US President Donald Trump says he has asked Chinese leader Xi Jinping to "consider" releasing Jimmy Lai, the Hong Kong pro-democracy tycoon who was earlier this week found guilty under the city's controversial national security law.

"I feel so badly," Trump told reporters. "I spoke to President Xi about it and I asked to consider his release."

The UK similarly called for the 78-year-old to be "immediately released", with UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper condemning the ruling, calling it a "politically motivated persecution".

Lai, who is a British citizen, has been in jail since December 2020 and is due to be sentenced early next year. He faces a maximum term of life in prison.

Trump made the brief comment to reporters at the White House on Monday - but did not specify when he had brought Lai's case up to Xi.

"He's an older man and he's not well. So I did put that request out. We'll see what happens, okay?," he said.

His comments come after a Hong Kong court on Monday found Lai guilty of colluding with foreign forces.

The verdict was welcomed by Hong Kong's chief executive John Lee, who said that Lai's actions had "damaged the country's interests and the welfare of Hong Kongers", but rights groups called it "a cruel judicial farce".

"He has been targeted by the Chinese and Hong Kong governments for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression," UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper had told Parliament on Monday, calling for Lai's "immediate release".

She added that the Foreign Office has summoned the Chinese Ambassador to "underline our position in the strongest terms", adding that it was "heartbreaking that such a violation of a British man's rights could occur in Hong Kong".

China's foreign ministry had earlier on Monday dismissed criticisms of Lai's trial, describing them as "brazen defamation and smearing of the judicial system in Hong Kong".

Lai was on Monday convicted under the city's controversial national security law - which rights groups say is used to crush dissent, but which Beijing defends as essential for the city's stability.

He was also convicted of publishing seditious material on Apple Daily under a separate colonial-era law.

His detention and conviction have drawn concern from rights groups and foreign leaders, who have long called for his release.

His children have voiced serious concerns about Lai's deteriorating health in prison, with Sebastien telling the BBC earlier this year that given his father's age and health, he could "die in prison".

The government has launched a new taskforce it says will help women "enter, stay and lead" in the UK tech sector.

Led by technology secretary Liz Kendall, it will see female leaders from tech companies and organisations advise the government on how to boost diversity and economic growth in the industry.

BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, recently suggested women accounted for only 22% of those working in IT specialist roles in the UK.

Ms Kendall said the Women in Tech group would "break down the barriers that still hold too many people back".

"When women are inspired to take on a role in tech and have a seat at the table, the sector can make more representative decisions, build products that serve everyone," she said.

BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, warned in December the amount of women working in the UK tech sector still lagged far behind men.

It said the government should look to help close the gender gap in order to meet its ambitious AI goals.

"We cannot create high-trust, high-integrity AI systems if the profession behind them is missing out on the talents and perspective of half the population," said chief executive Sharron Gunn.

Ms Kendall will lead the taskforce alongside Anne-Marie Imafidon, founder of Stemettes, who has been appointed as the Women in Tech Envoy.

Dr Imafidon, who passed A-level computing aged 11 and received a Master's Degree in Maths and Computer Science from the University of Oxford aged 20, has sought to encourage more young women into careers in Stem - science, technology, engineering and maths.

She told the BBC her role would build on more than a decade of work to establish greater equality for - and representation of - women.

But now, amid what she called "a fourth industrial revolution", was a key moment to "be part of shifting who is making those decisions for what comes next".

"This isn't just about having women being the driving force and building the technology, but this is about building technology that benefits everybody," she said.

'Equality long overdue'

The government said the taskforce will advise on ways to make the tech sector more representative and "ensure the UK accesses the full talent pool, market opportunities, and innovation capacity needed for economic growth".

BT Group boss Allison Kirkby, Revolut chief executive Francesca Carlesi and Dr Hayaatun Sillem, chief executive of the Royal Academy of Engineering, are among its 15 founding members.

It also includes TUC assistant general secretary Kate Bell, director of public policy at Uber Emma O'Dwyer, and Sue Daley, director of technology and innovation at industry group techUK.

