Just two days after a bloodied Donald Trump mouthed “fight!’ to his supporters after a brazen assassination attempt, Republicans at the opening day of the party’s convention in Milwaukee chanted the same word as they prepared to welcome him back to the stage.

The former president will deliver a much-anticipated speech in the Wisconsin city on Thursday, but there has been hope he will make an earlier public appearance at the convention, which formally nominated him as presidential candidate on Monday.

Trump said he “threw away” the prepared text of his speech entirely after the shooting at his rally on Saturday, a sign of how the attempt on his life has changed the dynamics of this gathering, one of the biggest moments of any presidential campaign.

Republicans at the convention told the BBC the shooting, which left one dead and two others seriously injured, had supercharged already united behind Trump within the party.

As music blasted on the convention floor on Monday evening, the mood was defiant but excited – with many saying they felt he would win November’s election.

But the recent attack – a shocking act of political violence – was still fresh in minds and had left some shaken.

“Saturday scared me,” Joe Mullins, a delegate from Florida, said. “We’d be in a whole different world if not for half an inch.

“I had tears in my eyes. I haven’t cried like that since I lost my mother.”

For others, the thought of Trump returning to the stage for what will likely be an enormous, raucous standing ovation was not just exciting, but reassuring given how close the 78-year-old came to being more seriously hurt.

“It will be great to see him up and walking around after Saturday,” Matt Limoges, the chair of the Philadelphia Young Republicans, said. “This is a historic moment. Everybody is very, very happy. I think everybody here is behind him and everybody is looking forward to sending him back to the White House.”

Terasa Filsoof, who is attending the convention with the Republican Jewish Coalition, was watching the Pennsylvania rally on TV when 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crookes fired at the former president and rallygoers.

“When [Trump] grabbed his ear and fell, I just immediately thought the worst,” she told the BBC. “But when he stood up with the fist, we knew all was going to be well.”

A delegate from Wisconsin, Cindy Werner, was also watching in panic as the dramatic scenes unfolded. “I turned on the TV and instantly started praying,” she said. “I’m really thankful that God… it was God that gave him the grace. I’m so relieved.”

Ms Filsoof said the images that quickly spread on social media after the shooting, which showed a bloody Trump raising his fist in front of a billowing American flag, showed “exactly what he thinks of this country – stand tall, stand proud, and fight for what you believe in”.

“There’s no room for that on either side,” she said of the attack. “There’s absolutely no room for violence. There’s no room – the rhetoric, it’s just been too far on both sides. I think it’s just too much.”

While some attendees expressed anger at the shooting, and others called for displays of solidarity and well-wishes for Trump, the overarching mood in Milwaukee is still one of celebration.

“It’s electric. Everyone’s cheering and supporting their fellow states. “It’s been wonderful,” said Ms Filsoof, who had made her own disco-ball cowboy hat, and adorned it with red ribbons and an American flag.

Ms Werner, meanwhile, said the moment her state pledged its delegates to the former president was a moving moment. “I felt proud,” she said. “I felt that we will have a fighter that will get back into the fight.”

“I’m a ‘never Trump’ guy. I never liked him.”

“My god what an idiot.”

“I find him reprehensible.”

That was from JD Vance in interviews and on Twitter in 2016, when the publication of his memoir Hillbilly Elegy catapulted him to fame.

In the same year, he wrote privately to an associate on Facebook: “I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical asshole … or that he’s America’s Hitler”.

A few short years later, Mr Vance transformed himself into one of Trump’s steadfast allies.

The first-term senator from Ohio is now by Trump’s side as vice-presidential running mate – and, by extension, an early frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination in 2028 – with a reliably conservative voting record and Midwestern roots that Republicans hope will boost support at the ballot box.

In fact, Mr Vance has made something of a habit of transformation. How did he emerge from a tough upbringing to reach the highest levels of American politics?

Mr Vance was born James David Bowman in Middletown, Ohio, to a mother who struggled with addiction and a father who left the family when JD was a toddler.

He was raised by his grandparents, “Mamaw” and “Papaw”, whom he sympathetically portrayed in his 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy.

Although Middletown is located in rust-belt Ohio, Mr Vance identified closely with his family’s roots slightly to the south in Appalachia, the vast mountainous inland region that stretches from the Deep South to the fringes of the industrial Midwest. It includes some of the country’s poorest areas.

Mr Vance painted an honest portrait of the trials, travails and bad decisions of his family members and friends. And his book also took a decidedly conservative view – describing them as chronic spendthrifts, dependent on welfare payments and mostly failing to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.

He wrote that he saw Appalachians “reacting to bad circumstances in the worst way possible” and that they were products of “a culture that encourages social decay instead of counteracting it”.

“The truth is hard,” he wrote, “and the hardest truths for hill people are the ones they must tell about themselves.”

While he poured scorn on “elites” and exclusive society, he painted himself as a counterpoint to the chronic failure of those he grew up with.

By the time the book came out, Mr Vance’s own bootstrap tugging had slung him far away from Middletown: first to the US Marines and a tour of duty in Iraq, and later to Ohio State University, Yale Law School and a job as a venture capitalist in California.

Hillbilly Elegy made him not only into a bestselling author, but a sought-after commentator who was frequently called upon to explain Donald Trump’s appeal to white, working-class voters.

He rarely missed an opportunity to criticise the then-Republican nominee.

“I think this election is really having a negative effect especially on the white working class,” he told an interviewer in October 2016.

“What it’s doing is giving people an excuse to point the finger at someone else, point the finger at Mexican immigrants, or Chinese trade or the Democratic elites or whatever else.”

In 2017 Mr Vance returned to Ohio and continued to work in venture capital. He and his wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance, whom he met at Yale, have three children – Ewan, Vivek and Mirabel.

As the child of Indian immigrants who grew up in San Diego, Usha Vance has a very different background from her husband. She also attended Yale as an undergraduate and received a masters degree from University of Cambridge. She served as a clerk to Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts after law school and is currently a litigator.

Mr Vance’s name was long whispered about as a political candidate, and he saw an opportunity when Ohio’s Republican senator Rob Portman decided not to run for re-election in 2022.

Although his campaign was initially slow to get going, he got a kick-start via a $10m (£7.7m) donation by his former boss, Silicon Valley power broker Peter Thiel. But the real hurdle stopping him from getting elected in increasingly Republican Ohio was his past criticism of Trump.

He apologised for his previous remarks and managed to mend fences and earn Trump’s endorsement, pushing him to the top of the Republican field and eventually into the Senate.

In the process, Mr Vance has become an increasingly important player in the world of Make America Great Again politics – and has signed up almost completely to Trump’s agenda.

In the Senate he has been a reliable conservative vote, backing populist economic policies and emerging as one of the biggest congressional sceptics of aid to Ukraine.

Given his short tenure in the Democrat-led chamber, the bills he has sponsored have rarely moved forward, and have more often been about sending messages than changing policy.

In recent months, Mr Vance introduced bills to withhold federal funds for colleges where there are encampments or protests against Israel’s war in Gaza, and to colleges that employ undocumented immigrants.

Mr Vance also sponsored legislation in March that would cut the Chinese government off from US capital markets if it does not follow international trade law.

He hit all of these themes at a recent speech at the Maga-friendly National Conservatism Conference where he declared: “The real threat to American democracy is that American voters keep on voting for less immigration and our politicians keep on rewarding us with more.”

He said the idea of the American Dream – “This very basic idea that you should be able to build a good life for yourself and your family in the country you call home” was “under siege by the left”.

And he said that American involvement in Ukraine had “no obvious conclusion or even objective that we’re close to getting accomplished”.

Also at the conference, he said the UK was “not doing so good” because of immigration and claimed that under a Labour government, the country had become the “first truly Islamist country” with a nuclear bomb.

Mr Vance, who was baptised as a Catholic in 2019, is anti-abortion. He recently backed Trump’s view that the matter was for states to decide.

When his Hitler comment was first reported, in 2022, a spokesperson did not dispute it, but said it no longer represented his views.

Mr Vance received waves of loud applause when he entered the convention arena in Milwaukee on Monday. He walked over to the Ohio contingent and, looking somewhat in awe of the scene, took selfies with delegates as he was being introduced.

“He’s from humble beginnings and he’s young,” said delegate Amanda Suffecool, the party’s chair in Portage County, in north-east Ohio. “A lot of people are going to think he looks like him.”

Mr Vance was also one of the first top Republicans to point the finger at Democrat campaign talk in the wake of the attempted assassination of Trump.

“The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,” he posted on X hours after the shooting. “That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”

In comment on Monday, President Biden called him a “clone of Trump” – perhaps indicating how Democrats will attempt to paint a candidate as being on the very right wing of the Republican party.

The small Pittsburgh suburb of Bethel Park in Pennsylvania is reeling after the FBI named a young local man, Thomas Matthew Crooks, as the person who shot at Donald Trump during a campaign rally and shocked the nation.

Investigators believe that Crooks, armed with a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle, opened fire at the former president while he was addressing a crowd in Butler, Pennsylvania, leaving one audience member dead and two others wounded.

The 20-year-old kitchen worker was shot dead at the scene by a Secret Service sniper, officials said.

In his well-to-do hometown, however, neighbours are in shock, seemingly unable to grasp how a quiet young man is now accused in the shooting.

The FBI, for its part, has said only that Crooks was the “subject involved in the assassination attempt on the former president and that an active investigation was under way.”

• LIVE: All the latest developments after assassination attempt on Trump
• WATCH: How gunman shot at Trump despite public alerting police
• MORE: Secret Service facing questions as investigation launched
• ANALYSIS: Tragedy at Trump rally upends election campaign – for now
• VICTIMS: Who was shot at the Trump rally?

Thomas Crooks had not been carrying ID, so investigators used DNA and facial recognition technology to identify him, the FBI said.

He was from Bethel Park in Pennsylvania, about 70km (43 miles) from the site of the attempted assassination, and graduated in 2022 from Bethel Park High School with a $500 (£385) prize for maths and science, according to a local newspaper.

Crooks worked in a local nursing home kitchen just a short drive away from his home, where staff members have said that he passed a background check and raised no concerns.

The Community College of Allegheny, or CCAC, has confirmed that Crooks attended the school between September 2021 and May 2024. He graduated with an associate degree in engineering science.

In a statement sent to the BBC, the college noted that he graduated “with high honours” and that a review of his records turned up no disciplinary, student conduct or security-related incidents.

State voter records show that he was a registered Republican, according to US media.

He also donated $15 to liberal campaign group ActBlue in 2021, according to an election donation filing and news reports.

He had a membership at a local shooting club, the Clairton Sportsmen’s Club, for at least a year, the club confirmed to the BBC.

The vast club is based south of Pittsburgh and is “one of the premier shooting facilities in the tri-state area” of Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. It has more than 2,000 members.

It has multiple gun ranges, including a high-power rifle facility with targets up to 171 metres away.

The club’s owner, Bill Sellitto, told the BBC that the shooting was a “terrible, terrible thing”. Access to the club is tightly controlled, with only members allowed inside the sprawling facility.

“Obviously, the club fully admonishes the senseless act of violence,” attorney Robert S Bootay III, who represents the organisation, told the BBC.

Law enforcement officials believe the weapon used to shoot at Donald Trump, an AR-style rifle, was purchased by Crooks’ father, according to investigators.

It is unclear how the weapon came into his son’s hands, although there is no suggestion the father had any inkling of what was to take place.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, two officers told AP that Crooks’ father bought the weapon at least six months ago.

Authorities also say that Crooks purchased a box of ammunition containing 50 rounds on the day of the rally, reports CBS, the BBC’s US news partner.

According to US media reports, Crooks was wearing a T-shirt from Demolition Ranch, a YouTube channel known for its guns and demolition content. The channel has millions of subscribers featuring videos on different guns and explosive devices.

The day after the shooting, law enforcement sources also told CBS that suspicious devices were found in Crooks’ vehicle.

According to CBS, the suspect had a piece of commercially available equipment that appeared capable of initiating the devices.

Bomb technicians were called to the scene to secure and investigate the devices.

Having established Crooks’ identity, police and agencies are investigating his motive.

So far, they have been unable to identify one.

On 15 July, the FBI said its forensic experts have successfully accessed Crooks’ phone, and they are examining it and other digital evidence for clues.

The inquiry into what took place could last for months and investigators would work “tirelessly” to identify what Crooks’ motive was, Kevin Rojek, the FBI Pittsburgh special agent in charge, said on the day of the shooting.

Speaking to CNN, Crooks’ father, Matthew Crooks, said he was trying to figure out “what the hell is going on” but would “wait until I talk to law enforcement” before speaking about his son.

Crooks’ family is cooperating with investigators, according to the FBI.

Citing three law enforcement sources, CBS has reported that his father called police after the shooting, although the nature of that call is still unclear.

In total, more than 100 interviews have so far been conducted.

Police sealed off the road to the house where Crooks lived with his parents. The search of the residence was completed on 15 July.

A neighbour told CBS that officers evacuated her in the middle of the night with no warning.

Bethel Park Police said there was a bomb investigation surrounding Crooks’ home.

Access to the area remains controlled, with a police vehicle blocking entry to the street in front of the house.

On Tuesday afternoon, yellow police tape could be seen strung up in front of the residence. The BBC had a clear view of the back of the residence, but could not see any movement inside.

Only residents have been allowed in or out of the street.

Law enforcement sources told CBS that they believe there was some degree of planning ahead of the shooting.

How much time was spent in that planning, however, remains the subject of an ongoing investigation.

Police believe Crooks acted alone, but are continuing to investigate whether he was accompanied to the rally.

So far, a confusing – and at times conflicting – picture has emerged of who Crooks was as a person.

Speaking to local news outlet KDKA, some young locals who went to school with him described him as a loner, who was frequently bullied and sometimes wore “hunting outfits to school”.

Another former classmate of his, Summer Barkley, cast him differently, telling the BBC that he was “always getting good grades on tests” and was “very passionate about history”.

“Anything on government and history he seemed to know about,” she said. “But it was nothing out of the ordinary… he was always nice.”

She described him as well-liked by his teachers.

Others simply remembered him as quiet.

“He was there but I can’t think of anyone who knew him well,” one former classmate, who asked to remain nameless, told the BBC. “He’s just not a guy I really think about. But he seemed fine.”

Another classmate, who similarly did not want to be identified, described him as “intelligent but a little weird.”

Staff at Angelo’s Pizza, a restaurant in Bethel Park, told the BBC they were familiar with Crooks.

The restaurant’s owner, Sara Petko, said that staff members – some of whom were his classmates – thought he was a “loner” but that they were having trouble understanding how an otherwise quiet man turned to violence.

“It’s just crazy, and too close for comfort,” she said. “To think that someone at basically the start of his life could do this.”

Jameson Myers, a former member of the Bethel Park High School varsity rifle team who graduated alongside Crooks in 2022, told CBS that Crooks did not make the team.

“He did not even make the junior varsity team after trying out,” Mr Myers added. “He never returned to try-outs for the remainder of high school.”

Another former classmate told ABC News he “shot terrible” and “wasn’t really fit for the rifle team”. The school district said there was no record of Crooks trying out for the team and he “never appeared on a roster”.

Mr Myers remembers Crooks as seemingly a “normal boy” who was “not particularly popular but never got picked on or anything”.

“He was a nice kid who never talked poorly of anyone and I never have thought him capable of anything I’ve seen him do in the last few days.”

Max Smith, who took an American history course with Crooks, told the Philadelphia Inquirer that his former classmate “definitely was conservative”.

Mr Smith recalled a mock debate in which they both took part, saying: “The majority of the class were on the liberal side, but Tom, no matter what, always stood his ground on the conservative side.”

“It makes me wonder why he would carry out an assassination attempt on the conservative candidate,” he said.

Other community members said simply that they were shocked that the alleged perpetrator of the shooting could have come from the quiet, tree-lined streets of Bethel Park.

Among them was Jason Mackey, a 27-year-old local man who lives near the Crooks residence and worked at his school while he was a student.

While Mr Mackey said that he did not know Crooks personally, he is still reeling from a sense of disbelief.

“It’s just shocking. You wouldn’t think an event of this magnitude would come right out of your backyard,” he said. “It’s just a crazy situation.”

One person was killed and two others were injured in the shooting.

All three victims are adult men and were audience members, CBS News reports.

At a news conference on Sunday, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro identified the deceased victim as Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old volunteer fire chief who was killed when he “dived on his family” to protect them.

He said that Comperatore “died a hero”.

The two people injured in the attack have been identified as 57-year-old David Dutch and 74-year-old James Copenhaver.

Both men are Pennsylvania residents and are in stable condition.

A GoFundMe page, organised by the Trump campaign’s national finance director Meredith O’Rourke, was set up in the hours after the attack with donations going to the families of the injured.

It has so far raised more than $340,000 (£267,000).

In a post to his Truth Social platform, Trump said he was “shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear” and said he felt the bullet “ripping through the skin”.

Blood was visible on Trump’s ear and face as protection officers rushed him away.

Trump is “doing well” and is grateful to law enforcement officers, according to a statement published on the Republican National Committee (RNC) website.

He travelled to Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Sunday, a day after the shooting, to attend the Republican National Convention.

One witness told the BBC that he had seen a man – believed to be Crooks – with a rifle on the roof of a building before Trump was shot.

Video footage obtained by TMZ shows the moment the shooting began.

The assailant opened fire with “an AR-style rifle”, CBS News reports.

Law enforcement sources also told CBS that he was reported by a bystander and identified as a suspicious person by police, but that officers lost track of him before the shooting began.

A Secret Service sniper returned fire and killed the gunman, officials said.

Footage later shows armed officers approaching a body on the roof of the building.

An attempt to assassinate former US president Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania has left one bystander dead and two seriously injured.

Trump suffered an upper ear injury but was otherwise unharmed, later telling reporters that if he had moved his head slightly, he would have been hit in the head.

Three other men who were attending the rally on 13 July were not so lucky.

Here is what we know about them.

The 50-year-old volunteer fire chief died while trying to protect his family during the attempted assassination – diving onto them to shield them from the bullets.

“Corey died a hero,” Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro said at a news conference following the shooting, adding that Comperatore went to church every Sunday and “loved his community”.

“Most especially, Corey loved his family,” said Mr Shapiro.

Mr Comperatore’s daughter Allyson later wrote on social media about how her father had thrown her and her mother to the ground and “shielded my body from the bullet that came at us”.

“He truly loved us enough to take a real bullet for us. And I want nothing more than to cry on him and tell him thank you.”

Allyson described her father as the “best dad a girl could ever ask for” and said he “could talk and make friends with anyone”.

“This feels like a terrible nightmare but we know it is our painful reality,” Mr Comperatore’s sister Dawn wrote on Facebook.

• LIVE: Latest reaction, and lookahead to the Republican convention
• ANALYSIS: Tragedy at rally upends election campaign – for now
• THE SUSPECT: What we know about Thomas Matthew Crooks
• TRUMP INTERVIEW: ‘I was saved by luck or God,’ he says
• BIDEN ADDRESS: President urges America to ‘lower temperature’
• COREY COMPERATORE: Father killed at the rally dived to protect family

He was said to be an avid Trump supporter and to have been excited to attend the Pennsylvania rally where he was later killed.

According to Pennsylvania police, Mr Comperatore lived in Sarver, about 12 miles (19km) away from the rally site in Butler, outside the city of Pittsburgh.

“He was a man that just wanted to protect and serve and love. He was truly a man of love,” fellow firefighter Craig Cirrincione told the Associated Press.

In addition to his volunteer firefighting work, he was employed as a project and tooling engineer at a plastics manufacturing company, according to his social media profiles.

