding an expletive.

An unnamed former Biden aide told Politico this week that former President Barack Obama’s advisers were to blame because they “publicly encouraged Democratic infighting to push Joe Biden out, didn’t even want Kamala Harris as the nominee”.

Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman, a Democrat, blamed the election loss on those who plotted to oust Biden.

“For those that decided and moved to break Biden, and then you got the election that you wanted, it’s appropriate to own the outcome and fallout,” he told political outlet Semafor in an interview.

Congressman Tom Suozzi, New York Democratic congressman, said the election loss was partly due to the party’s focus on “being politically correct”.

He said the party had struggled to counteract Republican attack lines on “anarchy on college campuses, defund the police, biological boys playing in girls’ sports, and a general attack on traditional values”.

Ritchie Torres, another New York Democratic congressman, posted on X, formerly Twitter, blaming “the far left”.

He said radicals within the party had “managed to alienate historic numbers of Latinos, Blacks, Asians, and Jews from the Democratic Party with absurdities like ‘Defund the Police’ or ‘From the River to the Sea’ or ‘Latinx’”.

Independent Senator Bernie Sanders, who ran for president as a Democrat in 2016 and 2020, accused the party in a lengthy statement of abandoning working people.

“While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change,” he wrote. “And they’re right.”

He argued Democrats probably wouldn’t learn from the election outcome.

But Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison responded on X that Sanders’ accusation was “straight up BS”.

‘Thomas’ – not his real name – was 13 years old when he began his first stint in prison.

Following the sudden death of his father, he had robbed a shop in Australia’s Northern Territory (NT). He was detained for a week but, within a month, he was back in custody for another burglary.

Five years on, the Aboriginal teenager has spent far more of that time inside prison than out.

“It’s hard changing,” Thomas tells me. “[Breaking the law] is something that you grow up your whole life doing – it’s hard to [stop] the habit.”

His story – a revolving door of crime, arrest and release – is not an isolated one in the Northern Territory.

For many, over the years the crimes get more serious, the sentences longer and the time spent between prison spells ever briefer.

The Northern Territory is the part of Australia with the highest rate of incarceration: more than 1,100 per 100,000 people are behind bars, which is greater than five times the national average.

It’s also more than twice the rate of the US, which is the country with the highest number of people behind bars.

But the issue of jailing children in particular has been thrust into the spotlight here, after the territory’s new government controversially lowered the age of criminal responsibility from 12 back to 10.

The move, which defies a UN recommendation, means potentially locking up even more young people.

It’s not just an issue of incarceration. It’s one of inequalities too.

While around 30% of the Northern Territory’s population is Aboriginal, almost all young people locked up here are Indigenous.

So, Aboriginal communities are by far the most affected by the new laws.

The Country Liberal Party (CLP) government says it has a mandate after campaigning to keep Territorians safe. It helped the party claim a landslide victory in August’s elections.

Among those voting for the CLP was Sunil Kumar.

The owner of two Indian restaurants in Darwin, he’s had five or six break-ins this past year and wants politicians to take more action.

“It’s young kids doing [it] most of the time – [they] think it’s fun,” explains Mr Kumar.

He says he’s improved his locks, put in cameras and even offered soft drinks to kids loitering outside in a bid to win them over.

“How come they are out and parents don’t know?” he says. “There should be a punishment for the parents.”

But while the political rhetoric around crime is powerful, critics say it actually has little to do with real numbers.

Youth offender rates have risen since Covid. Last year, there was a 4% rise nationally.

But the rates are about half of what they were 15 years ago in the Northern Territory, Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show.

Politicians, though, are playing to residents’ fears.

As well as lowering the age of criminal responsibility, they have also introduced tougher bail legislation known as Declan’s Law, after Declan Laverty, a 20-year-old who was fatally stabbed last year by someone on bail for a previous alleged assault.

“I never want another family to experience what we have,” said his mother Samara Laverty.

“The passing of this legislation is a turning point for the Territory, which will become a safer, happier, and more peaceful place.”

On the day the laws started to be debated in Darwin last month, a small crowd of demonstrators stood outside parliament in a last-ditch effort to turn the political tide.

One woman held up a placard that read: ’10 year olds still have baby teeth’. Another asked: ‘What if it was your child?’

“Our young people in Don Dale need to have opportunity for hope,” said Aboriginal elder, Aunty Barb Nasir, addressing the demonstrators.

She was referring to a notorious youth detention centre just outside Darwin, where evidence of abuse – including video of a child wearing a spit hood and shackled to a chair – outraged many in Australia and led to a royal commission inquiry.

“We need to always stand for them because they are lost in there,” Aunty Barb said.

Kat McNamara, an independent politician who opposed the bill, told the crowd: “The idea that in order to support a 10-year-old you have to criminalise them is irrational, ineffective and morally bankrupt.”

After a ripple of applause, she added: “We are not going to stand for it.”

But with a large majority in parliament, the CLP easily managed to pass the laws.

Lowering the age of criminal responsibility undid legislation passed just last year that had briefly lifted the threshold to 12.

And while other Australian states and territories have been under pressure to raise the age from 10 to 14, for now it is once again 10 across the country, with the exception of the Australian Capital Territory.

Australia is not alone – in England and Wales, for instance, it is also set at 10.

But in comparison, the majority of European Union members make it 14, in line with UN recommendations.

The Northern Territory’s Chief Minister, Lia Finocchiaro, argues that by lowering the age of criminal responsibility, authorities can “intervene early and address the root causes of crime”.

“We have this obligation to the child who has been let down in a number of ways, over a long period of time,” she said last month.

“And we have [an obligation to] the people who just want to be safe, people who don’t want to live in fear any more.”

But for people like Thomas, now 18, prison didn’t fix anything. His crimes just got worse, and his time inside increased.

He says he finds prison oddly comforting. It’s not that he likes it, but with custody comes familiarity.

“Most of my family has been in and out of jail. I felt like I was at home because all the boys took care of me.”

His two younger brothers are also stuck in a similar cycle. At one point, their mother was catching a bus to visit all three in prison every week.

Thomas still wears an ankle bracelet issued by authorities but he has been out of prison for nearly three months now – his longest spell of freedom since becoming a teenager.

He’s been helped by Brother 2 Another – an Aboriginal-led project that mentors and supports First Nations children caught up in the justice system.

“Locking these kids up is just a reactive way to go about it,” says Darren Damaso, a youth leader for Brother 2 Another.

“There needs to be more rehabilitative support services, more funding towards Aboriginal-led programmes, because they actually understand what’s happening for these families. And then we’re going to slowly start to see change. But if it’s just a ‘lock them up’ default action, it’s not going to work.”

Mr Damaso is from the Larrakia Aboriginal people, the ancestral owners of the region of Darwin, and he also has connections to the Yanuwa and Malak Malak people.

His organisation brings young people to a refashioned unit on an industrial estate on the outskirts of Darwin, providing a space to relax, a sensory room and a gym.

Brother 2 Another also works in schools and tries to help young people find work – opportunities that many who’ve been involved with police and prisons struggle to engage with.

“It’s a self-perpetuating cycle,” says John Lawrence, a Scottish criminal barrister who’s been based in Darwin for more than three decades.

He’s represented many young people and argues more money needs to go into schooling than the prison system, to prevent incarceration in the first place.

Aboriginal people “have no voice, and so they suffer great injustice and harm”, says Mr Lawrence.

“The fact that this can happen reveals very graphically and obviously how racist this country is.”

The tough talk on crime isn’t particular to politics in the Northern Territory.

In Queensland’s recent elections, the winning campaign by the Liberal National Party played heavily on its slogan: “Adult crime, adult time.”

In a recent report by the Australian Human Rights Commission, Anne Hollonds, the National Children’s Commissioner, argued that by criminalising vulnerable children – many of them First Nations children – the country is creating “one of Australia’s most urgent human rights challenges”.

“The systems that are meant to help them, including health, education and social services, are not fit-for-purpose and these children are falling through the gaps,” she said.

“We cannot police our way out of this problem, and the evidence shows that locking up children does not make the community safer.”

Which is why there’s a growing push to fund early intervention through education, not incarceration, and trying to reduce marginalisation and disadvantage in the first place.

“What are the cultural strengths of people? What are the community strengths of people? We are building on that,” says Erin Reilly, a regional director for Children’s Ground.

Her organisation works with communities and schools on their ancestral lands, learning about foods and medicines from the bush and about the Aboriginal ‘kinship’ system – how people fit in with their community and family.

“We centre Indigenous world views and Indigenous values and we work in a way that works for Aboriginal people,” explains Ms Reilly.

“We know that the education system and health systems don’t work for our people.”

For Thomas, life on the inside was hard, involving weeks at a time spent in isolation. But on the outside, he says, there’s little understanding of the circumstances he’s lived through.

“I felt like no one cared. Nobody wanted to listen,” he says.

He points out the bite marks on his forearms and adds: “So, I hurt myself all the time – see the scars here?”

Israeli football fans have described being attacked by groups of young men in Amsterdam, with some left with injuries including broken noses.

Adi Reuben, 24, said he was kicked on the ground and had his nose broken when he and his friends were confronted by a group of over 10 men while walking back to their hotel.

The men asked Mr Reuben where he and his friends were from. “They shouted ‘Jewish, Jewish, IDF, IDF’,” he said, referring to the Israeli military.

Police say the violence involved men on scooters carrying out “hit and run” attacks which were difficult to prevent.

“They started to mess with me and I realised I had to run, but it was dark and I didn’t know where to go. I fell to the floor and 10 people were kicking me. They were shouting ‘Palestine’,” Mr Reuben told the BBC.

“They were kicking me on the floor for about a minute, then they walked off, they weren’t afraid of anything.

“I realised I had full blood on my face and my nose was broken and it is very painful.”

Mr Reuben said he could not see properly for about 30 minutes, but decided against going to hospital in Amsterdam because he had heard that taxi drivers were involved in the violence.

Instead he said he was flying to Israel on Friday afternoon and would get medical treatment there.

He added that it appeared to be “a specific attack that was organised beforehand”.

Some Israeli football fans said they were ordered to show their passports when they were set upon.

Gal Binyanmin Tshuva, 29, told the BBC he was attacked on Wednesday outside a casino after watching a different football game.

“We faced around 20 people who ran towards us. They asked me where I was from, and I said I was from Greece. They said they didn’t believe me and they asked to see my passport.

When he told them he didn’t have it, the men beat him, pushed him to the ground and kicked his face, Mr Tshuva said.

“I don’t remember anything after that, and I woke up in an ambulance with blood all over my face, and realised they had broken two of my teeth.”

British men Aaron and Jacob, who are Jewish, told the BBC they went to the match, but left early.

Afterwards, they said they saw men yelling antisemitic threats and stamping on an Israeli man. They intervened, helped the man to his feet, and went to leave.

Shortly after, a group asked the men if they were Jewish, and Aaron said that they were British.

“But they said ‘you helped the Jew’, and he punched me in my face and broke my glasses,” Aaron said.

“I was bleeding and have a black eye. I’m okay but a bit shaken.”

The BBC has seen a photo of Aaron that shows a stream of blood running down his nose, his eye swollen and other cuts on his face.

Esther Voet, editor-in-chief of a Dutch Jewish weekly newspaper, lives in the city centre. She says she offered her home to Israeli fans after she saw footage of the violence.

“I told them this is a Jewish home and you are safe here,” she told Israeli public broadcaster Kann. “People were really scared. I never thought I would go through this in Amsterdam.”

Dutch police said Israeli fans had suffered “serious abuses” during “hit-and-run” attacks, many carried out by young men on scooters.

Amsterdam police chief Peter Holla said it had proven difficult to prevent such attacks even with a significant number of officers present.

The force eventually decided to bring Maccabi supporters together and protect them before transporting them out of the area in buses, he said.

The attacks overnight into Friday followed some tensions between Maccabi fans and people in Amsterdam over previous days, officials said.

On Wednesday Maccabi fans attacked a taxi and burned a Palestinian flag, police chief Holla said.

There were further clashes in Dam Square overnight into Thursday but police were mostly able to keep the groups separate.

Some Maccabi Tel Aviv fans have previously been involved in racist incidents in Israel, including cursing at the team’s Palestinian and Arab players and reportedly applying pressure on the team to oust them.

Fans of the team have also previously attacked protesters demonstrating against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Asked about video footage appearing to show Maccabi fans in Amsterdam chanting offensive slogans, Mayor Halsema said: “What happened last night has nothing to do with protest. There is no excuse for what happened.”

China has unveiled new measures aimed at boosting its flagging economy, as it braces for a second Donald Trump presidency.

The country plans to tackle tens of billions of dollars of local government debt to prevent it being a drag on growth.

Trump won the US election on a platform that promised steep import taxes, including tariffs as high as 60% on Chinese-made goods.

His victory is now likely to hinder Xi Jinping’s plans to transform the country into a technology powerhouse – and further strain relations between the world’s two biggest economies.

A property slump, rising government debt and unemployment, and low consumption have slowed down Chinese growth since the pandemic.

So the stakes are higher than ever for the latest announcement from the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), the executive body of China’s legislature.

During his first term in office Trump hit Chinese goods with tariffs of as much as 25%.

China analyst Bill Bishop says Trump should be taken at his word about his new tariff plans.

“I think we should believe that he means it when [he] talks about tariffs, that he sees China as having reneged on his trade deal, that he thinks China and Covid cost him the 2020 election”.

The pressure from Washington did not ease after Trump left the White House in 2021. The Biden administration kept the measures in place and in some cases widened them.

While the first wave of Trump tariffs were painful for China, the country is now in a much more vulnerable position.

The economy has been struggling to return to pre-pandemic levels of growth since abruptly abandoning its tight Covid restrictions two years ago.

Instead of delivering a widely expected fast-paced recovery, China became a regular source of disappointing economic news.

Even before Trump’s election victory and after China began rolling out measures to support its economy in September, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) lowered its annual growth target for the country.

The IMF now expects the Chinese economy to expand by 4.8% in 2024, at the lower end of Beijing’s “about 5%” target. Next year, it projects China’s annual growth rate will drop further to 4.5%.

The latest plan involves using an additional 6 trillion yuan ($840bn) from now until 2026 to bail out local governments which have piled up unsustainable levels of debt.

For decades, local governments have helped drive growth throughout the country by borrowing massive sums of money – much of which paid for infrastructure projects. But a downturn in the property industry has left some cities unable to pay their bills.

But the country’s leaders were not caught entirely off guard by the end to decades of super-fast growth.

Speaking in 2017, President Xi said his country planned to transition from “rapid growth to a stage of high-quality development.”

The term has since been used repeatedly by Chinese officials to describe a shift to an economy driven by advanced manufacturing and green industries.

But some economists say China cannot simply export itself out of trouble.

China risks falling into the type of decades-long stagnation that Japan endured after a stock and property bubble burst in the 1990s, Morgan Stanley Asia’s former chairman, Stephen Roach, says.

To avoid that fate, he says China should draw “on untapped consumer demand” and move away from “export and investment-led growth”.

That would not only encourage more sustainable growth but also lower “trade tensions and [China’s] vulnerability to external shocks,” he says.

This more robust economic model could help China fend off the kind of threats posed by Trump’s return to power.

But China, which has long been the world’s factory for low-cost goods, is trying to replicate that success with high-tech exports.

It is already a world leader in solar panels, electric vehicles (EVs) and lithium ion batteries.

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) China now accounts for at least 80% of solar panel production. It is also the biggest maker of EVs and the batteries that power them.

The IEA said last year that China’s investments in clean energy accounted for a third of the world’s total, as the country continued to show “remarkable progress in adding renewable capacity.”

“For sure there is an overall effort to support high-tech manufacturing in China,” says David Lubin, a senior research fellow at London based-think tank, Chatham House.

“This has been very successful”, he adds.

Exports of electric vehicles, lithium ion batteries and solar panels jumped 30% in 2023, surpassing one trillion yuan ($139bn; £108bn) for the first time as China continued to strengthen its global dominance in each of those industries.

That export growth has helped soften the blow to China’s economy of the ongoing property crisis.

“China’s overcapacity will increase, there is not doubt about it. They have no other source of growth,” said Alicia Garcia-Herrero, chief economist for the Asia Pacific region at investment bank Natixis.

But along with those increased exports, there has been a rise in resistance from Western countries, and not just the US.

Just last month, the European Union increased tariffs on Chinese-built EVs to as much as 45%.

“The problem right now is that large recipients of those goods including Europe and the US are increasingly reluctant to receive them,” said Katrina Ell, research director at Moody’s Analytics.

Today, as Trump is set to head back to the Oval Office with a pledge to hammer Chinese imports, Beijing will have to ask itself whether its latest measures to boost its slowing economy will be enough.

Smog starts slow.

At first, you cannot see it but you can smell it. It smells like something is burning. And it intensifies as the temperature drops.

Then the smoke and fog start to envelop you and the city around you. Now you can see it. You are walking through the smoke, a thick ceiling of it hanging overhead.

If you are not wearing a mask or you lower it for a moment, you will immediately inhale the bitter air.

Your throat might start to feel itchy and sore. As it gets worse, you start sneezing and coughing. But it’s worse for others: children, the elderly, those with breathing difficulties. The hospitals know to expect the influx.

Lahore and its 13 million residents have now been choking for a week; the air quality index has passed the 1,000 mark repeatedly this month – anything above 300 is considered hazardous.

Pakistani officials have scrambled to respond to the crisis – its scale unprecedented even in a city which deals with smog at this time each year.

Schools are closed, workers have been told to stay home and people urged to stay indoors – part of a so-called “green lockdown”, which has also seen motorbike rickshaws, heavy vehicles and motorbike parking banned from hot spot areas.

By the end of the week, Lahore High Court had ordered all the markets in the Punjab province to close by 20:00 each night, with complete closures on Sundays. Parks and zoos have also been shut until 17 November.

The problem, according to Nasa scientist Pawan Gupta, is that pollution levels in the city “typically peak in late November and December”.

“So this is just beginning. The worst pollution days are probably still ahead of us,” he warned.

The smoke that has enveloped Lahore, in Pakistan’s Punjab province, can be seen from space – as can part of the cause.

Satellite images from the US space agency Nasa shows both the thick layer of smog and the multiple concentrations of fire in the region between the Indian capital, Delhi, and Pakistan’s Lahore.

The same image, six weeks earlier, shows clear skies and – crucially – far fewer fires.

A major cause of the smog is the fires which are caused by the burning of stubble after harvest by farmers in both Pakistan and India – a quick way to clear their fields ready for the next crops.

This year, Nasa estimates it will count “between 15,500 and 18,500 fires ”, according to Hiren Jethva, a senior research scientist at Nasa’s Goddard Space Flight Center and Morgan State University, higher than most years.

According to Pakistan’s environment protection authorities, around 30% of Lahore’s smog comes from across the border in India. The Indian government has this year doubled fines for farmers caught stubble-burning as it tries to deal with the issue.

But much of Lahore’s air pollution comes from its five million motorbikes and millions of other vehicles’ exhausts. On Friday, Lahore’s high court identified heavy traffic emissions as the main cause of the smog, according to the Associated Press of Pakistan.

Then there are the industries in the city’s outskirts – like the coal-fired brick kilns – adding even more pollution to the air.

And in the final months of the year, it all combines with cold air flowing down from Tibet, creating the smog which is currently sitting over the city.

It is clear the toxic air is making people sick.

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Air Quality Index (AQI), a value of 50 or below indicates good air quality, while a value above 300 signals Hazardous air quality.

The WHO guidelines say the average concentration of PM2.5 level should be below five.

Abid Omar, founder of Pakistan’s Air Quality Initiative, which collects data from 143 air quality monitors across the country, says the readings in Lahore “have hit beyond index on every day in November”.

“Some locations in Lahore have exceeded 1,000,” he says, adding: “On Thursday we had one reading of 1,917 on the AQI scale.”

By Tuesday, it was widely reported 900 people had been admitted to hospital in Lahore with breathing difficulties.

“More and more people are coming with complaints of asthma, itchy throats and coughing,” says Dr Irfan Malik, a pulmonologist at one of the biggest hospitals in Lahore.

He has already seen a surge in patients complaining of respiratory tract illnesses – “particularly worrying because we have not yet seen our first cold wave of the winter season”.

The danger is a constant concern for Lahore resident Sadia Kashif.

“Like every mother, I want to see my children run and play without fearing pollution,” she tells the BBC.

“I see my children struggle with coughs and breathing problems these days, and it is a painful reminder that our air has become extremely toxic.”

But the current “green lockdown” has left her unimpressed.

“It is easy for the government to shut down school rather than taking real steps to address the crisis,” says Kashif.

For years, authorities have struggled to find a solution to Lahore’s pollution problem.

The government hopes short fixes will provide reprieve, but says long term solutions – like improving public transport – will take time.

In the meantime, Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz announced this week she intends to write a letter to her counterpart in Indian Punjab to invite them to engage in “climate diplomacy”, since it impacts both regions. Delhi says it is yet to hear from Pakistan on the issue.

However, Omar points out air pollution is not a seasonal problem but a persistent issue.

“Lahore is much more polluted than Delhi with pollution episodes that last longer and reach higher peaks,” he notes.

And it is getting worse, he believes. As per his own analysis of data, October has seen a 25% rise in pollution level compared to the same period last year.

Governments on both sides of the border need to act swiftly to deal with the issue, he argues.

“The roadmap to clean air is clear, but the present policies from both India and Pakistan aren’t enough to significantly reduce pollution.”

It has left him sceptical of the change in the near future.

“I tell people, blue skies are an indicator of good governance,” Omar says.

The US government has brought charges against an Afghan national in connection with an alleged Iranian plot to assassinate Donald Trump before he was elected as the next president.

The Department of Justice on Friday unsealed an indictment against Farhad Shakeri, 51, alleging he was tasked with “providing a plan” to kill Trump.

The US government said Mr Shakeri has not been arrested and is believed to be in Iran.

