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The Oscar nominations will be announced later, in an exciting year for the film awards race where there is no consensus frontrunner for best picture.

Blockbusters such as Wicked and Dune: Part Two will compete with Emilia Pérez, Conclave, A Complete Unknown, The Brutalist and Anora when the shortlists are released at 13:30 GMT.

The nominations were due to be announced last week, but were postponed after the voting period was extended due to the Los Angeles wildfires.

The Academy Awards ceremony, hosted by US comic Conan O’Brien, will take place on 2 March.

There are two musicals, two massive pop stars, two Sebastian Stan films, two actors from Succession and several comeback queens in the race this year.

Here are a few things to look out for when the Academy announces its nominations.

Comeback narratives are strong this year, particularly in the best actress category where many contenders have returned after years away from the awards race.

One of the frontrunners is The Substance star Demi Moore, for playing a woman who swaps her body for a younger and more beautiful version of herself.

Equally, there is a huge amount of affection towards Pamela Anderson, who has already scored surprise SAG and Golden Globe nominations for her vulnerable and powerful performance in The Last Showgirl as an ageing Las Vegas performer.

Marianne Jean-Baptiste has an outside chance at a nomination for playing a constantly miserable woman in Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths, nearly three decades after her first nomination for their previous collaboration Secrets & Lies.

Even Angelina Jolie arguably has a comeback narrative. Although she has remained in the spotlight in recent years, her portrayal of opera singer Maria Callas is her first Oscar contender for some time. She has lost momentum in recent weeks, however, after missing a nomination at other major ceremonies.

Over in the best actor category, Adrien Brody (The Brutalist) is expected to return to the race for his performance as a Hungarian architect hired by a wealthy American after World War Two. Brody was last nominated in 2003, when he won for The Pianist.

Other contenders include Timothée Chalamet (A Complete Unknown) for his portrayal as Bob Dylan in the early 1960s, and Colman Domingo (Sing Sing) for playing a prison inmate who takes part in an performing arts programme.

Possible British nominees include Ralph Fiennes (Conclave), for his role as a cardinal who oversees the selection of a new Pope, and Daniel Craig (Queer), who plays a gay man who ventures into the jungle in search of a plant with telepathic qualities.

Sebastian Stan has two possible chances for a nomination – one for playing a young Donald Trump in The Apprentice, and another for the Golden Globe-winning A Different Man, for his role as an aspiring actor who radically changes his appearance.

Two of the biggest pop stars of the last 15 years could be recognised in the best supporting actress category. Ariana Grande is a dead-cert for her performance in Wicked as Glinda, the Good Witch of the North.

Another possible (but less certain) nominee is Selena Gomez for her role in Spanish-language musical Emilia Pérez as the wife of a Mexican drug lord who changes gender.

Her co-star Zoe Saldaña is the current frontrunner to win the category. She took home the Golden Globe earlier this month and has a lot of goodwill from voters because of her roles in box office smashes such as the Avatar and Marvel films.

But it’s a crowded category, with Felicity Jones (The Brutalist), Isabella Rossellini (Conclave), Monica Barbaro (A Complete Unknown) and Jamie Lee Curtis (The Last Showgirl) also in the running.

Danielle Deadwyler (The Piano Lesson), Margaret Qualley (The Substance) and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor (Nickel Boys) could also show up. This category is particularly hard to predict due to different actresses being nominated at different precursor events.

The frontrunner in the best supporting actor category is Kieran Culkin, who is best known for his role as the snarky Roman Roy in HBO’s Succession.

He could score a nomination for his performance in the excellent A Real Pain, about two cousins who travel across Poland in remembrance of their grandmother.

But one of Culkin’s competitors is his own Succession co-star Jeremy Strong, who could be recognised for his terrific performance in The Apprentice as lawyer Roy Cohn, who mentored Donald Trump in his early years as a real estate tycoon.

The pair could be joined in the best supporting actor category by Yura Borisov (Anora), Guy Pearce (The Brutalist), Clarence Maclin (Sing Sing), and Edward Norton (A Complete Unknown).

And what about Culkin and Strong’s on-screen sister Sarah Snook? Well, she has a film in the awards race too, although not in the acting categories. The Australian voices the main character in the beguiling animated film Memoir of a Snail.

Jolie, Moore, Anderson and Jean-Baptiste may have comeback narratives, but they are competing in a particularly crowded lead actress category this year.

Other frontrunners include Mikey Madison (Anora) for her barnstorming performance as a New York stripper who falls for the son of a wealthy Russian.

She could be joined by Cynthia Erivo (Wicked) for her role as the Wizard of Oz character Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West. The British actress is an Oscar win away from achieving EGOT status.

Golden Globe winner Fernanda Torres (I’m Still Here) could make it in for her understated portrayal of a Brazilian woman who investigates the disappearance of her congressman husband.

Karla Sofía Gascón (Emilia Pérez) is also likely to be recognised for playing a Mexican cartel leader who leaves the world of crime to live a new life as a trans woman.

Gascón would become the first trans person to be nominated in an acting category. There is one caveat – Elliot Page was nominated for Juno in 2008, but that was more than a decade before the actor transitioned.

Robbie Williams had a good chance of an Oscar nomination this year thanks to Better Man, the biopic which sees him depicted as a CGI chimpanzee.

The singer made the 15-strong shortlist in the best original song category for his track Forbidden Road, taken from the film’s soundtrack.

But sadly he will not be one of the final five nominees, after the song was disqualified for “incorporating material from an existing song that was not written” for the film.

It’s understood Forbidden Road was considered too similar to I Got A Name, performed by Jim Croce in the 1973 film The Last American Hero.

One of the writers of I Got A Name was Charles Fox, who, five decades later, is now one of the three governors of the Academy’s music branch.

Instead, songs from The Six Triple Eight, Challengers, The Wild Robot, Blitz and two numbers from Emilia Pérez could be nominated.

Established directors such as Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino and Paul Thomas Anderson often tend to populate this category, understandably cropping up at the Oscars again and again.

This year, however, all of the major contenders for best director would be first-time Oscar nominees.

Brady Corbet (The Brutalist), Edward Berger (Conclave), Jacques Audiard (Emilia Pérez) and Sean Baker (Anora) are all likely to be recognised.

They could be joined by Coralie Fargeat (The Substance), RaMell Ross (Nickel Boys) and James Mangold (A Complete Unknown).

Even the less likely contenders, such as Jon M Chu (Wicked), Denis Villeneuve (Dune: Part Two), Mohammad Rasoulof (The Seed of the Sacred Fig) and Payal Kapadia (All We Imagine As Light), would be first-time nominees in the category.

We may not have Barbie this year, but there are plenty of other blockbusters which could show up at the Oscars.