“He was a good person,” neighbour Matt Achilles told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “We might not have agreed on the same political views, but that didn’t stop him from being a good friend and neighbour.”

“He donated money to us when I was in the hospital and he would always come by at our yard sales. He always waved hello when I drove past his house,” Mr Achilles said.

Mr Dutch is from the Pennsylvania city of New Kensington and is a long-time employee of the technology company Siemens, according to his sister.

Jennifer Veri-Grazier told the New York Times that the 57-year-old suffered damage to his liver and broken ribs in the shooting and has had to have more than one operation.

She described him as a long-time Trump supporter.

“He was exercising his rights and went to the rally, and he didn’t deserve any of this,” Ms Veri-Grazier said.

The Pennsylvania branch of the Marine Corps League, a veterans’ association, has identified Mr Dutch as one of its members on social media.

Mr Copenhaver, 74, is from Moon Township, Pennsylvania, and was a registered Democrat, the New York Times reports.

Albert Quaye, a supervisor in Moon Township, told the newspaper that Mr Copenhaver was retired and had become very interested in local politics.

Mr Copenhaver is listed as a member of Moon Township’s Military Banner Committee, which organises tributes for the area’s veterans.

A Florida judge has dismissed the US justice department’s classified documents case against Donald Trump in a huge victory for the former president just days after a gunman attempted to assassinate him.

Judge Aileen Cannon granted Mr Trump’s motion to dismiss the federal case on the basis that the justice department’s appointment of special prosecutor Jack Smith violates the Appointments Clause of the US Constitution.

He pleaded not guilty to several charges in the case over his handling of classified documents, including wilful retention of national defence information.

A spokesman for Mr Smith said that the justice department has authorised an appeal.

Dozens of classified files were found in Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, including in a shower and storage room, after he left the White House in 2021.

“The Court is convinced that Special Counsel’s Smith’s prosecution of this action breaches two structural cornerstones of our constitutional scheme—the role of Congress in the appointment of constitutional officers, and the role of Congress in authorizing expenditures by law,” Judge Cannon concluded in her 93-page order.

The former president faced multiple felony counts over his alleged mishandling of classified documents.

The 37-count indictment accused Mr Trump of keeping files at his Florida estate and lying to investigators. It alleged he then tried to obstruct the investigation into the handling of the documents.

He was charged alongside aide Walt Nauta and former employee Carlos de Oliveira, who had also pleaded not guilty.

Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Mr Smith in 2022 to oversee two federal investigations into the former president.

Judge Cannon said in her ruling that this decision applies to this case and not a second one overseen by Mr Smith over alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

The former president’s lawyers did not make a similar request to dismiss that case.

The Trump-appointed Florida judge had recently indefinitely postponed the federal classified documents trial, saying there were significant questions over trial evidence.

Legal experts have debated the strengths and weakness of the two federal criminal cases brought by Mr Smith.

On Monday, Judge Cannon stepped in and said those details did not matter.

She held that the mere existence of special counsels – how they are appointed and how they are funded – violates the US Constitution.

Judge Cannon’s ruling cuts against the ruling of judges in other US courts that have dealt with these specially appointed prosecutors.

It draws from theories advanced by some conservative legal scholars and, most notably, by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in the top court’s recently decided presidential immunity case.

In that case, the Supreme Court said former presidents, including Mr Trump, are immune from criminal prosecution for “official acts”.

Judge Cannon cited three times in her decision a concurring opinion by Justice Thomas in the Supreme Court ruling in which he questioned whether there was a legal basis for naming special counsel.

Former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani told the BBC on Monday that Judge Cannon’s ruling was “stunning, to say the least”.

While Judge Cannon said her ruling was limited to this case, Mr Rahmani said it casts doubt on the appointment of special counsels in other cases.

That includes the case of Hunter Biden – President Joe Biden’s son – who was investigated by a special counsel and convicted on gun charges last month.

But a key difference is that the special counsel in that case, David Weiss, is a US attorney for Delaware who, unlike Mr Smith, was nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate.

As well has having the right to an appeal, Mr Smith can also ask for a new judge to be assigned to the case.

Mr Smith’s spokesman said: “The dismissal of the case deviates from the uniform conclusion of all previous courts to have considered the issue that the Attorney General is statutorily authorized to appoint a Special Counsel.

“The Justice Department has authorized the Special Counsel to appeal the court’s order.”

Legal experts say Judge Cannon’s ruling is likely to be overturned but that the further delay to the case could prove beneficial to Mr Trump’s campaign.

“Her ruling has no chance of being sustained on appeal as it conflicts with decisions of the Supreme Court and other lower courts, but it will have the effect of preventing any more embarrassing revelations before the election,” said David Super, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center.

Judge Cannon’s decision also comes as Republicans gather in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for the Republican National Convention, where Mr Trump will accept the party’s nomination for president.

The US election is on 5 November.

On Monday, Mr Trump said on his social media site that the dismissal of the case “should be just the first step, followed quickly by the dismissal of ALL the Witch Hunts”.

“Let us come together to END all Weaponization of our Justice System, and Make America Great Again!”

While many Republican lawmakers cheered the decision, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, described the dismissal as a “breathtakingly misguided ruling”.

In May, Mr Trump was found guilty of falsifying business records in a New York hush-money case. He is due to be sentenced in September.

He has also been charged with four criminal counts, including conspiracy to defraud the US and conspiracy against the rights of citizens, in the 2020 election case.

Mr Trump and some 18 other defendants are also accused of criminally conspiring to overturn his very narrow defeat in the state of Georgia in the 2020 election in a separate case.

He has denied any wrongdoing.

Several major questions have emerged for the US Secret Service to answer in the aftermath of the shooting of Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania.

The FBI has taken on the role of lead investigator into the incident, during which one person was killed and two others critically injured – while Trump was wounded in the ear.

As the US demands answers, the Secret Service says it is working to discover “what happened, how it happened, and how we can prevent an incident like this from ever taking place again”.

Its chief, Kimberly Cheatle, has been summoned to testify before a committee of the US House of Representatives on 22 July.

Here are some of the questions that experts have started asking.

It remains unclear how suspected gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks got access to the roof of a building near the rally that was little more than 130m (430 ft) from Trump.

The rooftop was a known vulnerability before the event, according to NBC News, which cited two sources familiar with Secret Service operations.

“Someone should have been on the roof or securing the building so no one could get on the roof,” NBC quoted one of the sources as saying.

As well as the access question, it has been suggested that the line of sight from the rooftop to Trump’s podium area should have been blocked off.

Crooks should not have been able to get a direct sight of Trump, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told ABC News on Monday.

Mr Mayorkas said officials would “really study the event independently, and make recommendations to the Secret Service and to me”.

An eyewitness to the shooting told the BBC that he and others had “clearly” spotted Crooks crawling around on the roof with a rifle. They alerted police but the suspect continuing moving around for several minutes before firing shots and then being shot dead himself, the eyewitness said.

FBI special agent Kevin Rojek admitted it had been “surprising” that the attacker had been able to open fire.

The county sheriff has confirmed that Crooks was spotted by a local police officer, who was unable to stop him in time. Something that remains unclear is whether this information reached the agents around Trump.

Crooks was already on officials’ radar, according to a senior law enforcement official. They anonymously told CNN that officers thought he was acting suspiciously near the event magnetometers. This information was allegedly relayed to the Secret Service.

• LIVE: Latest reaction, and lookahead to the Republican convention
• ANALYSIS: Tragedy at rally upends election campaign – for now
• THE SUSPECT: What we know about Thomas Matthew Crooks
• TRUMP INTERVIEW: ‘I was saved by luck or God,’ he says
• BIDEN ADDRESS: President urges America to ‘lower temperature’
• COREY COMPERATORE: What we know about father killed at rally

The gunman fired his shots from what police have described as a “secondary ring”, which was patrolled not by the Secret Service but by local and state officers.

A former Secret Service agent said this sort of arrangement only worked when there was a clear plan on what to do when a danger was spotted.

“When you rely on the local law enforcement partners, you better have carefully planned and told them what you expect them to do about a threat,” Jonathan Wackrow told the Washington Post.

The county sheriff has admitted there had been “a failure” but said there was no single party to blame.

A former chair of the House Oversight Committee has suggested that the Secret Service was “spread too thin”, which compounded the issue that local police would not have been “trained up” to secure an event like Saturday’s rally.

Jason Chaffetz, who has previously reported on Secret Service failures, told the Washington Post there was no bigger “threat profile” than for Trump or President Biden, but that this was not reflected in the security presence in Pennsylvania.

The Secret Service has denied suggestions that a request from the Trump team to beef up the staffing had been rebuffed in advance of the rally.

But the Post reported that it had seen an exchange of messages in which a former Secret Service officer asked colleagues how the suspect had got a gun so close to Trump. He was reported to have received the reply: “Resources.”

In a statement on Monday, Ms Cheatle said changes had been made to Trump’s Secret Service detail ahead of the start of the Republican National Convention, which kicks off in Milwaukee on Monday. She said she was “confident” in the overall plan.

The agents who shielded Trump have received praise, including from former agent Robert McDonald, who said they did a “fairly good job” despite there being no exact “playbook” on what to do in such a situation.

But the question has also been asked whether they were fast enough to whisk the former president away into a vehicle.

Footage of the incident shows them rapidly forming a shield around him in the immediate wake of the gunshots, but then appearing to pause as Trump asks to gather his shoes. The former president goes on to pump his fist for supporters.

A Secret Service veteran told the New York Times he would not have waited. “If that’s me there, no. We are going, and we are going now,” said Jeffrey James.

“If it’s me, I’m buying him a new pair of shoes.”

North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher makes sense of the race for the White House in his weekly US Election Unspun newsletter. Readers in the UK can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here.

Former US President Donald Trump has said he is “supposed to be dead” after Saturday night’s assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania.

In one of his first interviews since the incident, Mr Trump told conservative US media he felt that he had been saved “by luck or by God”.

“The most incredible thing was that I happened to not only turn [my head] but to turn at the exact right time and in just the right amount,” he said, adding that the bullet that grazed his ear could have easily killed him.

“I’m supposed to be dead, I’m not supposed to be here,” he said.

A spectator was killed in the attack, while two other people were seriously injured. The gunman, who also died, has been named as Thomas Matthew Crooks.

Mr Trump described the moment he looked up at the crowd after realising he had been shot.

“The energy coming from the people there in that moment, they just stood there. It’s hard to describe what that felt like, but I knew the world was looking.

“I knew that history would judge this, and I knew I had to let them know we are OK,” he told the Washington Examiner.

Speaking as he prepared to board a flight to the upcoming Republican National Convention (RNC) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he is expected to be confirmed as the party’s candidate for president, Mr Trump said he now had a “chance to bring the country together”.

He said his speech would now be completely different instead of the “humdinger” aimed mostly at current President Joe Biden’s policies he had previously planned.

“Had [Saturday’s attack] not happened, this would’ve been one of the most incredible speeches.

“Honestly, it’s going to be a whole different speech now. It is a chance to bring the country together.”

Earlier, Mr Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social that he had intended to delay his trip to Wisconsin by two days.

But he added that he was sticking to his original schedule as: “I cannot allow a ‘shooter,’ or potential assassin, to force change to scheduling”.

Mr Trump said that the assassination attempt “has had an impact” on him.

Little is known about the motivation of Crooks, the 20-year-old would-be assassin who was shot dead by the Secret Service at the scene.

The FBI has said that while its investigation suggests Crooks acted alone, it would continue to look into whether the kitchen worker had received help.

The spectator who was killed in Saturday’s attack has been named as Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old volunteer fire chief who died trying to protect his family.

In a televised address following the attack, President Biden called for the “temperature of politics” to be lowered.

“We cannot, must not, go down this road again. We’ve travelled it before in our history,” said Mr Biden, listing off a growing number of violent political acts that had taken place in the US in recent years.

“In America we resolve our differences at the ballot box,” he added. “At the ballot box. Not with bullets.”

Shares in Donald Trump’s social media company have surged after he survived an assassination attempt on Saturday.

Shares in Trump Media, which runs the Truth Social platform, closed up about 31%. The price had risen as much as 70% in pre-market trading over the weekend before falling back again.

Analysts said the gains reflected bets that the shooting had improved Mr Trump’s chances of winning the US presidential election in November.

A bullet caught the former president’s ear during one of his election rallies, shortly before the gunman was shot dead by a Secret Service sniper.

“I’m supposed to be dead, I’m not supposed to be here,” Mr Trump said in one of his first interviews since the attack.

Billionaire Elon Musk is among those who have formally endorsed Mr Trump since the shooting.

“As the election intensifies, investors are betting that more individuals will tune in to the social media platform to express their views as well as be among the first to view the postings from President Trump and his team,” said Susan Schmidt, head of public equity at State of Wisconsin Investment Board.

However, Wall Street analyst Cary Leahey said this was a trade “about the election more than the business”, noting that Truth Social had been struggling to grow.

“If [Trump’s] chances of being elected go up, is his firm more valuable? Some traders think so.

“I am confident that if Biden dropped out, Truth Social shares would go down,” he added.

Mr Trump founded the Trump Media and Technology Group in 2021 after he lost the 2020 presidential election and was temporarily booted off major social platforms, including Twitter and Facebook, which accused him of inciting violence after the Capitol Hill riots.

Truth Social largely follows the same format as X, formerly Twitter, and has about 2 million active users, although claims vary according to difference sources.

Mr Trump is the majority shareholder.

At the current share price – roughly $40 a share – his holdings are worth roughly $5bn – far more than analysts say is justified by the company’s sales and operations.

The firm’s share price has been notoriously volatile, often tied to events in Mr Trump’s life – and his election odds.

Shares of its predecessor company started rallying in January, after Mr Trump defeated Republican challengers in the primaries.

The price soared further after Trump Media formally debuted on the Nasdaq stock exchange in March.

But shares slumped at the start of his criminal trial in April, in which he was later convicted of fraud charges linked to hush-money that was paid to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels.

The current share price remains below levels seen in March.

“There is no current fundamental business performance of the company that supports this current ‘price’ but buyers are likely political supporters purchasing shares to support the President’s wealth ahead of the election,” said Thomas J Hayes, chairman of Great Hill Capital.

On Saturday, images of Mr Trump holding up his fist defiantly to show he had survived the assassination attempt elicited roars from his supporting crowd.

Mr Trump later told US media he felt that he had been saved “by luck or by God”.

“The most incredible thing was that I happened to not only turn [my head] but to turn at the exact right time and in just the right amount,” he said, adding that the bullet that grazed his ear could have easily killed him.

One audience member was killed in the attack, while two other people were seriously injured. The gunman has been named as Thomas Matthew Crooks.

The motive of the shooter remains unclear.

US President Joe Biden has condemned the assassination attempt on his predecessor Donald Trump in a primetime address from the White House, telling Americans that US politics must never be a “killing field”.

Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, was wounded in the ear after a gunman opened fire at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. One person was killed and two more were critically injured in the attack.

In the Oval Office address – just the third of his presidency – Mr Biden urged Americans to “take a step back” and warned that “political rhetoric in this country has gotten very heated”.

“No matter how strong our convictions, we must never descend into violence,” Mr Biden said in remarks that lasted just under seven minutes.

His short, but forceful, address largely went off without a hitch, amid ongoing scrutiny following a number of high-profile verbal slips.

In his primetime address, the president called on Americans to come together and warned that increasing political polarisation meant November’s election would be “a time of testing”.

Mr Biden and Trump remain locked neck-and-neck in opinion polls ahead of the election.

Speaking from behind the Resolute Desk, Mr Biden listed off a growing number of violent political acts that have taken place in recent years.

“We cannot, must not, go down this road again. We’ve travelled it before in our history,” he said, citing shootings targeting congressional members in both parties, the assault on ex-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband and the 6 January riots.

“In America we resolve our differences at the ballot box,” he said. “At the ballot box. Not with bullets.”

Saturday’s attack left America reeling, as Trump was struck in the ear shortly after he began speaking in Butler, Pennsylvania.

In images beamed around the world, the 78-year-old could be seen with blood dripping from his ear and down his face, raising a defiant fist as Secret Service agents pulled him off stage and into a waiting car.

The gunman – identified by the FBI as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks – was shot dead at the scene by Secret Service agents. Law enforcement agents told the BBC’s US partner, CBS News, that they discovered explosive materials in his vehicle nearby and at his home.

Officials say they are still investigating what motivated the attack. Crooks was a registered Republican who had previously donated $15 to a liberal campaign group in 2021, according to media reports.

Classmates described him as a quiet young man who was bullied throughout school. A local gun club near his home in Pennsylvania confirmed he had been a member.

In his speech, Mr Biden said he was praying for the family of Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old former firefighter who was shot and killed – along with two others who were critically injured – during the rally. The father-of-two was killed while shielding his family from bullets as they whizzed past Trump and struck members of the audience.

Mr Biden called Mr Comperatore a “hero” who was killed “while simply exercising his freedom to support a candidate of his choosing”.

• Follow live: Biden urges America to ‘lower temperature’ of politics after Trump shooting
• Tragedy at Trump rally upends election campaign – for now
• Videos show how gunman shot at Trump despite public alerting police

Allies of Trump’s have been quick to blame President Biden and his campaign for the attack, alleging that the top Democrat had sought to stoke fears about his rival’s return to office.

“The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,” JD Vance – a Republican senator who is under consideration for the vice-presidential nomination – wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

President Biden avoided addressing those criticisms in his address on Sunday night, though his campaign has temporarily pulled attack ads against Trump.

The former president himself has sought to strike a conciliatory tone since the shooting, thanking his Secret Service detail for their quick actions and calling on citizens to “stand united” and to “show our True Character as Americans”.

He arrived in Milwaukee on Sunday night for the Republican National Convention, where he will accept his party’s nomination for president.

Trump is also expected to announce his running-mate. US media has reported that just three men are still under consideration for the vice-presidential slot: Florida Senator Marco Rubio, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum and Senator Vance of Ohio.

In a news conference earlier on Sunday, the Secret Service said they had no plans to impose additional security measures around the convention, saying they were satisfied with existing arrangements.

The agency has come under scrutiny as to how Crooks was able to get so close to Trump, despite members of the audience reportedly pointing him out to police.

Sometimes sounds can be deceptive. A car backfiring can make you jump; a firework can make you flinch; but as soon as we heard the gunfire at the Butler Farm showgrounds shortly after 6pm on Saturday evening, we all knew straight away that these were gunshots, and there were lots of them.

Donald Trump was mid-way through a sentence as the shots rang out. He grabbed his ear before dropping to the ground and being smothered by Secret Service agents.

We didn’t know it at the time, but the gunman was perhaps 150m away from where we stood, lying flat on the roof of a shed and firing at least six rounds using an AR-15 rifle at the former president and terrifed spectators.

I was about to go on air, with radio colleagues from the BBC World Service waiting on the end of a line. Instead all three of us in my team – me, producer Iona Hampson and cameraman Sam Beattie – went to the ground, using our car as some kind of shelter, the only shelter we had.

We had no idea where the shooting was coming from; how many shooters there were; and how long it would go on for. Frankly it was terrifying.

As we lay on the ground, Sam turned on his camera and I tried to give my first impressions of what was happening. In that moment, we had no more concrete information than that about six minutes into Donald Trump’s speech, the shooting had begun.

As I listened I could hear screams from the crowd but I could no longer hear the former president speaking. Was he hit, was he dead? All these thoughts flash through your mind.