In a criminal complaint filed in Manhattan court, prosecutors allege that an official in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard directed Mr Shakeri in September to devise a plan to surveil and kill Trump.

“The Justice Department has charged an asset of the Iranian regime who was tasked by the regime to direct a network of criminal associates to further Iran’s assassination plots against its targets, including President-elect Donald Trump,” US Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.

The justice department also charged two others allegedly recruited to kill an American journalist who was an outspoken critic of Iran.

The other individuals were identified by the justice department as Carlisle Rivera, also known as “Pop”, 49, from Brooklyn, and Jonathon Loadholt, 36, from Staten Island.

The two appeared in court in the Southern District of New York on Thursday and are being detained pending a trial.

Trump has faced two separate alleged assassination attempts this year. In July, a gunman grazed the former president’s ear after shooting at him during a Pennsylvania rally.

Then, in September, a man was arrested for pointing a rifle at Trump who was golfing on his course in West Palm Beach.

Mr Shakeri was asked to come up with a plan to kill Trump in seven days, the indictment alleges.

According to prosecutors, Mr Shakeri told law enforcement that he did not intend to propose a scheme to kill Trump within that seven-day timeframe, so the Iranian Revolutionary Guard officials put the plan on pause.

Mr Shakeri said the Iranian government told him it would be easier to try to assassinate Trump after the election, because they believed he would lose, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors described Mr Shakeri as an Afghan national who came to the US when he was a child. He was eventually deported around 2008 after spending 14 years in prison for a robbery conviction.

Prosecutors say the 51-year-old used “a network of criminal associates”, from prison, including Mr Rivera and Mr Loadholt, to conduct surveillance on the Iranian government’s targets.

Mr Shakeri promised Mr Rivera and Mr Loadholt $100,000 to murder the American journalist, who had reported on the Iranian regime’s human rights abuses and corruption, prosecutors alleged. The journalist, who was not named, had been targeted in the past, prosecutors said.

In a post on social media Friday, Brooklyn-based journalist Masih Alinejad said the FBI had arrested two men for attempting to kill her. She said the alleged killers came to the front of her house in Brooklyn.

“I came to America to practice my First Amendment right to freedom of speech—I don’t want to die,” Ms Alinejad wrote. “I want to fight against tyranny, and I deserve to be safe.”

In addition to the American journalist and Trump, the indictment alleges the Iranian government sought to kill two Jewish American businesspeople living in New York City, who were supportive of Israel on social media.

Mr Shakeri also told prosecutors that his Iranian contacts asked him to plan a mass shooting to target Israeli tourists in Sri Lanka in October 2024, a year after the Hamas attacks on Israel.

Mr Shakeri, Mr Rivera and Mr Loadholt were all charged with murder-for-hire, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. They also face counts of money laundering conspiracy – which could lead to 20 years in prison – and conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire.

The Dutch king says Jewish people must feel safe in the Netherlands, after violent attacks against Israeli football fans in the centre of Amsterdam.

Willem-Alexander said “our history has taught us how intimidation goes from bad to worse,” adding that the country could not ignore “antisemitic behaviour”.

Youths on scooters had criss-crossed the Dutch capital in “hit-and-run” attacks on Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters who were visiting Amsterdam for a Europa League match, authorities said.

Police said five people were treated in hospital and others suffered minor injuries. At least 62 people have been arrested.

“My heart goes out to the victims and to their families here and in Israel as well,” Amsterdam’s Mayor Femke Halsema told a press conference on Friday.

Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof flew back early from a summit of EU leaders in Budapest where he said he had been following developments with horror.

“The perpetrators will be tracked down and prosecuted,” he promised.

The violence on Thursday night was condemned by leaders across Europe, the US and Israel. For many, it was especially shocking coming on the eve of commemorations marking Kristallnacht, the 1938 Nazi pogroms against German Jews.

Three-quarters of Jewish people in the Netherlands were murdered during the Holocaust in World War Two.

• Israeli fans describe violence in Amsterdam

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The king alluded to that history, saying: “Jews must feel safe in the Netherlands, everywhere and at all times. We put our arms around them and will not let them go.”

US President Joe Biden said the attacks “echo dark moments in history when Jews were persecuted”.

There had already been trouble and some arrests the night before Thursday’s match, involving Maccabi fans as well as pro-Palestinian protesters.

Police chief Peter Holla confirmed there had been incidents “on both sides”. Israeli supporters had removed a Palestinian flag from a wall and set it alight and attacked a taxi, although there had been no further trouble until the following night, he said.

There were also reports of supporters setting off fireworks. One unverified video showed fans going down an escalator chanting anti-Arab slogans.

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned “anti-Arab chants” and an “attack on the Palestinian flag,” calling on the Dutch government to “protect Palestinians and Arabs” living in the Netherlands.

The national co-ordinator for combating antisemitism in the Netherlands said a line had been crossed and the “readiness to commit such violence was disgusting”.

Mayor Halsema said Dutch counter-terror co-ordinator NCTV had not flagged any concrete threat about the game itself as there was no animosity between the fans of the two clubs. There was no trouble at the game in which Ajax inflicted a heavy 5-0 defeat on the visiting team.

But the unrest spiralled out of control soon afterwards.

Halsema spoke of fans being “attacked, abused and pelted with fireworks” as they walked from the Johan Cruyff Arena to the centre of Amsterdam.

Police initially said it was unclear who had taken part in the riots, although the mayor later spoke of young men on scooters. She was careful not to give details about the ethnic backgrounds of those involved in the attack, emphasising that it was part of the police investigation.

Several videos circulated on social media, with one showing a man being kicked and beaten on the ground and another showing someone being run over. In some unverified videos, people could be heard shouting pro-Palestinian slogans.

Two British visitors said they came under attack as they tried to help an Israeli beaten up by people on mopeds. Jacob, 33, told the BBC he saw “10 people stamping and kicking” the man, and that they had seen “lots of little gangs chasing people”.

Asked whether locals had been provoked by a Palestinian flag being torn down in the city, the mayor said what had happened in the centre of her city had nothing to do with protests about the situation in the Middle East.

“I am deeply ashamed of the behaviour that unfolded,” Halsema told reporters. “On Telegram [messaging] groups people talked of going to hunt down Jews. It’s so terrible I can’t find the words for it.”

In a statement, Telegram said it had closed a group chat on the platform which “may have been linked to the disturbance”. The company said it did not tolerate “calls to violence” and would cooperate with the Dutch authorities.

The mayor confirmed reports that taxi drivers had been involved in the attacks, after the head of the Netherlands’ Central Jewish Committee (CJO) said they had “moved in groups and cornered their targets”.

Israeli airline El Al said it was operating free “rescue flights” to Amsterdam to bring passengers back to Israel.

On Friday, those flights started arriving back at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport, where passengers were swarmed by reporters in the arrival hall and asked to share their experiences of the violence.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog spoke of a “pogrom” against Maccabi fans and Israeli citizens.

Herzog said on X that he trusted the Dutch authorities would act immediately to “protect, locate and rescue all Israelis and Jews under attack”.

The violence in Amsterdam has raised questions about security for Israeli fans elsewhere in Europe.

Israel’s national security council had urged fans to avoid a basketball game in the Italian city of Bologna on Friday due to the risk of “copycat actions”, though there were no reports of violence following the EuroLeague fixture.

According to Italian media, Bologna’s police chief assigned a special escort to the Israeli players for their travel to the match, which Virtus Bologna won 84-77.

Like every parent in Valencia that day, Victor Matías had quickly changed his plans, fearing what could be on the way.

The rain was still thundering down, but by now – early evening – he had managed to leave work early, safely pick up his boys from nursery and was about to make their favourite dinner – croquetas.

The crispy fried rolls of mashed potatoes, stuffed full of cheese and ham, would be a treat for Izan, 5, and Rubén, 3, while their mum Marta finished her late shift at the supermarket in town.

We have pieced together the tragic chronology of what happened next.

Our picture emerges from the testimony of neighbours and relatives we spoke to, as well as what Victor was able to recall himself along with other first-hand accounts given to local media.

The crushing story of the Matías family has generated huge attention in Spain. Many have followed updates on “Los niños desaparecidosas” – the missing children – as they have been frequently described.

But this one family’s grief is many people’s grief as it’s a nightmare replicated across the Valencia region which was hammered by flash flooding nearly two weeks ago, killing at least 219 people.

More than 90 are still missing.

When we arrived at the family home, a few days after the deluge, it was languishing in a sea of destruction.

That startling statistic – a year’s worth of rain had been dumped on some parts of Valencia in a matter of hours – became easy to believe as you took all this in.

Huge metal containers – broken free from their articulated lorries – rested at unfathomable angles amid a jumble of cars, crumpled furniture and treacherous mud.

One of the few things still intact was the door to what had been the boys’ bedroom; the bright, white individual letters spelling their names standing out in a sea of brown.

Picking his way through this mess was Jonathan Perez, their next-door neighbour, who began to relive the terrifying sequence of events. “It was madness” he said. “I’ve never seen such force.”

Jonathan explained to us how the raging torrent had scooped up trucks parked next door to the Matías family home with one smashing through an external wall.

He said that Victor had explained to him how he’d grabbed his sons in his arms as the water dragged them all outside.

Then – despite his desperate efforts to keep hold of them – they were gone.

Victor was found around four hours later, more than 200 metres away.

He had been clinging to a tree.

His mother – the boys’ grandma – revealed that Victor had been ready to throw himself into the torrent and surrender to his fate, but then stopped.

He told himself he could not leave his wife alone.

For 5 year old Izan and 3 year old Rubén, few places felt safer than the playground that was their house and garden.

Their aunt, Barbara Sastre, told us they were like little bugs – “bichetes” – an endearing description to convey how they buzzed around, that is, when they weren’t absorbed by their cartoons.

“They were such happy kids” she told us.

Izan and Rubén’s parents had bought the property from a man called Francisco Javier Arona.

Javi – as he’s known – told EFE, the Spanish news agency, that the home had become “a paradise” for the Matías family.

He said he himself had lovingly constructed the house in La Curra, a neighbourhood of Mas del Jutge, in a colonial style over three years.

Javi said he’d affixed ornamental amphoras and delicate clay stars beneath a sweeping arch.

Outside, there was little traffic in the cul-de-sac, meaning the boys could run around carefree with little perceptible danger.

The impending storm gathering overheard on 29 October was a very big danger, and so Victor closed his business early and picked up his boys from the nursey so that he could keep them safe and dry at home, as the rain fell harder and harder.

The force of the downpour became incredible, and soon the power was cut.

The brothers’ grandma, Antonia María Matías, a 72 year old cancer patient, told ABC Sevilla that she had called her son Victor at around 6pm and heard the brothers crying.

The water around them was rising all the time. But still, they were safe for now.

It may have been their haven, but the family home was also next to a lorry park.

Jonathan Perez, their next door neighbour, explained to us how this played a deadly role.

He said, “The father told us that there was a truck that hit the back of the house and the force of the water tore away everything.”

“Victor regained his footing and carried the boys in his arms. But then he realized he no longer had them. The water took everything in its path,” he explained.

Barbara Sastre, the boy’s aunt also told us at least one truck had sliced open the house in a blow that precipitated the boys and their dad being swept towards the nearby ravine.

The unnamed owner of the parking lot from where the trucks came told one newspaper they had not hit the family house. He insisted it was the strength of the water that did the fatal damage.

Jonathan, the neighbour, encapsulated the seething anger millions of Spaniards are feeling. Particularly, at the fact the official red alert sent to mobile phones came at 8pm – far too late.

“They were loving life and they hadn’t even started being people, they were three and five years old”, he said.

“With better coordination, better management, and an earlier alarm – even half an hour earlier – those kids could have been saved and those parents would not be going through hell.”

The whole neighbourhood in La Curra, stunned and shattered by the violence of the flooding, immediately began to search for the missing Izan and Rubén.

At least they did once the water had receded sufficiently for them to climb down from trees and clamber off their cars and try to re-orientate themselves.

They were helped by police officers from nearby Alicante, including a friend of Victor’s, who quickly arrived and began a desperate search.

But where to start?

Cars, bricks, bed frames had been carried hundreds of meters from where they once stood.

A team of firefighters from Mallorca and then Civil Protection volunteers from the island of Ibiza also came and scoured the most hard-to-reach areas.

Despite nearly two weeks of intensive daily searches, the brothers have not been found.

In the hours before everything changed, Marta – the mother of the boys – had started her late shift at the shop, safe in the knowledge their dad would be picking them up from school and taking them home.

In the early hours of the next morning, she was told her boys were gone.

Relatives say they can’t describe what Marta is experiencing.

The boy’s grandma, Antonia María, said her son Victor’s life had been destroyed – in her own words “turned to dust”.

As he was recovering in hospital, Victor took to sleeping with his boys’ blankets – salvaged from the ruins of their family home – resting on his face.

It is the closest he can be to them now.

In an election full of uncertainties, one thing at least felt likely – women across the US were going to turn out for Kamala Harris.

Just as months of relentless polling showed Harris in a virtual tie with Donald Trump, many of those same surveys told the story of a yawning gender gap.

It was a strategy Harris’s team was betting on, hoping that an over-performance among women could make up for losses elsewhere.

It didn’t happen.

Across the country, the majority of women did cast their ballots for Harris, but not by the historic margins she needed. Instead, if early exit polls bear out, Harris’s advantage among women overall – around 10 points – actually fell four points short of Joe Biden’s in 2020.

Democrats suffered a 10 point drop among Latino women, while failing to move the needle among non-college educated women at all, who again went for Trump 63-35, preliminary data suggests.

The shortfall was not for lack of trying.

Throughout her 15-week campaign, much of Harris’s messaging was aimed directly at women, most obviously with her emphasis on abortion.

On the trail, Harris made reproductive rights a cornerstone of her pitch. She repeatedly reminded voters that Trump had once bragged about his role in overturning Roe v Wade – a ruling that ended the nationwide right to an abortion.

“I will fight to restore what Donald Trump and his hand-selected Supreme Court justice took away from the women of America,” Harris said at her closing address in DC last week.

• Follow live updates
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Her most powerful advertisements featured women who had suffered under state abortion bans – deemed “Trump abortion bans” by Harris – including those who said they were denied care for miscarriages.

The strategy, it seemed, was to harness the same enthusiasm for abortion access that drove Democrats’ unexpected success in the 2022 midterms.

Abortion rights remain broadly popular – this Gallup poll in May suggested only one in 10 Americans thought it should be banned.

And even these election results seemed to underline that. Seven out of the 10 states where abortion was on the ballot voted in favour of abortion rights.

But that support did not translate into support for Harris.

Abortion did matter to women, it just didn’t matter enough, said Evan Roth Smith, a pollster and campaign consultant.

“Voters – particularly the women – who feel strongest about abortion are already voting for Democrats,” he said. But Democrats were unable to raise the importance of abortion for women who didn’t yet see it as a pressing issue.

“The abortion argument did not penetrate at all with non-college educated women, did not move them an inch. And they lost ground with Latinos,” Mr Smith said.

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For many, the decisive issue proved to be the economy.

In pre-election surveys and preliminary exit data, inflation and affordability continued to top lists of voters’ concerns. And for these voters, Trump was the overwhelming favourite.

Jennifer Varvar, 51, an independent from Grand Junction, Colorado said she had not even considered a vote for Harris because of the financial stress she faced over the past four years.

“For me and my family, we’re in a worse position now than we ever have been financially. It’s a struggle. I have three boys to put food on the table for,” she said. Things had been better under Trump, she said, and that’s why she voted for him.

But if gender didn’t divide the electorate in the way some expected, it still played a part in the Harris defeat, say some analysts.

There have been many explanations offered for Trump’s resounding victory but for some there is one thing that stands out.

“I do think that the country is still sexist and is not ready for a woman president,” said Patti Solis Doyle, who managed Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, to Politico.

Unlike Clinton, who explicitly leaned into her gender and the history-making potential of her campaign, Harris was noticeably reluctant to do the same.

There is a widespread belief that the country is more ready for a woman president now than when Clinton ran a second time in 2016. But it’s still an open question.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll in October suggested 15% of those surveyed would not be able to vote for a female president.

And Donald Trump, who doubled down on masculinity in this election, may have played a part in exploiting that.

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“He framed being president as being a tough guy in a dangerous world… he framed that as the job description,” said Mr Smith.

“And that’s one of the hardest possible job descriptions for a woman to successfully meet, in the minds of many Americans.”

Beyoncé has made history by becoming the most-nominated artist of all time at the Grammy Awards, overtaking her husband Jay-Z.

The couple had been tied on 88 nominations each – but Beyoncé has now pulled ahead thanks to recognition for her latest album, Cowboy Carter.

She leads this year’s Grammys race with 11 nominations, including best album, best country album, and song of the year for Texas Hold ‘Em.

The other leading nominees, with seven each, are Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar, Post Malone and Charli XCX.

The Beatles also picked up a nomination for record of the year for Now And Then, an unfinished John Lennon track that was completed last year with the help of AI.

The recognition comes 60 years after the Fab Four were nominated for best new artist, which they went on to win.

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Beyoncé is already the Recording Academy’s most-honoured artist, with 32 wins as a solo artist and a further three as part of Destiny’s Child.

However, she has never won the coveted album of the year trophy, despite four nominations in the category.

Earlier this year, Jay-Z appeared to scold Grammy voters for Beyonce’s lack of recognition in the top category as he accepted a lifetime achievement prize.

“I don’t want to embarrass this young lady,” he told the audience. “But she has more Grammys than everyone and never won album of the year.

“So even by your own metrics, that doesn’t work. Think about that. The most Grammys; never won album of the year. That doesn’t work.”

Beyonce’s 11 nominations are the most ever received by a female artist in a single year.

This year, the star’s main competition will come from Taylor Swift, who has won album of the year four times so far, more than anyone else.

Her latest release, The Tortured Poets Department, is a protracted and messy break-up album recorded in the middle of an exhausting world tour.

After spending 15 weeks at number one in the US earlier this year, it earns Swift her seventh nomination for album of the year.

Other contenders for the main prize include Charli XCX, for her volatile pop masterclass Brat; and Grammys darling Billie Eilish for her sophisticated and experimental third album, Hit Me Hard And Soft.

More surprising was the inclusion of former Outkast rapper André 3000, whose instrumental flute album New Blue Sun edged out presumed nominees like Ariana Grande and Post Malone.

• 11 – Beyoncé
• 7 – Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar, Post Malone and Charli XCX
• 6 – Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan

Breakout pop stars Sabrina Carpenter and Chapell Roan have snagged nominations in all of the “big four” categories – album, song and record of the year, and best new artist.

Carpenter is recognised for her flirtatious summer anthem Espresso in the record of the year category – which recognises the overall production of a song, from vocal performance to instrumentation.

And she has been shortlisted for the country-adjacent ballad Please Please Please in the song of the year category, which is awarded for the craft of songwriting.

Roan entered her breakout single Good Luck, Babe! in both categories, after a meteoric rise to fame over the past 12 months.

The Missouri-born singer is the favourite to win best new artist, thanks to her dazzling and flamboyant debut, The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess – which is also up for album of the year.

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Elsewhere, British star Raye picked up citations for songwriter of the year and best new artist.

The Rolling Stones were also nominated for best rock album for Hackney Diamonds, their first album of original material since 2016.

And Lamar proved once again that he had prevailed in his long-running feud with Drake.

The Compton rapper’s diss track Not Like Us picked up five nominations, including best rap song and song of the year.

Meanwhile former US President Jimmy Carter became the oldest-ever Grammy nominee.

At the age of 100, he is shortlisted for the best audio book, thanks to Last Sundays In Plains, a collection of the prayers and parables he delivered during a decades-long tenure as a Sunday School teacher at his home church.

While the main categories were dominated by cutting-edge female pop acts, there were some notable absences from the list.

Katy Perry, whose latest album 143 flopped, failed to pick up any nominations. Dua Lipa, who actually opened the 2024 Grammy ceremony, was likewise snubbed for her Radical Optimism album.

Dolly Parton’s first ever rock album, Rock Star, also missed out, while Megan Thee Stallion, who won best new artist in 2021, was unable to persuade voters to champion her third album, Megan.

Country star Zach Bryan, who won a Grammy earlier this year, was also missing after choosing not to submit his work because “he does not feel comfortable with awards shows making music competitive”.

And there was no recognition for K-Pop, despite the genre dominating gobal charts last year.

A total of 20,309 eligible entries were submitted for the Grammys’ 94 categories this year, and voters will start sifting through the shortlists before casting their ballots in January.

This year, the Recording Academy, which organises the awards, added 2,000 new members – bringing the total number of voters to 13,000.

Almost two-thirds of the panel are newcomers since 2018, as part of a drive to improve the diversity and relevance of the Academy, which has faced accusations of being out of touch, especially when it comes to music of black origin.

Grammys CEO Harvey Mason Jr warned voters in July that there is “no place in our organisation for… bias, grudge-holding, or careless voting”.

The results of their votes will be revealed at a star-studded ceremony in Los Angeles on 2 February 2025.

A Russian court has sentenced two Russian soldiers to life in prison for killing a family of nine in occupied Ukraine, in a rare example of the country holding its troops to account for alleged war crimes.

The entire Kapkanets family were killed in their home in the Donetsk region last year by Anton Sopov, 21, and Stanislav Rau, 28, prosecutors said. Among the victims were two children aged five and nine.

The family had been celebrating a birthday at the time, Ukraine’s ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said a day after the killings.

Some details of the case are unclear, such as whether the soldiers pleaded guilty, as the trial was held behind closed doors due to military secrecy, Russian media reported.

Sopov and Rau were convicted of killing 53-year-old Eduard Kapkanets, his wife Tatiana, their adult sons with their wives, a nine-year-old granddaughter, a four-year-old grandson and a more distant relative of the family.

Ukrainian officials at the time said they believed the family was murdered for refusing to give up their house to the Russian troops.

State news agency Tass reported that the men had been convicted for murder “motivated by political, ideological, racial, national or religious hatred”.