"Entry routes, career progression to leadership, and access to capital are just some of the barriers women in tech still face today," Ms Daley said.

"Achieving gender equality is long overdue, and I am honoured to join the Women in Tech taskforce alongside Liz Kendall and several inspiring women from across the industry, working together to chart a path forward for true gender equality."

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Sunday dawned hot and clear at Bondi - not a cloud in the sky, the sun shining as the waves crashed onto the sand.

It was a day made for the beach. By midday, the entire stretch was heaving with thousands of people and the sea was full of swimmers and surfers. Our family of four, on holiday at Bondi Beach, was among them.

As we headed to the beach, crossing on a footbridge from the carpark of Campbell Parade, I noticed people were setting up white tents on the grass next to a children's playground.

A truck arrived, carrying a climbing wall. Later we would learn they were preparing for a Jewish community event, called Chanukah by the Sea, to celebrate the start of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.

In the late afternoon, loud upbeat music boomed from the speakers and across the beach. The event had begun. Our family packed up our things at the beach at about 18:00 local time (07:00 GMT) to go back to the holiday home we had rented nearby.

As we crossed the footbridge again, we saw hundreds of people - families with young children and grandparents - at the event. A stage had been set up for live performances with rows of chairs set out in front. Activity stations and stalls lined the green. The mood was relaxed and festive as laughter and children's cries floated in the air.

Scores more people were streaming into the event via an entry point with what looked like bag checks. Metal barriers had been set up to fence the event off from the rest of the green, but there appeared to be minimal security.

As the event looked like it could have food stalls, I suggested to my husband we check it out for dinner. "Let's just get pizza back at the house," he sighed - the kids were getting cranky and needed a shower.

So I went back with the children, while my husband stopped by a pizzeria for a takeaway.

Half an hour later, he returned home with the pizzas, and a worried look. While he was buying dinner, people had run past him in a panic. One of them stopped to say, "Mate, get away from here, something bad's happened."

We could hear police sirens and the roar of helicopters. We checked the news, and I quickly went to the scene, which was just 100m from where we were staying.

Police officers were just starting to cordon off the car park in front of the footbridge where my family and I had crossed over - and which the attackers used, not even an hour later, as a vantage point to shoot at the festival we had seen earlier.

Many people had gathered at a corner close to the cordon where there were bars and restaurants. Lively music blared during a beautiful sunset - an incongruous setting for what had become a deadly evening at the beach.

People were anxiously milling about, some crying and in shock. A few were desperately trying to get in touch with their loved ones who were stuck in the area that was being cordoned off.

"My daughter's at the surf club just over there, and I can't contact her," one woman told me, her eyes filling with tears. Some were arguing with police at the cordon, insisting they needed to find their relatives or get to their cars or homes.

I caught a man running past - he told me his name was Barry. He had just fled the festival with his two children. When he heard gunshots, they dropped to the ground, he said.

"And as we're lying there on the floor, with my kids, I saw a shooter or two on the bridge on the side towards Bondi beach, shooting at all of us," he said. "It was pandemonium and chaos."

Soon the restaurants and bars on the corner shut down, even as the crowd of onlookers and media grew.

As the night wore on, police and emergency vehicles moved in and out of the zone, clearing what we learnt later was a car filled with IEDs.

A fierce wind whipped up from the beach, as officers tried to hold the cordon.

The next morning, the main stretch of Bondi was deserted. Uncertainty, shock and anxiety still lingered. At the police cordon, a crowd thronged a cafe, buying coffees while worriedly discussing what had happened the previous night.

Watching the scene were Bondi residents Ali Pattillo, Abby Agwunobi and Brooke Schlesinger. The three women, all Americans, live in an apartment overlooking the shooting site. When they heard the gunshots, they thought it was fireworks.

"I started hearing people kind of screaming and running, grabbed the dog and hid in the bathroom," Ms Pattillo said. "And then you could just sort of hear the entire thing play out in this like horrible dream."

Ms Schlesinger said the attack was such a shock because "what appealed to us most about the Australian lifestyle is that sense of security and safety and community".