Box office smashes in 2024 included Wicked, which almost certainly will be nominated for best picture, and Gladiator II, which almost certainly won’t be.

Other sequels which cleaned up financially include Dune: Part Two, the second instalment of the sandy sci-fi adaptation, which is likely to be nominated for best picture as well as several technical prizes.

Elsewhere, Inside Out 2, the highest-grossing film of last year, will likely make the best animated film category, alongside the popular The Wild Robot.

But box office takings aren’t everything. Both animated films could be beaten by a much smaller contender, the charming Latvian film Flow, about a cat who must work with other animals to survive after a flood, which won the Golden Globe.

Often with the Oscars, there is a clear best picture winner which steamrolls its way through awards season, such as Oppenheimer in 2024. This year, however, is wide open.

Different films have been winning prizes at the various events which precede the Oscars. There are six contenders which feasibly could take the top prize, depending on how the next few weeks shake out.

The Brutalist and Emilia Pérez won the two top film awards at the Golden Globes, and both have a lot of passionate supporters.

Meanwhile, Conclave and Anora are widely liked and less divisive than some other contenders, and could therefore benefit from the preferential ballot system, where voters rank the nominated films in order of preference.

Less likely but still possible winners include A Complete Unknown, which had a particularly strong showing at the SAG nominations, and Wicked, which is likely to be heavily nominated and is one of the most successful films financially.

Nominations will be announced at 13:30 GMT and will be streamed on the BBC News live page, as well as the Academy’s official website and social channels.

The event has been scaled down due to the LA wildfires, and will now be made virtually without the usual audience of journalists.

Read more about this year’s nominated films:

The European Union’s new trade chief responsible for post-Brexit negotiations has told the BBC a “pan-European [customs] area is something we could consider” as part of “reset” discussions between the UK and EU.

Maros Sefcovic referred to the idea of Britain joining the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean Convention (PEM).

These are common rules that allow parts and ingredients for manufacturing supply chains to be sourced from across dozens of countries in and around Europe and North Africa to be used in tariff-free trade.

Downing Street has indicated such an agreement would not cross the government’s “red lines” for its relationship with the EU.

The BBC understands the UK government has begun consultations with business over the benefits of the PEM plan that could help cut red tape and improve trade. No final decision has been made yet.

The Conservatives did not pursue PEM as part of its post-Brexit deal, but some businesses have said it will help the UK rejoin complex supply chains that have been hit by customs barriers.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Mr Sefcovic said the idea has not been “precisely formulated” by London yet and the “ball is in the UK’s court”.

Under the Brexit deal, UK goods sold to the bloc are not subject to tariffs provided they are made with a certain percentage of materials from Britain or the EU.

If a UK clothing manufacturer makes garments mainly from textiles it has sourced from Turkey – which is not in the EU – and sells them into the EU, the firm importing the goods would pay a tariff.

But if the UK joined the PEM Convention – of which Turkey is a member – the firm buying the products would not pay tariffs.

William Bain, head of trade policy at the British Chambers of Commerce, said joining PEM “would reduce paperwork and costs for many UK firms as it would align rules and regulations on both sides in relation to the sourcing of components and raw materials used in exports”.

Speaking at Cabinet Office Questions, Europe Minister Nick Thomas-Symonds said: “We don’t currently have any plans to join PEM.”

However, a Number 10 spokesman did not rule out future membership of PEM.

“The arrangement that’s been discussed is not a customs union,” he said, when asked if PEM membership would cross the red lines set out in Labour’s manifesto for EU ties.

“Our red line has always been that we will never join a single market, freedom of movement, but we’re just not going to get ahead of those discussions.”

Dame Emily Thornberry, chair of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, said the post-Brexit agreement negotiated by the Tories had “all kinds of holes” in it.

“Within that agreement there is a mechanism for improving it, and we need to seize that opportunity,” she told the BBC’s Today programme.

“We need to make sure that within the constraints of the vote to leave the European Union, we nevertheless do everything that we can to get rid of barriers to trade with our nearest neighbours and the people who we trade with the most.”

Mr Sefcovic also said that a full-scale veterinary agreement that helped reduce frictions on farm and food trade should be reviewed.

Single market treatment for UK food and farm exports would mean “we would have to have the same rules and we have to upgrade them at the same time, we call it dynamic alignment”, he said.

Dame Emily described the current agreement as “uneven and difficult”.

“At the moment the reality is that for reasons of capacity, food coming in from the EU isn’t really checked and yet food from Britain is checked a lot going into the EU,” she said.

The EU-UK fisheries deal is also due to expire next year. “A solution for fisheries is very important for the EU, again, we communicated this on multiple occasions,” Mr Sefcovic said.

He also said he was surprised at how a European Commission proposal on youth mobility had been “spun” in the UK.

The scheme would allow 18 to 30 year-olds from the EU to travel, work and study in the UK for a period, “with reciprocity for young UK nationals”, according to the European Commission.

Both Labour, when it was in opposition, and the then-Tory government rejected the idea, stating that free movement within the EU had ended with Brexit.

But Mr Sefcovic said it was hoped the scheme would “build bridges for the future for the European Union and the UK”.

“That was the idea,” he said. “[But] we’ve been a little bit surprised what kind of spin it got in the UK.

“It is not freedom of movement,” Mr Sefcovic added. “We have been very clear what we’ve been proposing.”

Nevertheless, Mr Sefcovic said that relations between the UK and the EU were “definitely” in a better place and his British counterpart Nick Thomas-Symonds was “on speed dial”.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer will attend a defence and security focused EU summit next month.

As well as relations with the UK, Mr Sefcovic acknowledged that the EU needed to be “extremely cautious and responsible” in addressing trade with the Trump administration in Washington but said he was willing to negotiate.

He added that while the EU did have a surplus in goods such as cars, the US had a surplus in services.

Japanese TV host Masahiro Nakai, one of the country’s most recognisable faces on television, has announced that he is retiring after a sexual assault allegation that has rocked the country’s entertainment industry.

Nakai, who presented for Fuji Television, was accused of sexually assaulting a woman at a 2023 dinner party held by staff.

Dozens of companies have pulled their commercials from Fuji Television amid claims that the company’s staff had tried to cover up the scandal.

Nakai has denied using violence against the woman, and said on 9 January that he had “resolved” the matter with her through a settlement. But this did little to quell public anger.

In a social media statement posted on Thursday, Nakai said that he was “truly sorry for causing trouble and losses to so many people”.

“I’m really, really sorry for saying good-bye this way.”

His resignation comes days after Fuji Television president Koichi Minato confirmed that the company did not disclose Nakai’s scandal despite being aware of it long before it was reported in the media.