The Ukrainian city of Volnovakha was captured by Russian forces just weeks after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022. Most of the town has been destroyed.

Russia denies all allegations of war crimes in Ukraine, despite well-documented evidence to the contrary.

This includes the bombing of a theatre in Mariupol which had been sheltering hundreds of people in March 2022 and the killing of hundreds of people in the town of Bucha that month.

Russian forces are also accused of running a network of torture chambers across occupied Ukraine, where civilians and prisoners of war are tortured and in some cases killed.

The UN has accused Russian forces in Ukraine of rapes, “widespread” torture and killings and the International Criminal Court has issued a warrant for Vladimir Putin’s arrest.

Authorities are investigating racist text messages sent to black Americans across the country telling them to report to a plantation “to pick cotton”.

Black Americans, including school and college students, were among the recipients in states including Alabama, North Carolina, Virginia, New York and Pennsylvania.

“The FBI is aware of the offensive and racist text messages sent to individuals around the country and is in contact with the Justice Department and other federal authorities on the matter,” the agency said.

The messages appear to have started on Wednesday, the day after election day. Some of the messages mentioned the Trump campaign – which strongly denied any connection.

Steven Cheung, a campaign spokesman, said: “The campaign has absolutely nothing to do with these text messages.”

The source of the anonymous messages and the total number sent are unclear.

A 42-year-old mother in Indiana sent a copy of the texts her high-school-aged daughter received to the BBC.

The messages said that the daughter had “been selected to become a slave at your nearest plantation” and would be “picked up in a white van” and “searched thoroughly once you’ve reached your destination”.

The woman, who asked to remain anonymous for her safety, called the messages “extremely, extremely alarming” and made her feel “really vulnerable”.

“It’s because of America’s history, but the timing is specific to the day after the election,” she said. “This had to be a strategised effort.”

Another recipient, Hailey Welch, told a University of Alabama student newspaper that several students on the campus had also received the messages.

“At first I thought it was a joke, but everyone else was getting them. People were texting, posting on their stories, saying they got them,” Ms Welch told The Crimson White. “I was just stressed out, and I was scared because I didn’t know what was happening.”

The wording of the messages varied but generally instructed recipients to report to a “plantation” or wait to be picked up in a van, and referred to “slave” labour.

The texts were sent from numbers with area codes in at least 25 different states, according to CBS News, the BBC’s partner network in the US.

TextNow, a mobile provider that allows people to create phone numbers for free, said it found one or more of its accounts were used to send text messages “in violation of its terms of service”. The company disabled the accounts within an hour of discovering the misuse, it said in a statement.

“We do not condone the use of our service to send harassing or spam messages and will work with the authorities to prevent these individuals from doing so in the future,” it said.

Civil rights group NAACP condemned the messages saying they were a consequence of President-elect Trump’s election.

“These actions are not normal, ” said the group’s chief executive Derrick Johnson. “These messages represent an alarming increase in vile and abhorrent rhetoric from racist groups across the country, who now feel emboldened to spread hate and stoke the flames of fear that many of us are feeling after Tuesday’s election results.”

Jessica Rosenworcel, chairwoman of the Federal Communications Commission, which is also investigating the messages, said: “These messages are unacceptable. We take this type of targeting very seriously.”

In several states, top law enforcement officials said they were aware of the messages and encouraged residents to report them to the authorities if they received them.

The office of Nevada’s attorney general said it was working to “probe into the source of what appear to be robotext messages”.

In a statement, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said Louisiana Bureau of Investigation officers had traced some of the messages to a virtual private network – a method of masking the origins of electronic communications – based in Poland.

Murrill said investigators “have found no original source – meaning they could have originated from any bad actor state in the region or the world”.

The Indiana mother responded to reports the messages could have originated abroad, telling the BBC: “It doesn’t make it any safer or better that it could have been foreign.”

“They know the mindset of America,” she said.

The UN’s Human Rights Office has condemned the high number of civilians killed in the war in Gaza, saying its analysis shows close to 70% of verified victims over a six-month period were women and children.

The agency said the high number was largely due to Israel’s use of weapons with wide-area effects in densely populated areas, although some deaths may have been the result of errant projectiles by Palestinian armed groups.

The report said it found “unprecedented” levels of international law violations, raising concerns about “war crimes and other possible atrocity crimes”.

Israel has in the past said it targets Hamas and takes steps to mitigate risk to civilians by using precise munitions.

The BBC contacted the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for comment in response to Friday’s report.

The UN agency said it verified the details of 8,119 people killed in Gaza from November 2023 to April 2024.

Its analysis found around 44% of verified victims were children and 26% women. The ages most represented among the dead were five to nine-year-olds.

About 80% of victims were killed in residential buildings or similar housing, the agency added.

The report said the data indicates “an apparent indifference to the death of civilians and the impact of the means and methods of warfare”.

Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures the UN sees as reliable, has reported a death toll of more than 43,300 people over the past 13 months. Many more bodies are believed to remain under the rubble of bombarded buildings.

The health ministry said it obtained full demographic data for a majority of those killed and reported that children account for one in three of that number.

UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk said in a statement that “this unprecedented level of killing, and injury of civilians is a direct consequence of the failure to comply with fundamental principles of international humanitarian law”.

He cited the laws of distinction, which requires warring parties to distinguish between combatants and civilians, proportionality, which prohibits attacks where harm to civilians outweighs military advantage, and precautions in attacks.

Türk called for a “due reckoning with respect to the allegations of serious violations of international law”.

The IDF has previously told the BBC in response to criticism that it “will continue to act, as it always has done, according to international law”.

The report also said the way the warring parties have conducted the conflict in Gaza has “caused horrific human suffering”.

The UN said Palestinian armed groups have waged war from densely-populated areas and indiscriminately used projectiles, likely contributing to the death toll, while the IDF has destroyed civilian infrastructure and “left many of those alive, injured, displaced and starving, without access to adequate water, food or healthcare”.

The situation is worst in north Gaza, which aid groups say has been under siege since early October when Israel launched a new ground offensive against Hamas.

The UN said no food aid entered the north during the first two weeks of October.

This prompted the US to issue an ultimatum to Israel to increase aid by 12 November or risk losing some military support.

Jan Egeland, the head of aid organisation Norwegian Refugee Council, told the BBC on Friday that he saw “devastation, despair, beyond belief” on a recent visit to Gaza.

“There is hardly a building that is not damaged. And large areas looked like Stalingrad after the Second World War. You cannot fathom how intense this indiscriminate bombing has been on this trapped population,” he said.

“It’s evident that it is first and foremost children and women who are paying a price for this senseless war,” he added.

Israel launched its current military offensive in Gaza after Hamas’ attack on 7 October 2023 that killed 1,200 people in Israel and took 251 hostages back to Gaza.

Donald Trump made the first official hire of his incoming administration, announcing 2024 campaign co-chair Susan Summerall Wiles as his chief of staff.

The president-elect’s transition team is already vetting a series of candidates ahead of his return to the White House on 20 January 2025.

Many who served under Trump in his first term do not plan to return, though a handful of loyalists are rumoured by US media to be making a comeback.

The 78-year-old Republican is also surrounded by new allies who could fill his cabinet, staff his White House and take up other key roles across government.

Here is a closer look at names in the mix for the top jobs.

Susie Wiles and campaign co-chair Chris LaCivita were the masterminds behind Trump’s landslide victory over Kamala Harris.

In his victory speech on Wednesday, he called her “the ice maiden” – a reference to her composure – and claimed she “likes to stay in the background”.

Wiles was confirmed the next day as the first appointee of his second term – as his White House chief of staff. She will be the first woman ever to hold that job.

Chief of staff is often a president’s top aide, overseeing daily operations in the West Wing and managing the boss’s staff.

Wiles, 67, has worked in Republican politics for decades, from Ronald Reagan’s successful 1980 presidential campaign to turning businessman Rick Scott into Florida’s governor in just seven months back in 2010.

Republicans have said she commands respect and has an ability to corral the big egos of those in Trump’s orbit, which could enable her to impose a sense of order that none of his four previous chiefs of staff could.

No personnel decision may be more critical to the trajectory of Trump’s second term than his appointee to lead the Department of Justice.

After uneven relationships with both Jeff Sessions and William Barr, the attorney generals during his first term, Trump is widely expected to pick a loyalist who will wield the agency’s prosecutorial power to punish critics and opponents.

Among the names being floated for the cabinet post are Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who has been both indicted and impeached like Trump; Matthew Whitaker, the man who took over for three months as acting attorney general after Sessions stepped down at Trump’s request; Mike Davis, a right-wing activist who once clerked for Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch and has issued bombastic threats against Trump critics and journalists; and Mark Paoletta, who served in Trump’s budget office and argues there is no legal requirement for a president to stay out of justice department decisions.

The secretary of homeland security will take the lead in enforcing Trump’s promises of deporting undocumented migrants en masse and “sealing” the US-Mexico border, as well as leading the government response to natural disasters.

Tom Homan, Trump’s former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), stands out as the most likely pick.

Homan, 62, supported separating migrant children from their parents as a means to deter illegal crossings and has said politicians who support migrant sanctuary policies should be charged with crimes. Though he resigned in 2018, mid-way through the Trump presidency, he remains a proponent of the Trump approach on immigration.

Chad Wolf, who served as acting homeland secretary from 2019 to 2020 until his appointment was ruled unlawful, and Chad Mizelle, the homeland department’s former acting general counsel, are also potential contenders.

Stephen Miller, widely considered to be the architect of Trump’s immigration agenda, is expected to once again play a senior advisory role with the White House.

The US secretary of state is the president’s main adviser on foreign affairs, and acts as America’s top diplomat when representing the country overseas.

Florida Senator Marco Rubio – who was most recently under consideration to be Trump’s vice-president – is a major name being floated for the key cabinet post.

Rubio, 53, is a China hawk who opposed Trump in the 2016 Republican primary but has since mended fences. He is a senior member of the Senate foreign relations committee and vice-chairman of the chamber’s select intelligence panel.

Other contenders for the job include Trump’s former national security adviser Robert O’Brien; Tennessee Senator Bill Hagerty, who was previously Trump’s ambassador to Japan; and Brian Hook, the hawkish special envoy to Iran in Trump’s first term and the man who is leading the transition effort at the State Department.

A dark horse for the nomination, however, is Richard Grenell, a loyalist who served as ambassador to Germany, special envoy to the Balkans and acting national intelligence chief. Grenell, 58, was heavily involved in Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat and even sat in on his private meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in September.

Grenell’s combative style may make him a better fit for national security adviser – a position that does not require Senate confirmation – than secretary of state.

Also in line for major posts in a second Trump term are former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe; Keith Kellogg, a national security adviser to Trump’s first Vice-President Mike Pence; former defence department official Eldridge Colby; and Kash Patel, a loyalist who staffed the national security council and became chief of staff to the acting secretary of defence in Trump’s final months in office.

Patel, 44, who helped block the transition to the incoming Joe Biden administration in the latter role, is tipped to become the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) chief.

Trump has also said he would fire Federal Bureau of Intelligence (FBI) Director Chris Wray, who he nominated in 2017 but has since fallen out with. Jeffrey Jensen, a former Trump-appointed US attorney, is under consideration to replace Wray.

Ex-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is among the few former cabinet members who could return for Trump’s second term – this time as secretary of defence, where he would oversee the US military.

Pompeo, 60, is a former Kansas congressman and was Trump’s first CIA director before leading the administration’s diplomatic blitz in the Middle East.

A loyal defender of his boss, he often tangled with the press and – amid Trump’s false claims of election fraud in late 2020 – joked about “a smooth transition to a second Trump administration”.

Another name being discussed is Michael Waltz, a Florida lawmaker who sits on the armed services committee in the US House of Representatives, and Robert O’Brien.

During Trump’s first term, New York Congresswoman Elise Stefanik transformed from a moderate to a vocal backer. The fourth-ranking House Republican leader has remained one of Trump’s most fiercely loyal defenders on Capitol Hill – which makes her a leading contender to represent him in unfriendly territory at the United Nations.

But she may find herself competing for the position with the likes of former State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus; David Friedman, Trump’s ambassador to Israel; and Kelly Craft, who served as UN ambassador at the end of Trump’s term.

Trump is reportedly considering Robert Lighthizer, a free trade sceptic who led the tariff war with China as the US trade representative, as his chief financial officer.

But at least four others may be under consideration for the role, including Scott Bessent, a billionaire hedge fund manager who has become a major fundraiser and economic adviser to the president-elect; John Paulson, another megadonor from the hedge fund world; former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chair Jay Clayton; and Fox Business Network financial commentator Larry Kudlow, who ran Trump’s national economic council during his first term.

The woman co-chairing Trump’s transition team, Linda McMahon, is tipped as a key contender to represent US businesses and job creation in his cabinet – after previously serving as small business administrator during his first term.

Others who could fill this vacancy include Brooke Rollins; Robert Lighthizer; and Kelly Loeffler, a wealthy businesswoman who briefly served in the US Senate.

South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem – who was passed over to be Trump’s running mate over a bizarre admission that she killed her pet dog – could see her loyalty to him pay off with the leadership of the interior department, which manages public land and natural resources.

She may compete with North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum for the role.

Doug Burgum is also a contender to lead the energy department, where he would implement Trump’s pledges to “drill, baby, drill” and overhaul US energy policy.

A software entrepreneur who sold his small company to Microsoft in 2001, Burgum briefly ran in the 2024 Republican primary before dropping out, endorsing Trump and quickly impressing him with his low-drama persona and sizeable wealth.

Former energy secretary Dan Brouillette is also reportedly in the running.

Karoline Leavitt, 27, who impressed Trump as his campaign’s national press secretary, has already served as an assistant White House press secretary and may be a shoo-in to be the administration’s spokesperson.

RFK Jr, as he is known, is an environmental lawyer by trade, a vaccine sceptic by fame and the nephew of former President John F Kennedy.

His troubling past makes it unlikely he could secure the security clearance needed for a cabinet post, but after leading a Trump campaign initiative called “Make America Healthy Again”, he is expected to become a kind of “public health tsar”.

Despite having no medical qualifications to his name, Kennedy, 70, could potentially influence the health and human services department, the agriculture department, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Food and Drug Safety Administration (FDA).

The world’s richest man poured millions of dollars into re-electing Trump and critics fear he will now have the power to weaken or entirely shape the regulations that impact his companies Tesla, SpaceX and X.

Both he and Trump have focused on the idea of him leading a new “Department of Government Efficiency”, where he would cut costs and streamline what he calls a “massive, suffocating federal bureaucracy”.

The would-be agency’s acronym – DOGE – is a playful reference to a “meme-coin” cryptocurrency Musk has previously promoted.

But Musk, 53, could also play a role in global diplomacy. He participated in Trump’s first call with Ukraine’s Zelensky on Wednesday.

Donald Trump’s return to the White House effectively slammed the door on the two cases involving federal criminal charges against him.

A state case against him for allegedly conspiring to interfere with Georgia’s election in 2020 will go on hold until after his term in office ends – if it’s still alive by then.

But next week, the fate of the remaining case – his conviction on 34 felony counts in New York – will be determined. It could stand, or it could be swept away in the same political and legal tide that has allowed him to escape the others.

Justice Juan Merchan will decide by Tuesday whether to grant Trump’s pre-election request to throw out his conviction. Should Justice Merchan side with Trump, it would almost wipe clean his slate of criminal woes.

But should the judge uphold the conviction, he would proceed to sentencing later this month. It would likely spark even more delay attempts from Trump and open up an unprecedented new front for America’s criminal justice system.

“This is truly uncharted territory,” said Anna Cominsky, a professor at the New York Law School.

In May, a New York jury found Trump guilty of falsifying business records. The convictions stemmed from Trump’s attempt to cover up reimbursements to his ex-lawyer, Michael Cohen, who in 2016 paid off an adult film star to remain silent about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump.

Trump’s lawyers argue that a recent US Supreme Court ruling granting presidents a degree of immunity from criminal prosecution applies to certain aspects of his New York case, and therefore the indictment and conviction should be tossed.

During the trial, Justice Merchan dismissed attempts by Trump’s lawyers to throw out the case on immunity grounds. But that was before the US Supreme Court ruled in Trump’s favour this summer – and before Trump decisively won re-election.

Justice Merchan has set a deadline of 12 November to decide whether to grant Trump’s request.

If he throws out the conviction, that will be the end of the case.

But if he denies the defence’s request, Trump’s much-delayed sentencing will remain scheduled for 26 November.

Even if Justice Merchan upholds the conviction and keeps the scheduled sentencing, Trump’s team is almost certain to seek more delays and appeals.

Todd Blanche, Trump’s lead attorney, did not respond to inquiries about whether he planned to seek a delay.

Because Trump will be tied up with a presidential transition and the legal questions about sentencing a president are so complex, some scholars see very little chance it will stay on the calendar.

“I think the most likely outcome in the state case is the judge putting off sentencing until after Trump’s term in office,” said Daniel Charles Richman, a professor at Columbia Law School.

“To actually impose a sentence would raise any number of messy issues in the short term,” including political ones, he said.

If Trump does find himself in a Manhattan courtroom later this month, deciding his fate still would be an unprecedented challenge.

Under the law, Trump faces a range of sentences, including fines, probation and up to four years in prison. But many options are rendered impractical by his imminent return to the White House.

“Sentencing a sitting president may be one of the most complicated, fraught sentencing decisions you can imagine,” Ms Cominsky said.

“It’s hard to imagine what sentence could be imposed that would not impede a president’s ability to do their job or compromise the president’s security.”

Few expect Justice Merchan to sentence Trump to a stint behind bars at this point.

“He’s a 78-year old man with no criminal history, who has been convicted of a non-violent felony,” said retired New York Supreme Court Justice Diane Kiesel. “I don’t think a judge would give a person under those sentences an incarceration sentence.”

Even if Justice Merchan did reach for such a sentence, Trump’s team would almost certainly appeal it, delaying actual punishment.

Trump could leave a sentencing hearing with the legal equivalent of a slap on the wrist. Justice Merchan could ask the former president to pay a relatively small fine in the three- or four-figure range.

He could also give Trump an unconditional discharge; “basically, goodbye,” as Justice Kiesel puts it.

The only thing that is certain is that Trump cannot make this conviction go away on his own.

Trump has explored the possibility of pardoning himself from potential criminal charges in the past, and could do so for his federal indictments when he becomes president in January.

But he cannot pardon himself in New York, as the conviction occurred in state court.

His fate, at the moment, is in the hands of the court. But regardless of the outcome, Trump will likely avoid the most serious punishments facing him.

“He is a very lucky man,” Justice Kiesel said.

The bar facing the US embassy building in central Jerusalem is called Deja Bu – a witty reference to something you’ve drunk before.

And outside the gates of the US compound, Israel is eager for a second round of Donald Trump.

“I’m very pleased,” said Rafael Shore, a rabbi who lives in Jerusalem’s Old City. “He understands the language of the Middle East.

“Iran will think twice about doing anything. I think if Kamala had been elected, there wouldn’t be much fear in the Middle East of attacking America or Israel.”

Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was one of the first to congratulate the new president-elect on Wednesday morning. “Congratulations on history’s greatest comeback!” he tweeted.

Netanyahu has previously called Trump the “best friend Israel has ever had in the White House”.

Trump previously won favour here by scrapping an Iran nuclear deal that Israel opposed, brokering historic normalisation agreements with several Arab countries and upending decades of US policy – and international consensus – by recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Donald Trump’s first term in office was “exemplary” as far as Israel is concerned, said Michael Oren, a former Israeli ambassador to the US.

“The hope is that he’ll revisit that. [But] we have to be very clear-sighted about who Donald Trump is and what he stands for.”

Firstly, he said, the former president “doesn’t like wars”, seeing them as expensive. Trump has urged Israel to finish the war in Gaza quickly.

He’s also “not a big fan” of Israel’s settlements in the occupied West Bank, said Amb Oren, and has opposed the wishes of some Israeli leaders to annex parts of it.

Both those policies could put him in conflict with far-right parties in Netanyahu’s current governing coalition, who have threatened to bring down the government if the prime minister pursues policies they reject.

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When called upon to choose between the recent demands of his US ally and the demands of his coalition partners, Benjamin Netanyahu has tended to choose his coalition.

Friction with the current US President, Joe Biden, has grown sharply as a result.

Michael Oren believes Netanyahu will need to take a different approach with the incoming president.

“If Donald Trump comes into office in January and says, ‘OK, you have a week to finish this war,’ Netanyahu is going to have to respect that.”

In Gaza, where the Israeli military has been battling Palestinian group Hamas, desperation has narrowed the focus of some residents to that single goal.

Trump “has some strong promises”, Ahmed said. “We hope he can help and bring peace.”

Ahmed’s wife and son were both killed in the war and his house destroyed.

“Enough is enough, we are tired,” he said. “We hope Trump is strong so that he can resolve this issue with Israel.”

Mohammed Dawoud, displaced eight times during the Gaza conflict, said a Trump victory meant that the end of the war would come soon.

Another displaced resident, Mamdouh, said he didn’t care who won – he just wanted someone to help.

“There’s no medicine, no hospitals, no food. There’s nothing left in Gaza,” he said. “We want someone strong who can separate us and the Jews.”

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In the occupied West Bank, home of the Palestinian Authority (PA), there is widespread scepticism about American influence, with many viewing US administrations from both sides of the political aisle as siding with Israel.

“Mediocre solutions which come at the expense of the Palestinians, or endless military support for Israel, is going to be nothing but a catalyst for future confrontations,” said Sabri Saidam, a senior member of the PA’s main faction, Fatah.

“We would like to see a new version of Trump, more like a Trump 2.0 who’s serious about immediately ending the war, and addressing the root cause of conflict in the Middle East.”

Recent polls suggested that more than two-thirds of Israelis wanted to see Trump back in the White House. But here too, there are those who caution about his unpredictability and his approach.