Although the Bondi community was "incredibly tight", Ms Agwunobi said she was worried about "the backlash and fallout that might happen from this", particularly with "the kind of climate with people being very anti-immigration."

"So, yeah, I'm very afraid for the next few days. And my heart just goes to the Jewish community as well because... it's just such a violation to happen, especially on a holy celebration".

Across the street, some people began laying out bouquets of flowers, balloons and an Australian flag at the corner of a primary school, in an impromptu memorial for the dead.

Soon, more people arrived to grieve at the spot. Some draped Israeli flags around their shoulders and wore kippahs, or Jewish skullcaps. People wept openly and embraced one another.

Others expressed fear and despair, including Jewish people who said they had been feeling vulnerable after a spate of antisemitism-related offences. Yvonne Haber, a Bondi resident who is Jewish, said an attack like this has "been waiting to happen, and we've been saying this is gonna happen. And now that it's happened... it's absolutely horrific."

As the sun began to set, I went to Bondi Pavilion, which had become an enormous shrine for for mourners after police removed part of the cordon.

Israeli and Australian flags hung on the closed gates of the pavilion, as hundreds of people gathered to lay wreaths, bouquets, candles and pebbles from the beach. The enormous pile of flowers framed a handwritten sign: "We stay united, no more hate, just love."

As 18:47 neared - the time of the attack the day before - a group of local Jewish leaders stepped forward with a large menorah with candles. They announced they were going to light the candles - a ritual associated with Hanukkah - to remember those killed in the attack, and urged the crowd to light their own candles from the menorah and take it home with them.

"We invite the crowd to take the light, to spread peace and tolerance. We have survived for thousands of years... light will always prevail," Rabbi Yossi Shuchat announced to the crowd.

Then the group began singing traditional Jewish songs, with many in the crowd joining in. Their voices soared, cracked with grief, enveloping those gathered in a wave of pure emotion.

A woman behind me quietly sobbed as she sang and clapped along to the more spirited songs. At one point, the crowd broke out into the Australian national anthem.

Afterwards, Rabbi Shuchat told me that he and his friends had decided that morning to hold the ceremony for the victims - and to make a powerful statement.

"Darkness has no power where light arrives, and therefore we implore everyone to be that light in their surroundings. Don't allow evil to come. The best way to banish evil is to shine a light."

US President Donald Trump has filed a defamation lawsuit against the BBC over an edit of his 6 January 2021 speech in a Panorama documentary.

Trump has requested billions of dollars in damages, according to court documents filed in Florida.

The BBC apologised to Trump in November, but rejected his demands for compensation and disagreed there was any "basis for a defamation claim".

Trump's legal team accused the BBC of defaming him by "intentionally, maliciously, and deceptively doctoring his speech". The BBC has not yet responded to the lawsuit being filed.

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.

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Warning: Disturbing content

A little boy faces the camera. He is pale and has no hair.

"I am seven years old and I have cancer," he says. "Please save my life and help me."

Khalil - who is pictured above in a still from the film - didn't want to record this, says his mother Aljin. She had been asked to shave his head, and then a film crew hooked him up to a fake drip, and asked his family to pretend it was his birthday. They had given him a script to learn and recite in English.

And he didn't like it, says Aljin, when chopped onions were placed next to him, and menthol put under his eyes, to make him cry.

Aljin agreed to it because, although the set-up was fake, Khalil really did have cancer. She was told this video would help crowdfund money for better treatment. And it did raise funds - $27,000 (£20,204), according to a campaign we found in Khalil's name.

But Aljin was told the campaign had failed, and says she received none of this money - just a $700 (£524) filming fee on the day. One year later, Khalil died.

Across the world, desperate parents of sick or dying children are being exploited by online scam campaigns, the BBC World Service has discovered. The public have given money to the campaigns, which claim to be fundraising for life-saving treatment. We have identified 15 families who say they got little to nothing of the funds raised and often had no idea the campaigns had even been published, despite undergoing harrowing filming.

Nine families we spoke to - whose campaigns appear to be products of the same scam network - say they never received anything at all of the $4m (£2.9m) apparently raised in their names.