Vehicle makers Nissan and Toyota, as well as retail company Seven & I holdings which runs the retail 7-eleven convenience store chain, were among those that announced they were pulling advertising from Fuji Television over the scandal.

Fuji Television is expected to set up an independent committee to investigate the scandal.

Appearances of Nakai have also been scrubbed from programmes.

Nakai soared to stardom in the 1990s as the leader of Japanese boy band SMAP, one of Asia’s most successful acts. The group released more than 50 singles – many of which became chart toppers – and launched a weekly variety show on prime-time television.

After SMAP disbanded in 2016, Nakai went on to become a television host as well as one of the wealthiest celebrities in Japan.

Japan’s entertainment industry is facing a reckoning with long unspoken cases of sexual assault.

In 2023, J-pop executive Johnny Kitagawa, who by then had been dead for four years, was exposed to have sexually abused hundreds of boys and young men for decades.

His talent agency, Johnny & Associates, had managed SMAP among other boy bands.

When Zhang Junjie was 17 he decided to protest outside his university about rules made by China’s government. Within days he had been admitted to a psychiatric hospital and treated for schizophrenia.

Junjie is one of dozens of people identified by the BBC who were hospitalised after protesting or complaining to the authorities.

Many people we spoke to were given anti-psychotic drugs, and in some cases electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), without their consent.

While there have been reports for decades that hospitalisation is used in China as a way of detaining dissenting citizens without involving the courts, a leading Chinese lawyer has told the BBC that the issue – which legislation sought to resolve – has recently seen a resurgence.

Junjie says he was restrained and beaten by hospital staff before being forced to take medication.

His ordeal began in 2022, after he protested against China’s harsh lockdown policies. He says his professors spotted him after just five minutes and contacted his father, who took him back to the family home. He says his father called the police, and the next day – on his 18th birthday – two men drove him to what they claimed was a Covid test centre, but was actually a hospital.

“The doctors told me I had a very serious mental disease… Then they tied me to a bed. The nurses and doctors repeatedly told me, because of my views on the party and the government, then I must be mentally ill. It was terrifying,” he told the BBC World Service. He was there for 12 days.

Junjie believes his father felt forced to hand him over to the authorities because he worked for the local government.

Just over a month after being discharged, Junjie was once again arrested. Defying a fireworks ban at Chinese New Year (a measure brought in to fight air pollution) he had made a video of himself setting them off. Someone uploaded it online and police managed to link it to Junjie.

He was accused of “picking quarrels and troublemaking” – a charge frequently used to silence criticism of the Chinese government. Junjie says he was forcibly hospitalised again for more than two months.

After being discharged, Junjie was prescribed anti-psychotic drugs. We have seen the prescription – it was for Aripiprazole, used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

“Taking the medicine made me feel like my brain was quite a mess,” he says, adding that police would come to his house to check he had taken it.

Fearing a third hospitalisation, Junjie decided to leave China. He told his parents he was returning to university to pack up his room – but, in fact, he fled to New Zealand.

He didn’t say goodbye to family or friends.

Junjie is one of 59 people who the BBC has confirmed – either by speaking to them or their relatives, or by going through court documents – have been hospitalised on mental health grounds after protesting or challenging the authorities.

The issue has been acknowledged by China’s government – the country’s 2013 Mental Health Law aimed to stop this abuse, making it illegal to treat someone who is not mentally unwell. It also explicitly states psychiatric admission must be voluntary unless the patient is a danger to themselves or others.

In fact, the number of people detained in mental health hospitals against their will has recently surged, a leading Chinese lawyer told the BBC World Service. Huang Xuetao, who was involved in drafting the law, blames a weakening of civil society and a lack of checks and balances.

“I have come across lots of cases like this. The police want power while avoiding responsibility,” he says. “Anyone who knows the shortcomings of this system can abuse it.”

An activist called Jie Lijian told us he had been treated for mental illness without his consent in 2018.

Lijian says he was arrested for attending a protest demanding better pay at a factory. He says police interrogated him for three days before taking him to a psychiatric hospital.

Like Junjie, Lijian says he was prescribed anti-psychotic drugs that impaired his critical thinking.

After a week in the hospital, he says he refused any more medication. After fighting with staff, and being told he was causing trouble, Lijian was sent for ECT – a therapy which involves passing electric currents through a patient’s brain.

“The pain was from head to toe. My whole body felt like it wasn’t my own. It was really painful. Electric shock on. Then off. Electric shock on. Then off. I fainted several times. I felt like I was dying,” he says.

He says he was discharged after 52 days. He now has a part-time job in Los Angeles and is seeking asylum in the US.

In 2019, the year after Lijian says he was hospitalised, the Chinese Medical Doctor Association updated its ECT guidelines, stating it should only ever be administered with consent, and under general anaesthetic.

We wanted to find out more about the doctors’ involvement in such cases.

Speaking to foreign media such as the BBC without permission could get them into trouble, so our only option was to go undercover.

We booked phone consultations with doctors working at four hospitals which, according to our evidence, are involved with forced hospitalisations.

We used an invented story about a relative who had been hospitalised for posting anti-government comments online, and asked five doctors if they had ever come across cases of patients being sent in by police.

Four confirmed they had.

“The psychiatric department has a type of admission called ‘troublemakers’,” one doctor told us.

Another doctor, from the hospital where Junjie was held, appears to confirm his story that police continued surveillance of patients once discharged.

“The police will check up on you at home to make sure you take your medicine. If you don’t take it you might break the law again,” they said.

We approached the hospital in question for comment but it did not respond.

We have been given access to the medical records of democracy activist Song Zaimin, hospitalised for a fifth time last year, which makes it clear how closely political views appear to be tied to a psychiatric diagnosis.

“Today, he was… talking a lot, speaking incoherently, and criticising the Communist Party. Therefore, he was sent to our hospital for inpatient treatment by the police, doctors, and his local residents’ committee. This was an involuntary hospitalisation,” it says.

We asked Professor Thomas G Schulze, president-elect of the World Psychiatric Association, to review these notes. He replied:

“For what is described here, no-one should be involuntarily admitted and treated against his will. It reeks of political abuse.”

Between 2013 and 2017, more than 200 people reported they had been wrongfully hospitalised by the authorities, according to a group of citizen journalists in China who documented abuses of the Mental Health Law.

Their reporting ended in 2017, because the group’s founder was arrested and subsequently jailed.

For victims seeking justice, the legal system appears stacked against them.

A man we are calling Mr Li, who was hospitalised in 2023 after protesting against the local police, tried to take legal action against the authorities for his incarceration.

Unlike Junjie, doctors told Mr Li he wasn’t ill but then the police arranged an external psychiatrist to assess him, who diagnosed him with bipolar disorder, and he was held for 45 days.

Once released, he decided to challenge the diagnosis.