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“He’s going to make the situation here more uncertain and unsafe,” one Israeli woman said. “I don’t trust him to keep the peace. I honestly think he’ll just make the war worse.”

The former Israeli ambassador, Michael Oren, said he believed there were “tremendous achievements ahead” if Israel co-operated with Trump, including the potential for a historic peace deal with Saudi Arabia and checks on Iran’s influence.

But it could also be harder for Netanyahu to navigate the demands and compromises involved in those regional goals.

Since Trump’s last term in office, moderate voices around both leaders have dwindled.

Many in Israel view Trump’s first term with fond memories. But relationships can be radically different the second time around – and past performance is no guarantee of future returns.

US President-elect Donald Trump has doubled down on his campaign promise of the mass deportation of illegal immigrants, saying the cost of doing so will not be a deterrent.

In some of his first public remarks since winning the election, Trump said his priority upon taking office in January would be to make the border “strong and powerful”.

“It’s not a question of a price tag. It’s not – really, we have no choice,” Trump told NBC News.

But how would Trump’s campaign pledge of mass deportations of migrants actually work and what are the hurdles he may face?

The latest figures from the Department of Homeland Security and Pew Research indicate that there are around 11 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the US, a number that has remained relatively stable since 2005.

Most are long-term residents – nearly four-fifths have been in the country for more than a decade.

Immigrants who are in the country without legal status have the right to due process, including a court hearing before their removal. A drastic increase in deportations would likely entail a large expansion in the immigration court system, which has been beset by backlogs.

Most immigrants already in the country enter into the deportation system not through encounters with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents but through local law enforcement.

However, many of the country’s largest cities and counties have passed laws restricting local police co-operation with Ice.

Trump has pledged to take action against these “sanctuary cities”, but America’s patchwork of local, state and federal laws further complicates the picture.

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Kathleen Bush-Joseph, a policy analyst at the Washington-based Migration Policy Institute, or MPI, said that co-operation between Ice and local officials would be a “critical” aspect of any mass deportation programme.

“It’s much easier for Ice to pick someone up from a jail if local law enforcement co-operates, instead of having to go look for them,” she said.

As an example, Ms Bush-Joseph pointed to an early August declaration from the sheriff’s offices of Florida’s Broward and Palm Beach counties, in which they said they would not deploy deputies to help any mass deportation plan.

“There are many others who would not co-operate with a Trump mass deportation plan,” she said. “That makes it so much harder.”

Any mass deportation programme is also likely to be almost immediately met with a flurry of legal challenges from immigration and human rights activists.

A 2022 Supreme Court ruling, however, means that courts cannot issue injunctions on immigration enforcement policies – meaning they would continue even as the challenges work their way through the legal system.

If a US administration was able to legally move ahead with plans for mass deportations, authorities would still have to contend with enormous logistical challenges.

During the Biden administration, deportation efforts have focused on migrants recently detained at the border. Migrants deported from further inland in the US, from areas not located near the border, are, overwhelmingly, those with criminal histories or deemed national security threats.

Controversial raids on worksites that were carried out during the Trump administration were suspended in 2021.

Deportations of people arrested in the US interior – as opposed to those at the border – have hovered at below 100,000 for a decade, after peaking at over 230,000 during the early years of the Obama administration.

“To raise that, in a single year, up to a million would require a massive infusion of resources that likely don’t exist,” Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy director at the American Immigration Council, told the BBC.

For one, experts are doubtful that Ice’s 20,000 agents and support personnel would be enough to find and track down even a fraction of the figures being touted by the Trump campaign.

Mr Reichlin-Melnick added that the deportation process is long and complicated and only begins with the identification and arrest of an undocumented migrant.

After that, detainees would need to be housed or placed on an “alternative to detention” programme before they are brought before an immigration judge, in a system with a years-long backlog.

Only then are detainees removed from the US, a process that requires diplomatic co-operation from the receiving country.

“In each of those areas, Ice simply does not have the capacity to process millions of people,” Mr Reichlin-Melnick said.

Trump has said he would involve the National Guard or other US military forces to help with deportations.

Historically, the US military’s role in immigration matters has been limited to support functions at the US-Mexico border.

Aside from the use of the military and “using local law enforcement”, Trump has offered few specifics on how such a mass deportation plan could be carried out.

In an interview with Time magazine earlier this year, the former president said only that he would “not rule out” building new migrant detention facilities, and that he would move to give police immunity from prosecution from “the liberal groups or the progressive groups”.

He added that there could also be incentives for state and local police departments to participate, and that those who do not “won’t partake in the riches”.

“We have to do this,” he said. “This is not a sustainable problem for our country.”

Eric Ruark, the director of research at NumbersUSA – an organisation that advocates for tighter immigration controls – said that any deportation programme from the interior would only be effective if coupled with increased border enforcement.

“That has to be the priority. You’re going to make very little progress in the interior if that’s not the case,” he said. “That’s what keeps people showing up.”

Additionally, Mr Ruark said that a crackdown on companies that hire undocumented migrants would also be necessary.

“They’re coming for jobs,” he said. “And they’re getting those jobs because interior enforcement has basically been dismantled.”

Experts estimate that the total bill for one million or more deportations would run into tens or even hundreds of billions of dollars.

The Ice budget for transportation and deportation in 2023 was $420m (£327m). In that year the agency deported slightly more than 140,000 people.

Thousands of immigrants would be detained while awaiting court hearings or deportations, and the Trump campaign has envisioned building large encampments to house them all.

The number of removal flights would also need to be dramatically expanded, possibly requiring military aircraft to augment current capacity.

Just a small expansion in any of these areas could result in significant costs.

“Even a minor change is in the tens of millions, or hundreds of millions,” Mr Reichlin-Melnick said. “A significant change is in the tens or hundreds of millions.”

Those costs would be in addition to the expense of other border enforcement efforts that Trump has promised: continuing work on a southern US border wall, a naval blockade to prevent fentanyl entering the country, and moving thousands of troops to the border.

Adam Isacson, a migration and border expert from the Washington Office on Latin America, said that “nightmarish images” of mass deportations could also cost a potential Trump administration politically from a public relations standpoint.

“Every community in the US would see people they know and love put on buses,” Mr Isacson said.

“You’d have some very painful images on TV of crying children, and families,” he added. “All of that is incredibly bad press. It’s family separation, but on steroids.”

Under the four years of the previous Trump administration, around 1.5 million people were deported, both from the border and the US interior.

The Biden administration – which had deported about 1.1 million people up to February 2024 – is on track to match that, statistics show.

During the two terms of the Obama administration – when Mr Biden was vice-president – more than three million people were deported, leading some immigration reform advocates to dub Barack Obama the “deporter-in-chief”.

The only historical comparison to a mass deportation programme came in 1954, when as many as 1.3 million people were deported as part of Operation Wetback, named after a derogatory slur then commonly used against Mexican people.

That figure is disputed by historians, however.

The programme, under President Dwight Eisenhower, ran into considerable public opposition – partly because some US citizens were also deported – as well as a lack of funding. It was largely discontinued by 1955.

Immigration experts say that the earlier operation’s focus on Mexican nationals and lack of due process makes it incomparable to what a modern-day mass deportation programme would look like.

“Those [deported in the 1950s] were single, Mexican men,” said MPI’s Kathleen Bush-Joseph.

“Now, the vast majority of people coming between ports of entry are from places that are not Mexico, or even northern Central America. It makes it so much harder to return them,” she added.

“Those are not comparable situations.”

Arnaud Poulay never wanted to leave the tiny Indian Ocean island of Agalega, but this year he packed his bag and took off, broken-hearted by what he regards as the militarisation of his home.

Until recently, just 350 people lived on Agalega, fishing and growing coconuts. Other food was delivered four times a year by ship from the capital of Mauritius, 1,100km (680 miles) to the south. A small airstrip was rarely used except in medical emergencies.

But in 2015, Mauritius, an island nation of which Agalega is a part, signed a deal enabling India to build a vast 3,000m (3km) runway and a big new jetty there, as part of the two countries’ deepening collaboration on maritime security.

However some Agalegans fear this could grow into a fully-fledged military presence.

Mr Poulay, a 44-year-old handyman and reggae musician, led a campaign against the project.

“I love my island and my island loves me,” he says. “But when that base was unveiled, I knew I had to leave.”

Agalega – two small islands covering 25 sq km, in the south-west Indian Ocean – would be an ideal location for India to monitor marine traffic. And a comparison of satellite images from 2019 with others taken in July this year shows how much has changed.

A carpet of palm trees has made way for the runway, which stretches along the spine of the north island between the two main villages – La Fourche in the north and Vingt-Cinq further south.

Two 60m-wide buildings can be seen sitting on a tarmac apron, at least one of which could be a hangar to accommodate the Indian navy’s P-8I aircraft, according to Samuel Bashfield, a PhD scholar at the Australian National University.

The P-8I is a Boeing 737 modified to hunt and potentially attack submarines, and to monitor maritime communications. Islanders have already photographed the aircraft on the airstrip.

To the north-west is the new jetty jutting out into the ocean, which Mr Bashfield says could be used by Indian surface patrol vessels, as well as the ship that brings supplies to Agalega.

“As newer satellite images become available, we’ll better understand Agalega’s role in Indian Ocean communications,” he says.

The International Institute for Strategic Studies refers to the facility as a “surveillance station” and says it is likely to contain a coastal radar surveillance system similar to Indian-built equipment elsewhere in Mauritius.

The Indian government declined to answer questions about Agalega, and referred the BBC to earlier statements on its website. In one of these, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India and Mauritius were “natural partners” in maritime security, facing traditional and non-traditional challenges in the Indian Ocean region.

The two countries have had a close defence relationship since the 1970s. The country’s national security adviser, its coastguard chief and the head of the police helicopter squadron are all Indian nationals and officers in India’s external intelligence agency, navy and air force, respectively.

Both sides would want the facility to be seen “as one that is more about capacity building than for any overt military use”, says Prof Harsh Pant, of the India Institute at King’s College London.

It’s no secret, though, that India and its Western allies are concerned about China’s increasing presence in the Indian Ocean.

While it’s not unusual for a large country to establish a military outpost on the territory of a smaller ally, the construction work on Agalega has troubled some islanders.

A number of areas, including some of the island’s palm-fringed white-sand beaches, have already been cordoned off, islanders say. There are also persistent rumours that the village of La Fourche will be swallowed by the Indian infrastructure that has grown up around it, and that the 10 families who live there will be forced out.

“It will become a restricted area completely for Indians,” says Laval Soopramanien, president of the Association of Friends of Agalega.

He fears that “Agalega will become the story of the Chagos islands” – a concern echoed by 26-year-old handyman Billy Henri, who is the son of an Agalegan and a woman expelled from the Chagos islands.

“My mother [lost] her island,” says Mr Henri. “My father will be the next.”

A number of Agalega’s residents are from families scarred by eviction from the Chagos Islands, 2,000km to the east, after the UK government declared them in 1965 to be British territory and granted the US permission to build a communications station on the largest island, Diego Garcia. This gradually became a fully-fledged military base.

Billy Henri fears that the Mauritius government, which owns all land on Agalega and is the only employer, is trying to make conditions so miserable that everyone will leave.

He points to problems with healthcare and education, limited investment in the local economy, a lack of job opportunities, and a ban on local people opening their own businesses.

A Mauritius government spokesman told the BBC that no-one would be asked to leave, and that local people were only prevented from entering the airport and the port – facilities that he said would help the country control piracy, drug-trafficking and unregulated fishing.

Mauritius also denies suggestions that Agalega hosts a military base, saying that the national police are still in full control. However, it acknowledges that India will assist in the “maintenance and operation” of the new facilities, which were built at Indian expense.

The Mauritius and Indian governments say the improvements to sea and air transportation were designed to benefit the islanders and help lift them out of poverty. But local people say this hasn’t happened: there are still only four ferries to the main island of Mauritius every year, and no passenger flights.

Agalegans say they are barred from a new Indian-built hospital, even though a Mauritius government press release vaunted its operating theatres, X-ray machines and dentistry equipment.

Billy Henri says that a boy suffering from cooking oil burns, who needed more help than he could get from the north island’s health centre, was refused entry in October.

“It’s only for Indians!” he says.

The injured boy and his parents were flown to the main island of Mauritius instead. Laval Soopramanien says the boy is still in hospital there, and that the family will remain on the main island until the next boat leaves for Agalega.

The Mauritius government did not respond, when asked to comment on the plight of the boy with burns. The Indian government declined to comment.

In a recent speech to the Mauritius parliament, Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth said the socio-economic development of Agalega was higher than ever on his government’s agenda.

A “master plan” had been drawn up to improve health and education, transport connections and recreational facilities for the island’s residents, and to develop the fishing sector and the exploitation of coconut by-products, he said.

But distrust is fuelled by the fact that neither India nor Mauritius has published the details of the 2015 memorandum of understanding, so their plans for the future are unknown.

‘Thomas’ – not his real name – was 13 years old when he began his first stint in prison.

Following the sudden death of his father, he had robbed a shop in Australia’s Northern Territory (NT). He was detained for a week but, within a month, he was back in custody for another burglary.

Five years on, the Aboriginal teenager has spent far more of that time inside prison than out.

“It’s hard changing,” Thomas tells me. “[Breaking the law] is something that you grow up your whole life doing – it’s hard to [stop] the habit.”

His story – a revolving door of crime, arrest and release – is not an isolated one in the Northern Territory.

For many, over the years the crimes get more serious, the sentences longer and the time spent between prison spells ever briefer.

The Northern Territory is the part of Australia with the highest rate of incarceration: more than 1,100 per 100,000 people are behind bars, which is greater than five times the national average.

It’s also more than twice the rate of the US, which is the country with the highest number of people behind bars.

But the issue of jailing children in particular has been thrust into the spotlight here, after the territory’s new government controversially lowered the age of criminal responsibility from 12 back to 10.

The move, which defies a UN recommendation, means potentially locking up even more young people.

It’s not just an issue of incarceration. It’s one of inequalities too.

While around 30% of the Northern Territory’s population is Aboriginal, almost all young people locked up here are Indigenous.

So, Aboriginal communities are by far the most affected by the new laws.

The Country Liberal Party (CLP) government says it has a mandate after campaigning to keep Territorians safe. It helped the party claim a landslide victory in August’s elections.

Among those voting for the CLP was Sunil Kumar.

The owner of two Indian restaurants in Darwin, he’s had five or six break-ins this past year and wants politicians to take more action.

“It’s young kids doing [it] most of the time – [they] think it’s fun,” explains Mr Kumar.

He says he’s improved his locks, put in cameras and even offered soft drinks to kids loitering outside in a bid to win them over.

“How come they are out and parents don’t know?” he says. “There should be a punishment for the parents.”

But while the political rhetoric around crime is powerful, critics say it actually has little to do with real numbers.

Youth offender rates have risen since Covid. Last year, there was a 4% rise nationally.

But the rates are about half of what they were 15 years ago in the Northern Territory, Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show.

Politicians, though, are playing to residents’ fears.

As well as lowering the age of criminal responsibility, they have also introduced tougher bail legislation known as Declan’s Law, after Declan Laverty, a 20-year-old who was fatally stabbed last year by someone on bail for a previous alleged assault.

“I never want another family to experience what we have,” said his mother Samara Laverty.

“The passing of this legislation is a turning point for the Territory, which will become a safer, happier, and more peaceful place.”

On the day the laws started to be debated in Darwin last month, a small crowd of demonstrators stood outside parliament in a last-ditch effort to turn the political tide.

One woman held up a placard that read: ’10 year olds still have baby teeth’. Another asked: ‘What if it was your child?’

“Our young people in Don Dale need to have opportunity for hope,” said Aboriginal elder, Aunty Barb Nasir, addressing the demonstrators.

She was referring to a notorious youth detention centre just outside Darwin, where evidence of abuse – including video of a child wearing a spit hood and shackled to a chair – outraged many in Australia and led to a royal commission inquiry.

“We need to always stand for them because they are lost in there,” Aunty Barb said.

Kat McNamara, an independent politician who opposed the bill, told the crowd: “The idea that in order to support a 10-year-old you have to criminalise them is irrational, ineffective and morally bankrupt.”

After a ripple of applause, she added: “We are not going to stand for it.”

But with a large majority in parliament, the CLP easily managed to pass the laws.

Lowering the age of criminal responsibility undid legislation passed just last year that had briefly lifted the threshold to 12.

And while other Australian states and territories have been under pressure to raise the age from 10 to 14, for now it is once again 10 across the country, with the exception of the Australian Capital Territory.

Australia is not alone – in England and Wales, for instance, it is also set at 10.

But in comparison, the majority of European Union members make it 14, in line with UN recommendations.

The Northern Territory’s Chief Minister, Lia Finocchiaro, argues that by lowering the age of criminal responsibility, authorities can “intervene early and address the root causes of crime”.

“We have this obligation to the child who has been let down in a number of ways, over a long period of time,” she said last month.

“And we have [an obligation to] the people who just want to be safe, people who don’t want to live in fear any more.”

But for people like Thomas, now 18, prison didn’t fix anything. His crimes just got worse, and his time inside increased.

He says he finds prison oddly comforting. It’s not that he likes it, but with custody comes familiarity.

“Most of my family has been in and out of jail. I felt like I was at home because all the boys took care of me.”

His two younger brothers are also stuck in a similar cycle. At one point, their mother was catching a bus to visit all three in prison every week.

Thomas still wears an ankle bracelet issued by authorities but he has been out of prison for nearly three months now – his longest spell of freedom since becoming a teenager.

He’s been helped by Brother 2 Another – an Aboriginal-led project that mentors and supports First Nations children caught up in the justice system.

“Locking these kids up is just a reactive way to go about it,” says Darren Damaso, a youth leader for Brother 2 Another.

“There needs to be more rehabilitative support services, more funding towards Aboriginal-led programmes, because they actually understand what’s happening for these families. And then we’re going to slowly start to see change. But if it’s just a ‘lock them up’ default action, it’s not going to work.”

Mr Damaso is from the Larrakia Aboriginal people, the ancestral owners of the region of Darwin, and he also has connections to the Yanuwa and Malak Malak people.

His organisation brings young people to a refashioned unit on an industrial estate on the outskirts of Darwin, providing a space to relax, a sensory room and a gym.

Brother 2 Another also works in schools and tries to help young people find work – opportunities that many who’ve been involved with police and prisons struggle to engage with.

“It’s a self-perpetuating cycle,” says John Lawrence, a Scottish criminal barrister who’s been based in Darwin for more than three decades.

He’s represented many young people and argues more money needs to go into schooling than the prison system, to prevent incarceration in the first place.

Aboriginal people “have no voice, and so they suffer great injustice and harm”, says Mr Lawrence.

“The fact that this can happen reveals very graphically and obviously how racist this country is.”

The tough talk on crime isn’t particular to politics in the Northern Territory.

In Queensland’s recent elections, the winning campaign by the Liberal National Party played heavily on its slogan: “Adult crime, adult time.”

In a recent report by the Australian Human Rights Commission, Anne Hollonds, the National Children’s Commissioner, argued that by criminalising vulnerable children – many of them First Nations children – the country is creating “one of Australia’s most urgent human rights challenges”.

“The systems that are meant to help them, including health, education and social services, are not fit-for-purpose and these children are falling through the gaps,” she said.

“We cannot police our way out of this problem, and the evidence shows that locking up children does not make the community safer.”

Which is why there’s a growing push to fund early intervention through education, not incarceration, and trying to reduce marginalisation and disadvantage in the first place.

“What are the cultural strengths of people? What are the community strengths of people? We are building on that,” says Erin Reilly, a regional director for Children’s Ground.

Her organisation works with communities and schools on their ancestral lands, learning about foods and medicines from the bush and about the Aboriginal ‘kinship’ system – how people fit in with their community and family.

“We centre Indigenous world views and Indigenous values and we work in a way that works for Aboriginal people,” explains Ms Reilly.

“We know that the education system and health systems don’t work for our people.”

For Thomas, life on the inside was hard, involving weeks at a time spent in isolation. But on the outside, he says, there’s little understanding of the circumstances he’s lived through.

“I felt like no one cared. Nobody wanted to listen,” he says.

He points out the bite marks on his forearms and adds: “So, I hurt myself all the time – see the scars here?”

For over two millennia, the Roman temples at Baalbek in eastern Lebanon have stood as some of the finest examples of Roman architecture anywhere in the world.

On Wednesday, a car park just metres away from the Unesco World Heritage site was hit by an Israeli air strike.

The attack, which also destroyed a centuries-old Ottoman building, highlighted what some archaeologists say is the risk of irreparable damage to historical sites across Lebanon from the current war between Israel and Hezbollah.

“Baalbek is the major Roman site in Lebanon. You couldn’t replace it if someone bombed it,” says Graham Philip, an archaeology professor at Durham University.

“It would be a huge loss. It would be a crime.”

Since late September, Israel has pummelled Lebanon with thousands of air strikes in an escalation of its campaign against Hezbollah, the Iran-backed group it has been fighting in nearly a year of cross-border strikes.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has largely been targeting southern Lebanon, suburbs in the capital Beirut and the eastern Bekaa Valley.

But in the past fortnight, the campaign has moved into new areas, or rather, very old ground.

The IDF told the BBC that it only targets military sites. But those targets are incredibly close to the Baalbek temples and Roman ruins in Tyre, a major port of the Phoenician Empire around 2,500 years ago.

According to legend, Tyre is the place where purple pigment was first created – the dye crushed out of snail shells to embroider royal robes.

On 23 October, the IDF issued evacuation orders for neighbourhoods close to the city’s Roman ruins, including the remains of a necropolis and a hippodrome.

Hours later it began striking targets. More bombing of the sites was reported last week.

Videos from the strikes showed huge clouds of black smoke rising from seafront areas only a few hundred metres from the ruins.

There is no evidence that the Roman sites in Tyre and Baalbek have been damaged by the Israeli strikes. But Lebanese archaeologists are alarmed at how close the fighting has been to the millennia-old ruins, recognised by Unesco as having outstanding value to humanity.

