04-03 00:00 · 国际,新闻,BBC,国际
Bondi's time as America's top law enforcement officer was overshadowed by the justice department's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation.
Trump removes US Attorney General Pam Bondi
US President Donald Trump has removed Attorney General Pam Bondi - a longtime ally and fierce defender of his administration - from her post as America's top law enforcement officer.
Trump praised her in a post on Truth Social and said she would be "transitioning" to a role in the private sector.
Bondi's time leading the justice department was often overshadowed by its handling of the release of files relating to Jeffrey Epstein and its investigation into the convicted sex offender.
She is the second Trump administration official in recent weeks to be cut from her post, after Kristi Noem was ousted as homeland security chief in March. Bondi will be replaced by her former deputy, Todd Blanche.
Bondi said she would be "working tirelessly" to transfer her work to Blanche, adding that the job had "been the honour" of a lifetime.
She added that in her new private sector position - which she did not identify - she would "continue fighting for President Trump and this administration".
The announcement comes less than two months after a combative congressional hearing in which Bondi was peppered with questions from lawmakers - at times descending into shouting matches in which she called one Democrat a "washed-up loser".
As recently as Thursday morning, Trump was defending Bondi, saying: "She is a wonderful person and she is doing a good job."
But hours later, Trump confirmed her departure on Truth Social, saying that her new private sector role would be "announced at a date in the near future".
Trump lauded Bondi's performance as attorney general in his post, saying she had done "a tremendous job overseeing a massive crackdown in crime across our country".
But the president had reportedly grown increasingly frustrated with Bondi, in particular over her handling of the Epstein files.
When she was sworn into the post in February 2025, she vowed transparency over the Epstein case and promised to release an alleged client list associated with the disgraced financier, who died in 2019.
The department later said no such list existed.
In the end, millions of files related to Epstein were released under pressure - including from Trump supporters - and only after Congress passed a law requiring the Department of Justice to make unclassified records public.
The agency, and subsequently Bondi, faced bipartisan backlash, with lawmakers accusing the justice department of failing to obscure some identifying information about survivors, while protecting the identities of those who were not victims.
A handful of Republicans who worked with her closely over the years praised her on Thursday.
"Pam Bondi led this Department with strength and conviction and I'm grateful for her leadership and friendship," Blanche wrote on X. "We will continue backing the blue, enforcing the law, and doing everything in our power to keep America safe."
Others celebrated her departure.
Among them was Kentucky Republican congressman Thomas Massie, a regular critic of Bondi's handling of the Epstein files.
"I hope the next AG will release all the Epstein files according to the law and follow up with investigations, prosecutions and arrests," he wrote on X.
California Democrat Ro Khanna - who worked with Massie on the bipartisan law to compel the release of the files - told the BBC's Newsnight programme: "This shows that Congress isn't a doormat."
Khanna said lawmakers should refuse to confirm Blanche as the next attorney general unless he will "submit to investigating and prosecuting this Epstein class, this group of men who felt that they could write their own rules, play by their own roles, and treated the rest of us as dispensable".
Another Republican critic of Bondi's, South Carolina representative Nancy Mace, accused her of having "stonewalled every effort to hold the guilty accountable" and "seriously undermined" Trump with her handling of the files.
Survivors also told the BBC that Bondi had yet to meet them or respond to their emails about Epstein's wrongdoing, and that the matter had become a political liability for Trump.
Bondi has called Epstein a "monster" and told the victims she was sorry for the abuse they endured.
Most recently, a congressional committee formally summoned Bondi to answer questions over her handling of the Epstein investigation. She was expected to appear before them this month.
Under her leadership, the justice department has pursued a number of criminal investigations into political opponents of the president, including California Senator Adam Schiff, New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey.
In September, Trump pushed Bondi to more aggressively investigate his political adversaries. He said in a social media post addressed directly to Bondi: "We can't delay any longer, it's killing our reputation and credibility."
The justice department under her tenure faced questions over its handling of the investigation into federal immigration agents fat
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04-02 06:04 · 国际,新闻,BBC,国际
Trump attended the arguments in person, a rare move by a sitting president that underscores the high stakes of the case.
US Supreme Court appears sceptical of Trump plan to limit birthright citizenship
The Supreme Court has appeared sceptical of President Donald Trump's executive order limiting birthright citizenship, a sign the justices could strike down a key element of his immigration agenda.
A majority of the court seemed unconvinced the US should stop granting citizenship to children of undocumented immigrants and some temporary US visitors.
The administration has argued that limiting birthright citizenship is necessary to rein in illegal immigration. Opponents argue it would upend more than a century of precedent and unravel a cornerstone of US immigration law.