“If I don’t sue the police it’s like I accept being mentally ill. This will have a big impact on my future and my freedom because police can use it as a reason to lock me up any time,” he says.

In China, the records of anyone ever diagnosed with a serious mental health disorder could be shared with the police, and even local residents’ committees.

But Mr Li was not successful – the courts rejected his appeal.

“We hear our leaders talking about the rule of law,” he told us. “We never dreamed one day we could be locked up in a mental hospital.”

The BBC has found 112 people listed on the official website for Chinese court decisions who, between 2013 and 2024, attempted to take legal action against police, local governments or hospitals for such treatment.

Some 40% of these plaintiffs had been involved in complaints about the authorities. Only two won their cases.

And the site appears to be censored – five other cases we have investigated are missing from the database.

The issue is that the police enjoy “considerable discretion” in dealing with “troublemakers,” according to Nicola MacBean from The Rights Practice, a human rights organisation in London.

“Sending someone to a psychiatric hospital, bypassing procedures, is too easy and too useful a tool for the local authorities.”

Eyes are now on the fate of vlogger Li Yixue, who accused a police officer of sexual assault. Yixue is said to have recently been hospitalised for a second time after her social media posts talking about the experience went viral. It is reported she is now under surveillance at a hotel.

We put the findings of our investigation to the UK’s Chinese embassy. It said last year the Chinese Communist Party “reaffirmed” that it must “improve the mechanisms” around the law, which it says “explicitly prohibits unlawful detention and other methods of illegally depriving or restricting citizens’ personal freedom”.

Additional reporting by Georgina Lam and Betty Knight

Leaders of the far-right organisations at the forefront of the Capitol riot who were released on Donald Trump’s orders say they are planning to regroup.

In an interview with the BBC on Wednesday, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes defended his actions during the 6 January 2021 riot and said he was “very grateful” to President Trump for commuting his sentence.

Rhodes was sentenced to 18 years in prison on a number of charges including seditious conspiracy, or plotting to overthrow the government.

Meanwhile, Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, former head of the Proud Boys, indicated to reporters that he had rejoined the all-male group.

“We’ve made the decision four years ago not to tell the media what our structure is, but I’d suggest that the media should stop calling me ‘ex-Proud Boy,’” he told reporters as he travelled to his home in Miami on Wednesday.

Tarrio, who was serving a 22-year sentence, said members of the congressional committee who investigated the riot “need to be imprisoned.”

“I’m happy that the president’s focusing not on retribution and focusing on success, but I will tell you that I’m not going to play by those rules,” he said in an interview on Infowars. “They need to pay for what they did.”

Rhodes called for prosecution of Capitol police officers who testified against him at trial and Justice Department lawyers who pursued his case.

He alleged that officers who were at the Capitol that day – 174 of whom were injured – were responsible for the violence.

He told the BBC that he would like his group to “go back to the mission we had at the very beginning… to advocate that the police of the United States follow the Constitution and don’t violate people’s rights.”

Police officers responsible for defending the US Congress reject those allegations and say they faced an unruly mob determined to stop legal proceedings.

Rhodes said: “I didn’t go inside, nor did I instruct anyone else to. I simply stood outside and exercised my right to free speech.”

The militia leader complained he did not get a fair trial because it was held in Washington DC, where the riot took place, and jurors were local – an argument that was previously rejected in court.

While most of those who stormed the Capitol on 6 January 2021 hoping to disrupt the certification of the 2020 presidential election were not part of any official group, the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys each brought dozens of supporters to Washington.

Nearly 1,600 people have been arrested or convicted of riot-related crimes, according to the US Justice Department, including 600 charged with assaulting, resisting or obstructing police.

On Monday, hours after his inauguration, Trump commuted 14 sentences – including Rhodes’ – and issued a blanket pardon for the rest of the convicts and suspects.

Members of the Oath Keepers, an anti-government militia founded by Rhodes in 2009, transported weapons to a hotel room in Virginia and discussed sending them across the Potomac River to Washington.

But they never put such a plan into action. While Rhodes remained outside the Capitol building that day, prosecutors said he directed members inside the building.

The Proud Boys were founded in 2016 as a politically-minded drinking club, and later became known for street brawls with far-left Antifa activists.

Shortly before the riot, Tarrio was ordered by law enforcement to remain outside Washington, and he communicated with other Proud Boys leaders from a nearby hotel.

After the Capitol riot and the arrest of the leaders, the Oath Keepers largely ceased operations while the Proud Boys fractured, retreating to their local chapters and keeping a relatively low profile.

However in recent days, their channels on the chat app Telegram have been full of celebratory chatter along with barbs and slurs directed at opponents.

Members have discussed regrouping and getting involved in efforts to deport immigrants – although the legal basis for doing so is unclear.

A number of lawmakers have criticised the pardons – including Democrats but also Republicans.

Senator Tom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina, said: “I’m about to file two bills that will increase the penalties up to and including the death penalty for the murder of a police officer and increasing the penalties and creating federal crimes for assaulting a police officer.

“That should give you everything you need to know about my position,” he said.

Susan Collins, the moderate Republican senator from Maine, said: “I do not support the pardons if they were given to people who committed violent crimes.”

But others were in favour.

“One-hundred percent I’m for them,” said Senator Tommy Tuberville. “Pardon every one of them. They’ve been there long enough.”

The Royal Navy has been monitoring a Russian spy ship after it was spotted around UK waters earlier this week, the defence secretary has told MPs.

John Healey said the vessel, Yantar, was used for gathering intelligence and mapping the UK’s critical underwater infrastructure.

He said the incident was “another example of growing Russian aggression”.

Healey added: “I also wanted President [Vladimir] Putin to hear this message: we see you, we know what you’re doing and we will not shy away from robust action to protect this country.”

Russia describes Yantar as an oceanic research vessel and it is operated by the country’s Ministry of Defence.

Western nations have often tracked the ship operating in European waters and they suspect part of its mission has been to map undersea cables.

They also believe Russia has been stepping up this activity since it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

As well as surveillance equipment the ship can operate submersible drones capable of reaching the ocean floor.

Undersea infrastructure is crucial for energy supply through power cables and pipelines, while more than 95% of internet traffic is also secured via undersea cables.

Healey said Yantar was currently in the North Sea, after passing near UK waters and being detected 45 miles off the British coast in the English Channel on Monday.

“For the last two days the Royal Navy has deployed HMS Somerset and HMS Tyne to monitor the vessel every minute through our waters,” he said.

“I changed the Royal Navy’s rules of engagement so that our warships can get closer and better track the Yantar. So far, the ship has complied with international rules of navigation.”

The defence secretary said it was the second time the vessel had entered British waters in recent months, with Yantar also detected “loitering over UK critical undersea infrastructure” in November.