“For Baalbek it was even worse than Tyre, because the temples are located within the area that is targeted and [the IDF] did not make any exemption for the temples,” says local archaeologist Joanne Farchakh Bajjaly.

She says there are no Hezbollah facilities at the Baalbek site: “No one knows what the excuse or the message behind the hit is.”

The IDF disputes this. In a statement, it told the BBC it targets military sites in accordance with strict protocol, adding that it is “aware of the existence of sensitive sites and this is taken into account and constitutes an essential part of the planning of strikes”.

“Each strike that poses a risk to a sensitive structure is weighed carefully and goes through a rigorous approval process as required.”

Some ordinary Lebanese attempting to escape Israeli bombing reportedly fled to the Baalbek ruins, judging that ancient sites would not be targeted by Israel and would therefore offer protection.

Ms Farchakh Bajjaly says “those who didn’t have a car to flee” moved closer to the ruins, in the belief that the Unesco sites are considered more valuable than their lives.

It prompted the local government to issue a warning urging people against travelling to the ruins.

“They see the site as their shelter. But the site is not a shelter,” Ms Farchakh Bajjaly says.

The war puts Israel in a “difficult situation”, says Israeli archaeologist Erez Ben-Yosef.

He said that war damage to important archaeological sites would be a “huge loss to the cultural heritage of Lebanon and indeed the entire world.

“However, I know personally that Israel is doing everything it can to prevent such damage.

“Many of my fellow archaeologists, both colleagues and students, serve in the army and participate in the war… they actively work to prevent such damage, in accordance with the general guidelines of our military.”

Graham Philip, the Durham University archaeology professor, says he doesn’t believe Israel would intentionally hit Baalbek or other sites.

“It’s hard to see what they would gain in a military sense, bombing a Roman temple.”

But he cautioned about the risk of some bombs or missiles going off target and hitting the ruins, even unintentionally: “If you drop enough ordnance, not all of that lands within 25 metres of the target.”

Mr Philip has been closely monitoring the impact of Israel’s strikes on heritage sites in Gaza where it is fighting Hamas, leading a British university team documenting archaeological destruction across the territory.

He says it is still too early to assess how much damage has been done by the current wars in Lebanon and Gaza. But a Unesco survey published in September found that 69 cultural heritage sites in Gaza had been damaged by the war, which was triggered by the Hamas attacks of 7 October 2023.

The oldest mosque in Gaza, the Great Omari Mosque, is one. It was built on the site of an ancient Philistine temple before being converted into a church and then a mosque. It was reportedly mostly destroyed by an Israeli strike in December 2023.

Mr Philip says these ancient sites are not only important anchors to the classical past, but are “almost like the soul of a population”.

“Imagine how people would feel in Britain if the Tower of London or Stonehenge were destroyed.

“It’s part of their identity.”

Standing between two bars erected at a mobile clinic in Rafah, southern Gaza, Rizeq Tafish concentrates as he takes his first tentative steps in four months.

“My feelings before were sadness and despair. Now I feel happiness and freedom,” he says, grinning afterwards.

Rizeq is one of the first of thousands of wounded Palestinians who should receive new prosthetic limbs from Jordanian doctors using state-of-the-art British technology.

Displaced to Rafah, he was wounded by Israeli tank fire as he left Friday prayers in June. With his leg amputated, the blacksmith could no longer work and was feeling desperate.

“I lost my whole life: my job and my hope,” Rizeq says. “There was no one to take care of my wife and baby. I even needed help to use the toilet.”

The human cost of Israel’s destructive year-long war in Gaza is measured not just in lives lost but in lives changed forever.

After analysing emergency medical data, the UN’s World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that at least 94,000 people are injured. More than 24,000 people – one in every 100 Gazans – have a life-changing injury. These include serious burns, trauma to the head and spine and limb amputations.

At the same time, it has become virtually impossible to leave Gaza for medical treatment and only 16 out of 36 hospitals are functional. Rehabilitation services are heavily disrupted. The WHO says just 12% of equipment needed for injured people – such as wheelchairs and crutches – is available.

The Jordanian programme uses innovative prosthetics from two British firms, Koalaa and Amparo. They have easy-to-fit sockets and a new direct moulding technique for lower limbs, which avoid months of waiting and multiple fittings.

“This is a new type of prosthesis. Its main feature is fast manufacture. It means it will be ready for the patient within only one to two hours,” explains Jordanian army doctor, Lt Abdullah Al-Hemaida, who has deftly fitted Rizeq with his replacement leg.

His medical team has already helped dozens of amputees. Each prosthetic limb costs about $1,400 (£1,100), with funding from the Jordanian state and a national charity.

Every fitting is registered digitally allowing for remote monitoring and follow-up procedures.

If it is safe enough, the plan is for two Jordanian mobile units to move around. There is a huge need for prosthetics across all of Gaza among all age groups.

At the al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in central Gaza, sisters Hanan and Misk al-Doubri are so small that they fit in one wheelchair. Last month, they lost their mother and their legs in an Israeli air strike on their home in Deir al-Balah.

Misk, who is 18 months old, had just learned to walk. Now she struggles to stand on her one good foot. But Hanan, who is three, has much more severe injuries; she was blasted out of her family’s first-floor apartment.

“We try to distract her, but she always returns to asking about her mum,” her aunt, Sheifa says. “Then she asks, ‘Where are my legs?’ I don’t know what to tell her.”

I asked the Israeli military why the al-Doubris were targeted but received no response.

Locals believe the girls’ father, a policeman, who remains in intensive care, may have been targeted. Israel has attacked many people who worked for the security forces in Hamas-governed Gaza.

With Israeli drones overhead, 15-year-old Diya al-Adini surveys the destruction by his home in Deir al-Balah. Around his neck he always wears his prized possession, bought with months of savings: a digital camera.

However, he can no longer use it unaided: he has no arms.

In August, Diya was playing a computer game in a coffee shop when Israel bombed it.

“The speed of the rocket made it hard for me to react. After it hit, I lost consciousness for a few seconds,” Diya recalls. “When I came to, everything was white. It felt like I was watching a movie. I tried to get up, but I couldn’t move at all; I didn’t have any hands to help me.”

Diya used to love swimming and walking his dogs, he did errands on his bicycle and photographed landscapes. Now he relies on his older sister, Aya, to take photos for him. But he is determined to be positive.

“I am trying to plan a good future so that after I get prosthetics, I can work hard and excel to become a famous photographer,” he says. “I need my limbs to return to my photography, and to everything I loved.”

Making his way on the uneven path to the tent camp that he now calls home, Rizeq Tafish has been given crutches to help him adjust to his new prosthetic leg.

“I want to forget the period when I was without my legs and start again. I still consider myself to be whole and complete,” he tells a local journalist working for the BBC in Gaza.

“I could go back to my job or get a different one now that I have my new limb. Just getting my leg back is also giving me back my smile that I want to share with everyone.”

But there are tears of joy as well as smiles when he reaches his family. Rizeq’s mother is overcome as he walks forward without any help to embrace her and his wife praises God as he stands holding their little boy.

Rizeq is just one among many in Gaza learning to cope with a new serious disability but he has taken a step towards getting back his life.

Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Charli XCX, Kendrick Lamar and Chappell Roan will all be up for major honours at the 2025 Grammy Awards.

The trophies will be handed out in a star-studded ceremony on 2 February, with 94 categories in total. Here are the contenders for the biggest prizes.

Album of the year

• André 3000 – New Blue Sun
• Beyoncé – Cowboy Carter
• Sabrina Carpenter – Short n’ Sweet
• Charli XCX – Brat
• Jacob Collier – Djesse Vol 4
• Billie Eilish – Hit Me Hard and Soft
• Chappell Roan – The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess
• Taylor Swift – The Tortured Poets Department

Record of the year

• The Beatles – Now And Then
• Beyoncé – Texas Hold ’Em
• Sabrina Carpenter – Espresso
• Charli XCX – 360
• Billie Eilish – Birds of a Feather
• Kendrick Lamar – Not Like Us
• Chappell Roan – Good Luck, Babe!
• Taylor Swift ft Post Malone – Fortnight

Song of the year

• Beyoncé – Texas Hold ‘Em
• Sabrina Carpnter – Please Please Please
• Billie Eilish – Birds Of A Feather
• Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars – Die With a Smile
• Kendrick Lamar – Not Like Us
• Chappel Roan – Good Luck, Babe!
• Shaboozey – A Bar Song (Tipsy)
• Taylor Swift ft Post Malone – Fortnight

Best new artist

• Benson Boone
• Sabrina Carpenter
• Doechii
• Khruangbin
• Raye
• Chappell Roan
• Shaboozey
• Teddy Swims

Best pop vocal album

• Sabrina Carpenter – Short n’ Sweet
• Billie Eilish – Hit Me Hard And Soft
• Ariana Grande – Eternal Sunshine
• Chappell Roan – The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess
• Taylor Swift – The Tortured Poets Department

Best pop solo performance

• Beyoncé – Bodyguard
• Sabrina Carpenter – Espresso
• Charli XCX – Apple
• Billie Eilish – Birds of a Feather
• Chappell Roan – Good Luck, Babe!

Best pop duo/group performance

• Gracie Abrams ft Taylor Swift – Us
• Beyoncé ft Post Malone – Levii’s Jeans
• Charli XCX & Billie Eilish – Guess
• Ariana Grande, Brandy & Monica – The Boy Is Mine
• Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars – Die With A Smile

Best dance/electronic recording

• Disclosure – She’s Gone, Dance On
• Four Tet – Loved
• Fred Again & Baby Keem – Leavemealone
• Justice & Tame Impala – Neverender
• Kaytranada ft Childish Gambino – Witchy

Best dance/electronic album

• Charli XCX – Brat
• Four Tet – Three
• Justice – Brat
• Kaytranada – Timeless
• Zedd – Telos

Best dance pop recording

• Madison Beer – Make You Mine
• Charli XCX – Von Dutch
• Billie Eilish – L’Amour De Ma Vie [Over Now Extended Edit]
• Ariana Grande – Yes, and?
• Troye Sivan – Got Me Started

Best rock performance

• The Beatles – Now And Then
• The Black Keys – Beautiful People (Stay High)
• Green Day – The American Dream Is Killing Me
• Idles – Gift Horse
• Pearl Jam – Dark Matter
• St. Vincent – Broken Man

Best rock song

• The Black Keys – Beautiful People (Stay High)
• St Vincent – Broken Man
• Pearl Jam – Dark Matter
• Green Day – Dilemma
• Idles – Gift Horse

Best rock album

• The Black Crowes – Happiness B******s
• Fontaines DC – Romance
• Green Day – Saviors
• Idles – TANGK
• Pearl Jam – Dark Matter
• The Rolling Stones – Hackney Diamonds
• Jack White – No Name

Best alternative music album

• Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Wild God
• Clairo – Charm
• Kim Gordon – The Collective
• Brittany Howard – What Now
• St Vincent – All Born Screaming

Best metal performance

• Gojira, Marina Viotti & Victor Le Masne – Mea Culpa (Ah! Ça ira!)
• Judas Priest – Crown of Horns
• Knocked Loose Featuring Poppy – Suffocate
• Metallica – Screaming Suicide
• Spiritbox – Cellar Door

Best rap performance

• Cardi B – Enough (Miami)
• Common & Pete Rock ft Posdnuos – When The Sun Shines Again
• Doechii – Nissan Altima
• Eminem – Houdini
• Future, Metro Boomin & Kendrick Lamar – Like That
• GloRilla – Yeah Glo!
• Kendrick Lamar – Not Like Us

Best melodic rap performance

• Jordan Adetunji ft Kehlani – Kehlani
• Beyoncé ft Linda Martell & Shaboozey – Spaghettii
• Future & Metro Boomin ft The Weeknd – We Still Don’t Trust You
• Latto – Big Mama
• Rapsody ft Erykah Badu – 3:AM

Best rap song

• Rapsody ft Hit-Boy – Asteroids
• Kanye West & Ty Dolla $Ign – Carnival
• Future & Metro Boomin ft Kendrick Lamar – Like That
• Kendrick Lamar – Not Like Us
• GloRilla – Yeah Glo!

Best rap album

• J Cole – Might Delete Later
• Common & Pete Rock – The Auditorium, Vol 1
• Doechii – Alligator Bites Never Heal
• Eminem – The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce)
• Future & Metro Boomin – We Don’t Trust You

Best country solo performance

• Beyoncé – 16 Carriages
• Jelly Roll – I Am Not Okay
• Kacey Musgraves – The Architect
• Shaboozey – A Bar Song (Tipsy)
• Chris Stapleton – It Takes A Woman

Best country duo/group performance

• Kelsea Ballerini With Noah Kahan – Cowboys Cry Too
• Beyoncé ft Miley Cyrus – II Most Wanted
• Brothers Osborne – Break Mine
• Dan + Shay – Bigger Houses
• Post Malone ft Morgan Wallen – I Had Some Help

Best country song

• Kacey Musgraves – The Architect
• Shaboozey – A Bar Song (Tipsy)
• Jelly Roll – I Am Not Okay
• Post Malone ft Morgan Wallen – I Had Some Help
• Beyoncé – Texas Hold ‘Em

Best country album

• Beyoncé – Cowboy Carter
• Post Malone – F-1 Trillion
• Kacey Musgraves – Deeper Well
• Chris Stapleton – Higher
• Lainey Wilson – Whirlwind

Best R&B performance

• Jhené Aiko – Guidance
• Chris Brown – Residuals
• Coco Jones – Here We Go (Uh Oh)
• Muni Long – Made For Me (Live On BET)
• SZA – Saturn

Best R&B song

• Kehlani – After Hours
• Tems – Burning
• Coco Jones – Here We Go (Uh Oh)
• Muni Long – Ruined Me
• SZA – Saturn

Best progressive R&B album

• Avery*Sunshine – So Glad to Know You
• Durand Bernarr – En Route
• Childish Gambino – Bando Stone And The New World
• Kehlani – Crash
• NxWorries (Anderson .Paak & Knxwledge) – Why Lawd?

Best R&B album

• Chris Brown – 11:11 (Deluxe)
• Lalah Hathaway – Vantablack
• Muni Long – Revenge
• Lucky Daye – Algorithm
• Usher – Coming Home

Best African music performance

• Yemi Alade – Tomorrow
• Asake & Wizkid – MMS
• Chris Brown ft Davido & Lojay – Sensational
• Burna Boy – Higher
• Tems – Love Me JeJe

Producer of the Year, Non-Classical

• Alissia
• Daniel Nigro
• Dernst “D’Mile” Emile II
• Ian Fitchuk
• Mustard

Songwriter of the Year

• Amy Allen
• Edgar Barrera
• Jessi Alexander
• Jessie Jo Dillon
• Raye

Best comedy album

• Ricky Gervais – Armageddon
• Dave Chappelle – The Dreamer
• Jim Gaffigan – The Prisoner
• Nikki Glaser – Someday You’ll Die
• Trevor Noah – Where Was I

Best compilation soundtrack for visual media

• The Color Purple – Various Artists
• Deadpool & Wolverine – Various Artists
• Maestro: Music By Leonard Bernstein – London Symphony Orchestra, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Bradley Cooper
• Saltburn – Various Artists
• Twisters: The Album – Various Artists

Best score soundtrack for visual media (includes film and televison)

• Laura Karpman – American Fiction
• Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross – Challengers
• Kris Bowers – The Color Purple
• Hans Zimmer – Dune: Part Two
• Nick Chuba, Atticus Ross & Leopold Ross – Shōgun

Best score soundtrack for video games and other interactive media

• Pinar Toprak – Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
• Bear McCreary – God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla
• John Paesano – Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
• Wilbert Roget, II – Star Wars Outlaws
• Winifred Phillips – Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord

Best song written for visual media

• Luke Combs – Ain’t No Love In Oklahoma (From Twisters: The Album)
• *NSYNC & Justin Timberlake – Better Place (From Trolls Band Together)
• Olivia Rodrigo – Can’t Catch Me Now (From The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes)
• Jon Batiste – It Never Went Away (From American Symphony)
• Barbra Streisand – Love Will Survive (From The Tattooist of Auschwitz)

Best music video

• A$AP Rocky – Tailor Swif
• Charli XCX – 360
• Eminem – Houdini
• Kendrick Lamar – Not Like Us
• Taylor Swift ft Post Malone – Fortnight

Best music film

• American Symphony
• June
• Kings From Queens
• Stevie Van Zandt: Disciple
• The Greatest Night In Pop

Best jazz vocal album

• Christie Dashiell – Journey In Black
• Kurt Elling & Sullivan Fortner – Wildflowers Vol 1
• Samara Joy – A Joyful Holiday
• Milton Nascimento & Esperanza Spalding – Milton + Esperanza
• Catherine Russell & Sean Mason – My Ideal

Best jazz instrumental album

• Ambrose Akinmusire ft Bill Frisell & Herlin Riley – Owl Song
• Kenny Barron ft Kiyoshi Kitagawa, Johnathan Blake, Immanuel Wilkins & Steve Nelson – Beyond This Place
• Lakecia Benjamin – Phoenix Reimagined (Live)
• Chick Corea & Béla Fleck – Remembrance
• Sullivan Fortner – Solo Game

Best alternative jazz album

• Arooj Aftab – Night Reign
• André 3000 – New Blue Sun
• Robert Glasper – Code Derivation
• Keyon Harrold – Foreverland
• Meshell Ndegeocello – No More Water: The Gospel Of James Baldwin

Best musical theatre album

• Hell’s Kitchen
• Merrily We Roll Along
• The Notebook
• The Outsiders
• Suffs
• The Wiz

Best opera recording

• Adams: Girls Of The Golden West – John Adams, conductor (Los Angeles Philharmonic; Los Angeles Master Chorale)
• Catán: Florencia En El Amazonas – Yannick Nézet-Séguin (The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra; The Metropolitan Opera Chorus)
• Moravec: The Shining – Gerard Schwarz, conductor (Kansas City Symphony; Lyric Opera Of Kansas City Chorus)
• Puts: The Hours – Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor (Metropolitan Opera Orchestra; Metropolitan Opera Chorus)
• Saariaho: Adriana Mater – Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor (San Francisco Symphony; San Francisco Symphony Chorus; Timo Kurkikangas)

Best orchestral performance

• John Adams: City Noir – Fearful Symmetries & Lola Montez Does The Spider Dance – Marin Alsop, conductor (ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra)
• Kodály: Háry János Suite; Summer Evening & Symphony In C Major – JoAnn Falletta, conductor (Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra)
• Ortiz: Revolución Diamantina – Gustavo Dudamel, conductor (Los Angeles Philharmonic)
• Sibelius: Karelia Suite, Rakastava, & Lemminkäinen – Susanna Mälkki, conductor (Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra)
• Stravinsky: The Firebird – Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor (San Francisco Symphony)

The police watchdog will review how Metropolitan Police officers handled allegations of sexual offences against former Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) will review two cases the Met Police investigated in 2008 and 2013 after the force referred itself.

Hundreds of people have contacted the BBC about Harrods and the billionaire since the documentary Al Fayed: Predator at Harrods aired.

Over 70 of those were from women who sent the BBC their accounts of abuse by Al Fayed including sexual harassment, sexual assault and rape.

The Met said it had received complaints from two women regarding prior police investigations. The complaints “address concerns about the quality of police response and how details came to be disclosed publicly”, a statement from the Met said.

The Met has said it is reviewing all claims reported to it about Al Fayed, including to establish if there are allegations of criminality that can be pursued against living people.

There are allegations that abuse also took place at Fulham FC and the Ritz Hotel Paris, as well as other places owned by Al Fayed.

In September the BBC documentary heard testimony from former Harrods employees who said the billionaire sexually assaulted or raped them.

Since that film was broadcast, the Met has said it has found reports from 21 women who accused Al Fayed between 2005 and his death in 2023. He was never charged.

Last month, the BBC revealed that, during Al Fayed’s lifetime, the Met sent full files of evidence relating to only two of the 21 women to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

Following that story, the Met issued a statement which gave the impression it had received early investigative advice from the CPS relating to 10 of the women. This advice is a formal matter where the CPS gives a view of the merits of the case, after the police provide them with the evidence.

However, the CPS later confirmed to the BBC that it only gave such advice in four cases, and the Met told the BBC it accepts this.

Since September this year, 60 more women have come forward to the Met, with at least 70 contacting the BBC itself.

Last week the BBC revealed the Met had received an allegation of sexual assault against Al Fayed from a teenage girl in 1995, meaning the Met had been told about Al Fayed a decade earlier than acknowledged by previous statements, which gave 2005 as the earliest date it received an allegation against him.

An IOPC spokesperson said it had contacted the Met in September to ask if the force had “identified any conduct issues that would require a referral”.

In a statement issued on Friday, the IOPC confirmed it had received two complaint referrals from the Met and would “assess the information provided before deciding what further action may be required”.

• Timeline of sex abuse allegations
• How Fayed built a corrupt system of enablers to carry out his sexual abuse

Fulham FC told the BBC: “We unequivocally condemn all forms of abuse. We remain in the process of establishing whether anyone at the club is or would have been impacted by Mohamed Al Fayed in any manner as described in recent reports.”

Former Fulham Ladies captain Ronnie Gibbons alleged she was “groped” on two occasions by Al Fayed, and that he tried to “forcefully” kiss her at his department store in 2000, when she was 20.

The former manager of Fulham’s women’s team Gaute Haugenes told the BBC in September that extra precautions had been put in place to protect female players from Al Fayed.

Al Fayed owned Harrods between 1985 and 2010. The store’s new owners have previously said they are “appalled” by the allegations of sexual abuse and have been investigating since 2023 whether any current members of staff were involved.

Harrods told the BBC that it was in the process of settling more than 250 claims for compensation brought by victims of Al Fayed. That figure has since risen to more than 290.

The boss of Harrods personally apologised after being approached by the BBC.