When we felt the shooting was over, Iona picked me up off the ground and we went live on television as shocked members of the crowd poured out of the exits. The range of emotions we encountered was immense, as Iona persuaded terrified spectators to come and talk to me live on television.

Many were understandably frightened; many were dazed and bewildered; some were angry, very angry.

One witness, a man named Greg, said he had seen the gunman “bear-crawling” onto the roof of the shed minutes before the chaos began and had been frantically trying to point him out to police and the Secret Service.

Another man – and I can understand this – was furious that we were broadcasting; he put himself between me and Sam yelling at me to stop. I laid my hand as gently as I could on his arm and explained to him while we were on air that it was important people knew what had just happened; the public, I said, had to know.

Eventually, as I pleaded with him, he relented – still unhappy and still fuming, rightly so, at what he’d just experienced.

Others expressed their anger in more political ways.

One man approached me and simply said: “They shot first. This is [expletive] war.”

Another just yelled “civil war” as he passed behind me.

And a few minutes later a huge electronic billboard appeared on the side of a truck – Donald Trump’s face framed in a target – the words simply read “Democrats attempted assassination – President Trump”.

It sent a shiver right up my spine – and the horror of the potential consequences of this act started to sink in.

But amid the fear and anger, there was profound sorrow. People who were loyal Trump supporters, committed gun owners, wondered out loud to me about the way America was going. It was as if they could no longer recognise the country they lived in – as if everything had become strange and foreign.

Devin, a local farmer, was there with his son Kolbie. It was their first ever political rally – Kolbie, just 14, still not old enough to vote.

But Kolbie’s first experience of the rawness of democracy was to see two wounded people loaded onto stretchers and rushed off to ambulances. It’s hard not to believe that those images of muzzle flashes he witnessed from the Secret Service snipers who took down the gunman won’t stay with him for the rest of his life.

I’ve covered at least half a dozen shootings in my ten years as a correspondent in the US – but always the immediate aftermath – never have I been present until now when someone actually pulled the trigger.

I don’t want to experience it again, and in this gun-loving country, even those committed to their handguns and rifles in this rural part of Western Pennsylvania seemed sickened and worried about the randomness of the violence they witnessed in late-afternoon sunshine as they wondered whether their political hero was still alive.

But what happened in Butler goes much wider than arguments over gun control.

America has been spiralling towards this moment for years – a political culture that is not just adversarial but downright poisonous. People here – or should I say some people here – find it easy to hate their political opponents – it’s visceral; it’s become part of the nation’s DNA to hate.

And it’s not just political. You can see it in the divisions between the coasts and the centre. Between the north and the south; between the cities and rural America – everything being defined in terms of not being something or someone else.

Moments in history can only really be judged in retrospect. But I’ll take a guess that last night will go down as one of those moments. The question for the leaders of public opinion in this country is what will they now choose to do – to inflame or to calm. To further divide or to reunite.

As an outsider but someone who truly loves this nation, I’m not hopeful.

China’s economy stumbled in the second quarter, official data shows, just as the country’s top leaders gathered for a key meeting to address its sluggish growth.

It grew 4.7% in the three months to June, falling short of expectations after a stronger start in the first three months of 2024. The government’s annual growth target is around 5%.

“China’s economy hit the brakes in the June quarter,” said Heron Lim at Moody’s Analytics, adding that analysts are hoping for solutions from the meeting under way in Beijing, also called the Third Plenum.

The world’s second-largest economy is facing a prolonged property crisis, steep local government debt, weak consumption and high unemployment.

Past outcomes of the Plenum have changed the course of history in China – in 1978, then leader Deng Xiaoping began opening China’s markets to the world, and in 2013 President Xi Jinping hinted at loosening the controversial one-child policy.

And so there are expectations of this year’s Plenum, where Mr Xi is presiding over a closed-door gathering of 370-plus high-ranking Chinese Communist Party members.

The rhetoric on state-controlled media has certainly been encouraging.

An editorial in The Global Times said a “wide range of reform-focused polices” are “high on the agenda” and would usher in a “new chapter”. Xinhua referred to “comprehensive” and “unprecedented” reforms. The editorial in the People’s Daily was headlined on a “new era of reform and opening up”, invoking the very phrase Deng coined in 1978.

Observers, however, are unsure of how much room there is for bold ideas or debate in the Party under Mr Xi’s heavily-centralised leadership. Some see the meeting as a mere rubber-stamping exercise for decisions that have already been made.

Economists are also sceptical the meeting will deliver a quick fix.

It has “little impact on near-term growth,” says Qian Wang, Asia Pacific chief economist at Vanguard, because its focus will be on longer-term and more significant reforms to “unleash the long-term growth potential”.

Still, analysts will be watching for announcements that signal the Party’s economic priorities.

Separate data on Monday showed that prices for new homes in June fell at the fastest pace in nine years.

This is more evidence of the crisis that has engulfed China’s property sector and led to the demise of giants such as Evergrande. The fear is that it could spread to other parts of the economy.

“There are more than 4,000 banks in China and over 90% are smaller, regional banks which are highly exposed to the housing market and local government debt,” says Shanghai-based economist Dan Wang.

She believes Party leaders will “push for consolidation of small banks”.

Another issue is falling prices – a symptom of weak demand.

Producer prices continued to drop in the last month, while consumer prices rose by a mere 0.2%, the slowest pace in three months.

Meanwhile, retail sales in June grew by just 2%, which is below expectations and a sign that consumers are still cautious about spending and uncertain of the future.

“A major concern is the loss of household, business, and investor confidence in the government’s ability to navigate the perilous economic environment,” said Eswar Prasad, former head of the International Monetary Fund’s China division.

Still, questions remain about Beijing’s willingness to deliver the sort of solution that would satisfy observers and the markets.

“The government is reluctant to turn to short-term stimulus plans such as cash transfer to families,” Dan Wang said. “Instead, we expect them to stress once again on bolstering supply chains and high tech.”

That is in line with Beijing’s bets on high-tech industries such as renewable energy, artificial intelligence and chip-making, and exports to revive the economy. Last month, China reported a record trade surplus – $99bn (£76.4bn) – as exports soared and imports struggled.

But even that bet faces challenging odds. Major trading partners such as the European Union and the United States have imposed tariffs and other barriers on goods made in China, from electric vehicles to advanced chips.

When two young Brazilian women were reported missing in September 2022, their families and the FBI launched a desperate search across the US to find them. All they knew was that they were living with wellness influencer Kat Torres.

Torres has now been sentenced to eight years in prison for the human trafficking and slavery of one of those women. The BBC World Service has also been told that charges have been filed against her in relation to a second woman.

How did the former model who partied with Leonardo DiCaprio and graced the cover of international magazines come to groom her followers and lure them into sexual exploitation?

“She kind of resembled hope for me,” says Ana, describing her reaction on stumbling across Torres’ Instagram page in 2017.

Ana was not one of the missing women targeted in the FBI search – but she too was a victim of Torres’ coercion and would be key to their rescue.

She says she was attracted to Torres’ trajectory from impoverished Brazilian favela to international catwalks, partying with Hollywood A-listers along the way.

“She seemed like she had overcome violence in her childhood, abuse, all these traumatic experiences,” Ana told BBC Eye Investigations and BBC News Brasil.

Ana was in a vulnerable situation herself. She says she had suffered a violent childhood, moved alone to the US from southern Brazil, and was previously in an abusive relationship.

Torres had recently published her autobiography called A Voz [The Voice], in which she claimed she could make predictions as a result of her spiritual powers, and had been interviewed on reputable Brazilian media shows.

“She was on the cover of magazines. She was seen with famous people such as Leonardo DiCaprio. Everything I saw seemed credible,” she says.

Ana says she was particularly taken with Torres’ approach to spirituality.

What Ana didn’t know was that the inspirational story Torres told was based on half-truths and lies.

Torres’ ex-flatmate in New York, Luzer Twersky, told us that her Hollywood friends had introduced her to the hallucinogenic drug ayahuasca, and she was never the same again.

”That’s when she kind of… started going off the deep end,” he says.

He said he also believed that she was working as a sugar baby – paid for romantic involvement with wealthy and powerful men who were also paying for the flat they shared together.

Torres’ wellness website and subscription service promised customers: “Love, money and self-esteem that you always dreamed of.” Self-help videos offered advice on relationships, wellness, business success and spirituality – including hypnosis, meditation and exercise programmes.

For an extra $150 (£120) clients could unlock exclusive one-to-one video consultations with Torres during which she would claim to solve any of their problems.

Amanda, another former client who lives in the Brazilian capital, says Kat made her feel special.

“All my doubts, my questions, my decisions: I always took them to her first, so that we could make decisions together,” she says.

But it appears that advice had a dark side. Ana, Amanda, and other former followers say they found themselves becoming increasingly psychologically isolated from friends and family and willing to do anything Torres suggested.

When Torres asked Ana in 2019 to move to New York to work as her live-in assistant, she agreed. She had been studying nutrition at university in Boston, but arranged to study online instead, and says she accepted the offer to look after Torres’ animals – and do her cooking, laundry and cleaning – for about $2000 (£1,564) a month.

Like, Follow, Trafficked: Insta’s Fake Guru

BBC Eye Investigations and BBC News Brasil uncover the truth behind the rise of wellness influencer and spiritual life coach, Kat Torres, and the international search for her trafficked followers

Watch now on BBC iPlayer (UK Only) or on the BBC World Service YouTube channel (outside UK)

When she arrived at Torres’ apartment, though, she quickly realised it did not match the curated perfection projected on the influencer’s Instagram.

“It was shocking because the house was really messy, really dirty, didn’t smell good,” she says.

Ana says Torres seemed unable to do even basic things without her, like taking a shower, because she couldn’t bear to be alone. She describes having to constantly be available for Torres, only being allowed to sleep for a few hours at a time, on a sofa covered in cat urine.

She says some days she would hide in the apartment building’s gym, grabbing a few hours’ sleep rather than working out.

“Now, I see that she was using me as a slave… she had satisfaction in it,” Ana says.

Ana says she was never paid.

“I felt like, ‘I’m stuck here, I don’t have a way out,’” she says. “I was probably one of her first victims of human trafficking.”

She had given up her university accommodation back in Boston, so she had nowhere to return to, and no income to pay for alternative housing.

Ana says when she tried to confront Torres, she became aggressive, triggering Ana’s painful history with domestic violence.

Eventually, after three months, Ana found a way to escape by moving in with a new boyfriend.

But that wasn’t the end of Ana’s role in Torres’ life. When the families of two other young Brazilian women reported them missing in September 2022, Ana knew she had to act.

By this point, Torres’ life had grown in scale. She was now married to a man called Zach, a 21-year-old she had met in California, and they were renting a five-bedroom house in the suburbs of Austin, Texas.

Repeating the pattern she had begun with Ana, Torres had targeted her most dedicated followers, trying to recruit them to come and work for her. In return, she had promised to help them achieve their dreams, capitalising on the intimate personal details they had shared with her during life-coaching sessions.

Desirrê Freitas, a Brazilian woman living in Germany, and Brazilian Letícia Maia – the two women whose disappearance would go on to spark the FBI-led search – moved to live with Torres. Another Brazilian woman, who we are calling Sol, was also recruited.

Posting on her social media channels, Torres introduced her “witch clan” to her followers.

The BBC has discovered at least four more women were almost persuaded to join Torres in the house but had pulled out.

Some of the women were too scared to appear in the BBC’s film – afraid of receiving online abuse and still traumatised by their experiences – but we have been able to verify their accounts using court documents, text messages, bank statements, and Desirrê’s memoir about her experiences – @Searching Desirrê, published by DISRUPTalks.

Desirrê says that in her case, Torres had bought her a plane ticket from Germany, having told her she was suicidal and needed Desirrê’s support.

Torres is also accused of persuading Letícia, who was 14 when she started life-coaching sessions with her, to move to the US for an au pair programme and then drop out to live and work with her.

As for Sol, she says she agreed to move in with Torres after becoming homeless and was hired to carry out tarot readings and yoga classes.

But it was not long before the women discovered their reality was very different to the fairytale they had been promised.

Within weeks, Desirrê says Torres pressured her into working at a local strip club, saying if she did not comply Desirrê would have to repay all the money she had spent on her: flights, accommodation, furniture for her room, and even the “witchcraft” Torres had performed. Desirrê says not only she did not have this money, she also believed at the time in the spiritual powers Torres claimed to have, so when Torres threatened to curse her for not following orders she was terrified.

Reluctantly, Desirrê agreed to work as a stripper.

A manager from the strip club, James, told the BBC she would work extremely long hours, seven days a week.

Desirrê and Sol say the women in the Austin mansion were subjected to strict house rules. They describe being forbidden from speaking to each other, needing Torres’ permission to leave their rooms – even to use the bathroom – and being required to immediately hand over all earnings.

“It was very difficult to, you know, get out of the situation because she holds your money,” Sol told the BBC.

“It was terrifying. I thought something could happen to me because she had all my information, my passport, my driving licence.”

But Sol says she realised she needed to somehow escape after overhearing a phone call in which Torres was telling another client she must work as a prostitute in Brazil as a “punishment”.

Sol was able to leave with the help of an ex-boyfriend.

Meanwhile, the guns Torres’ husband kept began to regularly feature on her Instagram stories, and became a source of fear for the remaining women.

Around this time, Desirrê says Torres tried to persuade her to swap the strip club for work as a prostitute. She says she refused and the following day Torres took her on a surprise day out to a gun range.

Scared, Desirrê says she eventually gave in to Torres’ demand.

“Many questions haunted me: ‘Could I stop whenever I wanted?’” Desirrê writes in her book.

“And if the condom broke, would I get a disease? Could [the client] be an undercover cop and arrest me? What if he killed me?”

If the women didn’t meet the earning quotas that Torres set, which had risen from $1,000 (£782) to $3,000 (£2,345) a day, they were not allowed to return to the house that night, they say.

“I ended up sleeping on the street several times because I couldn’t reach that,” Desirrê adds.

Bank statements, seen by the BBC, show Desirrê transferring more than $21,000 (£16,417) into Torres’ account in June and July 2022 alone. She says that she was forced to hand over a substantially higher figure in cash.

Prostitution is illegal in Texas and Desirrê says Torres would threaten to report her to the police if she ever talked about wanting to stop.

In September, friends and family of Desirrê and Letícia back in Brazil launched social media campaigns to find them, having become increasingly concerned following months without contact.

By this time, they were barely recognisable. Their brunette hair had been dyed platinum blonde to eerily match Torres’. Desirrê says by this point all her phone contacts had been blocked and she obeyed the influencer’s orders without question.

As the Instagram page @searchingDesirrê gained momentum, the story dominated news outlets in Brazil. Desirrê’s friends even worried she might have been murdered, and Letícia’s family put out desperate pleas for their safe return home.

Ana, having lived with Torres in 2019, said alarm bells rang as soon as she saw the news stories. She says she immediately guessed that “[Torres] was keeping other girls”.

• More information and support about human trafficking and modern slavery is available via BBC Action Line.

Along with other former clients, Ana began to contact as many law enforcement agencies as possible, including the FBI, in an attempt to get the influencer arrested. Five months earlier, both she and Sol had reported Torres to the US police – but say they weren’t taken seriously.

In a video she recorded at the time for evidence, since shared with the BBC, a distressed Ana can be heard saying, “this person is very dangerous and she has already threatened to kill me”.

Then the missing women’s profiles on escort and prostitution websites were discovered. Suspicions of sexual exploitation, shared on social media, appeared to be confirmed.

Panicked by the media attention, Torres and the women travelled more than 2,000 miles (3,219 km) from Texas to Maine. In chilling Instagram videos, Desirrê and Letícia denied being held captive and demanded people stop searching for them.

But a recording, obtained by BBC News, gives an insight into what was really happening at this time. By now the US authorities were aware of the concerns about the women’s safety. Homeland security had tipped off a police officer who managed to FaceTime Torres to check on the women. But just before this starts, Torres can be heard saying on the video:

“He will start asking questions. Guys, they are full of tricks. He’s a detective, be very careful. For God’s sake, I’ll kick you out if you say anything. I’ll scream.”

In November 2022, the police finally convinced Torres and the two other women to attend a welfare check in person at Franklin County Sheriff’s Office in Maine.

The detective who questioned Torres, Desirrê and Letícia – Detective David Davol – told the BBC he and his colleagues had been immediately concerned, noticing a number of red flags, including a distrust of law enforcement, isolation and their reluctance to speak without Torres’ permission.

“Human traffickers aren’t always like in the movies, where you have… a gang that kidnapped people. It’s far more common that it’s someone you trust.”

By December 2022, the two women had been safely returned to Brazil.

Det Davol says, in his experience, human trafficking is on the rise. His observation is backed up by the UN, which says it is one of the fastest growing crimes, generating an estimated $150bn (£117bn) in profits a year worldwide.

He believes social media gives it a platform on which to thrive, making it much easier for traffickers to find and groom victims.

In April this year, our team was granted a rare court order to interview Torres in a Brazilian prison – the first media interview with her since her arrest. At that point, she was still waiting for the verdict of a trial against her relating to her treatment of Desirrê.

Smiling, Torres approached us with a calm and collected demeanour.

She was adamant that she was completely innocent, denying that any women had ever lived with her or that she had ever coerced anyone to take part in sex work.

“When I was seeing the people testifying, they were saying so many lies. So many lies that at one point, I couldn’t stop laughing,” she told us.

“People are saying I am a fake guru, but at the same time, they are also saying that… ‘She is a danger to society because she can change people’s mind with her words.’”

When we confronted her with the evidence that we ourselves had seen, she became more hostile, accusing us of lying too.

“You choose to believe whatever you choose to believe. I can tell you I’m Jesus. And you can see Jesus, or you can see the devil, that’s it. It’s your choice. It’s your mind.”

As she got up to return to her cell, she issued a parting threat, claiming we would soon find out if she had powers or not. She pointed at me, and said: “I didn’t like her.”

The BBC can reveal that earlier this month Torres was sentenced by a Brazilian judge to eight years in prison for subjecting Desirrê to human trafficking and slavery. He concluded that she had lured the young woman to the US for the purpose of sexual exploitation.

More than 20 women have reported being scammed or exploited by Torres – many of whom the BBC has spoken to and are still undergoing psychiatric therapy to recover from what they say they experienced as a result of her treatment of them.

Torres’ lawyer told the BBC she has appealed her conviction and maintains her innocence.

An investigation into the allegations from other women is ongoing in Brazil.

Ana believes yet further victims may come forward, once they read about Torres’ crimes. This is the first time Ana has spoken publicly.

She says she wants people to recognise that Torres’ actions amount to a serious crime and not some “Instagram drama”.

In the closing pages of her book Desirrê also reflects on her experiences.

“I’m not fully recovered yet, I’ve had a challenging year. I was sexually exploited, enslaved and imprisoned.

“I hope my story serves as a warning.”

You can get in touch by following this link

A small town mayor in the Philippines who has been accused of being a Chinese spy has gone into hiding, officials said.

Police could not carry out a warrant for the arrest of Alice Guo over the weekend as she was not at any of her known addresses.

Scam centres were uncovered in Ms Guo’s town of Bamban in March, concealed in online casinos that cater to mainland Chinese.

Her story has played out like a TV drama, as she had also been questioned on her Chinese parentage and suspicions that she was working as an “asset” or spy for Beijing.

Ms Guo’s case has gripped the nation as Manila and Beijing continue to spar over reefs and outcrops in the South China Sea.

The Senate ordered the arrest of Ms Guo and some members of her family last Friday after she twice snubbed summons to appear in hearings on the scam centres.