He said a Royal Navy submarine had been authorised to surface close to Yantar – a highly unusual move.

Healey described this “strictly as a deterrent measure” and “to make clear that we have been covertly monitoring its every move”.

Defence sources told the BBC the ship was also given a verbal warning.

“The ship then left UK waters without further loitering and sailed down to the Mediterranean,” Healey added.

Healey said the government was strengthening its response to Russian naval activity with its Nato allies.

He said the Royal Air Force would provide surveillance aircraft to join a Nato deployment to protect critical infrastructure in the Baltic Sea.

It comes after an undersea cable between Estonia and Finland was damaged in December, with Finnish police investigating whether a Russian ship was involved.

Shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge said the Conservative Party stood “shoulder to shoulder” with the government’s approach and its “transparency” over the Russian naval threat.

He also welcomed the change to the Royal Navy’s rules of engagement, adding: “This sends a powerful signal to Putin that we will not be intimidated and that if his aim is to keep pushing the boundaries of malign activity in our waters, and those proximate to us, we will respond.”

Cartlidge said the issue showed why defence spending needed to be increased as soon as possible.

But Grant Shapps, the former Conservative defence secretary called on the government to impound ships it suspects of spying around UK waters.

Shapps told BBC Radio 4’s World Tonight programme the UK should take a “more upfront approach”.

“If a ship is suspected of [spying] you’re perfectly at liberty to go and investigate that and sometimes that means you may have to detain a ship for a period of time in order to get to the truth,” he said.

“We all know what they’re up to and you do therefore have to have a more proactive, forward-leaning stance towards it.”

His fellow former defence secretary Sir Gavin Williamson, also a Conservative, said the threat from Russian naval activity had “grown exponentially”.

“If the Royal Navy and the RAF are to have any chance to keep that critical national infrastructure safe they are going to need a flood of resources,” he told the BBC.

“We need to be massively scaling up and doing it very quickly.”

The world’s largest iceberg is on a collision course with a remote British island, potentially putting penguins and seals in danger.

The iceberg is spinning northwards from Antarctica towards South Georgia, a rugged British territory and wildlife haven, where it could ground and smash into pieces. It is currently 173 miles (280km) away.

Countless birds and seals died on South Georgia’s icy coves and beaches when past giant icebergs stopped them feeding.

“Icebergs are inherently dangerous. I would be extraordinarily happy if it just completely missed us,” sea captain Simon Wallace tells BBC News, speaking from the South Georgia government vessel Pharos.

Around the world a group of scientists, sailors and fishermen are anxiously checking satellite pictures to monitor the daily movements of this queen of icebergs.

It is known as A23a and is one of the world’s oldest.

It calved, or broke off, from the Filchner Ice Shelf in Antarctica in 1986 but got stuck on the seafloor and then trapped in an ocean vortex.

Finally, in December, it broke free and is now on its final journey, speeding into oblivion.

The warmer waters north of Antarctica are melting and weakening its vast cliffs that tower up to 1,312ft (400m), taller than the Shard in London.

It once measured 3,900 sq km, but the latest satellite pictures show it is slowly decaying. It is now around 3,500 sq km, roughly the size of the English county of Cornwall.

And large slabs of ice are breaking off, plunging into the waters around its edges.

A23a could break into vast segments any day, which may then hang around for years, like floating cities of ice cruising uncontrollably around South Georgia.

This isn’t the first huge iceberg to threaten South Georgia and Sandwich Islands.

In 2004 one called A38 grounded on its continental shelf, leaving dead penguin chicks and seal pups on beaches as massive ice chunks blocked their access to feeding grounds.

The territory is home to precious colonies of King Emperor penguins and millions of elephant and fur seals.

“South Georgia sits in iceberg alley so impacts are to be expected for both fisheries and wildlife, and both have a great capacity to adapt,” says Mark Belchier, a marine ecologist who advises the South Georgia government.

Sailors and fisherman say icebergs are an increasing problem. In 2023 one called A76 gave them a scare when it came close to grounding.

“Chunks of it were tipping up, so they looked like great ice towers, an ice city on the horizon,” says Mr Belchier, who saw the iceberg while at sea.

Those slabs are still lingering around the islands today.

“It is in bits from the size of several Wembley stadiums down to pieces the size of your desk,” says Andrew Newman from Argos Froyanes, a fishing company that works in South Georgia.

“Those pieces basically cover the island – we have to work our way through it,” says Captain Wallace.

The sailors on his ship must be constantly vigilant. “We have searchlights on all night to try to see ice – it can come from nowhere,” he explains.

A76 was a “gamechanger”, according to Mr Newman, with “huge impact on our operations and on keeping our vessel and crew safe”.

All three men describe a rapidly changing environment, with glacial retreat visible year-to-year, and volatile levels of sea ice.

Climate change is unlikely to have been behind the birth of A23a because it calved so long ago, before much of the impacts of rising temperatures that we are now seeing.

But giant icebergs are part of our future. As Antarctica becomes more unstable with warmer ocean and air temperatures, more vast pieces of the ice sheets will break away.

Before its time comes to an end though, A23a has left a parting gift for scientists.

A team with the British Antarctic Survey on the Sir David Attenborough research vessel found themselves close to A23a in 2023.

The scientists scrambled to exploit the rare opportunity to investigate what mega icebergs do to the environment.

The ship sailed into a crack in the iceberg’s gigantic walls, and PhD researcher Laura Taylor collected precious water samples 400m away from its cliffs.

“I saw a massive wall of ice way higher than me, as far as I could see. It has different colours in different places. Chunks were falling off – it was quite magnificent,” she explains from her lab in Cambridge where she is now analysing the samples.

Her work looks at what the impact the melt water is having on the carbon cycle in the southern ocean.

“This isn’t just water like we drink. It’s full of nutrients and chemicals, as well as tiny animals like phytoplankton frozen inside,” Ms Taylor says.

As it melts, the iceberg releases those elements into the water, changing the physics and chemistry of the ocean.

That could store more carbon deep in the ocean, as the particles sink from the surface. That would naturally lock away some of the planet’s carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to climate change.

Icebergs are notoriously unpredictable and no-one knows what exactly it will do next.

But soon the behemoth should appear, looming on the islands’ horizons, as big as the territory itself.

A new fast-moving wildfire has erupted in Los Angeles County, prompting tens of thousands to evacuate a region already reeling from the most destructive fires in its history.

The Hughes fire ignited about 45 miles northwest of the city of Los Angeles on Wednesday afternoon, near Castaic Lake in a mountainous area that borders several residential areas and schools.