Al-Fayed: Predator at Harrods

A BBC investigation into allegations of rape and attempted rape by Mohamed Al Fayed, the former owner of Harrods. Did the luxury store protect a billionaire predator?

Watch Al-Fayed: Predator at Harrods on BBC iPlayer now.

Listen to World of Secrets, Season 4: Al Fayed, Predator at Harrods on BBC Sounds. If you’re outside the UK, you can listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Growing up in Cyprus, Elena felt she was different to other girls – she liked maths, biology, and preferred wearing trousers rather than skirts.

But it was a family tragedy which helped shape her determination to study medicine.

“My parents lost their first child because he had Down’s syndrome, so he died when he was about four years old,” she says. “And I guess that’s always been playing on my mind.”

Now a consultant surgeon at one of the busiest major trauma units in England, Elena Theophilidou has spoken of her successful career, as well as the challenges she has faced as a female doctor – including sometimes having to remind patients that “I am the surgeon”.

“I think the first time I carried a bag with me was when I was 20, when I actually came to university,” says Elena with a chuckle.

“I wasn’t your typical girl, as you would imagine them to be.”

Biology just “made sense”, and maths was something she was good at. But Elena started wondering “what am I going to do with numbers?”

She says that, although it sounds like a cliché, the thought of being able to help others led her to choosing medicine.

“I still don’t think of it as a nine-to-five job. Because it isn’t really. As a consultant, I’ve never thought, ‘can’t be bothered with work today’,” she says.

She grew up in a Greek family, in which the death of her brother was something they never talked about “extensively”.

“I sort of grew up with it because he died before I was born, so I never met him,” she says. “But it was always something that was in the background.

“It was quite devastating for my parents. But I think maybe that triggered the idea of medicine.”

Elena’s path to becoming a surgeon in an emergency department was not an easy one.

As a teenager, she set her sights on studying medicine in the UK.

“I had to do [the A-levels] in my own spare time, and obviously coming from a foreign country to the UK, you had to have top marks to even be considered for medicine,” she says.

“So it was a tough four or five years before even coming to medical school.”

Aged 18, she moved to London and began studying to be a doctor. Eventually, came the opportunity to specialise in surgery.

“Unfortunately, my surgical placements were all with, let’s say, school surgeons who would have different mentalities to what we have today,” she says.

She says she faced “unprofessional behaviours, in terms of bullying and toxic environments”.

“I guess we’re quite lucky in this day and age that things have changed in terms of professional contact and how people should be behaving, and especially when it comes to treating patients and colleagues,” she says.

“I know I’ve had a lot of difficulties that probably if I wasn’t a woman I wouldn’t have had, and I’m sure quite a lot of trainees, especially female trainees, would agree with this statement.”

Elena, however, has high praise for her colleagues at the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham.

“We are quite lucky in the East Midlands because we are one of the deaneries that have quite a lot of female trainees, and especially female consultants in surgery, who I’ve had as role models,” she says.

Elena’s main job is working with the major trauma team, but is also involved with the team that deals with patients that have acute surgical issues.

“When you’re a consultant, you have a position of responsibility in terms of not only towards your patient, but also towards the team that you have with you,” she says.

Elena says she has never experienced misogyny from patients – but admits she sometimes has to “remind them that I am the surgeon”.

“Sometimes they don’t see me as a surgeon walking into the room. So that’s something that I’ve experienced quite early on,” she says.

“I think people have a stereotypical image of surgeons in their head. It’s more like a ‘grown-up man’ who walks into the room.

“I’ve never experienced misogyny, but maybe just having to remind people from time to time that I perform their operation.”

But things and times are changing in medicine, says Elena, and “more education is out there”.

“In the last year, I’ve had a couple of female medical students coming to me and say ‘oh, I didn’t know you could be a female consultant surgeon’,” she says.

But Elena says it is important for young students to see women who took surgery on as a career, and look at them as role models.

Elena does not shy away from the fact that being a woman has sometimes felt like a disadvantage.

As a youngster in Cyprus, she says she would hear phrases like “oh you’re a woman, if you become a surgeon or a doctor you won’t have time for your family, you won’t have a family”.

“Those ideas are at the back of your head. But if this is what you want to do, you just go ahead and do it,” she says.

“Find what you love doing day to day, because your career is a long time, and it takes a lot – probably like 20, 30 years of your life. So it’s important to do what you enjoy and then just go for it.”

Nigeria has announced that free emergency Caesarean sections will be made available to “poor and vulnerable” women in an ambitious plan to bring down the high number of mothers dying in childbirth.

At 1,047 deaths per 100,000 live births, Africa’s most populous nation has the fourth highest maternal mortality rate in the world and the lack of access to Caesareans is thought to be one of the reasons.

Many pregnant women, particularly in rural Nigeria are unable to receive emergency medical care partly due to the cost.

“No woman should lose her life simply because she can’t afford a C-section,” Health Minister Muhammad Pate said while announcing the “powerful move”.

While the price may vary across Nigeria’s different states, on average, a Caesarean costs around 60,000 naira ($36;£28) which can be beyond the reach of many.

More than 40% of Nigerians live below the international extreme poverty line of $2.15 per day, according to 2023 data from Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics.

The Maternal Mortality Reduction Innovation Initiative launched on Thursday will now allow all eligible women to access Caesarean sections in public hospitals.

To be a beneficiary, one must be registered under the country’s public health insurance scheme.

“By removing financial barriers to this life-saving procedure, we ensure that no woman in need is denied critical care due to cost,” Pate added.

The health scheme covers emergency situations only, Tashikalmah Hallah, a communication adviser to the health minister, told the BBC.

Social welfare units in public hospitals will help determine eligibility and identify those who cannot afford the procedure, Mr Hallah added.

Pate said maternal mortality remained “unacceptably high”.

Caesareans are seen as essential for preventing obstructed labour in cases where a woman’s pelvis is too small, the baby is in a breech position, or is too large to exit the birth canal.

Without intervention, a constricted baby may fatally rupture the uterus, or cause tears that catastrophically haemorrhage.

While offering to support the new initiative, the World Bank’s Trina Haque, described it as a “game-changer”.

“If implemented right, this initiative will deliver. We’re here to support every step of the way,” Kazadi Mulombo, the WHO country rep, said.

Causes of maternal deaths include severe haemorrhage, high blood pressure (pre-eclampsia and eclampsia), unsafe abortions and obstructed or prolonged labour.

The new policy will “improve maternal and child health outcomes in the country”, Rhoda Robinson, executive director of HACEY, an NGO advocating for healthcare access for vulnerable populations in Nigeria.

“Especially for women from low-income communities who might resort to alternative and often unsafe care options,” she told the BBC.

Mabel Onwuemena, national coordinator of the Women of Purpose Foundation, another NGO advocating for better maternal health access in Africa, praised the initiative and urged the Nigerian government to expand it to include free drugs and ultrasound to pregnant women.

• Should I stay or should I go? The dilemma for young Nigerians
• Why Nigeria’s economy is in such a mess
• ‘I’ve been sleeping under a bridge in Lagos for 30 years’

A senior official at COP29 climate change conference in Azerbaijan appears to have used his role to arrange a meeting to discuss potential fossil fuel deals, the BBC can report.

A secret recording shows the chief executive of Azerbaijan’s COP29 team, Elnur Soltanov, discussing “investment opportunities” in the state oil and gas company with a man posing as a potential investor.

“We have a lot of gas fields that are to be developed,” he says.

A former head of the UN body responsible for the climate talks told the BBC that Soltanov’s actions were “completely unacceptable” and a “betrayal” of the COP process.

As well as being the chief executive of COP29, Soltanov is also the deputy energy minister of Azerbaijan and is on the board of Socar.

Azerbaijan’s COP29 team has not responded to a request for comment.

Oil and gas accounts for about half of Azerbaijan’s total economy and more than 90% of its exports, according to US figures.

COP29 will open in Baku on Monday and is the 29th annual UN climate summit, where governments discuss how to limit and prepare for climate change, and raise global ambition to tackle the issue.

However, this is the second year in a row the BBC has revealed alleged wrongdoing by the host government.

The BBC has been shown documents and secret video recordings made by the human rights organisation, Global Witness.

It is understood that one of its representatives approached the COP29 team posing as the head of a fictitious Hong Kong investment firm specialising in energy.

He said this company was interested in sponsoring the COP29 summit but wanted to discuss investment opportunities in Azerbaijan’s state energy firm, Socar, in return. An online meeting with Soltanov was arranged.

During the meeting, Soltanov told the potential sponsor that the aim of the conference was “solving the climate crisis” and “transitioning away from hydrocarbons in a just, orderly and equitable manner”.

Anyone, he said, including oil and gas companies, “could come with solutions” because Azerbaijan’s “doors are open”.

However, he said he was open to discussions about deals too – including on oil and gas.

Initially, Soltanov suggested the potential sponsor might be interested in investing in some of the “green transitioning projects” Socar was involved in – but then spoke of opportunities related to Azerbaijan’s plans to increase gas production, including new pipeline infrastructure.

“There are a lot of joint ventures that could be established,” Soltanov says on the recording. “Socar is trading oil and gas all over the world, including in Asia.”

Soltanov then described natural gas as a “transitional fuel”, adding: “We will have a certain amount of oil and natural gas being produced, perhaps forever.”

The UN climate science body, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, acknowledges there will be a role for some oil and gas up to 2050 and beyond. However, it has been very clear that “developing… new oil and gas fields is incompatible with limiting warming to 1.5C”.

It also goes against the agreement the world made at the last global climate summit to transition away from fossil fuels.

Soltanov appeared eager to help get discussions going, telling the potential sponsor: “I would be happy to create a contact between your team and their team [Socar] so that they can start discussions.”

A couple of weeks later the fake Hong Kong investment company received an email – Socar wanted to follow up on the lead.

Attempting to do business deals as part of the COP process appears to be a serious breach of the standards of conduct expected of a COP official.

These events are supposed to be about reducing the world’s use of fossil fuels – the main driver of climate change – not selling more.

The standards are set by the UN body responsible for the climate negotiations, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The UN said it could not comment directly on our findings but remarked that “the same rigorous standards” are applied to whoever hosts the conference, and that those standards reflect “the importance of impartiality on the part of all presiding officers”.

Its code of conduct for COP officials states they are “expected to act without bias, prejudice, favouritism, caprice, self-interest, preference or deference, strictly based on sound, independent and fair judgement.

“They are also expected to ensure that personal views and convictions do not compromise or appear to compromise their role and functions as a UNFCCC officer.”

Christiana Figueres, who oversaw the signing of the 2015 Paris agreement to limit global temperature rises to well below 2C, told the BBC that she was shocked anyone in the COP process would use their position to strike oil and gas deals.

She said such behaviour was “contrary and egregious” to the the purpose of COP and “a treason” to the process.

The BBC has also seen emails between the COP29 team and the fake investors.

In one chain, the team discusses a $600,000 (£462,000) sponsorship deal with a fake company in return for the Socar introduction and involvement in an event about “sustainable oil and gas investing” during COP29.

Officials offered five passes with full access to the summit and drafted a contract which initially required the firm to make some commitments to sustainability. Then it pushed back, one requirement was dropped and “corrections” were considered to another.

The BBC asked Azerbaijan’s COP29 team and Socar for comment. Neither responded to the requests.

The findings come a year after the BBC obtained leaked documents that revealed plans by the UAE to use its role as host of COP28 to strike oil and gas deals.

COP28 was the first time agreement was reached on the need to transition away from fossil fuels.

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A conspiracist who claimed the Manchester Arena bombing attack was staged has been ordered to pay £45,000 in damages.

Two survivors of the attack, which killed 22 people, have been awarded damages of £22,500 each against former TV producer, Richard Hall.

Martin Hibbert and his daughter Eve, of Chorley, sued Hall for harassment and they won the case last month.

Mr Hibbert was left with a spinal cord injury and Ms Hibbert suffered severe brain damage as a result of the bombing.

Hall had told the court his actions, which included filming Eve outside her home, were in the public interest as a journalist and claimed “millions of people” had “bought a lie” about the attack.

As well as those who died, hundreds of people were injured in the attack when Salman Abedi detonated a homemade rucksack bomb in the foyer of the venue as thousands of people left an Ariana Grande concert.

Mrs Justice Steyn declined to award aggravated damages.

She said Hall’s account was “preposterous and untrue” but she accepted he continued to believe it was true.

She said both father and daughter were vulnerable and the harassment had been prolonged.

She also imposed an injunction on Hall, aimed at stopping him harassing the Hibberts in future, and ordered him to pay 90% of the Hibberts’ legal costs.

Mr Hibbert, who now uses a wheelchair, had been the closest survivor to the bomber and suffered 22 shrapnel wounds.

He was left paralysed from the waist down and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Ms Hibbert, who was 14 at the time of the attack, suffered significant, permanent cognitive impairment as a result of the bombing and was left needing full-time care throughout her life, unable to walk unassisted and suffering from PTSD and depression.

Outside the court Mr Hibbert said Mr Hall’s actions were “oppressive and unacceptable”.

“Freedom of expression provides protection for journalism, but Mr Hall has abused media freedom,” he said.

“He repeatedly published false allegations and dismissed the tragic reality which so many ordinary people have experienced and continue to live with.

“His abhorrent behaviour had to be challenged, not just for me and my family but for others too.”

He added that the judgement is a “comprehensive victory” and hopes it opens the door for change to protect others.

Kerry Gillespie, of Hudgell Solicitors, said many feel they can publish “harmful, unfounded allegations against others, especially those who have already suffered from tragedy” but added that this case has changed the landscape.

“Martin and Eve have set a precedent which will hopefully see more people who engage in this sort of behaviour challenged,” she said.

Outside the Royal Courts of Justice, Mr Hall repeated some of his claims about the attack not having happened, and alleged his trial had not been fair.

He walked away when asked if he wanted to apologise to the victims of the attack.

The most prominent Islamic scholar in Gaza has issued a rare, powerful fatwa condemning Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, which triggered the devastating war in the Palestinian territory.

Professor Dr Salman al-Dayah, a former dean of the Faculty of Sharia and Law at the Hamas-affiliated Islamic University of Gaza, is one of the region’s most respected religious authorities, so his legal opinion carries significant weight among Gaza’s two million population, which is predominantly Sunni Muslim.

A fatwa is a non-binding Islamic legal ruling from a respected religious scholar usually based on the Quran or the Sunnah – the sayings and practices of the Prophet Muhammad.

Dr Dayah’s fatwa, which was published in a detailed six-page document, criticises Hamas for what he calls “violating Islamic principles governing jihad”.

Jihad means “struggle” in Arabic and in Islam it can be a personal struggle for spiritual improvement or a military struggle against unbelievers.

Dr Dayah adds: “If the pillars, causes, or conditions of jihad are not met, it must be avoided in order to avoid destroying people’s lives. This is something that is easy to guess for our country’s politicians, so the attack must have been avoided.”

For Hamas, the fatwa represents an embarrassing and potentially damaging critique, particularly as the group often justifies its attacks on Israel through religious arguments to garner support from Arab and Muslim communities.

The 7 October attack saw hundreds of Hamas gunmen from Gaza invade southern Israel. About 1,200 people were killed and 251 others taken hostage.

Israel responded by launching a military campaign to destroy Hamas, during which more than 43,400 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

• Israel Gaza war: History of the conflict explained
• What is Hamas and why is it fighting with Israel in Gaza?

Dr Dayah argues that the significant civilian casualties in Gaza, together with the widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure and humanitarian disaster that have followed the 7 October attack, means that it was in direct contradiction to the teachings of Islam.

Hamas, he says, has failed in its obligations of “keeping fighters away from the homes of defenceless [Palestinian] civilians and their shelters, and providing security and safety as much as possible in the various aspects of life… security, economic, health, and education, and saving enough supplies for them.”

Dr Dayah points to Quranic verses and the Sunnah that set strict conditions for the conduct of jihad, including the necessity of avoiding actions that provoke an excessive and disproportionate response by an opponent.

His fatwa highlights that, according to Islamic law, a military raid should not trigger a response that exceeds the intended benefits of the action.

He also stresses that Muslim leaders are obligated to ensure the safety and well-being of non-combatants, including by providing food, medicine, and refuge to those not involved in the fighting.

“Human life is more precious to God than Mecca,” Dr Dayah states.

His opposition to the 7 October attack is especially significant given his deep influence in Gaza, where he is seen as a key religious figure and a vocal critic of Islamist movements, including Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

His moderate Salafist beliefs place him in direct opposition to Hamas’s approach to armed resistance and its ties to Shia-ruled Iran.

Salafists are fundamentalists who seek to adhere the example of the Prophet Muhammad and the first generations who followed him.

Dr Dayah has consistently argued for the establishment of an Islamic caliphate that adheres strictly to Islamic law, rather than the political party-based systems that Hamas and other groups advocate.

“Our role model is the Prophet Muhammad, who founded a nation and did not establish political parties that divide the nation. Therefore, parties in Islam are forbidden,” he said in a sermon he gave at a mosque several years ago.

He has also condemned extremism, opposing jihadist groups like Islamic State and al-Qaeda, and has used all of his platforms to issue fatwas on various social and political issues, ranging from commercial transactions, social disputes over marriage and divorce, to the conduct of political violence.

The fatwa adds to the growing internal debate within Gaza and the broader Arab world over the moral and legal implications of Hamas’s actions, and it is likely to fuel further divisions within Palestinian society regarding the use of armed resistance in the ongoing conflict with Israel.

Sheikh Ashraf Ahmed, one of Dr Dayah’s students who was forced to leave his house in Gaza City last year and flee to the south of Gaza with his wife and nine children, told the BBC: “Our scholar [Dr Dayah] refused to leave his home in northern Gaza despite the fears of Israeli air strikes. He chose to fulfil his religious duty by issuing his legal opinion on the attack”.

Ahmed described the fatwa as the most powerful legal judgment of a historical moment. “It’s a deeply well researched document, reflecting Dayah’s commitment to Islamic jurisprudence,” he said.

Former US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said Democrats might have fared better in Tuesday’s election if President Joe Biden had exited the race sooner.

Pelosi – one of the most powerful politicians in Washington – told the New York Times that “had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race”.

Her remarks are the latest finger pointing from Democrats after the party lost hold of the White House and potentially both chambers of Congress on Tuesday.

Pelosi is widely reported to have led the Democrats’ push to oust Biden, who ended up leaving the race at the end of July after weeks of pressure following a poor debate performance against Donald Trump.

As Biden ended his campaign, he quickly endorsed Vice-President Kamala Harris to take his place. She suffered a bruising defeat to President-elect Trump on Tuesday.

Pelosi told the New York Times: “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary.”

An open primary would have involved a number of Democratic candidates competing to be elected by party members to succeed Biden as their White House nominee.

Pelosi argued that Harris would have done well in such a primary process and it would have made her “stronger going forward”.

“But we don’t know that. That didn’t happen. We live with what happened,” the California congresswoman, who was re-elected to her 20th term in the House on Tuesday, said.

“And because the president endorsed Kamala Harris immediately, that really made it almost impossible to have a primary at that time. If it had been much earlier, it would have been different.”

• Results: Who did each state vote for?
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• When does Trump become US president again?

Speaking to political news outlet Politico, Harris aides also laid the blame at Biden’s feet and said he should have bowed out sooner.

“We ran the best campaign we could, considering Joe Biden was president,” said one unnamed aide. “Joe Biden is the singular reason Kamala Harris and Democrats lost tonight.”

However, a former Biden aide told Axios, another political news outlet, that Harris was making excuses.

“How did you spend $1 billion and not win?” said the aide, adding an expletive.

An unnamed former Biden aide told Politico this week that former President Barack Obama’s advisers were to blame because they “publicly encouraged Democratic infighting to push Joe Biden out, didn’t even want Kamala Harris as the nominee”.

Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman, a Democrat, blamed the election loss on those who plotted to oust Biden.

“For those that decided and moved to break Biden, and then you got the election that you wanted, it’s appropriate to own the outcome and fallout,” he told political outlet Semafor in an interview.

Congressman Tom Suozzi, New York Democratic congressman, said the election loss was partly due to the party’s focus on “being politically correct”.

He said the party had struggled to counteract Republican attack lines on “anarchy on college campuses, defund the police, biological boys playing in girls’ sports, and a general attack on traditional values”.

Ritchie Torres, another New York Democratic congressman, posted on X, formerly Twitter, blaming “the far left”.

He said radicals within the party had “managed to alienate historic numbers of Latinos, Blacks, Asians, and Jews from the Democratic Party with absurdities like ‘Defund the Police’ or ‘From the River to the Sea’ or ‘Latinx’”.

Independent Senator Bernie Sanders, who ran for president as a Democrat in 2016 and 2020, accused the party in a lengthy statement of abandoning working people.

“While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change,” he wrote. “And they’re right.”

He argued Democrats probably wouldn’t learn from the election outcome.

But Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison responded on X that Sanders’ accusation was “straight up BS”.

Smog starts slow.

At first, you cannot see it but you can smell it. It smells like something is burning. And it intensifies as the temperature drops.

Then the smoke and fog start to envelop you and the city around you. Now you can see it. You are walking through the smoke, a thick ceiling of it hanging overhead.

If you are not wearing a mask or you lower it for a moment, you will immediately inhale the bitter air.

Your throat might start to feel itchy and sore. As it gets worse, you start sneezing and coughing. But it’s worse for others: children, the elderly, those with breathing difficulties. The hospitals know to expect the influx.

Lahore and its 13 million residents have now been choking for a week; the air quality index has passed the 1,000 mark repeatedly this month – anything above 300 is considered hazardous.

Pakistani officials have scrambled to respond to the crisis – its scale unprecedented even in a city which deals with smog at this time each year.

Schools are closed, workers have been told to stay home and people urged to stay indoors – part of a so-called “green lockdown”, which has also seen motorbike rickshaws, heavy vehicles and motorbike parking banned from hot spot areas.

By the end of the week, Lahore High Court had ordered all the markets in the Punjab province to close by 20:00 each night, with complete closures on Sundays. Parks and zoos have also been shut until 17 November.