A whistleblower from this network told us they had looked for "beautiful children" who "had to be three to nine years old… without hair".

We have identified a key player in the scam as an Israeli man living in Canada called Erez Hadari.

Our investigation began in October 2023, when a distressing YouTube advert caught our attention. "I don't want to die," a girl called Alexandra from Ghana sobbed. "My treatments cost a lot."

A crowdfunding campaign for her appeared to have raised nearly $700,000 (£523,797).

We saw more videos of sick children from around the world on YouTube, all strikingly similar - slickly produced, and seemingly having raised huge amounts of money. They all conveyed a sense of urgency, using emotive language.

We decided to investigate further.

The campaigns with the biggest apparent international reach were under the name of an organisation called Chance Letikva (Chance for Hope, in English) - registered in Israel and the US.

Identifying the children featured was difficult. We used geolocation, social media and facial recognition software to find their families, based as far apart as Colombia and the Philippines.

While it was difficult to know for sure if the campaign websites' cash totals were genuine, we donated small amounts to two of them and saw the totals increase by those amounts.

We also spoke to someone who says she gave $180 (£135) to Alexandra's campaign and was then inundated with requests for more, all written as if sent by Alexandra and her father.

In the Philippines, Aljin Tabasa told us her son Khalil had fallen ill just after his seventh birthday.

"When we found out it was cancer it felt like my whole world shattered," she says.

Aljin says treatment at their local hospital in the city of Cebu was slow, and she had messaged everyone she could think of for help. One person put her in touch with a local businessman called Rhoie Yncierto - who asked for a video of Khalil which, looking back, Aljin realises was essentially an audition.

Another man then arrived from Canada in December 2022, introducing himself as "Erez". He paid her the filming fee up front, she says, promising a further $1,500 (£1,122) a month if the film generated lots of donations.

Erez directed Khalil's film at a local hospital, asking for retake after retake - the shoot taking 12 hours, Aljin says.

Months later, the family say they had still not heard how the video had performed. Aljin messaged Erez, who told her the video "wasn't successful".

"So as I understood it, the video just didn't make any money," she says.

But we told her the campaign had apparently collected $27,000 (£20,204) as of November 2024, and was still online.

"If I had known the money we had raised, I can't help but think that maybe Khalil would still be here," Aljin says. "I don't understand how they could do this to us."

When asked about his role in the filming, Rhoie Yncierto denied telling families to shave their children's heads for filming and said he had received no payment for recruiting families.

He said he had "no control" over what happened with the funds and had no contact with the families after the day of filming. When we told him they had not received any of the campaigns' donations he said he was "puzzled" and was "very sorry for the families".

Nobody named Erez appears on registration documents for Chance Letikva. But two of its campaigns we investigated had also been promoted by another organisation called Walls of Hope, registered in Israel and Canada. Documents list the director in Canada as Erez Hadari.

Photos of him online show him at Jewish religious events in the Philippines, New York and Miami. We showed Aljin, and she said it was the same person she had met.

• Outside the UK, watch the film on BBC World Service YouTube

We asked Mr Hadari about his involvement in a campaign in the Philippines. He did not respond.

We visited further families whose campaigns were either organised by, or linked to, Mr Hadari - one in a remote indigenous community in Colombia, and another in Ukraine.

As with Khalil's case, local fixers had got in touch to offer help. The children were filmed and made to cry or fake tears for a nominal fee, but never received any further money.

In Sucre, north-west Colombia, Sergio Care says he initially refused this help. He had been approached by someone called Isabel, he says, who offered financial assistance after his eight-year-old daughter, Ana, was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumour.

But Isabel came looking for him at the hospital treating Ana, he says, accompanied by a man who said he worked for an international NGO.

The description Sergio gave of the man matched that of Erez Hadari - he then recognised him in a photo we showed him.

"He gave me hope... I didn't have any money for the future."

Demands on the family did not end with the filming.

Isabel kept ringing, Sergio says, demanding more photos of Ana in hospital. When Sergio didn't reply, Isabel started messaging Ana herself - voice notes we have heard.