The out-of-control blaze has grown to more than 9,400 acres in several hours fuelled by winds and dry brush that is acting as fuel. No homes or businesses have been damaged, but about 31,000 residents have been forced to flee and Interstate 5 – the primary highway running along the US West Coast from Mexico to Canada – is closed.

The new fire is burning north of the two mammoth blazes – which are still burning – that destroyed multiple neighbourhoods in the Los Angeles area earlier this month.

Two other fires have ignited farther south near San Diego and Oceanside, officials said.

They are both smaller – 85 acres for the Lilac fire near Oceanside and 3.9 acres for the Bernardo fire – but were burning in populated areas. Fire crews appeared to have a handle on both of the blazes and evacuation orders had been mostly lifted and forward progress stopped.

In Los Angeles County, local news showed those near the Hughes fire hosing down their homes and yards with water and others rushing to evacuate neighbourhoods.

Orange flames lined the mountains as aircraft dropped water and flame retardant.

The region is once again under a red flag warning, which cautions of a high fire risk due to strong winds and dry, low-humid conditions.

Winds in the area are blowing around 20 to 30 mph but are forecast to strengthen throughout the day, which could allow the blaze to grow and make it harder for air crews to continue their battle from above.

About 31,000 people in the area are under a mandatory evacuation order and another 23,000 are under warnings, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said. A jail in the area was evacuating nearly 500 inmates at the facility, he added.

The fire continued to grow as the sun set but Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said he believed crews were making progress.

“The situation remains dynamic, and the fire remains a difficult fire to contain, although we are getting the upper hand,” he said.

Ed Fletcher, who works for Cal Fire – California’s statewide fire agency, told the BBC that this fire was different than those earlier this month. The winds are not as strong yet, he said, and there are a lot of crews trying to tame the flames.

“It’s super dry and we know it will be increasingly windy later,” he said. “We’ll know more in a few hours.”

Mr Fletcher noted the area is not highly populated and current winds are blowing the fire toward Castaic Lake, which is acting as a buffer between the Castaic area – home to about 20,000 residents.

“If it jumps the lake,” he said, “it becomes a much more dynamic situation.”

One woman who evacuated her home told NBC 4 that she was stuck on Interstate 5, California’s primary transportation highway that runs through the state. Parts of the interstate in the area had been closed due to the fire.

“It looked like a cloud, but as you got close, it looked like we were driving into hell,” she said of the dark smoke and red flames she saw. “It was pretty terrifying to be honest with you.”

She acknowledged being on edge after watching the Palisades and Eaton fires burn nearby, killing at least 28 people and decimating more than 10,000 homes and businesses.

“I don’t know why they keep popping up,” she said. “It’s definitely a scary time in this area.”

Dana Dierkes, a spokesperson for the Angeles National Forest, noted the winds and dry brush have made these recent fires much harder to fight.

“We don’t have a fire season in California. We have a fire year,” she said. “We’ve had wildfires in January before, but it’s exacerbated by the Santa Ana winds. The wind is a huge factor when we’ve had such a dry year.”

Rain is in the weekend forecast in the region, a welcome bit of news to douse the fire threat. But the rainfall is bringing new fears in the form of mudslides, flooding and landslides.

Areas touched by the recent fires are particularly at risk because torched grounds aren’t as absorbent. Gov Gavin Newsom signed an executive order on Monday to help free up resources for flood and slide preparation after the fires.

Crews have been filling thousands of sandbags for impacted areas.

Samantha Granville contributed to this report.

The election of taoiseach (Irish prime minister) has been delayed after the Dáil (lower house of Irish parliament) was suspended amid chaotic scenes in the chamber.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said the delay has been “premeditated, coordinated and a choreographed” position by the opposition and in particular Sinn Féin.

Politicians returned to the house on Wednesday to nominate Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin as the new taoiseach.

However, Sinn Féin and other opposition TDs (MPs) had voiced their anger throughout sittings at plans to allow independents who are supporting the government to join them on opposition benches.

Martin said this is the first time in over 100 years that the Dáil has failed to elect a taoiseach.

Meanwhile, Fine Gael leader Simon Harris said the disruption was utterly farcical describing it as an effort to “obstruct and shout down, to disrespect the Ceann Comhairle (speaker) and the constitutional office”.

Ceann Comhairle (Speaker) Verona Murphy said proceedings would resume on Thursday morning as she was shouted down by opposition TDs.

Discussions had been taking place throughout Wednesday afternoon as parties tried come to an agreement, but these had failed.

As Murphy returned to the chamber at 16:00 local time after a number of suspensions, opposition TDs rose to their feet.

The ceann comhairle then abandoned plans to elect a taoiseach, with proceedings ending with bitter exchanges between TD’s across the chamber.

Speaking outside Parliament buildings, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald claimed the government had “demonstrated incredible arrogance”.

“There has to be a clear understanding of the role of government and opposition, respectively,” she said.

McDonald said the “matter can be resolved, actually, very, very easily. It simply requires honesty and integrity from the government.”

McDonald said she and other opposition party leaders had written to the leaders of the incoming coalition to request a meeting about the issues relating to the status of independent politicians who will support the government.

“What transpired today was farcical, utterly farcical and it was a mess created by government and it is one that can be resolved by the government.”

Analysis: Chris Page, BBC News Ireland Correspondent

The incoming coalition says it’s best placed to prepare for what it calls international “headwinds” in its programme for government.

But it’ll have to face down domestic turbulence before it takes office.

The prospective government and opposition in Dublin are accusing each other of subverting democracy.

It is striking that the opposition parties held a joint news conference outside Leinster House – a potential sign there could be increased co-operation on the left wing of Irish politics during this new five-year parliamentary term.

The centre-right parties, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, had hoped to send a message by returning to power in the same week that President Trump was sworn in – given that Ireland is thought to be particularly exposed to the effects of any new trade barriers the US could impose.

But the day which was supposed to be focused on ceremony will be remembered instead for acrimony.

The 34th Dáil will see Martin elected as taoiseach for the second time, replacing Fine Gael leader Simon Harris who will return as tánaiste (deputy prime minister).

Fianna Fáil – the largest party – has formed a government with Fine Gael and a range of independent regional TDs after November’s election.

Sinn Féin remain the largest opposition party after winning 39 seats. Fianna Fáil gained 48 seats while Fine Gael was third with 38 seats.

Martin and Harris confirmed the new draft programme for government earlier this month.

The deal paved the way for the next government and was successfully endorsed by both parties in recent days.

Speaking after his party endorsed the programme for government, Martin said there was a “strong commitment” on behalf of his party to deliver for the Irish people.

“I can assure you, we will spare no effort in working selflessly on behalf of the people of Ireland to deliver this programme for government, to make things better for people and to improve the quality of life as we navigate very turbulent global waters,” he said.