“Show yourselves. Hiding will not erase the truth,” Senator Risa Hontiveros, who is leading parliament’s investigation on Ms Guo, said in a statement.

Ms Guo has denied wrongdoing. She claims her Chinese father and Filipina mother raised her on their pig farm.

But Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, who is part of the investigation, claims Ms Guo is a Chinese national whose real name is Guo Hua Ping, based on immigration records.

“She is hiding to evade arrest,” Mr Gatchalian told local radio. “Our tracker teams will continue looking for her.”

On the day the arrest warrant was signed, Ms Guo posted a statement on Facebook, addressing her constituents and alluding to the fact that she would not be around.

“Sorry for not being physically present with each one of you. I miss you all,” she said, adding her absence would be “temporary”.

In the post, she added that she did not regret joining politics, even if it hurt her so much that she “almost lost myself”.

“I am a Filipino with a big heart for Bamban. I love the Philippines very much,” she said.

Ms Guo’s lawyer, Nicole Jamilla, told local television that her client would “definitely” cooperate with official investigations.

Aside from the investigation by the Senate, Ms Guo is the subject of a separate anti-graft probe that has led to her suspension.

The scam centres in Bamban have underscored how online casinos or Pogos (Philippine Online Gaming Operations) have been used as cover for text scams, human trafficking and other criminal activities.

Crime rings hiding beneath Pogos have even gone to the extent of building hospitals that provide cosmetic surgery to fugitives who want new faces.

Pogos flourished during the tenure of Rodrigo Duterte, whose presidency, which ended in 2022, was marked by close ties to China.

But under current president Ferdinand Marcos, Pogos have come under close scrutiny.

If proven that she is a Chinese citizen, Ms Guo would be not be eligible to serve as mayor. Only Filipino citizens are allowed to hold elective office.

But this does not matter to her constituents who benefit from her social outreach programmes, that are widely documented on her social media pages.

Ms Guo “brought change” to Bamban, and its people are thankful, resident Erica Miclat told ANC television.

Perched on a remote mountain top and surrounded by lowlands, Mabu is what’s known as a “sky island” and is the largest rainforest in southern Africa. BBC environment correspondent Jonah Fisher went to Mabu with a team of scientists who have discovered dozens of new species there, helping to convince Mozambique to protect it.

“Let me get my magic spoon,” Dr Gimo Daniel says with a smile.

It’s hard to imagine anyone taking more delight in their work than the 36-year-old Mozambican beetle expert.

We’re crouched around a small hole in the dirt not far from our camp in the centre of Mabu forest.   Dr Daniel’s mission, like that of almost everyone on our expedition, is to find things that science has not seen before.

Dung beetles are Dr Daniel’s specialty and he chuckles as he pulls out a big plastic tub of bait – his own faeces.

The smell is as you’d expect. Pungent and impossible to ignore.

Dr Daniel tells me that he has already discovered what he believes are 15 new species of dung beetles.

“They can smell it up to 50 meters from here, so they come as fast as they can,” he says. “It’s brunch.”

Twenty years ago, Mabu was a secret to all but the locals.

It was ‘discovered’ for the outside world by Prof Julian Bayliss in 2004. An explorer and ecologist who now lives in north Wales, he was surveying satellite images of northern Mozambique when he came across a previously unknown dark green patch.

A first expedition the following year confirmed that although locals had been hunting in the forest it was in incredibly good condition and its size at 75 square kilometres made Mabu the largest single block of rainforest in southern Africa.

“I was like – oh my God – this is phenomenal,” Prof Bayliss recalls.

In early expeditions to Mabu, one of which I joined in 2009 while working as a BBC correspondent in southern Africa, Prof Bayliss was at the forefront of a ‘gold rush’ of discoveries, quickly finding several new species of chameleon, snake and butterfly. 

In all Prof Bayliss says they’ve found at least 25 new species, and that’s not even counting the dung beetles, many of which still need to be officially recognised.

What makes Mabu so special is its geography. A medium altitude rainforest, it protrudes above Mozambique’s lowlands, makes it effectively a ‘sky island’.

That means most of the animals and insects that live there have no way of meeting and breeding with other populations, increasing the chances of them evolving in isolation into something unique and new to science.

The expedition the BBC joined this year at Prof Bayliss’ invitation was the first time a team of scientists had based themselves right in the centre of the forest.

Mabu was in part protected by Mozambique’s long history of civil war. The longest of which ended in 1992. It was also helped by the fact that it’s just so hard to get there.

After driving five hours along dirt roads all of the camping gear, food and equipment is loaded on to the backs and heads of more than sixty porters.

While we, and the scientists, adjusted our walking boots and dropped hydration salts in our water bottles, the porters, many of them wearing just flipflops, marched up Mount Mabu’s steep slopes.

One of the first to find something new is Erica Tovela, a freshwater fish expert from Mozambique’s Natural History Museum. In the stream that runs through camp she catches a type of small catfish she’s not seen before.

“I hope that we have a new species for this area,” she says with a smile as she holds up a see-through bag of dead fish. (They will be preserved in formaldehyde for further analysis and comparison with other similar species). “Amazing. It will be the first new species for me.”

The process of definitively identifying a new species can take years. It involves writing a peer-reviewed paper in a journal in which the differences between the new discovery and its closest relatives are outlined and accepted by other scientists.

The next step for Ms Tovela is to get the DNA of her fish analysed and detailed descriptions and images circulated. And what might be the name?

“It should be something ,” she says. “It’s a nice way of saying we have one specific species that’s from Mabu.”

Mabu’s forest is in good condition but that’s not to say that some things haven’t changed.

The large mammals that once inhabited it like lions, rhinos and buffalos have all been hunted out, most likely for food during the war. Deforestation has also taken a toll, though not as badly as other forests in southern Africa.

“It’s very visible that forests (in southern Africa) that that I’ve been to just 15 to 20 years ago have now disappeared, cut down for many different reasons,” says Prof Ara Monadjem, an expert in small mammals from the University of Eswatini, who was on the trip.

At Mabu the deforestation has so far been limited but locals are certainly hunting. Camera traps show hunters carrying animals they’ve caught and we see physical traps made from car springs set just off the tracks through the forest.

But at the same time species of smaller mammals are also being discovered. They included a horseshoe bat called  and a dwarf musk shrew which scientists are still in the process of naming and describing.

Not everyone on the expedition is looking for new species. Bird experts Claire Spottiswoode and Calum Cohen have a very specific mission. To find evidence that one of Africa’s rarest birds is still alive.

The only lives at altitude and there are fears that a combination of the destruction of forest elsewhere and warming temperatures are pushing the small yellow and black bird towards extinction.

“Climate change often has these effects that are hard to predict,” Callan Cohen explains pointing out that sometimes warmer temperatures encourage snake activity, which means more nests and chicks come under attack.

Trying to find the rare bird involves playing it a recording of a through a Bluetooth speaker and then waiting to see if any respond.

There’s no sign or sound on the day that we join the search, but several days later the bird experts return to camp late at night bringing with them good news.

They managed to record sound of the on one of the higher ridges.

“It’s still a little concerning, to be honest,” Mr Cohen says of the huge effort it had taken.

So what happens next? For Mabu, at least the signs appear positive.

Pejul Calenga, the director general of Mozambique’s conservation areas, tells me in an interview that Mabu is to be turned into a community protected area.

That will mean no logging or mining is allowed but that the locals who depend on the forest for their livelihoods will manage and be able to use it.

Of the role played by the scientists’ work in getting the area protected, he says: “It’s much easier to stand up for those areas in which we have unique resources present.”

Mr Calenga said Mabu now forms part of Mozambique’s commitment to a global biodiversity pledge to protect 30 percent of its land by 2030.

Having led so many expeditions into Mabu forest Prof Bayliss is cautiously optimistic that if the management plan is done well Mabu will turn into a conservation success story.

He’s already looking elsewhere in Africa for other sites that need protection.

For more than 10 years, Abu Mohammad has been living in a tent with his family in northern Syria, displaced by the long-running civil war. Unable to earn enough to support them, he, like hundreds of others, has decided to travel via Turkey to Niger to work as a mercenary.

Abu Mohammad (not his real name), who is 33, and his wife have four young children – they have no running water or toilet and rely on a small solar panel to charge his phone. Their tent is sweltering in summer, freezing in winter and leaks when it rains.

“Finding work has become extremely difficult,” he says. He is a member of Turkish-backed opposition forces that have been fighting President Bashar al-Assad for more than a decade.

The faction he works for pays him less than $50 (£40) a month, so when Turkish recruiters appeared offering $1,500 (£1,160) a month to work in Niger, he decided it was the best way to earn more money.

He says Syrian faction leaders help facilitate the process and after “faction taxes and agents” he would still be left with at least two-thirds of the money. “And if I die in battle [in Niger], my family will receive compensation of $50,000 (£40,000),” he adds.

Violence in West Africa’s Sahel region has worsened in recent years as a result of conflict with jihadist groups. Niger, along with neighbours Mali and Burkina Faso have all been affected – and all three countries have experienced military coups in the past few years, partly as a result of the instability.

Abu Mohammad is not alone in wanting to go to Niger.

Ali (not his real name), who lives in a tent in rural Idlib joined Syria’s opposition forces 10 years ago when he was 15. He says he is paid less than $50 (£40) a month too, which lasts him five days. He has had to borrow to support his family and sees Niger as the only way to pay off his debts. “I want to leave the military profession entirely and start my own business,” he says.

And for Raed (not his real name), another 22-year-old opposition fighter, going to Niger feels like the only way to build up enough money to “achieve my dream of marriage and starting a family”.

Since December 2023, more than 1,000 Syrian fighters have travelled to Niger via Turkey, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), which monitors the conflict in Syria through a network of sources on the ground. They tend to sign up for six months, but some have now extended the contract to a year.

Before they go, the official line is that the men will be protecting Turkish projects and commercial interests in Niger.

Turkey has extended both its political influence and business operations in the region, selling equipment such as drones to Niger to help it combat militant jihadist groups. It is also involved in mining the country’s natural resources, which include gold, uranium and iron ore.

But the recruits know that despite what they are told, when they arrive in Niger, the reality can be very different.

The SOHR and friends of mercenaries who have already worked in Niger told the BBC that Syrians have ended up under Russian command fighting militant jihadist groups in the border triangle between Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso.

Niger’s democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum was overthrown a year ago, and since then the junta has cut Western ties.

“Niger started looking for new allies and found a suitable alternative in Russia,” explains Nathaniel Powell, a researcher on the Sahel at Oxford Analytica. “Russian weapons are cheaper than Western ones. Russia also offers military resources and training and shows a willingness to adapt to local requirements without imposing strict conditions, unlike its Western counterparts.”

The prospect of fighting under Russian command poses a dilemma for Syrian fighters who are opposed to the Syrian regime, because Russia has been a staunch supporter of President Assad.

“We are mercenaries here and mercenaries there,” says Abu Mohammad, “but I am on a Turkish mission, I will not accept orders from the Russians.”

But he many not have a choice, as Raed acknowledges: “I hate these forces but I have to go for economic reasons,” he says.

They are all still waiting to sign their contacts which they will do “just before or during travel”, says Raed. He explains that the process is secretive and he knows one man who was imprisoned by a Syrian opposition faction “for leaking some details of the operation in Africa and the registration mechanism”.

The recruits we spoke to claim their faction leaders have told them that a Turkish company called SADAT would look after them once the contracts are signed and would be involved in arranging their travel and logistics.

About five years ago, Abu Mohamad went to Libya where he worked as a mercenary for six months and claims that was also arranged by SADAT.

The SOHR also claims that, based on information from other mercenaries who have already been to Niger, SADAT is involved in the process.

We have not been able to independently verify these claims. We contacted SADAT, which vehemently denied recruiting or deploying Syrian fighters to Niger, saying the claims “had no connection with the truth… we do not carry out any activities in Niger”. It also said it had no activities in Libya apart from a “military sport” project more than a decade ago which it had to withdraw from because of the crisis there.

The company added that it “does not provide services to non-state actors” but rather provides “consultancy, training and logistics services to armed forces and security forces in the field of defence and security according to the Turkish Commercial Code”.

But private companies are used by the government in Ankara to recruit and send Syrian mercenaries to Niger, according to the SOHR. The organisation’s director, Rami Abdul Rahman, accuses the Turkish state of exploiting Syrians with no money and dire economic prospects.

The BBC put these allegations to the Turkish ministry of foreign affairs, but we have not received a response.

This is not the first time the Turkish government has been accused of sending Syrian fighters abroad. Several reports, including one by the US Department of Defence have documented Turkish-backed Syrian fighters in Libya – Turkey previously acknowledged that Syrian fighters were present there but did not admit recruiting them. It has also denied that it recruited and deployed Syrian mercenaries to the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region in the Caucasus.

Conditions in Niger mean that staying in touch with families in Syria can be very difficult. When the recruits arrive their phones are confiscated, according to Abdul Rahman of the SOHR. And Abu Mohammad says that his friends in Africa “can contact their families once every two weeks, sometimes less”.

He adds that they can’t speak to their wives or parents themselves, and communication has to go through their superiors in Niger “who reassure the fighters’ families that they are fine”.

Ali adds that some of his friends who travelled to Niger told him they spent most of their time “inside military bases, waiting for orders to fight”.

And not all of them make it home. According to the SOHR, nine have been killed in Niger since December 2023. The bodies of four of them have been returned to Idlib but have not yet been identified.

Raed and Ali say their families do not want them to go, so they may end up lying and pretending that they are going to Turkey to train for a few months.

Abu Mohammed’s family is not keen on the idea either. “If I had the means to live a decent life, I wouldn’t do this kind of job if you offered me a million dollars,” he says, but adds “if my son asked me for a bike, I could never afford it – it’s these things that are pushing me to go.”

China’s economy stumbled in the second quarter, official data shows, just as the country’s top leaders gathered for a key meeting to address its sluggish growth.

It grew 4.7% in the three months to June, falling short of expectations after a stronger start in the first three months of 2024. The government’s annual growth target is around 5%.

“China’s economy hit the brakes in the June quarter,” said Heron Lim at Moody’s Analytics, adding that analysts are hoping for solutions from the meeting under way in Beijing, also called the Third Plenum.

The world’s second-largest economy is facing a prolonged property crisis, steep local government debt, weak consumption and high unemployment.

Past outcomes of the Plenum have changed the course of history in China – in 1978, then leader Deng Xiaoping began opening China’s markets to the world, and in 2013 President Xi Jinping hinted at loosening the controversial one-child policy.

And so there are expectations of this year’s Plenum, where Mr Xi is presiding over a closed-door gathering of 370-plus high-ranking Chinese Communist Party members.

The rhetoric on state-controlled media has certainly been encouraging.

An editorial in The Global Times said a “wide range of reform-focused polices” are “high on the agenda” and would usher in a “new chapter”. Xinhua referred to “comprehensive” and “unprecedented” reforms. The editorial in the People’s Daily was headlined on a “new era of reform and opening up”, invoking the very phrase Deng coined in 1978.

Observers, however, are unsure of how much room there is for bold ideas or debate in the Party under Mr Xi’s heavily-centralised leadership. Some see the meeting as a mere rubber-stamping exercise for decisions that have already been made.

Economists are also sceptical the meeting will deliver a quick fix.

It has “little impact on near-term growth,” says Qian Wang, Asia Pacific chief economist at Vanguard, because its focus will be on longer-term and more significant reforms to “unleash the long-term growth potential”.

Still, analysts will be watching for announcements that signal the Party’s economic priorities.

Separate data on Monday showed that prices for new homes in June fell at the fastest pace in nine years.

This is more evidence of the crisis that has engulfed China’s property sector and led to the demise of giants such as Evergrande. The fear is that it could spread to other parts of the economy.

“There are more than 4,000 banks in China and over 90% are smaller, regional banks which are highly exposed to the housing market and local government debt,” says Shanghai-based economist Dan Wang.

She believes Party leaders will “push for consolidation of small banks”.

Another issue is falling prices – a symptom of weak demand.

Producer prices continued to drop in the last month, while consumer prices rose by a mere 0.2%, the slowest pace in three months.

Meanwhile, retail sales in June grew by just 2%, which is below expectations and a sign that consumers are still cautious about spending and uncertain of the future.

“A major concern is the loss of household, business, and investor confidence in the government’s ability to navigate the perilous economic environment,” said Eswar Prasad, former head of the International Monetary Fund’s China division.

Still, questions remain about Beijing’s willingness to deliver the sort of solution that would satisfy observers and the markets.

“The government is reluctant to turn to short-term stimulus plans such as cash transfer to families,” Dan Wang said. “Instead, we expect them to stress once again on bolstering supply chains and high tech.”

That is in line with Beijing’s bets on high-tech industries such as renewable energy, artificial intelligence and chip-making, and exports to revive the economy. Last month, China reported a record trade surplus – $99bn (£76.4bn) – as exports soared and imports struggled.

But even that bet faces challenging odds. Major trading partners such as the European Union and the United States have imposed tariffs and other barriers on goods made in China, from electric vehicles to advanced chips.

Scientists have for the first time discovered a cave on the Moon.

At least 100m deep, it could be an ideal place for humans to build a permanent base, they say.

It is just one in probably hundreds of caves hidden in an “underground, undiscovered world”, according to the researchers.

Countries are racing to establish a permanent human presence on the Moon, but they will need to protect astronauts from radiation, extreme temperatures, and space weather.

Helen Sharman, the first British astronaut to travel to space, told BBC News that the newly-discovered cave looked like a good place for a base, and suggested humans could potentially be living in lunar pits in 20-30 years.

But, she said, this cave is so deep that astronauts might need to abseil in and use “jet packs or a lift” to get out.

Lorenzo Bruzzone and Leonardo Carrer at the University of Trento in Italy found the cave by using radar to penetrate the opening of a pit on a rocky plain called the Mare Tranquillitatis.

It is visible to the naked eye from Earth, and is also where Apollo 11 landed in 1969.

The cave has a skylight on the Moon’s surface, leading down to vertical and overhanging walls, and a sloping floor that might extend further underground.

It was made millions or billions of years ago when lava flowed on the Moon, creating a tunnel through the rock.

The closest equivalent on Earth would be the volcanic caves in Lanzarote, Spain, Prof Carrer explains, adding that the researchers visited those caves as part of their work.

“It’s really exciting. When you make these discoveries and you look at these images, you realise you’re the first person in the history of humanity to see it,” Prof Carrer said.

Once Prof Bruzzone and Prof Carrer understood how big the cave was, they realised it could be a good spot for a lunar base.

“After all, life on Earth began in caves, so it makes sense that humans could live inside them on the Moon,” says Prof Carrer.

The cave has yet to be fully explored, but the researchers hope that ground-penetrating radar, cameras or even robots could be used to map it.

Scientists first realised there were probably caves on the Moon around 50 years ago. Then in 2010 a camera on a mission called the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter took pictures of pits that scientists thought could be cave entrances.

But researchers did not know how deep the caves might be, or if they would have collapsed.

Prof Bruzzone and Prof Carrer’s work has now answered that question, although there is much more to be done to understand the full scale of the cave.

“We have very good images of the surface – up to 25cm of resolution – we can see the Apollo landing sites – but we know nothing about what lies below the surface. There are huge opportunities for discovery,” Francesco Sauro, Coordinator of the Topical Team Planetary Caves of the European Space Agency, told BBC News.

The research may also help us explore caves on Mars in the future, he says.

That could open the door to finding evidence of life on Mars, because if it did exist, it would almost certainly have been inside caves protected from the elements on the planet’s surface.

The Moon cave might be useful to humans, but the scientists also stress that it could help answer fundamental questions about the history of the Moon, and even our solar system.