The problem, according to Nasa scientist Pawan Gupta, is that pollution levels in the city “typically peak in late November and December”.

“So this is just beginning. The worst pollution days are probably still ahead of us,” he warned.

The smoke that has enveloped Lahore, in Pakistan’s Punjab province, can be seen from space – as can part of the cause.

Satellite images from the US space agency Nasa shows both the thick layer of smog and the multiple concentrations of fire in the region between the Indian capital, Delhi, and Pakistan’s Lahore.

The same image, six weeks earlier, shows clear skies and – crucially – far fewer fires.

A major cause of the smog is the fires which are caused by the burning of stubble after harvest by farmers in both Pakistan and India – a quick way to clear their fields ready for the next crops.

This year, Nasa estimates it will count “between 15,500 and 18,500 fires ”, according to Hiren Jethva, a senior research scientist at Nasa’s Goddard Space Flight Center and Morgan State University, higher than most years.

According to Pakistan’s environment protection authorities, around 30% of Lahore’s smog comes from across the border in India. The Indian government has this year doubled fines for farmers caught stubble-burning as it tries to deal with the issue.

But much of Lahore’s air pollution comes from its five million motorbikes and millions of other vehicles’ exhausts. On Friday, Lahore’s high court identified heavy traffic emissions as the main cause of the smog, according to the Associated Press of Pakistan.

Then there are the industries in the city’s outskirts – like the coal-fired brick kilns – adding even more pollution to the air.

And in the final months of the year, it all combines with cold air flowing down from Tibet, creating the smog which is currently sitting over the city.

It is clear the toxic air is making people sick.

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Air Quality Index (AQI), a value of 50 or below indicates good air quality, while a value above 300 signals Hazardous air quality.

The WHO guidelines say the average concentration of PM2.5 level should be below five.

Abid Omar, founder of Pakistan’s Air Quality Initiative, which collects data from 143 air quality monitors across the country, says the readings in Lahore “have hit beyond index on every day in November”.

“Some locations in Lahore have exceeded 1,000,” he says, adding: “On Thursday we had one reading of 1,917 on the AQI scale.”

By Tuesday, it was widely reported 900 people had been admitted to hospital in Lahore with breathing difficulties.

“More and more people are coming with complaints of asthma, itchy throats and coughing,” says Dr Irfan Malik, a pulmonologist at one of the biggest hospitals in Lahore.

He has already seen a surge in patients complaining of respiratory tract illnesses – “particularly worrying because we have not yet seen our first cold wave of the winter season”.

The danger is a constant concern for Lahore resident Sadia Kashif.

“Like every mother, I want to see my children run and play without fearing pollution,” she tells the BBC.

“I see my children struggle with coughs and breathing problems these days, and it is a painful reminder that our air has become extremely toxic.”

But the current “green lockdown” has left her unimpressed.

“It is easy for the government to shut down school rather than taking real steps to address the crisis,” says Kashif.

For years, authorities have struggled to find a solution to Lahore’s pollution problem.

The government hopes short fixes will provide reprieve, but says long term solutions – like improving public transport – will take time.

In the meantime, Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz announced this week she intends to write a letter to her counterpart in Indian Punjab to invite them to engage in “climate diplomacy”, since it impacts both regions. Delhi says it is yet to hear from Pakistan on the issue.

However, Omar points out air pollution is not a seasonal problem but a persistent issue.

“Lahore is much more polluted than Delhi with pollution episodes that last longer and reach higher peaks,” he notes.

And it is getting worse, he believes. As per his own analysis of data, October has seen a 25% rise in pollution level compared to the same period last year.

Governments on both sides of the border need to act swiftly to deal with the issue, he argues.

“The roadmap to clean air is clear, but the present policies from both India and Pakistan aren’t enough to significantly reduce pollution.”

It has left him sceptical of the change in the near future.

“I tell people, blue skies are an indicator of good governance,” Omar says.

South Korea’s president has apologised for a string of controversies surrounding his wife that included allegedly accepting a luxury Dior handbag and stock manipulation.

Addressing the nation on television, Yoon Suk Yeol said his wife, Kim Keon Hee, should have conducted herself better, but her portrayal had been excessively “demonised”, adding that some of the claims against her were “exaggerated”.

The president said he would set up an office to oversee the first lady’s official duties, but rejected a call for an investigation into her activities.

Yoon’s apology came as he tries to reverse a dip in his popularity among the South Korean public, linked to the controversies surrounding his wife.

Late in 2023, left-wing YouTube channel Voice of Seoul published a video that purportedly showed Kim accepting a 3m won ($2,200; £1,800) Dior bag from a pastor, who filmed the exchange in September 2022 using a camera concealed in his watch.

In February, Yoon said that the footage was leaked as a “political manoeuvre”, and did not apologise.

South Korea’s Democratic Party, the opposition to Yoon’s conservative People Power Party, at the time labelled the president’s “shameless attitude” as “hopeless”.

The scandal also caused rifts within Yoon’s party, with one leader comparing Ms Kim with Marie Antoinette, the queen of France notorious for her extravagant lifestyle.

The opposition party has also long accused the first lady of being involved in stock price manipulation. Earlier in the year, Yoon vetoed a bill calling for his wife to be investigated over those allegations.

In an election full of uncertainties, one thing at least felt likely – women across the US were going to turn out for Kamala Harris.

Just as months of relentless polling showed Harris in a virtual tie with Donald Trump, many of those same surveys told the story of a yawning gender gap.

It was a strategy Harris’s team was betting on, hoping that an over-performance among women could make up for losses elsewhere.

It didn’t happen.

Across the country, the majority of women did cast their ballots for Harris, but not by the historic margins she needed. Instead, if early exit polls bear out, Harris’s advantage among women overall – around 10 points – actually fell four points short of Joe Biden’s in 2020.

Democrats suffered a 10 point drop among Latino women, while failing to move the needle among non-college educated women at all, who again went for Trump 63-35, preliminary data suggests.

The shortfall was not for lack of trying.

Throughout her 15-week campaign, much of Harris’s messaging was aimed directly at women, most obviously with her emphasis on abortion.

On the trail, Harris made reproductive rights a cornerstone of her pitch. She repeatedly reminded voters that Trump had once bragged about his role in overturning Roe v Wade – a ruling that ended the nationwide right to an abortion.

“I will fight to restore what Donald Trump and his hand-selected Supreme Court justice took away from the women of America,” Harris said at her closing address in DC last week.

• Follow live updates
• The shifts that delivered Trump a big win

Her most powerful advertisements featured women who had suffered under state abortion bans – deemed “Trump abortion bans” by Harris – including those who said they were denied care for miscarriages.

The strategy, it seemed, was to harness the same enthusiasm for abortion access that drove Democrats’ unexpected success in the 2022 midterms.

Abortion rights remain broadly popular – this Gallup poll in May suggested only one in 10 Americans thought it should be banned.

And even these election results seemed to underline that. Seven out of the 10 states where abortion was on the ballot voted in favour of abortion rights.

But that support did not translate into support for Harris.

Abortion did matter to women, it just didn’t matter enough, said Evan Roth Smith, a pollster and campaign consultant.

“Voters – particularly the women – who feel strongest about abortion are already voting for Democrats,” he said. But Democrats were unable to raise the importance of abortion for women who didn’t yet see it as a pressing issue.

“The abortion argument did not penetrate at all with non-college educated women, did not move them an inch. And they lost ground with Latinos,” Mr Smith said.

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• Analysis – Why Kamala Harris lost: A flawed candidate or doomed campaign?

For many, the decisive issue proved to be the economy.

In pre-election surveys and preliminary exit data, inflation and affordability continued to top lists of voters’ concerns. And for these voters, Trump was the overwhelming favourite.

Jennifer Varvar, 51, an independent from Grand Junction, Colorado said she had not even considered a vote for Harris because of the financial stress she faced over the past four years.

“For me and my family, we’re in a worse position now than we ever have been financially. It’s a struggle. I have three boys to put food on the table for,” she said. Things had been better under Trump, she said, and that’s why she voted for him.

But if gender didn’t divide the electorate in the way some expected, it still played a part in the Harris defeat, say some analysts.

There have been many explanations offered for Trump’s resounding victory but for some there is one thing that stands out.

“I do think that the country is still sexist and is not ready for a woman president,” said Patti Solis Doyle, who managed Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, to Politico.

Unlike Clinton, who explicitly leaned into her gender and the history-making potential of her campaign, Harris was noticeably reluctant to do the same.

There is a widespread belief that the country is more ready for a woman president now than when Clinton ran a second time in 2016. But it’s still an open question.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll in October suggested 15% of those surveyed would not be able to vote for a female president.

And Donald Trump, who doubled down on masculinity in this election, may have played a part in exploiting that.

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“He framed being president as being a tough guy in a dangerous world… he framed that as the job description,” said Mr Smith.

“And that’s one of the hardest possible job descriptions for a woman to successfully meet, in the minds of many Americans.”

Last month brought good news for the great Indian bustard, a critically endangered bird found mainly in India.

Wildlife officials in the western state of Rajasthan have performed the first successful hatching of a chick through artificial insemination.

A lone adult male in one of two breeding centres in Jaisalmer city was trained to produce sperm without mating, which was then used to impregnate an adult female at the second centre some 200km (124 miles) away.

Officials said the development was important as it has opened up the possibility of creating a sperm bank.

Over the years, habitat loss, poaching and collisions with overhead power lines have effected great Indian bustards. Their numbers have fallen from more than 1,000 in the 1960s to around 150 at present.

Most of them are found in Jaisalmer and hence, conservation activists say that the bird’s habitat in the city should be protected. But this land is also prime real estate for renewable energy firms, presenting authorities with a unique conservation challenge.

The great Indian bustard may not be as well known as the peacock (India’s national bird) but it’s just as impressive, says Sumit Dookia, a conservation ecologist who has been studying the bird for close to a decade. The massive bird, which weighs between 15kg and 18kg, is one of the biggest flying birds in India.

It once had a prolific presence in the country and was found in at least 11 states, but today, its population is confined to Rajasthan, while a handful might be spotted in the southern state of Karnataka and the western state of Gujarat.

The shy bird plays an important role in the food chain by preying on rodents, snakes and other pests and is also the state bird of Rajasthan, where it is called ‘Godawan’ by locals.

But some of the bird’s unique evolutionary traits are clashing with human interventions, making it vulnerable to extinction.

For one, the great Indian bustard has good peripheral vision but poor frontal vision, making it difficult for them to spot power lines until they fly too close to them. Their large size makes it difficult for them to quickly change their flight path and they end up colliding with the cables and dying.

“Their vision could have developed like this as the bird spends a large amount of time on land,” says Mr Dookia. It also lays its eggs on the ground, without a nest or any other form of protection except for the watchful eye of the mother and this might have caused it to develop good side vision, he adds.

The great Indian bustard also has unique breeding habits. The bird lays just one egg at a time and spends the next two years caring for its offspring.

“Since it reaches maturity at around four years of age and lives for 12-15 years, it lays just about four-five eggs in its lifetime and many of these eggs are destroyed by predators,” Mr Dookia says.

Conservationists say that over the past few years, the great Indian bustard’s habitat in Jaisalmer has been overrun by solar and wind energy farms, leading to an increase in flying accidents.

“The increased human presence has also created more filth, attracting stray dogs who kill the birds or destroy their eggs,” Mr Dookia says.

To boost the bird’s population, the government of Rajasthan collaborated with the federal government and the Wildlife Institute of India to launch a conservation breeding centre at Sam city in 2018. Another breeding centre was set up at Ramdevra village in 2022, says Ashish Vyas, a top forest official in Jaisalmer.

As a first step, researchers collected eggs found in the wild and hatched them in incubation centres. “Currently, there are 45 birds in both the centres,14 of which are captive-bred chicks (including the one born through artificial insemination),” he adds.

The plan is to further boost the bird’s population and then eventually release them into the wild. But conservationists say that this is easier said than done.

This is because the birds born in these breeding centres have imprinted on human researchers (in other words, they have formed close bonds with their human caretakers) and have lost about 60-70% of their ability to survive in the wild, says Mr Dookia.

“Human imprinting is necessary for feeding and handling the birds but it also makes them lose their natural instincts. It will be extremely challenging to re-wild them, especially if there’s no habitat left for the birds to be released into,” he adds.

The loss of habitat has also resulted in another problem: researchers have noticed that the birds, which used to migrate across states, have almost completely stopped doing so. Even in Jaisalmer, where the birds are found in two pockets – Pokhran in the eastern part of the city and the Desert National Park in the west – there’s hardly any cross-migration, says Mr Dookia.

It’s likely that the birds have stopped migrating over large distances in response to flying accidents, he adds. This increases the risk of inbreeding, which could result in birth defects.

“Thus, the only solution to conserve the great Indian bustard is to preserve its natural habitat,” he says.

But a Supreme Court judgement from April has made conservationists uneasy.

The court overturned an earlier interim order, which had instructed Rajasthan and Gujarat to prioritise moving power cables underground in great Indian bustard habitats. The order had created a furore among renewable energy firms, who said that this would cost them billions of rupees and virtually kill their business.

In its latest judgment, the court observed that people had the right to be free from the harmful effects of climate change and that shifting large sections of power cables underground may not be feasible for firms from a monetary and technical standpoint.

It also directed that a committee be set up to look into the feasibility of moving power lines and the efficacy of bird diverters – devices that have reflectors and are attached to power cables to alert birds about their presence.

While corporates have hailed the top court’s judgment, conservationists and some legal experts say that it’s problematic as it pits one good cause against another.

“The judgment brings into focus a flawed understanding of the interplay between climate change, biodiversity and development issues,” ecologist Debadityo Sinha wrote in a column.

He noted that many highly-populated cities in India have underground power lines and that other states have taken such a step to protect other bird species in the past. He also pointed out that although moving power cables underground is expensive, it’s likely to amount to a fraction of a firm’s total earnings.

Mr Dookia says that one of the reasons renewable energy companies are flocking to Rajasthan is because of the low cost of land.

“There’s also not much research on how these renewable energy farms will impact the state’s climate and ecology in the long run,” he says.

“So it’s not just the bird’s future that hangs in the balance, it’s also man’s.”

‘Thomas’ – not his real name – was 13 years old when he began his first stint in prison.

Following the sudden death of his father, he had robbed a shop in Australia’s Northern Territory (NT). He was detained for a week but, within a month, he was back in custody for another burglary.

Five years on, the Aboriginal teenager has spent far more of that time inside prison than out.

“It’s hard changing,” Thomas tells me. “[Breaking the law] is something that you grow up your whole life doing – it’s hard to [stop] the habit.”

His story – a revolving door of crime, arrest and release – is not an isolated one in the Northern Territory.

For many, over the years the crimes get more serious, the sentences longer and the time spent between prison spells ever briefer.

The Northern Territory is the part of Australia with the highest rate of incarceration: more than 1,100 per 100,000 people are behind bars, which is greater than five times the national average.

It’s also more than twice the rate of the US, which is the country with the highest number of people behind bars.

But the issue of jailing children in particular has been thrust into the spotlight here, after the territory’s new government controversially lowered the age of criminal responsibility from 12 back to 10.

The move, which defies a UN recommendation, means potentially locking up even more young people.

It’s not just an issue of incarceration. It’s one of inequalities too.

While around 30% of the Northern Territory’s population is Aboriginal, almost all young people locked up here are Indigenous.

So, Aboriginal communities are by far the most affected by the new laws.

The Country Liberal Party (CLP) government says it has a mandate after campaigning to keep Territorians safe. It helped the party claim a landslide victory in August’s elections.

Among those voting for the CLP was Sunil Kumar.

The owner of two Indian restaurants in Darwin, he’s had five or six break-ins this past year and wants politicians to take more action.

“It’s young kids doing [it] most of the time – [they] think it’s fun,” explains Mr Kumar.

He says he’s improved his locks, put in cameras and even offered soft drinks to kids loitering outside in a bid to win them over.

“How come they are out and parents don’t know?” he says. “There should be a punishment for the parents.”

But while the political rhetoric around crime is powerful, critics say it actually has little to do with real numbers.

Youth offender rates have risen since Covid. Last year, there was a 4% rise nationally.

But the rates are about half of what they were 15 years ago in the Northern Territory, Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show.

Politicians, though, are playing to residents’ fears.

As well as lowering the age of criminal responsibility, they have also introduced tougher bail legislation known as Declan’s Law, after Declan Laverty, a 20-year-old who was fatally stabbed last year by someone on bail for a previous alleged assault.

“I never want another family to experience what we have,” said his mother Samara Laverty.

“The passing of this legislation is a turning point for the Territory, which will become a safer, happier, and more peaceful place.”

On the day the laws started to be debated in Darwin last month, a small crowd of demonstrators stood outside parliament in a last-ditch effort to turn the political tide.

One woman held up a placard that read: ’10 year olds still have baby teeth’. Another asked: ‘What if it was your child?’

“Our young people in Don Dale need to have opportunity for hope,” said Aboriginal elder, Aunty Barb Nasir, addressing the demonstrators.

She was referring to a notorious youth detention centre just outside Darwin, where evidence of abuse – including video of a child wearing a spit hood and shackled to a chair – outraged many in Australia and led to a royal commission inquiry.

“We need to always stand for them because they are lost in there,” Aunty Barb said.

Kat McNamara, an independent politician who opposed the bill, told the crowd: “The idea that in order to support a 10-year-old you have to criminalise them is irrational, ineffective and morally bankrupt.”

After a ripple of applause, she added: “We are not going to stand for it.”

But with a large majority in parliament, the CLP easily managed to pass the laws.

Lowering the age of criminal responsibility undid legislation passed just last year that had briefly lifted the threshold to 12.

And while other Australian states and territories have been under pressure to raise the age from 10 to 14, for now it is once again 10 across the country, with the exception of the Australian Capital Territory.

Australia is not alone – in England and Wales, for instance, it is also set at 10.

But in comparison, the majority of European Union members make it 14, in line with UN recommendations.

The Northern Territory’s Chief Minister, Lia Finocchiaro, argues that by lowering the age of criminal responsibility, authorities can “intervene early and address the root causes of crime”.

“We have this obligation to the child who has been let down in a number of ways, over a long period of time,” she said last month.

“And we have [an obligation to] the people who just want to be safe, people who don’t want to live in fear any more.”

But for people like Thomas, now 18, prison didn’t fix anything. His crimes just got worse, and his time inside increased.

He says he finds prison oddly comforting. It’s not that he likes it, but with custody comes familiarity.

“Most of my family has been in and out of jail. I felt like I was at home because all the boys took care of me.”

His two younger brothers are also stuck in a similar cycle. At one point, their mother was catching a bus to visit all three in prison every week.

Thomas still wears an ankle bracelet issued by authorities but he has been out of prison for nearly three months now – his longest spell of freedom since becoming a teenager.

He’s been helped by Brother 2 Another – an Aboriginal-led project that mentors and supports First Nations children caught up in the justice system.

“Locking these kids up is just a reactive way to go about it,” says Darren Damaso, a youth leader for Brother 2 Another.

“There needs to be more rehabilitative support services, more funding towards Aboriginal-led programmes, because they actually understand what’s happening for these families. And then we’re going to slowly start to see change. But if it’s just a ‘lock them up’ default action, it’s not going to work.”

Mr Damaso is from the Larrakia Aboriginal people, the ancestral owners of the region of Darwin, and he also has connections to the Yanuwa and Malak Malak people.

His organisation brings young people to a refashioned unit on an industrial estate on the outskirts of Darwin, providing a space to relax, a sensory room and a gym.

Brother 2 Another also works in schools and tries to help young people find work – opportunities that many who’ve been involved with police and prisons struggle to engage with.

“It’s a self-perpetuating cycle,” says John Lawrence, a Scottish criminal barrister who’s been based in Darwin for more than three decades.

He’s represented many young people and argues more money needs to go into schooling than the prison system, to prevent incarceration in the first place.

Aboriginal people “have no voice, and so they suffer great injustice and harm”, says Mr Lawrence.

“The fact that this can happen reveals very graphically and obviously how racist this country is.”

The tough talk on crime isn’t particular to politics in the Northern Territory.

In Queensland’s recent elections, the winning campaign by the Liberal National Party played heavily on its slogan: “Adult crime, adult time.”

In a recent report by the Australian Human Rights Commission, Anne Hollonds, the National Children’s Commissioner, argued that by criminalising vulnerable children – many of them First Nations children – the country is creating “one of Australia’s most urgent human rights challenges”.

“The systems that are meant to help them, including health, education and social services, are not fit-for-purpose and these children are falling through the gaps,” she said.

“We cannot police our way out of this problem, and the evidence shows that locking up children does not make the community safer.”

Which is why there’s a growing push to fund early intervention through education, not incarceration, and trying to reduce marginalisation and disadvantage in the first place.

“What are the cultural strengths of people? What are the community strengths of people? We are building on that,” says Erin Reilly, a regional director for Children’s Ground.

Her organisation works with communities and schools on their ancestral lands, learning about foods and medicines from the bush and about the Aboriginal ‘kinship’ system – how people fit in with their community and family.

“We centre Indigenous world views and Indigenous values and we work in a way that works for Aboriginal people,” explains Ms Reilly.

“We know that the education system and health systems don’t work for our people.”

For Thomas, life on the inside was hard, involving weeks at a time spent in isolation. But on the outside, he says, there’s little understanding of the circumstances he’s lived through.

“I felt like no one cared. Nobody wanted to listen,” he says.

He points out the bite marks on his forearms and adds: “So, I hurt myself all the time – see the scars here?”

Arnaud Poulay never wanted to leave the tiny Indian Ocean island of Agalega, but this year he packed his bag and took off, broken-hearted by what he regards as the militarisation of his home.

Until recently, just 350 people lived on Agalega, fishing and growing coconuts. Other food was delivered four times a year by ship from the capital of Mauritius, 1,100km (680 miles) to the south. A small airstrip was rarely used except in medical emergencies.