Ana told Isabel she had no more photos to send. Isabel replied: "This is very bad Ana, very bad indeed."

In January this year, Ana - now fully recovered - tried to find out what happened to the money promised.

"That foundation disappeared," Isabel told her in a voice note. "Your video was never uploaded. Never. Nothing was done with it, you hear?"

But we could see the video had been uploaded and, by April 2024, appeared to have raised nearly $250,000 (£187,070).

In October, we persuaded Isabel Hernandez to speak to us over video link.

A friend from Israel, she explained, had introduced her to someone offering work for "a foundation" looking to help children with cancer. She refused to name who she worked for.

She was told only one of the campaigns she helped organise was published, she says, and that it had not been successful.

We showed Isabel that two campaigns had in fact been uploaded - one of them apparently raising more than $700,000 (£523,797).

"I need to apologise to [the families]," she said. "If I'd known what was going on, I would not have been able to do something like this."

In Ukraine, we discovered that the person who approached the mother of a sick child was actually employed in the place where the campaign video was filmed.

Tetiana Khaliavka organised a shoot with five-year-old Viktoriia, who has brain cancer, at Angelholm Clinic in Chernivtsi.

One Facebook post linked to Chance Letikva's campaign shows Viktoriia and her mother Olena Firsova, sitting on a bed. "I see your efforts to save my daughter, and it deeply moves us all. It's a race against time to raise the amount needed for Viktoriia's treatments," reads the caption.

Olena says she never wrote or even said these words and had no idea the campaign had been uploaded.

It appears to have raised more than €280,000 (£244,000).

Tetiana, we were told, was in charge of advertising and communications at Angelholm.

The clinic recently told the BBC it didn't approve filming on its premises - adding: "The clinic has never participated in, nor supported, any fundraising initiatives organised by any organisation."

Angelholm says it has terminated Tetiana Khaliavka's employment.

Olena showed us the contract she had been asked to sign.

In addition to the family's $1,500 (£1,122) filming fee on the day, it states they would get $8,000 (£5,986) once the fundraising goal was met. The amount for the goal, however, has been left blank.

The contract showed an address in New York for Chance Letikva. On the organisation's website, there is another - in Beit Shemesh, about an hour from Jerusalem. We travelled to both, but found no sign of it.

And we discovered Chance Letikva seems to be one of many such organisations.

The man who filmed Viktoriia's campaign told our producer - who was posing as a friend of a sick child - that he works for other similar organisations.

"Each time, it's a different one," the man - who had introduced himself as "Oleh" - told her. "I hate to put it this way, but they work kind of like a conveyor belt."

"About a dozen similar companies" requested "material", he said, naming two of them - Saint Teresa and Little Angels, both registered in the US.

When we checked their registration documents, we once again found Erez Hadari's name.

What is not clear is where the money raised for the children has gone.

More than a year after Viktoriia's filming, her mother Olena rang Oleh, who seems to go by Alex Kohen online, to find out. Shortly afterwards, someone from Chance Letikva called to say the donations had paid for advertising, she says.

This is also what Mr Hadari told Aljin, Khalil's mother, when she confronted him over the phone.

"There is cost of advertising. So the company lost money," Mr Hadari told her, without giving any evidence to support this.

Charity experts told us advertising should not amount to more than 20% of the total raised by campaigns.

Someone previously employed to recruit children for Chance Letikva campaigns told us how those featured had been chosen.

They had been asked to visit oncology clinics, they said - speaking on condition of anonymity.

"They were always looking for beautiful children with white skin. The child had to be three to nine years old. They had to know how to speak well. They had to be without hair," they told us.

"They asked me for photos, to see if the child is right, and I would send it to Erez."

The whistleblower told us Mr Hadari would then send the photo on to someone else, in Israel, whose name they were never told.

As for Mr Hadari himself, we tried to reach him at two addresses in Canada but could not find him. He replied to one voice note we had sent him - asking about the money he had been apparently crowdfunding - by saying the organisation "has never been active", without specifying which one. He did not respond to a further voice note and letter laying out all our questions and allegations.