The rocks inside the cave will not be as damaged or eroded by space weather, so they can provide an extensive geological record going back billions of years.

The research is published in the scientific journal Nature Astronomy.

While many people in Somalia squeezed into cafes and homes on Sunday night to watch the Euro football final, hundreds of Mogadishu’s most stylish residents gathered in the beachside Elite Hotel for another competition: Miss Somalia.

The fact that about a kilometre away a car bomb exploded outside the Top Coffee restaurant which was packed with football fans highlights the schizophrenic nature of life in Somalia.

While the beauty show contestants were parading in the hotel, at least five people were killed and about 20 injured in the nearby blast.

The militant Islamist group al-Shabab, which has controlled much of Somalia for more than 15 years, said it carried out the attack.

Hani Abdi Gas founded the Miss Somalia competition in 2021, a brave thing to do in a culturally conservative country crawling with Islamist militants. Somalia has regularly topped the list of the world’s worst places to be a woman.

Ms Gas grew up in Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya, along with hundreds of thousands of other Somalis who fled war and drought. She returned to her homeland in 2020.

Although the pageant is about beauty, Ms Gas said the inspiration behind the competition was to lift up women’s voices and take them out of isolation.

“It fosters unity and empowerment,” she said.

Ms Gas believes it is time for Somalia to join the rest of the world when it comes to beauty contests. “I want to celebrate the aspirations of women from diverse backgrounds, build their confidence and give them a chance to showcase Somali culture worldwide.”

This year’s competition certainly represented women from different walks of life. One of the contestants was a policewoman.

Many in Somalia find the idea of beauty pageants appalling.

Some see them as an affront to Islam and to Somali culture. Others say they are another form of gender abuse, reducing women to objects.

“I am disgusted with the idea of our young women competing in this dreadful contest,” said clan leader Ahmed Abdi Halane.

“Such things are against our culture and our religion. If a girl wears tight clothes and appears on stage, it will bring shame upon her family and her clan. Women are supposed to stay at home and wear modest clothes.”

Some women are also opposed to beauty contests.

“It is good to support the Somali youth but not in ways that conflict with our religion,” said student Sabrina, who did not want to reveal her surname.

“It is not appropriate for a woman to appear in public without covering her neck and that is what the Miss Somalia contestants did.”

Unlike the sombre-coloured robes and veils worn by many Somali women, the Miss Somalia contestants wore flamboyant, figure-hugging gowns.

Dressed in a long golden dress with sleeves flowing down to the floor, 24-year-old Aisha Ikow was crowned Miss Somalia and took home a $1,000 (£770) cash prize.

She is a university student and make-up artist, and represented South-West state. The other finalists were the regional beauty queens from Jubaland in the south and Galmudug in central Somalia.

“I will use this as an opportunity to fight against early marriage and to promote girls’ education,” said Ms Ikow.

“The competition celebrates Somali culture and beauty while shaping a brighter future for women.”

The six judges, five women and one man, found it hard to choose the winner.

The panel included the founder Ms Gas, a representative from the ministry of youth and Miss Somalia 2022. They judged the contestants according to their physical beauty, the way they walked the catwalk, the way they dressed and the way they spoke in public.

There was also an online vote open to the public.

It cost $1 to vote, with the money raised used to fund the event in Mogadishu and overseas trips to compete in the Miss Africa, Miss World and Miss Universe competitions.

The night-time pageant in a luxury seafront hotel was a far cry from the lives of most people in Somalia, especially women.

Four million Somalis, about a quarter of the population, are living elsewhere in the country after being forced from their homes.

The UN estimates between 70% and 80% of them are women.

In 2024, enough data was collected for Somalia to be included in the United Nations Human Development Index for the first time in three decades. It came last.

Somalia is fourth from bottom on the UN’s Gender Inequality Index. Aid groups say 52% of women in the country have experienced gender-based violence. About 98% undergo female genital mutilation.

Traditionally, when a man raped a woman, his “punishment” was that he had to marry the woman who he had sexually assaulted. Attitudes towards rape and other forms of abuse against women have not changed much over the years.

In 2013, a woman in Mogadishu was sentenced to jail for one year after reporting that she had been raped by members of the security forces.

In the self-declared republic of Somaliland, religious leaders quashed a 2018 sexual offences law almost as soon as it was signed. The revised version does not protect women from child marriage, forced marriage, rape or other forms of sexual abuse.

But the fact that a Miss Somalia competition can be held in Mogadishu, even a kilometre away from a suicide bombing, shows that the country is changing both in terms of attitudes and in terms of security.

A beauty pageant would have been unthinkable a few years ago, especially when al-Shabab controlled the capital.

The crowd at Elite Hotel did not leave until the early hours of the morning. They did not hear the sound of the nearby attack as it was drowned out by the noise of the Indian Ocean waves breaking on the beach.

• Inside Somalia’s hidden world of sex work
• The bid to heal the Horn of Africa port controversy
• Somalia’s football pitch that doubles as an execution ground
• Somalia’s men in sarongs taking on al-Shabab militants

For the last few months, Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani has been grabbing the spotlight in India.

It’s not because he has completed a major acquisition or cut a big philanthropic cheque, but it’s his son’s grandiose wedding celebrations that have entranced the entire nation and the world.

The pre-wedding parties, which began in March, have put the Ambani family firmly at the centre of many breakfast, lunch and dinner table conversations.

Anant Ambani, the youngest son of Mukesh Ambani, tied the knot with his long-time girlfriend Radhika Merchant at a family-owned convention centre in Mumbai on Friday, in a culmination of six-month-long festivities that have taken place across the globe.

Indian weddings can be lavish, but the sheer scale and size of the Ambani jamboree have perhaps eclipsed the celebratory fervour displayed by erstwhile royals.

• India tycoon’s son to marry after months of festivities
• The marathon Indian wedding turning heads around the world

The unerring presence of Bollywood A-listers at every party, the million-dollar performances by global pop-stars like Rihanna and Justin Bieber, and a bevy of VVIP dignitaries descending upon the celebrations have been a source of endless fodder for the paparazzi.

Consider some of the global elite who made it to the functions – Meta’s Mark Zuckerburg, Samsung CEO Han-Jong Hee, Bill Gates, former US President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka, former UK prime ministers Boris Johnson and Sir Tony Blair, Fifa president Gianni Infantino and the Kardashian sisters.

And the list goes on.

“These are very busy people. They aren’t coming just to have fun,” James Crabtree, author of The Billionaire Raj: A Journey Through India’s New Gilded Age, told the BBC.

“What this tells you is that global business leaders believe the Ambanis are strategically important and also that they see India as a very big market.”

Meet the family

The Ambanis are often described as India’s most prominent business family.

They run Reliance Industries, an oil to telecoms conglomerate that was founded by Mukesh Ambani’s father Dhirubhai Ambani – a man with a controversial legacy who attained legendary status for deftly navigating India’s controversial pre-liberalisation polity, while creating enormous wealth for his company’s shareholders.

Dhirubhai died in 2002, and the empire he founded was split between his two sons – Anil and Mukesh – after what could be described as one of India’s most acrimonious succession battles.

Since then, the brothers’ fortunes have diverged, with the younger Anil declaring bankruptcy and Mukesh pivoting more and more to consumer-facing businesses, even while retaining his pole position in Reliance’s mainstay – petrochemicals.

His oil refinery in the western town of Jamnagar is the largest in the world.

In recent years, Reliance has brought some of the world’s most celebrated luxury brands to India, from Valentino to Versace and Burberry to Bottega.

Among other things, the company now owns a team in the world’s richest cricket tournament and the iconic British toy retailer Hamleys.

In 2021, it acquired the historic country club Stoke Park in Buckinghamshire for £57m.

Earlier this year, Reliance signed a binding pact to merge its entertainment platforms with Disney, in its latest attempt to transform the company’s industrial moorings. It is a deal that makes Mukesh Ambani a formidable player in the digital streaming space, with rights to cricketing tournaments and international shows.

But the conglomerate really began its shopping spree during the Covid-19 pandemic, when it got billions of dollars in investment from more than a dozen global players, including Meta and Google. The plan with Meta has been to connect WhatsApp’s more than 400 million users in India with its online grocery platform JioMart.

The company’s aggressive pricing strategy has mounted a serious challenge to foreign entrants like Netflix and Amazon.

Privately, foreign players, who compete in the same sectors as Reliance, sometimes complain of a lack of level playing field, claiming the Ambanis are among a select few who’ve benefited from the Indian government’s policy of awarding preferential contracts to local tycoons.

“Foreign players face a difficult choice,” says Mr Crabtree. “They can either fight with Reliance or get into bed with Reliance. Zuckerburg has chosen to partner with them, while Amazon has decided to fight. But these battles are often very costly, and foreigners end up losing.”

Now, Mukesh Ambani’s next target is financial services, with Reliance entering into a joint venture with US-based BlackRock for a brokering and wealth management business.

Not surprisingly then, for the Ambanis, this is much more than just a wedding.

It is a show of strength and of the clout they command, says Harish Bijoor, a brand strategy specialist. “It’s a show of the fact that this family is a magnet that attracts people from all walks of life – business, politics and entertainment.”

The media blitzkrieg around it, he adds, is also a way for them to make a personal event “even more personal to the whole world” – such as the consumers of Reliance products and services for instance – who would never have got an invite.

If the Ambani patriarch, Dhirubhai, was credited with introducing the stock market to India’s retail investors, his son Mukesh is well recognised for creating a myriad touchpoints between his businesses and the average Indian consumer.

A bulk of what Indians consume today, from the shows they watch, to the clothes they wear and potentially even how they will transact in the future, comes from the Ambani stable.

And that is why there couldn’t have been a better occasion than a dazzling wedding for the family to market its brand to India’s burgeoning consumer class.

And sure enough, the wedding has captivated people in India and across the world.

Shannen Doherty has been remembered as a “beloved” actress with “heart, courage and kindness”, following her death from cancer at the age of 53.

Doherty was known for roles in 1990s teen drama Beverly Hills, 90210 and supernatural series Charmed.

Jason Priestley, who played her twin brother on 90210, wrote on Instagram he was “shocked and saddened” by the news.

“She was a force of nature and I will miss her,” he said. “Sending love and light to her family in this dark time.”

Jennie Garth, who played Kelly, the sometime love rival of Doherty’s character Brenda, said she was “still processing my tremendous grief over the loss of my long-time friend Shannen, the woman I have often described as one of the strongest people I have ever known”.

“We were so often pitted against each other – but none of that reflected the truth of our real relationship, which was one built on mutual respect and admiration,” Garth wrote.

“She was courageous, passionate, determined and very loving and generous. I will miss her and will always honour her deeply in my heart and in my memories. My heart breaks for her family and [her dog] Bowie and all the people who loved her.”

Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Sarah Michelle Gellar, a good friend, posted: “How do you possibly find the right words to sum up 30 years of friendship?

“I keep reminding myself it only hurts this much because, there was so much love. Thank you, for all your kind words and support.”

Recalling Doherty’s love of pets, Gellar asked well-wishers to donate to an animal charity in her memory. “I know that would make our girl happy.”

Doherty’s death comes five years after that of her fellow Beverly Hills, 90210 star, Luke Perry.

Gabrielle Carteris, who played Andrea in the hit series, paid tribute to Doherty, writing: “So young – so sad. May you RIP Shannon. I know Luke is there with open arms to love you.”

Tori Spelling, who played Donna, posted a photo of herself and Doherty, alongside a string of broken-heart emojis and the message: “I don’t have outwards words yet… but we knew and that’s what matters.”

Another Beverly Hills 90210 co-star, Brian Austin Green, addressed his tribute to “Shan, my sister”.

“You loved me through everything. You were a big part of my understanding of love,” he wrote.

“I’ll miss you more than I know how to process right now. Thank you for the gift of you.”

Carol Potter, who played Brenda’s mother, Cindy, wrote Doherty had “gone too soon”.

“Throughout, she stayed true to herself and gave us an example of courage and perseverance in facing her own death,” Potter said. “May she rest in peace.”

On Charmed, Doherty played one of three sisters who were witches.

Rose McGowan, who replaced Doherty in the show, as half-sister Paige, wrote she “had the heart of a lion”.

“My head bows to this warrior on her journey home,” McGowan wrote. “Her intense will to live places in her in the hall of legends. Forever our sister.”

Alyssa Milano, who played sister Phoebe, acknowledged the pair’s “complicated relationship”, with reports they had fallen out on set, leading to Doherty’s departure.

“But at its core was someone I deeply respected and was in awe of,” Milano added in a statement.

“She was a talented actress, beloved by many, and the world is less without her. My condolences to all who loved her.”

Another Charmed co-star, Brian Krause, wrote: “You showed me what strength is. You taught me to be fearless and live with purpose, to know your value and stick to your determination. Forever loved. Truly heartbroken.”

Others paying tribute included actress Olivia Munn, herself diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this year, who was “absolutely heartbroken”.

“We bonded through a shared battle and a desire to help other women,” she wrote. “Looking back on the last text she sent me, just a couple months ago, she asked how I was doing and if she could do anything for me.

“True to form, Shannen was offering her support even though she was in the final stage of fighting this horrific disease.”

Doherty had faced the disease with “such dignity, strength and grace”, Munn added.

Actress Kate Beckinsale said on Instagram: “Love you. Fly high lovely kind sweetheart woman. This hits hard. Your heart, courage and kindness will be so missed.”

And Oscar winner Viola Davis wrote: “Your bravery and ability to share your cancer journey left something ‘in’ people. Rest well. God bless your loved ones.”

The Prince and Princess of Wales have called the England team “an inspiration to all of us, young and old” in a personal message posted on social media.

In the post, they also shared a picture of their children Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis watching Sunday night’s Euros final defeat to Spain, wearing England shirts bearing their names and ages.

The couple’s full message reads: “England, your teamwork, grit and determination were an inspiration to all of us, young and old. Congratulations to Spain. W & C”

Prince William and his eldest son Prince George watched the game at the Olympiastadion in Berlin on Sunday evening.

The Prince of Wales shook hands with the England team and handed them runners-up medals after the match.

King Charles also sent a message to the England team after the match. In a letter to manager Gareth Southgate, he urged him and the team to “hold your heads high”.

England’s heartbreaking 2-1 defeat left fans devastated, as many had hoped to see the men’s team win a major trophy for the first time in 58 years. But many still had hope for the future.

Matthew Adams, 30, from Bournemouth, said: “The future is so bright with the young players in the squad that have performed so well.

“If that’s the future of England, then it’s a positive future.”

Preethi Rai, 38, from London said Gareth Southgate “deserves some credit” for his work as England manager.

Speaking after the screening at London’s O2 Arena she added: “He’s brought us up to a level where we can compete with an amazing Spain team.”

Southgate and several England players were seen leaving their hotel in Berlin on Monday morning.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, England captain Harry Kane said he was “heartbroken” over the loss.

“It was a long tough tournament and I’m so proud of the boys and staff for getting to the final,” he said.

Prince William was pictured with Prince George in the stands at the final on Sunday, seated near King Felipe and Princess Leonor of Spain, and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.

He also attended earlier games in the tournament, watching England’s quarter final victory over Switzerland, and the group stage match against Denmark.

Downing Street said Gareth Southgate had “provided great leadership and done the country proud”.

Asked if Mr Southgate would be knighted, a spokesman said: “Honours are a matter for the independent committee.”

Earlier on Sunday, Catherine, Princess of Wales, took Princess Charlotte to Wimbledon to watch Carlos Alcaraz beat Novak Djokovic in the men’s singles final.

It was Catherine’s second public appearance following her cancer diagnosis and abdominal surgery earlier this year, and she was met with a standing ovation by spectators.

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An Egyptian track cyclist who collided with a rival team-mate will no longer compete in the Paris 2024 Olympics, after the Egyptian Olympic Committee (EOC) ruled that she should be barred over the incident.

The EOC said Shahd Saeed, 19, was not eligible because of the one-year suspension from local competitions that was imposed by the Egyptian Cycling Federation in April.

Many Egyptians had criticised her selection for the Olympics by the federation, whose president had said it was acting “in favour of Egypt”.

In a TV interview following the EOC’s decision, Saeed admitted she was at fault for the crash with Ganna Eliwa but insisted it was “not deliberate”.

“I wish I had represented Egypt in the Olympics and my efforts over three years had paid off,” she told a talk show.

Eliwa, who is also 19, said she was happy that Saeed would be unable to compete.

“It was expected,” she added. “Saeed does not deserve to be at Paris.”

Eliwa was left concussed and with a broken right collarbone and severe cuts and bruises to the right-hand side of her body, according to a medical report, after she was pushed off her bike 300m (980ft) before the finishing line of an event in Suez on 27 April.

In video footage of the incident, Saeed is seen riding behind Eliwa before she swerves, forcing Eliwa into the barrier. The latter underwent an operation to fix her right shoulder, suffered temporary loss of memory and is still unable to resume competitive cycling.

Saeed said several times that it was an accident, but Eliwa said she never apologised for what happened. It was unclear what caused Saeed to swerve into her opponent.

After an investigation into the incident, the Egyptian Cycling Federation suspended Saeed from the sport for one year and fined her the equivalent of $100 (£77) – the maximum penalty.

Despite that, the federation still registered her for the track cycling at the Olympics.

The decision sparked public anger in Egypt. Many social media users urged authorities to reconsider, with some saying the selection violated the values of Olympism – excellence, respect and friendship.

In a statement issued late on Saturday, the EOC noted that the cycling federation had found that Saeed violated “the regulations, customs, values and ethics of sports” during April’s event.

“Shahd Saeed is not eligible to participate in any international competition, including the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, due to her one-year suspension until 26 April 2025,” it said.

The EOC also urged Egyptian media and public to support the remaining members of the national team at the Olympics.

Hungary’s Viktor Orban has no peace plan of his own, but he has spent the past two weeks on a whistle-stop tour of Kyiv, Moscow, Azerbaijan, Beijing, Washington and even Mar-a-Lago, on a one-man mission that has infuriated leaders in the EU and US.

“Peace will not come by itself in the Russia-Ukraine war, someone has to make it,” he proclaims in videos posted daily on his Facebook page.

He has been bitterly attacked by both Brussels and Washington for breaking EU and Nato unity and cosying up to Vladimir Putin and China’s leader Xi Jinping.

Few argue with his central premise, that there can be no peace without peacemakers. But his close economic relationship with Russia’s president leaves him open to the charge of acting as Mr Putin’s puppet.

The right-wing Hungarian PM says a ceasefire tied to a specific deadline would be a start.

“I am not negotiating on behalf of anyone,” he told Hungarian radio during a brief stopover in Budapest between visits to Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv and Mr Putin in Moscow.

For the next six months, Hungary holds the rotating presidency of the European Union.

Mr Orban followed up his first visit to Kyiv since the start of the war with the first trip by an EU leader to Russia since April 2022. That visit to the Kremlin clearly angered his European partners.

Charles Michel, the head of the European Council of 27 EU governments, said the rotating presidency gave no mandate to engage with Russia on the EU’s behalf.

Mr Orban admitted that was the case, but insisted: “I’m clarifying the facts… I’m asking questions.”

In Kyiv he posed “three or four” to President Zelensky “so that we can understand his intentions, and where the red line is, the boundary up to which he can go in the interest of peace”.

He has also been generous in his praise of two other allies, Xi Jinping and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Meeting Mr Erdogan on arrival at the Nato summit in Washington, he spoke of him as “the only man who has overseen an agreement between Russia and Ukraine” so far, referring to a now defunct Black Sea grain agreement.