But in 2015, Mauritius, an island nation of which Agalega is a part, signed a deal enabling India to build a vast 3,000m (3km) runway and a big new jetty there, as part of the two countries’ deepening collaboration on maritime security.

However some Agalegans fear this could grow into a fully-fledged military presence.

Mr Poulay, a 44-year-old handyman and reggae musician, led a campaign against the project.

“I love my island and my island loves me,” he says. “But when that base was unveiled, I knew I had to leave.”

Agalega – two small islands covering 25 sq km, in the south-west Indian Ocean – would be an ideal location for India to monitor marine traffic. And a comparison of satellite images from 2019 with others taken in July this year shows how much has changed.

A carpet of palm trees has made way for the runway, which stretches along the spine of the north island between the two main villages – La Fourche in the north and Vingt-Cinq further south.

Two 60m-wide buildings can be seen sitting on a tarmac apron, at least one of which could be a hangar to accommodate the Indian navy’s P-8I aircraft, according to Samuel Bashfield, a PhD scholar at the Australian National University.

The P-8I is a Boeing 737 modified to hunt and potentially attack submarines, and to monitor maritime communications. Islanders have already photographed the aircraft on the airstrip.

To the north-west is the new jetty jutting out into the ocean, which Mr Bashfield says could be used by Indian surface patrol vessels, as well as the ship that brings supplies to Agalega.

“As newer satellite images become available, we’ll better understand Agalega’s role in Indian Ocean communications,” he says.

The International Institute for Strategic Studies refers to the facility as a “surveillance station” and says it is likely to contain a coastal radar surveillance system similar to Indian-built equipment elsewhere in Mauritius.

The Indian government declined to answer questions about Agalega, and referred the BBC to earlier statements on its website. In one of these, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India and Mauritius were “natural partners” in maritime security, facing traditional and non-traditional challenges in the Indian Ocean region.

The two countries have had a close defence relationship since the 1970s. The country’s national security adviser, its coastguard chief and the head of the police helicopter squadron are all Indian nationals and officers in India’s external intelligence agency, navy and air force, respectively.

Both sides would want the facility to be seen “as one that is more about capacity building than for any overt military use”, says Prof Harsh Pant, of the India Institute at King’s College London.

It’s no secret, though, that India and its Western allies are concerned about China’s increasing presence in the Indian Ocean.

While it’s not unusual for a large country to establish a military outpost on the territory of a smaller ally, the construction work on Agalega has troubled some islanders.

A number of areas, including some of the island’s palm-fringed white-sand beaches, have already been cordoned off, islanders say. There are also persistent rumours that the village of La Fourche will be swallowed by the Indian infrastructure that has grown up around it, and that the 10 families who live there will be forced out.

“It will become a restricted area completely for Indians,” says Laval Soopramanien, president of the Association of Friends of Agalega.

He fears that “Agalega will become the story of the Chagos islands” – a concern echoed by 26-year-old handyman Billy Henri, who is the son of an Agalegan and a woman expelled from the Chagos islands.

“My mother [lost] her island,” says Mr Henri. “My father will be the next.”

A number of Agalega’s residents are from families scarred by eviction from the Chagos Islands, 2,000km to the east, after the UK government declared them in 1965 to be British territory and granted the US permission to build a communications station on the largest island, Diego Garcia. This gradually became a fully-fledged military base.

Billy Henri fears that the Mauritius government, which owns all land on Agalega and is the only employer, is trying to make conditions so miserable that everyone will leave.

He points to problems with healthcare and education, limited investment in the local economy, a lack of job opportunities, and a ban on local people opening their own businesses.

A Mauritius government spokesman told the BBC that no-one would be asked to leave, and that local people were only prevented from entering the airport and the port – facilities that he said would help the country control piracy, drug-trafficking and unregulated fishing.

Mauritius also denies suggestions that Agalega hosts a military base, saying that the national police are still in full control. However, it acknowledges that India will assist in the “maintenance and operation” of the new facilities, which were built at Indian expense.

The Mauritius and Indian governments say the improvements to sea and air transportation were designed to benefit the islanders and help lift them out of poverty. But local people say this hasn’t happened: there are still only four ferries to the main island of Mauritius every year, and no passenger flights.

Agalegans say they are barred from a new Indian-built hospital, even though a Mauritius government press release vaunted its operating theatres, X-ray machines and dentistry equipment.

Billy Henri says that a boy suffering from cooking oil burns, who needed more help than he could get from the north island’s health centre, was refused entry in October.

“It’s only for Indians!” he says.

The injured boy and his parents were flown to the main island of Mauritius instead. Laval Soopramanien says the boy is still in hospital there, and that the family will remain on the main island until the next boat leaves for Agalega.

The Mauritius government did not respond, when asked to comment on the plight of the boy with burns. The Indian government declined to comment.

In a recent speech to the Mauritius parliament, Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth said the socio-economic development of Agalega was higher than ever on his government’s agenda.

A “master plan” had been drawn up to improve health and education, transport connections and recreational facilities for the island’s residents, and to develop the fishing sector and the exploitation of coconut by-products, he said.

But distrust is fuelled by the fact that neither India nor Mauritius has published the details of the 2015 memorandum of understanding, so their plans for the future are unknown.

Donald Trump has offered a sweeping immigration pitch that he has promised to begin on the first day of his presidency, including mass deportations and a major crackdown on illegal border crossings. Arizona could find itself on the frontline of these moves, and the sharply divided state is contending with what they could mean.

In the Phoenix home of the Villalobos family, members across three generations discussed Donald Trump’s decisive election victory with their friends.

Over Latin jazz and a dinner of empanadas, beans and rice, the group – mostly women – were close to tears.

“I really had hope for humanity, and I feel like we were let down,” said Monica Villalobos, 45. “It changes the way we think about ourselves in the Latino community.”

Her family made America their home after immigrating from Jalisco, Mexico. They worry that friends and relatives’ families could be torn apart with deportations.

Trump has promised the biggest mass deportations of migrants in US history, and has pledged to seal the border and stop the “migrant invasion”. He is also promising to hire 10,000 Border Patrol agents and says he will ask Congress to give all agents a 10 % pay raise.

His message is one that resonates with many voters here who consistently rank immigration and border security as top concerns. Many detail seeing the impacts of illegal migration firsthand, but voters are divided on how to handle it.

Arizona was, for a time, a Republican stronghold. Trump was the first to lose here in more than 20 years when Joe Biden came out victorious in 2020. The 2024 result is still too close to call – a testament to just how split residents are.

Voters on Tuesday, however, overwhelmingly approved a Republican-supported measure that gives sheriffs, police and state law enforcement the authority to enforce federal immigration laws and arrest those who cross the border illegally. It had faced opposition from Democratic and Latino groups, who argue it could result in racial profiling.

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There are an estimated 12 million undocumented migrants in the US, and many have lived and worked here for decades. When discussing Trump’s mass deportation proposals, Ms Villalobos’s niece, 19-year-old university student Alexandra de Leon, said they were “terrifying”.

“It’s your neighbours, it’s the people you see in the grocery store, it’s your teachers, it’s your friend’s parents,” she said. “To know that those people are in danger and their families could be torn apart at any moment… it’s heartbreaking.”

One of the main storylines of election night was the extent to which Trump racked up huge support from Latino voters nationwide. He saw a mammoth 14 percentage-point bump compared to the 2020 election, according to exit polls.

One of these supporters is Jorge Gonzalez, Sr, who moved his family to Arizona from Mexico 20 years ago in the hope of building a more prosperous future. Now the proud owner of a body shop in Phoenix, he believes Trump’s policies will help him as a business owner.

“As a person I don’t like him, but as a politician, I like how he ran the economy. Many Latinos probably think he managed the country better,” he said.

“He allowed a large number of undocumented workers to come here and get work visas. I didn’t see any family separations,” he added. “I saw that he integrated and allowed undocumented immigrants to live and work here in a regulated way.”

Across the yard, Jorge’s son, Jorge Jr, was under a car examining brake pads and checking an engine.

As he swapped out wrenches, he said Trump had the right tools to be a successful president.

“I don’t like his attitude. His mouth gets the better of him a lot of times, but when you are in a position of power or leadership, you need to be able to be a little bit tough,” he said.

When asked about the mass, militarised deportations Trump campaigned on in his home state, Jorge Jr just laughed.

“That’s impossible!” he said, noting the millions of undocumented immigrants in the US. “You will need a lot of resources, planes, food, detention centres, police, more ICE officers, so I don’t think it will be feasible.”

If the Trump administration were to move forward with mass deportations, they would likely face a host of challenges. Experts are wary that federal immigration authorities do not have proper staffing to track down migrants, or the capacity to hold them until a court date.

“You learn to develop a thick skin, especially coming from where we come from,” Jorge Jr said. “We don’t pay attention to a lot of the things that people say, because we know those are just words and there’s a long gap between the things that we say and the things that we actually do.”

Others are excited to see Trump’s proposals come to fruition.

Mark Lamb, the sheriff in Pinal County – a conservative area just south-east of Phoenix – said Trump winning the White House would deter migrants.

“Once you start holding people accountable, securing the border, you’re going to start to see a lot of these folks will go back on their own. And then we can start to go after the criminals, people that are causing problems in communities.”

But how Trump’s policies will actually work on the ground is still anyone’s guess.

“I don’t think anybody has the resources right now,” Sheriff Lamb said. “But the people he picks are going to really have to figure out what that looks like.”

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The Dutch king says Jewish people must feel safe in the Netherlands, after violent attacks against Israeli football fans in the centre of Amsterdam.

Willem-Alexander said “our history has taught us how intimidation goes from bad to worse,” adding that the country could not ignore “antisemitic behaviour”.

Youths on scooters had criss-crossed the Dutch capital in “hit-and-run” attacks on Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters who were visiting Amsterdam for a Europa League match, authorities said.

Police said five people were treated in hospital and others suffered minor injuries. At least 62 people have been arrested.

“My heart goes out to the victims and to their families here and in Israel as well,” Amsterdam’s Mayor Femke Halsema told a press conference on Friday.

Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof flew back early from a summit of EU leaders in Budapest where he said he had been following developments with horror.

“The perpetrators will be tracked down and prosecuted,” he promised.

The violence on Thursday night was condemned by leaders across Europe, the US and Israel. For many, it was especially shocking coming on the eve of commemorations marking Kristallnacht, the 1938 Nazi pogroms against German Jews.

Three-quarters of Jewish people in the Netherlands were murdered during the Holocaust in World War Two.

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The king alluded to that history, saying: “Jews must feel safe in the Netherlands, everywhere and at all times. We put our arms around them and will not let them go.”

US President Joe Biden said the attacks “echo dark moments in history when Jews were persecuted”.

There had already been trouble and some arrests the night before Thursday’s match, involving Maccabi fans as well as pro-Palestinian protesters.

Police chief Peter Holla confirmed there had been incidents “on both sides”. Israeli supporters had removed a Palestinian flag from a wall and set it alight and attacked a taxi, although there had been no further trouble until the following night, he said.

There were also reports of supporters setting off fireworks. One unverified video showed fans going down an escalator chanting anti-Arab slogans.

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned “anti-Arab chants” and an “attack on the Palestinian flag,” calling on the Dutch government to “protect Palestinians and Arabs” living in the Netherlands.

The national co-ordinator for combating antisemitism in the Netherlands said a line had been crossed and the “readiness to commit such violence was disgusting”.

Mayor Halsema said Dutch counter-terror co-ordinator NCTV had not flagged any concrete threat about the game itself as there was no animosity between the fans of the two clubs. There was no trouble at the game in which Ajax inflicted a heavy 5-0 defeat on the visiting team.

But the unrest spiralled out of control soon afterwards.

Halsema spoke of fans being “attacked, abused and pelted with fireworks” as they walked from the Johan Cruyff Arena to the centre of Amsterdam.

Police initially said it was unclear who had taken part in the riots, although the mayor later spoke of young men on scooters. She was careful not to give details about the ethnic backgrounds of those involved in the attack, emphasising that it was part of the police investigation.

Several videos circulated on social media, with one showing a man being kicked and beaten on the ground and another showing someone being run over. In some unverified videos, people could be heard shouting pro-Palestinian slogans.

Two British visitors said they came under attack as they tried to help an Israeli beaten up by people on mopeds. Jacob, 33, told the BBC he saw “10 people stamping and kicking” the man, and that they had seen “lots of little gangs chasing people”.

Asked whether locals had been provoked by a Palestinian flag being torn down in the city, the mayor said what had happened in the centre of her city had nothing to do with protests about the situation in the Middle East.

“I am deeply ashamed of the behaviour that unfolded,” Halsema told reporters. “On Telegram [messaging] groups people talked of going to hunt down Jews. It’s so terrible I can’t find the words for it.”

In a statement, Telegram said it had closed a group chat on the platform which “may have been linked to the disturbance”. The company said it did not tolerate “calls to violence” and would cooperate with the Dutch authorities.

The mayor confirmed reports that taxi drivers had been involved in the attacks, after the head of the Netherlands’ Central Jewish Committee (CJO) said they had “moved in groups and cornered their targets”.

Israeli airline El Al said it was operating free “rescue flights” to Amsterdam to bring passengers back to Israel.

On Friday, those flights started arriving back at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport, where passengers were swarmed by reporters in the arrival hall and asked to share their experiences of the violence.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog spoke of a “pogrom” against Maccabi fans and Israeli citizens.

Herzog said on X that he trusted the Dutch authorities would act immediately to “protect, locate and rescue all Israelis and Jews under attack”.

The violence in Amsterdam has raised questions about security for Israeli fans elsewhere in Europe.

Israel’s national security council had urged fans to avoid a basketball game in the Italian city of Bologna on Friday due to the risk of “copycat actions”, though there were no reports of violence following the EuroLeague fixture.

According to Italian media, Bologna’s police chief assigned a special escort to the Israeli players for their travel to the match, which Virtus Bologna won 84-77.

Donald Trump made the first official hire of his incoming administration, announcing 2024 campaign co-chair Susan Summerall Wiles as his chief of staff.

The president-elect’s transition team is already vetting a series of candidates ahead of his return to the White House on 20 January 2025.

Many who served under Trump in his first term do not plan to return, though a handful of loyalists are rumoured by US media to be making a comeback.

The 78-year-old Republican is also surrounded by new allies who could fill his cabinet, staff his White House and take up other key roles across government.

Here is a closer look at names in the mix for the top jobs.

Susie Wiles and campaign co-chair Chris LaCivita were the masterminds behind Trump’s landslide victory over Kamala Harris.

In his victory speech on Wednesday, he called her “the ice maiden” – a reference to her composure – and claimed she “likes to stay in the background”.

Wiles was confirmed the next day as the first appointee of his second term – as his White House chief of staff. She will be the first woman ever to hold that job.

Chief of staff is often a president’s top aide, overseeing daily operations in the West Wing and managing the boss’s staff.

Wiles, 67, has worked in Republican politics for decades, from Ronald Reagan’s successful 1980 presidential campaign to turning businessman Rick Scott into Florida’s governor in just seven months back in 2010.

Republicans have said she commands respect and has an ability to corral the big egos of those in Trump’s orbit, which could enable her to impose a sense of order that none of his four previous chiefs of staff could.

No personnel decision may be more critical to the trajectory of Trump’s second term than his appointee to lead the Department of Justice.

After uneven relationships with both Jeff Sessions and William Barr, the attorney generals during his first term, Trump is widely expected to pick a loyalist who will wield the agency’s prosecutorial power to punish critics and opponents.

Among the names being floated for the cabinet post are Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who has been both indicted and impeached like Trump; Matthew Whitaker, the man who took over for three months as acting attorney general after Sessions stepped down at Trump’s request; Mike Davis, a right-wing activist who once clerked for Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch and has issued bombastic threats against Trump critics and journalists; and Mark Paoletta, who served in Trump’s budget office and argues there is no legal requirement for a president to stay out of justice department decisions.

The secretary of homeland security will take the lead in enforcing Trump’s promises of deporting undocumented migrants en masse and “sealing” the US-Mexico border, as well as leading the government response to natural disasters.

Tom Homan, Trump’s former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), stands out as the most likely pick.

Homan, 62, supported separating migrant children from their parents as a means to deter illegal crossings and has said politicians who support migrant sanctuary policies should be charged with crimes. Though he resigned in 2018, mid-way through the Trump presidency, he remains a proponent of the Trump approach on immigration.

Chad Wolf, who served as acting homeland secretary from 2019 to 2020 until his appointment was ruled unlawful, and Chad Mizelle, the homeland department’s former acting general counsel, are also potential contenders.

Stephen Miller, widely considered to be the architect of Trump’s immigration agenda, is expected to once again play a senior advisory role with the White House.

The US secretary of state is the president’s main adviser on foreign affairs, and acts as America’s top diplomat when representing the country overseas.

Florida Senator Marco Rubio – who was most recently under consideration to be Trump’s vice-president – is a major name being floated for the key cabinet post.

Rubio, 53, is a China hawk who opposed Trump in the 2016 Republican primary but has since mended fences. He is a senior member of the Senate foreign relations committee and vice-chairman of the chamber’s select intelligence panel.

Other contenders for the job include Trump’s former national security adviser Robert O’Brien; Tennessee Senator Bill Hagerty, who was previously Trump’s ambassador to Japan; and Brian Hook, the hawkish special envoy to Iran in Trump’s first term and the man who is leading the transition effort at the State Department.

A dark horse for the nomination, however, is Richard Grenell, a loyalist who served as ambassador to Germany, special envoy to the Balkans and acting national intelligence chief. Grenell, 58, was heavily involved in Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat and even sat in on his private meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in September.

Grenell’s combative style may make him a better fit for national security adviser – a position that does not require Senate confirmation – than secretary of state.

Also in line for major posts in a second Trump term are former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe; Keith Kellogg, a national security adviser to Trump’s first Vice-President Mike Pence; former defence department official Eldridge Colby; and Kash Patel, a loyalist who staffed the national security council and became chief of staff to the acting secretary of defence in Trump’s final months in office.

Patel, 44, who helped block the transition to the incoming Joe Biden administration in the latter role, is tipped to become the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) chief.

Trump has also said he would fire Federal Bureau of Intelligence (FBI) Director Chris Wray, who he nominated in 2017 but has since fallen out with. Jeffrey Jensen, a former Trump-appointed US attorney, is under consideration to replace Wray.

Ex-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is among the few former cabinet members who could return for Trump’s second term – this time as secretary of defence, where he would oversee the US military.

Pompeo, 60, is a former Kansas congressman and was Trump’s first CIA director before leading the administration’s diplomatic blitz in the Middle East.

A loyal defender of his boss, he often tangled with the press and – amid Trump’s false claims of election fraud in late 2020 – joked about “a smooth transition to a second Trump administration”.

Another name being discussed is Michael Waltz, a Florida lawmaker who sits on the armed services committee in the US House of Representatives, and Robert O’Brien.

During Trump’s first term, New York Congresswoman Elise Stefanik transformed from a moderate to a vocal backer. The fourth-ranking House Republican leader has remained one of Trump’s most fiercely loyal defenders on Capitol Hill – which makes her a leading contender to represent him in unfriendly territory at the United Nations.

But she may find herself competing for the position with the likes of former State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus; David Friedman, Trump’s ambassador to Israel; and Kelly Craft, who served as UN ambassador at the end of Trump’s term.

Trump is reportedly considering Robert Lighthizer, a free trade sceptic who led the tariff war with China as the US trade representative, as his chief financial officer.

But at least four others may be under consideration for the role, including Scott Bessent, a billionaire hedge fund manager who has become a major fundraiser and economic adviser to the president-elect; John Paulson, another megadonor from the hedge fund world; former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chair Jay Clayton; and Fox Business Network financial commentator Larry Kudlow, who ran Trump’s national economic council during his first term.

The woman co-chairing Trump’s transition team, Linda McMahon, is tipped as a key contender to represent US businesses and job creation in his cabinet – after previously serving as small business administrator during his first term.

Others who could fill this vacancy include Brooke Rollins; Robert Lighthizer; and Kelly Loeffler, a wealthy businesswoman who briefly served in the US Senate.

South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem – who was passed over to be Trump’s running mate over a bizarre admission that she killed her pet dog – could see her loyalty to him pay off with the leadership of the interior department, which manages public land and natural resources.

She may compete with North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum for the role.

Doug Burgum is also a contender to lead the energy department, where he would implement Trump’s pledges to “drill, baby, drill” and overhaul US energy policy.

A software entrepreneur who sold his small company to Microsoft in 2001, Burgum briefly ran in the 2024 Republican primary before dropping out, endorsing Trump and quickly impressing him with his low-drama persona and sizeable wealth.

Former energy secretary Dan Brouillette is also reportedly in the running.

Karoline Leavitt, 27, who impressed Trump as his campaign’s national press secretary, has already served as an assistant White House press secretary and may be a shoo-in to be the administration’s spokesperson.

RFK Jr, as he is known, is an environmental lawyer by trade, a vaccine sceptic by fame and the nephew of former President John F Kennedy.

His troubling past makes it unlikely he could secure the security clearance needed for a cabinet post, but after leading a Trump campaign initiative called “Make America Healthy Again”, he is expected to become a kind of “public health tsar”.

Despite having no medical qualifications to his name, Kennedy, 70, could potentially influence the health and human services department, the agriculture department, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Food and Drug Safety Administration (FDA).

The world’s richest man poured millions of dollars into re-electing Trump and critics fear he will now have the power to weaken or entirely shape the regulations that impact his companies Tesla, SpaceX and X.

Both he and Trump have focused on the idea of him leading a new “Department of Government Efficiency”, where he would cut costs and streamline what he calls a “massive, suffocating federal bureaucracy”.

The would-be agency’s acronym – DOGE – is a playful reference to a “meme-coin” cryptocurrency Musk has previously promoted.

But Musk, 53, could also play a role in global diplomacy. He participated in Trump’s first call with Ukraine’s Zelensky on Wednesday.