Campaigns set up by Chance Letikva for two children who died - Khalil and a Mexican boy called Hector - still appear to be accepting money.

Chance Letikva's US branch appears to be linked to a new organisation called Saint Raphael, which has produced more campaigns - at least two of which seem to have been filmed in Angelholm clinic in Ukraine, as the clinic's distinctive wood panelling and staff uniforms can be seen.

Olena, Viktoriia's mother, says her daughter has been diagnosed with another brain tumour. She says she is sickened by the findings of our investigation.

"When your child is… hanging on the edge of life, and someone's out there, making money off that. Well, it's filthy. It's blood money."

The BBC contacted Tetiana Khaliavka and Alex Kohen, and the organisations Chance Letikva, Walls of Hope, Saint Raphael, Little Angels and Saint Teresa - inviting them to respond to the allegations made against them. None of them replied.

The Israeli Corporations Authority, which oversees the country's non-profit organisations, told us that if it has evidence founders are using entities as "a cover for illegal activity", then registration inside Israel may be denied and the founder could be barred from working in the sector.

UK regulator, the Charity Commission, advises those wishing to donate to charities to check that those associations are registered, and that the appropriate fundraising regulator should be contacted if in doubt.

Additional reporting by: Ned Davies, Tracks Saflor, Jose Antonio Lucio, Almudena Garcia-parrado, Vitaliya Kozmenko, Shakked Auerbach, Tom Tzur Wisfelder, Katya Malofieieva, Anastasia Kucher, Alan Pulido and Neil McCarthy

• If you have any information to add to this investigation please contact simi@bbc.co.uk

At a meeting of his cabinet at the White House two weeks ago, US President Donald Trump looked around the long room filled with his top advisers, administration officials and aides, and made a prediction.

The next Republican presidential candidate, he said, is "probably sitting at this table".

"It could be a couple of people sitting at this table," he added, hinting at possible electoral clashes to come.

Despite a constitutional amendment limiting him to two four-year terms, his supporters chanted "four more years" at a rally last Tuesday night in Pennsylvania. Trump said at the time that the final three years of his second term amount to an "eternity".

But in the cabinet room last week, when talking about prospects for the 2028 Republican president nomination, he was clear: "It's not going to be me."

The next presidential election may seem a long way off, but Trump's own speculation – and certain frictions within Trump's coalition - suggest that the jockeying to succeed and define the Make America Great Again (Maga) movement after Trump is well under way.

In last month's local elections, the Republican Party lost support among the minority and working-class voters who helped Trump win back the White House in 2024.

Members of his team have feuded over policy. And some, most notably Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, have cut loose from his orbit, accusing the president of losing touch with the Americans who gave him power.

There has been speculation about fractures within the Maga base in certain quarters of the international press, as well as at home. On Monday, a headline in The Washington Post asked: "Maga leaders warn Trump the base is checking out. Will he listen?"

The warning signs are there. While Trump has long been known for being in tune with his base, the months ahead will pose a series of challenges to the president and his movement. Nothing less than his political legacy is at stake.

From Vance to Rubio: A team of rivals?

It was all smiles and talk of historic presidential achievements inside the friendly confines of Trump's newly redecorated, gold-bedecked cabinet room two weeks ago.

But the presidential aspirants Trump may have had in mind as he looked around the table hint at just how hard it could be to keep his Maga movement from stretching apart at the seams.

Vice-President JD Vance sat directly across from the president. As his running mate, he is widely considered to be Trump's most likely heir apparent – the favourite of Trump's sons and libertarian Silicon Valley tech billionaires.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio was on the president's immediate right. The former Florida senator, who competed with Trump for the Republican nomination in 2016, had spent the past 10 years undergoing a Maga transformation.

He has jettisoned his past support for liberalising immigration policy and his hard line on Russia in lieu of Trump's America First foreign policy. But if there is anyone close to an old-guard Republican with influence in Trump's party, Rubio tops the list.