“China not only loves peace but has also put forward a series of constructive and important initiatives [for resolving the war],” he said of President Xi Jinping, according to Chinese state media.

The final visit on his whirlwind tour was to presidential candidate Donald Trump, another close ally who he strongly backs to win again in November and who he refers to as a man of peace.

In one interview, he declared that during Trump’s four-year term as president “he did not initiate a single war”.

This has been a remarkable trip in the international limelight for the leader of a small East European country with 9.7 million inhabitants. But who is it designed to impress, and could it have any effect?

A key target of his message is the domestic public.

Viktor Orban has had a relatively bad year so far, losing the two most prominent female politicians in his party to a scandal in February, and witnessing the emergence of his first serious challenger for more than a decade – Peter Magyar.

In June, Mr Orban’s Fidesz party won an impressive 45% in European elections, to 30% for Mr Magyar’s three-month-old Tisza party.

But he lost more than 700,000 votes (one in four) compared with the last parliamentary elections in 2022.

For the first time, he does not look invincible.

What better way to show Hungarians that their leader was still strong than to parade across the world stage, in a global tour “to make peace”?

His mission was also targeted at an international public, in the week that his new Patriots for Europe (PfE) group in the European Parliament attracted 84 MEPs from mainly far-right parties in 11 countries.

Patriots for Europe has emerged as the third largest faction in parliament, edging aside the rival Conservatives and Reformist group of Italy’s Giorgia Meloni.

Mr Orban’s visit to Moscow won him effusive praise from the Russians: “We take it very, very positively. We believe it can be very useful,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

The US was less impressed.

“We would welcome, of course, actual diplomacy with Russia to make it clear to Russia that they need to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty, that they need to respect Ukraine’s territorial integrity,” said US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller. “But that is not at all what this visit appears to have been.”

At the same time, the US did welcome Mr Orban’s first visit to neighbouring Ukraine since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion.

The Hungarian leader has given very little away about the actual content of his talks in Kyiv, Moscow or Beijing.

A leaked version of his letter to Charles Michel, sent from Azerbaijan, offers some clues.

Mr Putin was open to a ceasefire, Mr Orban told the European Council president, provided it did not provide Ukraine with a chance to reorganise its army on the front lines.

Three days earlier in Kyiv, on 2 July, the Ukrainian leader used a similar argument, telling Mr Orban that the Russians would abuse any ceasefire to regroup their invading forces.

Mr Orban was apparently “surprised” that President Zelensky still believed Ukraine could win back its lost territories.

And Vladimir Putin told Mr Orban that “time favours Russian forces”, according to the leaked letter.

Arriving in Washington days later, Mr Orban posted yet another video on Facebook, saying he would argue that Nato “should return to its original spirit: Nato should win peace, not the wars around it”.

Unlike his Nato allies, Viktor Orban views Russia’s two-and-a-half year war in Ukraine as a civil war between two Slav nations, prolonged by US support for one of them.

One thing he probably does agree on is that this autumn the conflict will become only worse.

A Trump presidential victory in November, he believes, would force the Ukrainians and Russians to the negotiating table.

Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, has shocked many Nigerians after saying he doesn’t own a house outside the country.

Mr Dangote said he had two houses – in his home town of Kano, and Lagos – and lived in a rented apartment whenever he visits the capital, Abuja.

He was listed by Forbes magazine in January as Africa’s richest man for the 13th year in a row despite the country’s economic difficulties.

His fortune rose by $400m over the last year, giving him a net worth of $13.9bn (£10.7bn), Forbes said at the time.

The 66-year-old businessman made his fortune in cement and sugar – and last year opened an oil refinery in Nigeria’s economic hub, Lagos.

The industrialist made the disclosure while speaking to journalists at the Dangote Petroleum Refinery on Sunday.

His comments surprised many in a country where the rich elite have a reputation for their opulent lifestyles.

Many wealthy Nigerians own houses in London, Dubai and Atlanta.

His comments have elicited a wide reaction on social media, with some saying it is a wise business decision as it is cheaper to pay rent than to buy a house.

For Mr Dangote, the reason is simply because he wants to see Nigeria grow.

“The reason I don’t have a London or America house is solely because I wanted to focus on industrialization in Nigeria,” he said.

“I am very passionate about the Nigeria dream and apart from my Lagos house, I have another one in my home state, Kano, and a rented one in Abuja.

“If I have houses all over, in America and co, I would not be able to concentrate and build something for my people.”

Mr Dangote is known to own an opulent residence in Lagos’ popular Banana Island, where many high-profile Nigerians also have mansions.

His house in his home state of Kano is a modest one and was used to received his guests following the death of his brother Sani Dangote in 2021.

Public affairs analyst Sani Bala said Mr Dangote was setting a very good example.

“Nigerians need to be re-oriented to understand owning several mansions is not an achievement when the money would be needed elsewhere.

“Dangote said he sold his house in London in 1996 and I am sure monies realised from the sale was put back in his business – that is the way to go.”

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Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame, feared and admired in equal measure, is seeking to extend his 24-year rule in an election analysts say he will win by a landslide.

He has dominated every election since becoming president in 2000, with over 90% of the vote. In 2017 he won with a staggering 99% in an election criticised by human rights groups.

Mr Kagame, 66, is accused of not allowing any real opposition and ruthlessly targeting his critics, even outside the country.

He faces the only two contenders who were authorised to run – other candidates were barred by the state-run electoral commission.

Mr Kagame cast his vote without speaking to reporters.

He has been the real force in Rwanda since his rebel forces took power at the end of the 1994 genocide which killed some 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

Since then, he has been praised for overseeing the country’s dramatic economic revival and unifying the country.

“Rwanda was 30 years ago essentially written off – but thanks to some extent to the leadership under Kagame and his ruling party, Rwanda managed to build some stability,” Dr Felix Ndahinda, a scholar on the Great Lakes region, told the BBC.

Mr Kagame has always fiercely defended Rwanda’s record on human rights, saying his country respects political freedoms.

But one analyst told the BBC the election was a mere “formality”.

About nine million people are registered to vote, according to the electoral body, and at least two million are first-time voters.

Counting has already begun at polling stations and provisional results might be announced by Tuesday morning.

Voters are electing the president and 53 members of the lower House of Parliament on Monday, while 27 other MPs will be chosen on Tuesday.

“I am very excited about voting for my first time, I can’t wait,” Sylvia Mutoni told the BBC.

For most young people in Rwanda, Mr Kagame is the only leader they have ever known.

Even while vice-president and defence minister from 1994 to 2000 he was the country’s real leader, and has been president since 2000.

• Rwanda’s 99% man who wants to extend his three decades in power
• Rwanda genocide: My return home after 30 years

The two opposition candidates – Frank Habineza, of the Democratic Green Party and independent Philippe Mpayimana – both ran in the 2017 election, where they took just over 1% of the vote between them.

But they are undeterred.

Mr Habineza cast his vote in the capital, Kigali, on Monday morning and said he hoped his party can get 20 MPs – 10 times the number of seats his party secured in 2017.

Before the election, he told the BBC Focus on Africa podcast: “I believe democracy is a process.

“People still have a fear of expressing their opinions. I’m fighting for freedom of speech, freedom of the media,” he said.

And some Rwandans are listening to him. One voter told the BBC he would not be voting for the incumbent president.

Celestin Mutuyeyezu, 28, used to support Mr Kagame, but this election has been swayed by Mr Habineza.

“He said great things on fighting unemployment, and he’s got me,” he said.

But defeating President Kagame may prove difficult.

Diane Rwigara, an outspoken critic of the president, was barred from running in the election. She was also disqualified in 2017.

“Rwanda is portrayed as a country where the economy has been growing. But on the ground, it’s different. People do lack the basics of life, food, water, shelter,” she told the BBC.

The electoral commission said she had failed to provide correct documentation.

Though the country continues to struggle with high rates of youth unemployment, it is one of the fastest-growing economies in Africa.

Mr Kagame is credited for Rwanda’s remarkable economic transformation and stability over the last three decades.

Rwanda is known globally for its clean capital city and having the world’s highest proportion of female MPs, 61%.

In the book Rwanda, Inc. American authors Patricia Crisafulli and Andrea Redmond describe Mr Kagame more as a company CEO than a political leader because of “his drive for excellence” in every sector in the country.

He is also a shrewd politician.

Despite often criticising the West, he tries to cultivate useful allies – for example by working with the UK on its now-abandoned scheme to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda.

Rwanda has also been flexing its soft power on the international stage, by building its appeal through sports, culture, and entertainment.

The small East African country is home to the African Basketball League, which is a partnership with the NBA. It hosted the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in 2022 and international stars like Kendrick Lamar have played concerts there.

But Mr Kagame’s diplomacy also has a very tough side.

The election comes days after a UN report said there were some 4,000 Rwandan troops in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, where they are accused of backing the M23 rebel group.

Rwanda did not deny the allegation and told the BBC the DR Congo government lacked the political will to resolve the crisis in its mineral-rich east, which has witnessed decades of unrest.

On the campaign trail Mr Kagame promised to protect Rwanda from “external aggression” amid tensions with neighbouring DR Congo and Burundi.

• The genocide orphans still searching for their names
• Rwanda genocide: ‘I forgave my husband’s killer – our children married’
• Rwanda’s 100 days of slaughter

We asked our readers to send in their best pictures on the theme of “time”. Here is a selection of the photographs we received from around the world.

The next theme is “in the kitchen” and the deadline for entries is 6 August 2024.

The pictures will be published later that week and you will be able to find them, along with other galleries, on the In Pictures section of the BBC News website.

You can upload your entries directly here or email them to yourpics@bbc.co.uk.

Terms and conditions apply.

Further details and themes are at: We set the theme, you take the pictures.

All photographs subject to copyright.

“I’m a ‘never Trump’ guy. I never liked him.”

“My god what an idiot.”

“I find him reprehensible.”

That was from JD Vance in interviews and on Twitter in 2016, when the publication of his memoir Hillbilly Elegy catapulted him to fame.

In the same year, he wrote privately to an associate on Facebook: “I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical asshole … or that he’s America’s Hitler”.

A few short years later, Mr Vance transformed himself into one of Trump’s steadfast allies.

The first-term senator from Ohio is now by Trump’s side as vice-presidential running mate – and, by extension, an early frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination in 2028 – with a reliably conservative voting record and Midwestern roots that Republicans hope will boost support at the ballot box.

In fact, Mr Vance has made something of a habit of transformation. How did he emerge from a tough upbringing to reach the highest levels of American politics?

Mr Vance was born James David Bowman in Middletown, Ohio, to a mother who struggled with addiction and a father who left the family when JD was a toddler.

He was raised by his grandparents, “Mamaw” and “Papaw”, whom he sympathetically portrayed in his 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy.

Although Middletown is located in rust-belt Ohio, Mr Vance identified closely with his family’s roots slightly to the south in Appalachia, the vast mountainous inland region that stretches from the Deep South to the fringes of the industrial Midwest. It includes some of the country’s poorest areas.

Mr Vance painted an honest portrait of the trials, travails and bad decisions of his family members and friends. And his book also took a decidedly conservative view – describing them as chronic spendthrifts, dependent on welfare payments and mostly failing to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.

He wrote that he saw Appalachians “reacting to bad circumstances in the worst way possible” and that they were products of “a culture that encourages social decay instead of counteracting it”.

“The truth is hard,” he wrote, “and the hardest truths for hill people are the ones they must tell about themselves.”

While he poured scorn on “elites” and exclusive society, he painted himself as a counterpoint to the chronic failure of those he grew up with.

By the time the book came out, Mr Vance’s own bootstrap tugging had slung him far away from Middletown: first to the US Marines and a tour of duty in Iraq, and later to Ohio State University, Yale Law School and a job as a venture capitalist in California.

Hillbilly Elegy made him not only into a bestselling author, but a sought-after commentator who was frequently called upon to explain Donald Trump’s appeal to white, working-class voters.

He rarely missed an opportunity to criticise the then-Republican nominee.

“I think this election is really having a negative effect especially on the white working class,” he told an interviewer in October 2016.

“What it’s doing is giving people an excuse to point the finger at someone else, point the finger at Mexican immigrants, or Chinese trade or the Democratic elites or whatever else.”

In 2017 Mr Vance returned to Ohio and continued to work in venture capital. He and his wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance, whom he met at Yale, have three children – Ewan, Vivek and Mirabel.

As the child of Indian immigrants who grew up in San Diego, Usha Vance has a very different background from her husband. She also attended Yale as an undergraduate and received a masters degree from University of Cambridge. She served as a clerk to Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts after law school and is currently a litigator.

Mr Vance’s name was long whispered about as a political candidate, and he saw an opportunity when Ohio’s Republican senator Rob Portman decided not to run for re-election in 2022.

Although his campaign was initially slow to get going, he got a kick-start via a $10m (£7.7m) donation by his former boss, Silicon Valley power broker Peter Thiel. But the real hurdle stopping him from getting elected in increasingly Republican Ohio was his past criticism of Trump.

He apologised for his previous remarks and managed to mend fences and earn Trump’s endorsement, pushing him to the top of the Republican field and eventually into the Senate.

In the process, Mr Vance has become an increasingly important player in the world of Make America Great Again politics – and has signed up almost completely to Trump’s agenda.

In the Senate he has been a reliable conservative vote, backing populist economic policies and emerging as one of the biggest congressional sceptics of aid to Ukraine.

Given his short tenure in the Democrat-led chamber, the bills he has sponsored have rarely moved forward, and have more often been about sending messages than changing policy.

In recent months, Mr Vance introduced bills to withhold federal funds for colleges where there are encampments or protests against Israel’s war in Gaza, and to colleges that employ undocumented immigrants.

Mr Vance also sponsored legislation in March that would cut the Chinese government off from US capital markets if it does not follow international trade law.

He hit all of these themes at a recent speech at the Maga-friendly National Conservatism Conference where he declared: “The real threat to American democracy is that American voters keep on voting for less immigration and our politicians keep on rewarding us with more.”

He said the idea of the American Dream – “This very basic idea that you should be able to build a good life for yourself and your family in the country you call home” was “under siege by the left”.

And he said that American involvement in Ukraine had “no obvious conclusion or even objective that we’re close to getting accomplished”.

Also at the conference, he said the UK was “not doing so good” because of immigration and claimed that under a Labour government, the country had become the “first truly Islamist country” with a nuclear bomb.

Mr Vance, who was baptised as a Catholic in 2019, is anti-abortion. He recently backed Trump’s view that the matter was for states to decide.

When his Hitler comment was first reported, in 2022, a spokesperson did not dispute it, but said it no longer represented his views.

Mr Vance received waves of loud applause when he entered the convention arena in Milwaukee on Monday. He walked over to the Ohio contingent and, looking somewhat in awe of the scene, took selfies with delegates as he was being introduced.

“He’s from humble beginnings and he’s young,” said delegate Amanda Suffecool, the party’s chair in Portage County, in north-east Ohio. “A lot of people are going to think he looks like him.”

Mr Vance was also one of the first top Republicans to point the finger at Democrat campaign talk in the wake of the attempted assassination of Trump.

“The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,” he posted on X hours after the shooting. “That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”

In comment on Monday, President Biden called him a “clone of Trump” – perhaps indicating how Democrats will attempt to paint a candidate as being on the very right wing of the Republican party.

A small town mayor in the Philippines who has been accused of being a Chinese spy has gone into hiding, officials said.

Police could not carry out a warrant for the arrest of Alice Guo over the weekend as she was not at any of her known addresses.

Scam centres were uncovered in Ms Guo’s town of Bamban in March, concealed in online casinos that cater to mainland Chinese.

Her story has played out like a TV drama, as she had also been questioned on her Chinese parentage and suspicions that she was working as an “asset” or spy for Beijing.

Ms Guo’s case has gripped the nation as Manila and Beijing continue to spar over reefs and outcrops in the South China Sea.

The Senate ordered the arrest of Ms Guo and some members of her family last Friday after she twice snubbed summons to appear in hearings on the scam centres.

“Show yourselves. Hiding will not erase the truth,” Senator Risa Hontiveros, who is leading parliament’s investigation on Ms Guo, said in a statement.

Ms Guo has denied wrongdoing. She claims her Chinese father and Filipina mother raised her on their pig farm.

But Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, who is part of the investigation, claims Ms Guo is a Chinese national whose real name is Guo Hua Ping, based on immigration records.

“She is hiding to evade arrest,” Mr Gatchalian told local radio. “Our tracker teams will continue looking for her.”

On the day the arrest warrant was signed, Ms Guo posted a statement on Facebook, addressing her constituents and alluding to the fact that she would not be around.

“Sorry for not being physically present with each one of you. I miss you all,” she said, adding her absence would be “temporary”.

In the post, she added that she did not regret joining politics, even if it hurt her so much that she “almost lost myself”.

“I am a Filipino with a big heart for Bamban. I love the Philippines very much,” she said.

Ms Guo’s lawyer, Nicole Jamilla, told local television that her client would “definitely” cooperate with official investigations.

Aside from the investigation by the Senate, Ms Guo is the subject of a separate anti-graft probe that has led to her suspension.

The scam centres in Bamban have underscored how online casinos or Pogos (Philippine Online Gaming Operations) have been used as cover for text scams, human trafficking and other criminal activities.

Crime rings hiding beneath Pogos have even gone to the extent of building hospitals that provide cosmetic surgery to fugitives who want new faces.

Pogos flourished during the tenure of Rodrigo Duterte, whose presidency, which ended in 2022, was marked by close ties to China.

But under current president Ferdinand Marcos, Pogos have come under close scrutiny.

If proven that she is a Chinese citizen, Ms Guo would be not be eligible to serve as mayor. Only Filipino citizens are allowed to hold elective office.

But this does not matter to her constituents who benefit from her social outreach programmes, that are widely documented on her social media pages.

Ms Guo “brought change” to Bamban, and its people are thankful, resident Erica Miclat told ANC television.

The small Pittsburgh suburb of Bethel Park in Pennsylvania is reeling after the FBI named a young local man, Thomas Matthew Crooks, as the person who shot at Donald Trump during a campaign rally and shocked the nation.

Investigators believe that Crooks, armed with a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle, opened fire at the former president while he was addressing a crowd in Butler, Pennsylvania, leaving one audience member dead and two others wounded.

The 20-year-old kitchen worker was shot dead at the scene by a Secret Service sniper, officials said.

In his well-to-do hometown, however, neighbours are in shock, seemingly unable to grasp how a quiet young man is now accused in the shooting.

The FBI, for its part, has said only that Crooks was the “subject involved in the assassination attempt on the former president and that an active investigation was under way.”

• LIVE: All the latest developments after assassination attempt on Trump
• WATCH: How gunman shot at Trump despite public alerting police
• MORE: Secret Service facing questions as investigation launched
• ANALYSIS: Tragedy at Trump rally upends election campaign – for now
• VICTIMS: Who was shot at the Trump rally?

Thomas Crooks had not been carrying ID, so investigators used DNA and facial recognition technology to identify him, the FBI said.

He was from Bethel Park in Pennsylvania, about 70km (43 miles) from the site of the attempted assassination, and graduated in 2022 from Bethel Park High School with a $500 (£385) prize for maths and science, according to a local newspaper.

Crooks worked in a local nursing home kitchen just a short drive away from his home, where staff members have said that he passed a background check and raised no concerns.

The Community College of Allegheny, or CCAC, has confirmed that Crooks attended the school between September 2021 and May 2024. He graduated with an associate degree in engineering science.