Both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael ruled out Sinn Féin as a coalition partner, which party leader Mary Lou McDonald called “bad practice”.

This is the first time the new government will sat after November’s election, with government negotiations taking around five weeks to complete.

The new Dáil has already been the source of controversy after a number of independent TDs including Michael Lowry, Danny Healy-Rae, Barry Heneghan and Gillian Toole, who support the government, want to form a “technical group” which would allow them speaking time and other rights from the opposition benches.

Another member of the group, Michael Healy-Rae, said they were “perfectly entitled to stand up as part of a technical group and ask questions and to be part of debates”.

He told BBC NI’s Good Morning Ulster programme: “When you support a government it doesn’t mean that you are silenced and you can’t be engaging, that you can’t ask questions, that you can’t ask questions of national and local importance.

“We haven’t changed our minds, but what we are doing is we are rowing in to say we need a stable, secure, sound, solid government for the next five years and we are going to support that because we feel that we will better able to serve our constituents and the country by being within government than outside.”

The new Ceann Comhairle – also a regional independent – Verona Murphy, who is the first woman to hold the role, told TDs she would consider submissions opposing the plan, but permitted the group to “provisionally” take their original seats for now.

All other opposition groups are against the idea, labelling it as having a foot in both camps and taking time away from those who wish to scrutinise the government.

Sinn Féin TD Rose Conway-Walsh said: “I think it absolutely undermines the integrity of the Dáil.

“The standing orders are very clear in that and we’ve got legal advice and the Labour Party have legal advice as well to say that.

“A technical group is a body of members of the opposition it’s very, very clear.”

The creator of ChatGPT, OpenAI, is teaming up with another US tech giant, a Japanese investment firm and an Emirati sovereign wealth fund to build $500bn (£405bn) of artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure in the United States.

The new company, called The Stargate Project, was announced at the White House by President Donald Trump who billed it “the largest AI infrastructure project by far in history” and said it would help keep “the future of technology” in the US.

But Elon Musk – both a top adviser to Trump and rival to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman – on Wednesday said the venture does not “actually have the money” it has pledged to invest.

Investment in AI is currently exploding, driving demand for new data centres while also raising concerns about the huge amounts of water and power the facilities require.

The venture is a partnership between OpenAI, Oracle, Japan’s Softbank – led by Masayoshi Son – and MGX, a tech investment arm of the United Arab Emirates government.

The companies said the new venture, which was in the works before Trump took office, had $100bn in funding available immediately, with the rest to come over four years, creating an estimated 100,000 jobs.

Commenting on a post on X where OpenAI detailed the plans, Musk, who owns the platform, wrote “They don’t actually have the money.”

“SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority,” he added.

Musk, however, did not provide any details or substantiation for how he had arrived at the much smaller amount.

Altman then replied: “Wrong, as you surely know.”

“Want to come visit the first site already under way?” Altman added. “This is great for the country. I realize what is great for the country isn’t always what’s optimal for your companies, but in your new role I hope you’ll mostly put US first.”

Musk is spearheading Trump’s government efficiency efforts and will closely advise Trump on spending. He, though, has also been feuding with Altman since leaving OpenAI’s board in 2018 and launching his own AI start-up.

A source close to Stargate said it was not clear where Musk had gotten his information and that the company was well-positioned to deploy $100 bn.

Stargate’s first data centre is under construction in Texas, according to Oracle’s chief technology officer, Larry Ellison, and more will be built in other US locations.

“I think this will be the most important project of this era,” said Altman at Trump’s Tuesday announcement, standing alongside the President at the White House.

“We wouldn’t be able to do this without you, Mr President,” he added, even though the project was underway before Trump won November’s election.

The US is already the world leader in AI investment, vastly outspending any other country, and its big tech companies have been making major investments into data centres in the last year.

Microsoft, one of the OpenAI’s major backers, said earlier this month it was on track to invest $80bn to build out AI-focused data centres this year.

It is also involved in a $100bn venture that includes BlackRock and MGX and is focused on making AI data centre investments.

Amazon has been pouring money into the centres at a similar scale, announcing two projects worth about $10bn each in just the last two months.

In a report last year, McKinsey said that global demand for data centre capacity would more than triple by 2030, growing between 19% and 27% annually by 2030.

For developers to meet that demand, the consultancy estimated that at least twice the capacity would have to be built by 2030 as has been constructed since 2000.

But analysts have warned that the process is likely to be bogged down by issues such as power and land constraints and permitting.

Trump, who has claimed credit for fostering business investment, promised he would intervene to help the industry.

“I’m going to help a lot through emergency declarations because we have an emergency,” he said, stressing the importance of keeping AI in the US.

Trump said his government would “make it possible for them to get that production done very easily.”

OpenAI has long called for more investment into data centres for AI. The Information, a technology news website, first reported on the Stargate project in March last year.

Other technology partners include British chipmaker Arm, US chipmaker Nvidia and Microsoft, which already has a partnership with OpenAI.

Along with Musk’s scepticism about funding for the specific project, there are growing concerns generally about the data centres taxing energy supplies and questions about the role of foreign investors.

In one of his final acts in the White House, former President Joe Biden put forward rules that would restrict exports of AI-related chips to dozens of countries around the world, saying the move would help the US control the industry.

He also issued orders related to the development of data centres on government land, which spotlighted a role for clean energy in powering the centres.

Shivering a little, Marcos pulls his hoodie over his head as much to protect his identity as to shield him from the cold.

A year ago, at just 16 years old, he says he was forcibly recruited into a drug cartel in his home state of Michoacán, Mexico.

Recounting his story of horror and escape, Marcos (not his real name) says he and his family fled Michoacán with only what they were wearing.

Leaving for the pharmacy one evening to buy painkillers for his mother’s toothache, he says he was suddenly surrounded by four pick-up trucks with armed men inside.

“Get in,” he says they ordered, “or we’ll kill your family.”

They dragged him off to a shack where several other youths were in the same predicament, according to Marcos.

For months, he says he was made to be a foot soldier in a war he wanted no part of, before managing to escape with the help of a gang member who took pity on him.

Marcos has spent months inside a migrant shelter in the Mexican border city of Tijuana waiting to make his case for asylum before the US authorities, confident that he could convince them he has what US immigration courts call “credible fear” of persecution or torture in Mexico.

But now he thinks President Trump’s sweeping executive orders on immigration and border security have ruined his chances of success.

“I hope they look at the circumstances of every person and take each case on its merit,” he says, “and that Mr Trump’s heart softens to help those who truly need it.”

From the Oval Office on Monday evening, hours after returning to the presidency, Trump signed a blizzard of orders aimed at delivering on one of his central campaign promises: to drastically reduce illegal migration and asylum claims at the US border.