Then there is Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, whose vaccine scepticism and "Make America Healthy Again" agenda have sent earthquakes through the US health bureaucracy; he sat two down from Rubio. The Democrat-turned-independent-turned-Republican is a living embodiment of the strange ideological bedfellows Trump made on his way to re-election last year.

And finally, Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, was tucked off to the corner of the table. While the former South Dakota governor is not considered a major presidential contender, her advocacy for aggressive immigration enforcement – including a recent call for a full travel ban on "every damn country that's been flooding our nation with killers, leeches and entitlement junkies" – has made her a prominent face of administration's policies.

Each might believe they could, if they chose to run, become Trump's political heir and take control of the political movement that has reshaped American politics over the last decade.

But to paraphrase Benjamin Franklin's comments at the birth of American democracy, whoever wins the Republican nomination will have been given a winning coalition – if they can keep it.

The Republican empire transformed

Of course none of this is guaranteed - nor is it certain that the next generation of Maga leaders will be someone from the president's inner circle. Trump stormed the White House as a political outsider. The next Republican leader may follow a similar path.

"It's going to be up to the next Republican president who follows Trump to set him or herself apart," says former Republican Congressman Rodney Davis of Illinois, who now works for the US Chamber of Commerce.

"But at the same time make sure that you don't go too far away, because clearly it's Donald Trump [who] got elected president twice."

When the November 2028 presidential election rolls around, American voters may not even want someone like Trump. Some public opinion polls suggest that the president may not be as popular as he once was.

A survey by YouGov earlier this month indicated the president had a net approval rating of -14, compared with +6 when he took office again in January. Then there are concerns about the economy and his relentless efforts to push the boundaries of presidential power.

Leadership of Trump's movement still represents the keys to the Republican empire, however, even if that empire has drastically changed in recent years.

"I think the Republican coalition has become fundamentally different over the last few decades," said Davis, who served in Congress from 2013 to 2023. "The Republican coalition that existed when Ronald Reagan was elected is not the Republican coalition anymore."

Back in the 1980s, the Reagan coalition was a fusion of free-market economics, cultural conservatism, anti-communism and international foreign affairs, says Laura K Field, author of Furious Minds: The Making of the Maga New Right.

Trump's party, she continues, was perhaps best described by long-time Trump adviser and current state department official Michael Anton in a 2016 essay advocating for Trump's election. In contrast with the Reagan era, its core principles include "secure borders, economic nationalism and America-first foreign policy".

'Normie Republicans' versus 'the edgelords'

Earlier this month, the conservative Manhattan Institute released a comprehensive survey of Republican voters, shedding more light on the composition of Trump's coalition.

It suggested that 65% of the current Republican Party are what it calls "core Republicans" – those who have supported party presidential nominees since at least 2016. (If they were alive in the 1980s, they may well have voted for Reagan.)

On the other hand, 29% are what the Institute called "new entrant Republicans". It is among those new Republicans that the challenge to the durability of Trump's coalition presents itself.

Only just over half said they would "definitely" support a Republican in next year's mid-term congressional elections.

According to the survey, the new entrants are younger, more diverse and more likely to hold views that break with traditional conservative orthodoxy. They hold comparatively more left-leaning views of economic policy, they tend to be more liberal on immigration and social issues, and they may also be more pro-China or critical of Israel, for example.

Jesse Arm, vice-president of external affairs at the Manhattan Institute, told the BBC in an email: "A lot of the conversation about the future of the right is being driven by the loudest and strangest voices online, rather than by the voters who actually make up the bulk of the Republican coalition."

Perhaps not surprisingly, the so-called new entrant Republican voters are significantly less supportive of some of Trump's would-be heirs. While 70% of core Republicans have positive views of Rubio and 80% for Vance, just over half of new entrants feel that way about either.

Other findings could be more concerning for Republicans.

More than half of new entrants believe the use of political violence in American politics "is sometimes justified" – compared to just 20% among core Republicans.

It also suggests they may be more likely to be tolerant of racist or anti-Semitic speech and more prone to conspiratorial thinking – on topics like the moon landings, 9/11 and vaccines.

Trump was able to attract these voters into his coalition. The question is whether he and his political heirs can keep them there – or if they even want to.