In a statement sent to the BBC, the college noted that he graduated “with high honours” and that a review of his records turned up no disciplinary, student conduct or security-related incidents.

State voter records show that he was a registered Republican, according to US media.

He also donated $15 to liberal campaign group ActBlue in 2021, according to an election donation filing and news reports.

He had a membership at a local shooting club, the Clairton Sportsmen’s Club, for at least a year, the club confirmed to the BBC.

The vast club is based south of Pittsburgh and is “one of the premier shooting facilities in the tri-state area” of Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. It has more than 2,000 members.

It has multiple gun ranges, including a high-power rifle facility with targets up to 171 metres away.

The club’s owner, Bill Sellitto, told the BBC that the shooting was a “terrible, terrible thing”. Access to the club is tightly controlled, with only members allowed inside the sprawling facility.

“Obviously, the club fully admonishes the senseless act of violence,” attorney Robert S Bootay III, who represents the organisation, told the BBC.

Law enforcement officials believe the weapon used to shoot at Donald Trump, an AR-style rifle, was purchased by Crooks’ father, according to investigators.

It is unclear how the weapon came into his son’s hands, although there is no suggestion the father had any inkling of what was to take place.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, two officers told AP that Crooks’ father bought the weapon at least six months ago.

Authorities also say that Crooks purchased a box of ammunition containing 50 rounds on the day of the rally, reports CBS, the BBC’s US news partner.

According to US media reports, Crooks was wearing a T-shirt from Demolition Ranch, a YouTube channel known for its guns and demolition content. The channel has millions of subscribers featuring videos on different guns and explosive devices.

The day after the shooting, law enforcement sources also told CBS that suspicious devices were found in Crooks’ vehicle.

According to CBS, the suspect had a piece of commercially available equipment that appeared capable of initiating the devices.

Bomb technicians were called to the scene to secure and investigate the devices.

Having established Crooks’ identity, police and agencies are investigating his motive.

So far, they have been unable to identify one.

On 15 July, the FBI said its forensic experts have successfully accessed Crooks’ phone, and they are examining it and other digital evidence for clues.

The inquiry into what took place could last for months and investigators would work “tirelessly” to identify what Crooks’ motive was, Kevin Rojek, the FBI Pittsburgh special agent in charge, said on the day of the shooting.

Speaking to CNN, Crooks’ father, Matthew Crooks, said he was trying to figure out “what the hell is going on” but would “wait until I talk to law enforcement” before speaking about his son.

Crooks’ family is cooperating with investigators, according to the FBI.

Citing three law enforcement sources, CBS has reported that his father called police after the shooting, although the nature of that call is still unclear.

In total, more than 100 interviews have so far been conducted.

Police sealed off the road to the house where Crooks lived with his parents. The search of the residence was completed on 15 July.

A neighbour told CBS that officers evacuated her in the middle of the night with no warning.

Bethel Park Police said there was a bomb investigation surrounding Crooks’ home.

Access to the area remains controlled, with a police vehicle blocking entry to the street in front of the house.

On Tuesday afternoon, yellow police tape could be seen strung up in front of the residence. The BBC had a clear view of the back of the residence, but could not see any movement inside.

Only residents have been allowed in or out of the street.

Law enforcement sources told CBS that they believe there was some degree of planning ahead of the shooting.

How much time was spent in that planning, however, remains the subject of an ongoing investigation.

Police believe Crooks acted alone, but are continuing to investigate whether he was accompanied to the rally.

So far, a confusing – and at times conflicting – picture has emerged of who Crooks was as a person.

Speaking to local news outlet KDKA, some young locals who went to school with him described him as a loner, who was frequently bullied and sometimes wore “hunting outfits to school”.

Another former classmate of his, Summer Barkley, cast him differently, telling the BBC that he was “always getting good grades on tests” and was “very passionate about history”.

“Anything on government and history he seemed to know about,” she said. “But it was nothing out of the ordinary… he was always nice.”

She described him as well-liked by his teachers.

Others simply remembered him as quiet.

“He was there but I can’t think of anyone who knew him well,” one former classmate, who asked to remain nameless, told the BBC. “He’s just not a guy I really think about. But he seemed fine.”

Another classmate, who similarly did not want to be identified, described him as “intelligent but a little weird.”

Staff at Angelo’s Pizza, a restaurant in Bethel Park, told the BBC they were familiar with Crooks.

The restaurant’s owner, Sara Petko, said that staff members – some of whom were his classmates – thought he was a “loner” but that they were having trouble understanding how an otherwise quiet man turned to violence.

“It’s just crazy, and too close for comfort,” she said. “To think that someone at basically the start of his life could do this.”

Jameson Myers, a former member of the Bethel Park High School varsity rifle team who graduated alongside Crooks in 2022, told CBS that Crooks did not make the team.

“He did not even make the junior varsity team after trying out,” Mr Myers added. “He never returned to try-outs for the remainder of high school.”

Another former classmate told ABC News he “shot terrible” and “wasn’t really fit for the rifle team”. The school district said there was no record of Crooks trying out for the team and he “never appeared on a roster”.

Mr Myers remembers Crooks as seemingly a “normal boy” who was “not particularly popular but never got picked on or anything”.

“He was a nice kid who never talked poorly of anyone and I never have thought him capable of anything I’ve seen him do in the last few days.”

Max Smith, who took an American history course with Crooks, told the Philadelphia Inquirer that his former classmate “definitely was conservative”.

Mr Smith recalled a mock debate in which they both took part, saying: “The majority of the class were on the liberal side, but Tom, no matter what, always stood his ground on the conservative side.”

“It makes me wonder why he would carry out an assassination attempt on the conservative candidate,” he said.

Other community members said simply that they were shocked that the alleged perpetrator of the shooting could have come from the quiet, tree-lined streets of Bethel Park.

Among them was Jason Mackey, a 27-year-old local man who lives near the Crooks residence and worked at his school while he was a student.

While Mr Mackey said that he did not know Crooks personally, he is still reeling from a sense of disbelief.

“It’s just shocking. You wouldn’t think an event of this magnitude would come right out of your backyard,” he said. “It’s just a crazy situation.”

One person was killed and two others were injured in the shooting.

All three victims are adult men and were audience members, CBS News reports.

At a news conference on Sunday, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro identified the deceased victim as Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old volunteer fire chief who was killed when he “dived on his family” to protect them.

He said that Comperatore “died a hero”.

The two people injured in the attack have been identified as 57-year-old David Dutch and 74-year-old James Copenhaver.

Both men are Pennsylvania residents and are in stable condition.

A GoFundMe page, organised by the Trump campaign’s national finance director Meredith O’Rourke, was set up in the hours after the attack with donations going to the families of the injured.

It has so far raised more than $340,000 (£267,000).

In a post to his Truth Social platform, Trump said he was “shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear” and said he felt the bullet “ripping through the skin”.

Blood was visible on Trump’s ear and face as protection officers rushed him away.

Trump is “doing well” and is grateful to law enforcement officers, according to a statement published on the Republican National Committee (RNC) website.

He travelled to Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Sunday, a day after the shooting, to attend the Republican National Convention.

One witness told the BBC that he had seen a man – believed to be Crooks – with a rifle on the roof of a building before Trump was shot.

Video footage obtained by TMZ shows the moment the shooting began.

The assailant opened fire with “an AR-style rifle”, CBS News reports.

Law enforcement sources also told CBS that he was reported by a bystander and identified as a suspicious person by police, but that officers lost track of him before the shooting began.

A Secret Service sniper returned fire and killed the gunman, officials said.

Footage later shows armed officers approaching a body on the roof of the building.

Search teams looking for Jay Slater in Tenerife have found a body near the last known location of the missing British teenager’s mobile phone.

The Guardia Civil said its officers and a mountain rescue unit found the body of a young man in the Masca area “after 29 days of non-stop searching”.

The 19-year-old was last seen on 17 June, after visiting an Airbnb rented by two people he had been with at a music festival on the island.

A police statement said that “initial evidence” suggested the person found had “suffered an accident or fall in the inaccessible zone”.

It added that “the discovery was possible thanks to the incessant and discreet search carried out by the Guardia Civil… in which the natural space was preserved so that it would not be filled with onlookers.”

Police said that “all the evidence” suggested the remains found were those of “the young British man who disappeared”.

Full identification of the body is yet to be carried out, it added.

The charity LBT Global, which works with families of people missing overseas, said that the remains were found along with Mr Slater’s clothes and possessions, close to his mobile phone’s last known location.

The group said it was supporting Mr Slater’s family “at this distressing time and ask for everyone to afford them space and privacy to come to terms with the news”.

Mr Slater’s father Warren Slater described his disappearance as “a living hell”, while his mother Debbie Duncan told of her “pain and agony” as no trace could be found.

The search for Mr Slater since his disappearance has involved his family, friends, police and specialist mountain rescue teams as well as volunteers from several countries.

Most recently the family, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, was helped by a group of Dutch mountain rescuers.

In Mr Slater’s hometown of Oswaldtwistle, news that the search had resulted in the discovery of a body was met with shock.

Paul Fitzpatrick, the landlord of the Hare And Hounds pub, told BBC Radio Lancashire: “If it’s true that it’s him then we are all devastated for his family, his mum especially.

“She has been a good friend to us all, we’ve known Debbie for years. I’ve been here for 17 years… her boy then would have been a baby.

“It’s horrible news if it is confirmed that it is him.”

The Guardia Civil indicated in its statement that it was members of its Mountain Rescue and Intervention Group who located the “lifeless body” of a young man.

Throughout the month since Mr Slater went missing, his family have refused to give up hope.

On Saturday, a statement of an official fundraising page, which has raised more than £50,000 towards search efforts, described him as a “normal, hardworking young lad from Lancashire who is very loved by all who know him”.

“Although we don’t have any answers to his disappearance we obviously have to remain positive,” his friend Lucy Mae Law posted on behalf of his family.

Lancashire Police, which had previously had its offer to help with the search turned down by the Tenerife police, said in a statement that it “had today been notified by the Guardia Civil that they have found the body of a man and that the indications are that this is Jay Slater”.

The statement added: “While at this stage no formal identification has been carried out our thoughts are very much with Jay’s family at this time, and we continue to offer them our support.”

Search teams have had to contend with difficult terrain throughout their search for Mr Slater.

Tenerife is a volcanic island in the Atlantic ocean archipelago of the Canary Islands, and the area in which Mr Slater was last seen is full of steep cliffs and gorges.

The land is arid and dotted with cacti.

In his last phone call to his friend Ms Law shortly before his phone battery died, Mr Slater is said to have told her that he was bleeding and needed water.

Another friend of Mr Slater, Brad Hargreaves, later said in a television interview that Mr Slater had video called him just before the call to Ms Law, and had indicated he had slipped off the road he was walking.

Within days of Mr Slater’s disappearance, social media was awash with theories about what had happened to him, including suggestions of foul play.

The Guardia Civil has never suggested they believed any harm had come to Mr Slater by any other person or people.

But that did not do anything to quell the rampant speculation.

His family and friends said they had found themselves the victims of online trolls.

Rachel Hargreaves, the mother of Mr Slater’s friend Bradley Hargreaves, told the BBC she had received a friend request from a fake account using her late mother’s photo as its profile picture.

She said “things don’t normally get to me”, but that had affected her.

“We’re living the worst nightmare you can live and this does not help,” she said.

Mr Slater’s mother also made reference to the upset caused by the online frenzy around the case.

“There is a lot of negativity unfortunately and this is adding to the heartbreak of the unknown”, she said in an update on the GoFundMe page, set up to help pay for the search.

When two young Brazilian women were reported missing in September 2022, their families and the FBI launched a desperate search across the US to find them. All they knew was that they were living with wellness influencer Kat Torres.

Torres has now been sentenced to eight years in prison for the human trafficking and slavery of one of those women. The BBC World Service has also been told that charges have been filed against her in relation to a second woman.

How did the former model who partied with Leonardo DiCaprio and graced the cover of international magazines come to groom her followers and lure them into sexual exploitation?

“She kind of resembled hope for me,” says Ana, describing her reaction on stumbling across Torres’ Instagram page in 2017.

Ana was not one of the missing women targeted in the FBI search – but she too was a victim of Torres’ coercion and would be key to their rescue.

She says she was attracted to Torres’ trajectory from impoverished Brazilian favela to international catwalks, partying with Hollywood A-listers along the way.

“She seemed like she had overcome violence in her childhood, abuse, all these traumatic experiences,” Ana told BBC Eye Investigations and BBC News Brasil.

Ana was in a vulnerable situation herself. She says she had suffered a violent childhood, moved alone to the US from southern Brazil, and was previously in an abusive relationship.

Torres had recently published her autobiography called A Voz [The Voice], in which she claimed she could make predictions as a result of her spiritual powers, and had been interviewed on reputable Brazilian media shows.

“She was on the cover of magazines. She was seen with famous people such as Leonardo DiCaprio. Everything I saw seemed credible,” she says.

Ana says she was particularly taken with Torres’ approach to spirituality.

What Ana didn’t know was that the inspirational story Torres told was based on half-truths and lies.

Torres’ ex-flatmate in New York, Luzer Twersky, told us that her Hollywood friends had introduced her to the hallucinogenic drug ayahuasca, and she was never the same again.

”That’s when she kind of… started going off the deep end,” he says.

He said he also believed that she was working as a sugar baby – paid for romantic involvement with wealthy and powerful men who were also paying for the flat they shared together.

Torres’ wellness website and subscription service promised customers: “Love, money and self-esteem that you always dreamed of.” Self-help videos offered advice on relationships, wellness, business success and spirituality – including hypnosis, meditation and exercise programmes.

For an extra $150 (£120) clients could unlock exclusive one-to-one video consultations with Torres during which she would claim to solve any of their problems.

Amanda, another former client who lives in the Brazilian capital, says Kat made her feel special.

“All my doubts, my questions, my decisions: I always took them to her first, so that we could make decisions together,” she says.

But it appears that advice had a dark side. Ana, Amanda, and other former followers say they found themselves becoming increasingly psychologically isolated from friends and family and willing to do anything Torres suggested.

When Torres asked Ana in 2019 to move to New York to work as her live-in assistant, she agreed. She had been studying nutrition at university in Boston, but arranged to study online instead, and says she accepted the offer to look after Torres’ animals – and do her cooking, laundry and cleaning – for about $2000 (£1,564) a month.

Like, Follow, Trafficked: Insta’s Fake Guru

BBC Eye Investigations and BBC News Brasil uncover the truth behind the rise of wellness influencer and spiritual life coach, Kat Torres, and the international search for her trafficked followers

Watch now on BBC iPlayer (UK Only) or on the BBC World Service YouTube channel (outside UK)

When she arrived at Torres’ apartment, though, she quickly realised it did not match the curated perfection projected on the influencer’s Instagram.

“It was shocking because the house was really messy, really dirty, didn’t smell good,” she says.

Ana says Torres seemed unable to do even basic things without her, like taking a shower, because she couldn’t bear to be alone. She describes having to constantly be available for Torres, only being allowed to sleep for a few hours at a time, on a sofa covered in cat urine.

She says some days she would hide in the apartment building’s gym, grabbing a few hours’ sleep rather than working out.

“Now, I see that she was using me as a slave… she had satisfaction in it,” Ana says.

Ana says she was never paid.

“I felt like, ‘I’m stuck here, I don’t have a way out,’” she says. “I was probably one of her first victims of human trafficking.”

She had given up her university accommodation back in Boston, so she had nowhere to return to, and no income to pay for alternative housing.

Ana says when she tried to confront Torres, she became aggressive, triggering Ana’s painful history with domestic violence.

Eventually, after three months, Ana found a way to escape by moving in with a new boyfriend.

But that wasn’t the end of Ana’s role in Torres’ life. When the families of two other young Brazilian women reported them missing in September 2022, Ana knew she had to act.

By this point, Torres’ life had grown in scale. She was now married to a man called Zach, a 21-year-old she had met in California, and they were renting a five-bedroom house in the suburbs of Austin, Texas.

Repeating the pattern she had begun with Ana, Torres had targeted her most dedicated followers, trying to recruit them to come and work for her. In return, she had promised to help them achieve their dreams, capitalising on the intimate personal details they had shared with her during life-coaching sessions.

Desirrê Freitas, a Brazilian woman living in Germany, and Brazilian Letícia Maia – the two women whose disappearance would go on to spark the FBI-led search – moved to live with Torres. Another Brazilian woman, who we are calling Sol, was also recruited.

Posting on her social media channels, Torres introduced her “witch clan” to her followers.

The BBC has discovered at least four more women were almost persuaded to join Torres in the house but had pulled out.

Some of the women were too scared to appear in the BBC’s film – afraid of receiving online abuse and still traumatised by their experiences – but we have been able to verify their accounts using court documents, text messages, bank statements, and Desirrê’s memoir about her experiences – @Searching Desirrê, published by DISRUPTalks.

Desirrê says that in her case, Torres had bought her a plane ticket from Germany, having told her she was suicidal and needed Desirrê’s support.

Torres is also accused of persuading Letícia, who was 14 when she started life-coaching sessions with her, to move to the US for an au pair programme and then drop out to live and work with her.

As for Sol, she says she agreed to move in with Torres after becoming homeless and was hired to carry out tarot readings and yoga classes.

But it was not long before the women discovered their reality was very different to the fairytale they had been promised.

Within weeks, Desirrê says Torres pressured her into working at a local strip club, saying if she did not comply Desirrê would have to repay all the money she had spent on her: flights, accommodation, furniture for her room, and even the “witchcraft” Torres had performed. Desirrê says not only she did not have this money, she also believed at the time in the spiritual powers Torres claimed to have, so when Torres threatened to curse her for not following orders she was terrified.

Reluctantly, Desirrê agreed to work as a stripper.

A manager from the strip club, James, told the BBC she would work extremely long hours, seven days a week.

Desirrê and Sol say the women in the Austin mansion were subjected to strict house rules. They describe being forbidden from speaking to each other, needing Torres’ permission to leave their rooms – even to use the bathroom – and being required to immediately hand over all earnings.

“It was very difficult to, you know, get out of the situation because she holds your money,” Sol told the BBC.

“It was terrifying. I thought something could happen to me because she had all my information, my passport, my driving licence.”

But Sol says she realised she needed to somehow escape after overhearing a phone call in which Torres was telling another client she must work as a prostitute in Brazil as a “punishment”.

Sol was able to leave with the help of an ex-boyfriend.

Meanwhile, the guns Torres’ husband kept began to regularly feature on her Instagram stories, and became a source of fear for the remaining women.

Around this time, Desirrê says Torres tried to persuade her to swap the strip club for work as a prostitute. She says she refused and the following day Torres took her on a surprise day out to a gun range.

Scared, Desirrê says she eventually gave in to Torres’ demand.

“Many questions haunted me: ‘Could I stop whenever I wanted?’” Desirrê writes in her book.

“And if the condom broke, would I get a disease? Could [the client] be an undercover cop and arrest me? What if he killed me?”

If the women didn’t meet the earning quotas that Torres set, which had risen from $1,000 (£782) to $3,000 (£2,345) a day, they were not allowed to return to the house that night, they say.

“I ended up sleeping on the street several times because I couldn’t reach that,” Desirrê adds.

Bank statements, seen by the BBC, show Desirrê transferring more than $21,000 (£16,417) into Torres’ account in June and July 2022 alone. She says that she was forced to hand over a substantially higher figure in cash.

Prostitution is illegal in Texas and Desirrê says Torres would threaten to report her to the police if she ever talked about wanting to stop.

In September, friends and family of Desirrê and Letícia back in Brazil launched social media campaigns to find them, having become increasingly concerned following months without contact.