Among the measures were a move to declare some drug cartels terrorist organisations, paving the way for US military action and deportations.

That order has Pastor Albert Rivera, the director of a migrant shelter that primarily houses people fleeing cartel intimidation and death threats, confused.

He says there’s a contradiction at the heart of the executive order.

“If you’re going from saying these people are fleeing gangs to say they are now fleeing terrorists, surely that only makes their claims for asylum stronger,” he argues.

For Trump’s supporters on the other side of the border, in southern California, the need for these strict new measures is self-evident.

“It will be a relief,” says Paula Whitsell, the chairwoman of the San Diego County Republican Party, about the new president’s plan to launch what he’s called “the largest deportation in American history”.

“Our system here in San Diego County is very burdened by the heavy weight of all these people coming in, and we’re just not built for it. The county is not made to be able to sustain this,” she argues.

She insists the measures are not inherently anti-immigrant – “we are still a nation of immigrants” – but directed instead at removing undocumented criminals in the US and dismantling the gangs that operate people-smuggling routes across the border.

But for people waiting in Mexico, who say they have done nothing wrong and have legitimate claims for asylum, Trump’s orders have had sweeping and swift consequences.

On the morning that the president took the oath of office, around 60 migrants gathered at the Chaparral crossing in Tijuana, waiting to speak to border guards about their asylum claims. But they never got the chance, as Mexican officials instead directed them towards buses that would take them back to shelters.

The CBP One app – a mobile application launched by the Biden administration and criticised by Trump on the campaign trial – had shut down.

The app had been the only legal pathway to request asylum at the US-Mexico border, and with all of its appointments scrapped, there would no crossing the border.

For some, it felt like the end of the road.

Oralia has been living with her two youngest children for seven months in a nylon tent just walking distance from the US border.

She says she is also fleeing cartel threats in Michoacán, and that her 10-year-old boy has epilepsy. She says her hope was to get him medical attention somewhere safe in the US.

But without the CBP One app, Oralia says she has little hope that her claim will ever be heard.

“We have no choice but to go back and trust in God that nothing happens,” she says.

A local migrant rights’ lawyer has apparently advised her to wait and see how President Trump’s actions unfold. But Oralia’s mind is made up.

Her bags packed, the tent she’s called home for most of the last year is now vacant for the next family.

“It’s all been so unjust,” she says, wiping away tears.

“Mexico receives their citizens with no complaint, but it doesn’t work the other way round.

“I just hope God moves him [Trump] because there are lots of families like ours.”

Two high-profile Nigerian clerics took part in events surrounding the inauguration of US President Donald Trump on Monday.

The visits of Pastors William Kumuyi and Nathaniel Bassey served to underscore the ties between Christian evangelicalism and the incoming US administration.

Trump could leverage his popularity among some religious Christians on the African continent as an alternative way to boost his influence to the more traditional channels, an analyst has told the BBC.

Pastor Kumuyi was invited to Trump’s swearing-in ceremony though was unable to attend after the event was moved inside due to harsh weather.

Instead he spent time at a prayer service for the incoming president, as well as meeting political groups.

His invitation to the inauguration was unusual.

Although Trump broke tradition by inviting world leaders from countries including China, Italy and Argentina, there were no African heads of state on the guest list.

Outside of the official schedule, the well-known Nigerian gospel minister, Nathaniel Bassey, performed at the US Presidential Inaugural Prayer Breakfast on Monday morning.

The non-political, faith-based event was held ahead of the swearing-in ceremony, though it was not part of the official celebrations, and the president-elect did not attend.

A former maths professor, Pastor Kumuyi is the founder of Deeper Life Bible Church and the convener of the worldwide evangelistic ministry, the Global Crusade With Kumuyi.

The Global Crusade says its church has 120,000 attendees every week.

Having travelled to Washington DC, Pastor Kumuyi posted on X that he met congressmen from the powerful conservative youth group Turning Point USA to discuss how they can “partner together for global evangelism”.

On Sunday, he delivered a prayer at the Inauguration Praise & Prayer Convocation hosted by US pastor Jim Garlow and Tony Perkins from the Family Research Council, a US evangelical organisation.

Nathaniel Bassey is a Nigerian singer, pastor, trumpeter, music producer and gospel songwriter from Akwa Ibom state, southern Nigeria.

He has earned global recognition through his music and worship programme Hallelujah Challenge on social media, with almost four million followers on Instagram.

The musician says he started his online praise and prayer sessions in 2017 to connect Christians worldwide.

Although he refers to himself as a pastor, he is most widely recognised as a gospel artist. He is also a youth pastor and music minister at the Redeemed Christian Church of God in Lagos, Nigeria.

Pastor Bassey was the only African artist who performed at the Prayer Breakfast event in honour of Trump and Vance.

In a statement from the Global Crusade ministry, Pastor Kumuyi said he was participating in inauguration-related festivities to “celebrate a return to religious freedom in America and support for other nations in combatting religious persecution”.

Trump is popular with evangelical Christian voters in the US and has promised to uphold Christian values.

In 2019, during his first presidential term, Trump hosted the first meeting of foreign ministers focused solely on religious freedom. In a 2020 Executive Order, he wrote that “religious freedom for all people worldwide is a foreign policy priority of the United States”.

Dion Forster, professor of public theology at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, says both Trump and Pastor Kumuyi will benefit from the Nigerian’s invitation to the inauguration.

He says Pastor Kumuyi can demonstrate that he is a friend to the most powerful man in the world.

For his part Trump and his team can use the pastor’s popularity to gain influence, the professor argues.

“The genius – and I hate to use that word – of the Trump political machine is that they really know how to work outside the traditional structures of national politics,” he says.

“Where [former President] Joe Biden would have set up connections with ambassadors, senior business leaders, Trump’s the kind of guy who asks ‘where does the power lie outside of those structures? And how can I bring those kinds of people closer to me?’”

Caleb Okereke, founder and editor of Minority Africa, agrees that the backing of popular religious figures like Pastors Kumuyi and Bassey could help Trump gain popular support on the African continent.

Mr Okereke believes shared political views unite US conservatives and African evangelists.

“There’s a marrying of global conservative ideals so I think Pastor Kumuyi and Pastor Nathaniel Bassey are only a small representation of what I think is a huge alignment between US politics and politics on the continent,” he says.

“I see them as a signifier of something that is much more entrenched, which is this agenda of aligning on the hatred of LGBTQ+ populations.”

However he believes there is a “cognitive dissonance” in Africa when it comes to Trump.

He points to the US president referring to African nations as “shithole countries” and restricting immigration from several states on the continent, including Nigeria, as part of a controversial travel ban during his first term.

“I am amazed at how much gender, sexuality almost blinds everybody to whatever else they’re saying,” he says.