"The real takeaway is not that these voters will 'define' the post-Trump GOP, but that future Republican leaders will have to draw clear lines about who sets the agenda," argues Mr Arm.

"The heart of the party remains normie Republicans, not the edgelords that both the media and the dissident right are strangely invested in elevating."

Clashes in the conservative ranks

The divides revealed in the Manhattan Institute poll helps explain some of the most notable frictions within the Trump coalition over the past few months.

The Trump-Greene feud that culminated in the latter's resignation from Congress began with her backing of a full release of the government files connected to the Jeffrey Epstein underage sex-trafficking case – long a source of conservative conspiracy theories.

It broadened, however, into a critique of Trump's Middle East policy and accusations of his failure to address cost-of-living and healthcare concerns for low-income American voters.

An earlier high-profile Maga split erupted over Trump's economic policy, with billionaire Elon Musk, a strong supporter and member of Trump's inner circle at the start of the year, going on to condemn certain tariffs and government spending policies.

The president has, for the moment, largely tried to stay out of another bitter clash within conservative ranks over whether Nick Fuentes, a far-right political commentator and Holocaust denier, is welcome within the conservative movement.

It's a dispute that has roiled the influential Heritage Foundation and pitted some powerful right-wing commentators against each other.

According to Ms Field, those who follow Trump may find it a difficult conflict to avoid. "Nick Fuentes has a huge following," she says. "Part of how the conservative movement got the energy and power that they've got is by peddling to this part of the Republican Party."

In the halls of the Republican-controlled Congress, some signs of friction with the president's agenda are showing. Despite White House lobbying, it couldn't stop the House from passing a measure mandating release of the Epstein files.

The president has also been unable to convince Senate Republicans to abandon the filibuster, a parliamentary procedure Democrats in the minority have been able to block some of Trump's agenda.

Meanwhile, Trump's party has been stumbling at the polls, with the Democrats winning governorships in Virginia and New Jersey last month by comfortable margins.

In dozens of contested special elections for state and local seats over the past year, Democrats have on average improved their margins by around 13% over similar races held in last November's national elections.

The future of Trumpism

All of this will be front of mind for Republicans ahead of the 2026 mid-term congressional elections - and it will do little to ease the concerns held by some that, without Trump at the top of the ticket, their coalition will struggle to deliver reliable ballot-box victories.

Yet even a defeat next year – or in 2028 – is unlikely to mark the end of Trumpism.

The ascent by Trump's Maga movement to the pinnacle of American power has been far from a smooth one. It includes a mid-term rout in 2018 and Trump himself losing in 2020, before his re-election last November.

But the changes that Trump has wrought within the Republican Party itself appear to be foundational ones, according to Ms Field. His Maga coalition builds on strains of populist movements in the US that date back decades or more – from Barry Goldwater's insurgent presidential campaign in 1964 to the Tea Party protests during Barack Obama's presidency.

"These things are not coming out of nowhere. They are forces in American politics that have been underground for a while, but have been just kind of fermenting."

The old Republican order, she argues, is a relic of the past.

"The Trump movement is here to stay and there's no real likelihood of the old establishment returning with any sort of clout - that much is clear."

Top picture credit: Getty Images

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A person of interest has been detained in connection with a US shooting at Brown University that left two people dead, police said.

Nine others were injured when a gunman opened fire at the university in Providence on Saturday.

Police confirmed on Sunday a person had been detained, and an earlier order for people on the Brown campus and surrounding areas to shelter had been lifted.

Of those injured, medics said one person was in a critical condition, six were "critical but stable" and two others were less severely hurt.

The gunman opened fire in a classroom at around 16:00 local time (21:00 GMT) on Saturday at the Holley engineering building at the eastern end of Brown's campus, according to officials.

The identities of those killed or injured have not yet been released, but Brown University President Christina Paxson told reporters in a press briefing on Saturday that all the victims, including those killed and wounded, were students.

Police had earlier released CCTV footage of a male suspect walking away from the scene wearing all black clothing. Officers said a firearm was not found in a sweep of the building.