By this time, they were barely recognisable. Their brunette hair had been dyed platinum blonde to eerily match Torres’. Desirrê says by this point all her phone contacts had been blocked and she obeyed the influencer’s orders without question.

As the Instagram page @searchingDesirrê gained momentum, the story dominated news outlets in Brazil. Desirrê’s friends even worried she might have been murdered, and Letícia’s family put out desperate pleas for their safe return home.

Ana, having lived with Torres in 2019, said alarm bells rang as soon as she saw the news stories. She says she immediately guessed that “[Torres] was keeping other girls”.

• More information and support about human trafficking and modern slavery is available via BBC Action Line.

Along with other former clients, Ana began to contact as many law enforcement agencies as possible, including the FBI, in an attempt to get the influencer arrested. Five months earlier, both she and Sol had reported Torres to the US police – but say they weren’t taken seriously.

In a video she recorded at the time for evidence, since shared with the BBC, a distressed Ana can be heard saying, “this person is very dangerous and she has already threatened to kill me”.

Then the missing women’s profiles on escort and prostitution websites were discovered. Suspicions of sexual exploitation, shared on social media, appeared to be confirmed.

Panicked by the media attention, Torres and the women travelled more than 2,000 miles (3,219 km) from Texas to Maine. In chilling Instagram videos, Desirrê and Letícia denied being held captive and demanded people stop searching for them.

But a recording, obtained by BBC News, gives an insight into what was really happening at this time. By now the US authorities were aware of the concerns about the women’s safety. Homeland security had tipped off a police officer who managed to FaceTime Torres to check on the women. But just before this starts, Torres can be heard saying on the video:

“He will start asking questions. Guys, they are full of tricks. He’s a detective, be very careful. For God’s sake, I’ll kick you out if you say anything. I’ll scream.”

In November 2022, the police finally convinced Torres and the two other women to attend a welfare check in person at Franklin County Sheriff’s Office in Maine.

The detective who questioned Torres, Desirrê and Letícia – Detective David Davol – told the BBC he and his colleagues had been immediately concerned, noticing a number of red flags, including a distrust of law enforcement, isolation and their reluctance to speak without Torres’ permission.

“Human traffickers aren’t always like in the movies, where you have… a gang that kidnapped people. It’s far more common that it’s someone you trust.”

By December 2022, the two women had been safely returned to Brazil.

Det Davol says, in his experience, human trafficking is on the rise. His observation is backed up by the UN, which says it is one of the fastest growing crimes, generating an estimated $150bn (£117bn) in profits a year worldwide.

He believes social media gives it a platform on which to thrive, making it much easier for traffickers to find and groom victims.

In April this year, our team was granted a rare court order to interview Torres in a Brazilian prison – the first media interview with her since her arrest. At that point, she was still waiting for the verdict of a trial against her relating to her treatment of Desirrê.

Smiling, Torres approached us with a calm and collected demeanour.

She was adamant that she was completely innocent, denying that any women had ever lived with her or that she had ever coerced anyone to take part in sex work.

“When I was seeing the people testifying, they were saying so many lies. So many lies that at one point, I couldn’t stop laughing,” she told us.

“People are saying I am a fake guru, but at the same time, they are also saying that… ‘She is a danger to society because she can change people’s mind with her words.’”

When we confronted her with the evidence that we ourselves had seen, she became more hostile, accusing us of lying too.

“You choose to believe whatever you choose to believe. I can tell you I’m Jesus. And you can see Jesus, or you can see the devil, that’s it. It’s your choice. It’s your mind.”

As she got up to return to her cell, she issued a parting threat, claiming we would soon find out if she had powers or not. She pointed at me, and said: “I didn’t like her.”

The BBC can reveal that earlier this month Torres was sentenced by a Brazilian judge to eight years in prison for subjecting Desirrê to human trafficking and slavery. He concluded that she had lured the young woman to the US for the purpose of sexual exploitation.

More than 20 women have reported being scammed or exploited by Torres – many of whom the BBC has spoken to and are still undergoing psychiatric therapy to recover from what they say they experienced as a result of her treatment of them.

Torres’ lawyer told the BBC she has appealed her conviction and maintains her innocence.

An investigation into the allegations from other women is ongoing in Brazil.

Ana believes yet further victims may come forward, once they read about Torres’ crimes. This is the first time Ana has spoken publicly.

She says she wants people to recognise that Torres’ actions amount to a serious crime and not some “Instagram drama”.

In the closing pages of her book Desirrê also reflects on her experiences.

“I’m not fully recovered yet, I’ve had a challenging year. I was sexually exploited, enslaved and imprisoned.

“I hope my story serves as a warning.”

You can get in touch by following this link

Scientists have for the first time discovered a cave on the Moon.

At least 100m deep, it could be an ideal place for humans to build a permanent base, they say.

It is just one in probably hundreds of caves hidden in an “underground, undiscovered world”, according to the researchers.

Countries are racing to establish a permanent human presence on the Moon, but they will need to protect astronauts from radiation, extreme temperatures, and space weather.

Helen Sharman, the first British astronaut to travel to space, told BBC News that the newly-discovered cave looked like a good place for a base, and suggested humans could potentially be living in lunar pits in 20-30 years.

But, she said, this cave is so deep that astronauts might need to abseil in and use “jet packs or a lift” to get out.

Lorenzo Bruzzone and Leonardo Carrer at the University of Trento in Italy found the cave by using radar to penetrate the opening of a pit on a rocky plain called the Mare Tranquillitatis.

It is visible to the naked eye from Earth, and is also where Apollo 11 landed in 1969.

The cave has a skylight on the Moon’s surface, leading down to vertical and overhanging walls, and a sloping floor that might extend further underground.

It was made millions or billions of years ago when lava flowed on the Moon, creating a tunnel through the rock.

The closest equivalent on Earth would be the volcanic caves in Lanzarote, Spain, Prof Carrer explains, adding that the researchers visited those caves as part of their work.

“It’s really exciting. When you make these discoveries and you look at these images, you realise you’re the first person in the history of humanity to see it,” Prof Carrer said.

Once Prof Bruzzone and Prof Carrer understood how big the cave was, they realised it could be a good spot for a lunar base.

“After all, life on Earth began in caves, so it makes sense that humans could live inside them on the Moon,” says Prof Carrer.

The cave has yet to be fully explored, but the researchers hope that ground-penetrating radar, cameras or even robots could be used to map it.

Scientists first realised there were probably caves on the Moon around 50 years ago. Then in 2010 a camera on a mission called the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter took pictures of pits that scientists thought could be cave entrances.

But researchers did not know how deep the caves might be, or if they would have collapsed.

Prof Bruzzone and Prof Carrer’s work has now answered that question, although there is much more to be done to understand the full scale of the cave.

“We have very good images of the surface – up to 25cm of resolution – we can see the Apollo landing sites – but we know nothing about what lies below the surface. There are huge opportunities for discovery,” Francesco Sauro, Coordinator of the Topical Team Planetary Caves of the European Space Agency, told BBC News.

The research may also help us explore caves on Mars in the future, he says.

That could open the door to finding evidence of life on Mars, because if it did exist, it would almost certainly have been inside caves protected from the elements on the planet’s surface.

The Moon cave might be useful to humans, but the scientists also stress that it could help answer fundamental questions about the history of the Moon, and even our solar system.

The rocks inside the cave will not be as damaged or eroded by space weather, so they can provide an extensive geological record going back billions of years.

The research is published in the scientific journal Nature Astronomy.

A Florida judge has dismissed the US justice department’s classified documents case against Donald Trump in a huge victory for the former president just days after a gunman attempted to assassinate him.

Judge Aileen Cannon granted Mr Trump’s motion to dismiss the federal case on the basis that the justice department’s appointment of special prosecutor Jack Smith violates the Appointments Clause of the US Constitution.

He pleaded not guilty to several charges in the case over his handling of classified documents, including wilful retention of national defence information.

A spokesman for Mr Smith said that the justice department has authorised an appeal.

Dozens of classified files were found in Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, including in a shower and storage room, after he left the White House in 2021.

“The Court is convinced that Special Counsel’s Smith’s prosecution of this action breaches two structural cornerstones of our constitutional scheme—the role of Congress in the appointment of constitutional officers, and the role of Congress in authorizing expenditures by law,” Judge Cannon concluded in her 93-page order.

The former president faced multiple felony counts over his alleged mishandling of classified documents.

The 37-count indictment accused Mr Trump of keeping files at his Florida estate and lying to investigators. It alleged he then tried to obstruct the investigation into the handling of the documents.

He was charged alongside aide Walt Nauta and former employee Carlos de Oliveira, who had also pleaded not guilty.

Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Mr Smith in 2022 to oversee two federal investigations into the former president.

Judge Cannon said in her ruling that this decision applies to this case and not a second one overseen by Mr Smith over alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

The former president’s lawyers did not make a similar request to dismiss that case.

The Trump-appointed Florida judge had recently indefinitely postponed the federal classified documents trial, saying there were significant questions over trial evidence.

Legal experts have debated the strengths and weakness of the two federal criminal cases brought by Mr Smith.

On Monday, Judge Cannon stepped in and said those details did not matter.

She held that the mere existence of special counsels – how they are appointed and how they are funded – violates the US Constitution.

Judge Cannon’s ruling cuts against the ruling of judges in other US courts that have dealt with these specially appointed prosecutors.

It draws from theories advanced by some conservative legal scholars and, most notably, by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in the top court’s recently decided presidential immunity case.

In that case, the Supreme Court said former presidents, including Mr Trump, are immune from criminal prosecution for “official acts”.

Judge Cannon cited three times in her decision a concurring opinion by Justice Thomas in the Supreme Court ruling in which he questioned whether there was a legal basis for naming special counsel.

Former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani told the BBC on Monday that Judge Cannon’s ruling was “stunning, to say the least”.

While Judge Cannon said her ruling was limited to this case, Mr Rahmani said it casts doubt on the appointment of special counsels in other cases.

That includes the case of Hunter Biden – President Joe Biden’s son – who was investigated by a special counsel and convicted on gun charges last month.

But a key difference is that the special counsel in that case, David Weiss, is a US attorney for Delaware who, unlike Mr Smith, was nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate.

As well has having the right to an appeal, Mr Smith can also ask for a new judge to be assigned to the case.

Mr Smith’s spokesman said: “The dismissal of the case deviates from the uniform conclusion of all previous courts to have considered the issue that the Attorney General is statutorily authorized to appoint a Special Counsel.

“The Justice Department has authorized the Special Counsel to appeal the court’s order.”

Legal experts say Judge Cannon’s ruling is likely to be overturned but that the further delay to the case could prove beneficial to Mr Trump’s campaign.

“Her ruling has no chance of being sustained on appeal as it conflicts with decisions of the Supreme Court and other lower courts, but it will have the effect of preventing any more embarrassing revelations before the election,” said David Super, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center.

Judge Cannon’s decision also comes as Republicans gather in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for the Republican National Convention, where Mr Trump will accept the party’s nomination for president.

The US election is on 5 November.

On Monday, Mr Trump said on his social media site that the dismissal of the case “should be just the first step, followed quickly by the dismissal of ALL the Witch Hunts”.

“Let us come together to END all Weaponization of our Justice System, and Make America Great Again!”

While many Republican lawmakers cheered the decision, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, described the dismissal as a “breathtakingly misguided ruling”.

In May, Mr Trump was found guilty of falsifying business records in a New York hush-money case. He is due to be sentenced in September.

He has also been charged with four criminal counts, including conspiracy to defraud the US and conspiracy against the rights of citizens, in the 2020 election case.

Mr Trump and some 18 other defendants are also accused of criminally conspiring to overturn his very narrow defeat in the state of Georgia in the 2020 election in a separate case.

He has denied any wrongdoing.

China’s economy stumbled in the second quarter, official data shows, just as the country’s top leaders gathered for a key meeting to address its sluggish growth.

It grew 4.7% in the three months to June, falling short of expectations after a stronger start in the first three months of 2024. The government’s annual growth target is around 5%.

“China’s economy hit the brakes in the June quarter,” said Heron Lim at Moody’s Analytics, adding that analysts are hoping for solutions from the meeting under way in Beijing, also called the Third Plenum.

The world’s second-largest economy is facing a prolonged property crisis, steep local government debt, weak consumption and high unemployment.

Past outcomes of the Plenum have changed the course of history in China – in 1978, then leader Deng Xiaoping began opening China’s markets to the world, and in 2013 President Xi Jinping hinted at loosening the controversial one-child policy.

And so there are expectations of this year’s Plenum, where Mr Xi is presiding over a closed-door gathering of 370-plus high-ranking Chinese Communist Party members.

The rhetoric on state-controlled media has certainly been encouraging.

An editorial in The Global Times said a “wide range of reform-focused polices” are “high on the agenda” and would usher in a “new chapter”. Xinhua referred to “comprehensive” and “unprecedented” reforms. The editorial in the People’s Daily was headlined on a “new era of reform and opening up”, invoking the very phrase Deng coined in 1978.

Observers, however, are unsure of how much room there is for bold ideas or debate in the Party under Mr Xi’s heavily-centralised leadership. Some see the meeting as a mere rubber-stamping exercise for decisions that have already been made.

Economists are also sceptical the meeting will deliver a quick fix.

It has “little impact on near-term growth,” says Qian Wang, Asia Pacific chief economist at Vanguard, because its focus will be on longer-term and more significant reforms to “unleash the long-term growth potential”.

Still, analysts will be watching for announcements that signal the Party’s economic priorities.

Separate data on Monday showed that prices for new homes in June fell at the fastest pace in nine years.

This is more evidence of the crisis that has engulfed China’s property sector and led to the demise of giants such as Evergrande. The fear is that it could spread to other parts of the economy.

“There are more than 4,000 banks in China and over 90% are smaller, regional banks which are highly exposed to the housing market and local government debt,” says Shanghai-based economist Dan Wang.

She believes Party leaders will “push for consolidation of small banks”.

Another issue is falling prices – a symptom of weak demand.

Producer prices continued to drop in the last month, while consumer prices rose by a mere 0.2%, the slowest pace in three months.

Meanwhile, retail sales in June grew by just 2%, which is below expectations and a sign that consumers are still cautious about spending and uncertain of the future.

“A major concern is the loss of household, business, and investor confidence in the government’s ability to navigate the perilous economic environment,” said Eswar Prasad, former head of the International Monetary Fund’s China division.

Still, questions remain about Beijing’s willingness to deliver the sort of solution that would satisfy observers and the markets.

“The government is reluctant to turn to short-term stimulus plans such as cash transfer to families,” Dan Wang said. “Instead, we expect them to stress once again on bolstering supply chains and high tech.”

That is in line with Beijing’s bets on high-tech industries such as renewable energy, artificial intelligence and chip-making, and exports to revive the economy. Last month, China reported a record trade surplus – $99bn (£76.4bn) – as exports soared and imports struggled.

But even that bet faces challenging odds. Major trading partners such as the European Union and the United States have imposed tariffs and other barriers on goods made in China, from electric vehicles to advanced chips.

Dozens of Indian farm labourers have been freed from slave-like working conditions in northern Italy, police have said.

The 33 workers were lured to Italy on the promise of jobs and a better future by two fellow Indian nationals, police say.

But instead, they were allegedly forced to work more than 10 hours a day, seven days a week for a tiny wage which was used to pay off debts to the alleged gangmasters.

The two men – who were found with approximately $545,300 (£420,000) – have been arrested.

The exploitation of farmhands – both Italian and migrant – in Italy is a well-known issue. Thousands of people work in fields, vineyards and greenhouses dotted across the country, often without contracts and in highly dangerous conditions.

Just last month, an Indian fruit picker died after his arm was severed in a work accident.

The man had allegedly been left on the side of the road following the accident, which also left his legs crushed.

His employer is now under investigation for criminal negligence and manslaughter.

The 33 men rescued by police in the Province of Verona had paid €17,000 ($18,554, £14,293) or 1.5m rupees each in return for seasonal work permits and jobs, according to a police statement sent to the BBC.

To raise the funds, police said, some pawned their family assets, while others borrowed the money from their employers.

But they were only paid €4 per hour for their 10 to 12-hour days, with that sum settling any debt owed.

Their passports were also confiscated as soon as they arrived in Italy and they were banned from leaving their “dilapidated” apartments.

“Every morning, the workers piled into vehicles covered in tarpaulin where they hid among boxes of vegetables until they reached the Verona countryside for work,” the police statement said.

Searches of their apartments showed the workers were “forced to live in precarious and degrading conditions” and “in total violation of health and hygiene regulations”, it added.

The rescued workers have received their passports back and are being helped by social services and a migration organisation to relocate to safer housing and working conditions.

The two alleged gangmasters are now facing charges related to exploitation and slavery, police told Reuters news agency.

Undocumented labourers across Italy are often subject to a system known as “caporalato” – a gangmaster system which sees middlemen illegally hiring labourers who are then forced to work for very low salaries. Even workers with regular papers are often paid well below the legal wage.

Almost a quarter of the agricultural workforce in Italy in 2018 was employed under this method, according to a study by the Italian National Institute of Statistics. The practice also affects workers in the service industry and building sectors.

It was outlawed in Italy in 2016 after an Italian woman died of a heart attack after working 12-hour shifts picking and sorting grapes, for which she was paid €27 a day.

Fifteen people have appeared at a special court sitting in Dublin following violence during a protest at a site which had been earmarked for asylum seekers.

Some protestors set pallets and construction machinery alight at the former Crown Paints factory in Coolock in north Dublin, resulting in a large fire.

It is understood work was due to begin on the Malahide Road site later in the week.

Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Simon Harris described the disturbances as “reprehensible”.

The 15 people who appeared at Dublin District Court on Monday evening were charged with public order offences, including failure to comply with the orders of a garda (police officer) and with threatening or abusive behaviour.

All 15 were released on conditional bail, provided they stay away from the scene of the disorder

They are all due to appear in court again on 18 September.

Another four people who were arrested are due to appear in court on Tuesday morning.

More than 200 gardaí were deployed to the incident.

Three Garda cars were been damaged, one of which was set on fire, Irish broadcaster RTÉ reported.

It said pepper spray was used by police as a security guard and a number of gardaí were injured during clashes with protesters.

Petrol bombs and fireworks were thrown, mattresses were set on fire damaging a JCB and fires were lit on the roads during the disturbances.

Gardaí described the disturbances as a public order incident and the road was closed for a period.

They said officers were “subjected to both verbal and physical abuse throughout the day, which escalated into rocks, fireworks and other objects being launched towards them”.

“A number of fires were lit and official Garda vehicles seriously damaged,” a spokesperson said.

“As the situation intensified, members of An Garda Síochána used force to defend themselves as part of an escalated response to the situation.”

Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said: it had been a difficult day for his officers and condemned what happened.

“We have seen attacks on gardaí, criminal damage and offences of serious public disorder,” he said.

“All of these will be fully investigated. We have 15 people charged and we will have further charges overnight.”

The Irish justice minister said she was “appalled at the criminal behaviour that took place in Coolock”.

Helen McEntee said anybody involved would face “the full rigours of the law”.

Dublin city councillor Mícheál Mac Donncha described the incident as “deplorable” and that “violence, intimidation and arson should have no place in our communities”.

“The burning of vehicles and attempted burning of the building are violent criminal acts and must be strongly condemned,” the Sinn Féin representative said.

He said the Department of Integration had said the site was being developed to accommodate families seeking international protection.

“Those responsible should desist immediately,” he added.

“This is an effort to spread fear and hate in our communities and the vast majority of decent people want nothing to do with it.”