Trump attended the oral arguments on Wednesday, a rare move by a sitting president that underscored the case's high stakes.
A defeat for the Republican president would mark a second straight setback at the high court, following the decision last month that invalidated his global tariffs. A win would help Trump deliver on his pledge to reshape America's immigration policies.
During more than two hours of arguments, US Solicitor General John Sauer sought to convince the justices that the 14th Amendment - which establishes birthright citizenship and was extended to formerly enslaved people - and subsequent court rulings and laws passed by Congress all mistakenly expanded birthright citizenship.
Chief Justice John Roberts, a key swing vote on the court, questioned Trump's authority to exclude children of undocumented immigrants from receiving US citizenship.
"I'm not quite sure how you can get to that big group," Roberts said.
The oral arguments turned on a key clause in the 14th Amendment, which grants citizenship to all people born or naturalised in the US who are "subject to the jurisdiction thereof".
Sauer argued that the clause should only apply to the children of foreign diplomats and a few other limited groups.
Parents who are in the country illegally when their children are born have "allegiance" to their home countries and therefore don't fall under the jurisdiction of US law, he said.
"Jurisdiction means allegiance," Sauer said. Citing a previous court opinion, he later argued that "permanent residence and domicile decides [citizenship]. That's what the court should be bound by."
But several justices said that interpretation would fundamentally reshape how Americans and people worldwide understand the US birthright citizenship process.
Justice Elena Kagan said the administration was seeking to undo a legal tradition of birthright citizenship that dates back to English common law.
"What the 14th Amendment did was accept that tradition and not attempt to put any limitations on it. That was the clear rationale," the liberal justice said.
Several justices also pointed to the 1898 Supreme Court ruling, United States v Wong Kim Ark, the landmark decision that upheld birthright citizenship in the case of a child born to Chinese immigrants living in the US.
Cecillia Wang, an ACLU attorney representing the plaintiffs in court on Wednesday, used the decision to argue that Trump's executive order should be overturned.
"If we agree with you how to read Wong Kim Ark, then you win," Justice Brett Kavanaugh said. "That could be just a short opinion."
Whether the court ultimately issues a broad or narrow opinion remains to be seen. The difference between a sweeping ruling on constitutional grounds versus a more tailored opinion on statutory grounds is a critical one, legal experts said.
The justices could choose to focus on a 1952 law passed by Congress that codified birthright citizenship and not wade into the larger constitutional debate, said Stephen Yale-Loehr, an immigration law expert.
"The court does not like to rule on constitutional issues if it doesn't have to," Yale-Loehr said. "The court could argue that the Trump executive order is invalid on statutory grounds."
The justices are expected to issue their decision in June.
It would be the first major immigration case decided by the court on its merits since Trump started his second term.
The court has taken up other immigration cases, but has so far sent them back to lower courts for further review.
Trump's push to end birthright citizenship is one part of his larger immigration crackdown.
But it's nevertheless a longtime goal of many on the right, and something Trump has supported since his first term in office.
A victory in this case would help Trump make the case that he is delivering on his campaign pledge to limit illegal immigration.
A loss would be a setback to Trump's immigration agenda.
But it would also represent a larger blow to his efforts to aggressively expand executive power since returning to office.
The ruling in February overturning Trump's sweeping global tariffs showed that the justices are not willing to give Trump a blank cheque to bypass Congress and the courts.
Trump signalled his interest in the case by attending arguments on Wednesday.
Critics said his appearance was an improper effort t
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04-02 06:04 · 国际,新闻,BBC,国际
New DNA testing has solved the 51-year-old case of murdered teenager Laura Ann Aime, according to investigators.
Utah teen identified as victim of serial killer Ted Bundy
Officials in Utah have formally closed a 51-year-old cold case after using new DNA technology to identify a murdered teenager as a victim of serial killer Ted Bundy.
Laura Ann Aime, 17, disappeared after leaving a party on Halloween in 1974. Her body was discovered about one month later by hikers in the American Fork Canyon.
The Utah County Sheriff's Office announced on Wednesday that new testing "confirmed irrefutably that DNA evidence recovered from Laura's body verified the existence of DNA belonging to Bundy".
Between February 1974 and February 1978, Bundy murdered at least 30 women. He has also been linked to many more killings throughout the country.
Before he was executed in Florida in 1989, Bundy confessed to Laura's killing, but since he would not elaborate or give any detail to his actual involvement in her death, "the Sheriff's Department elected to keep this case open until investigators could prove, without a shadow of doubt" that he was her killer, the sheriff said in a statement.
The sheriff added that if Bundy were still alive, prosecutors would pursue the death penalty against him.
Bundy is among America's most infamous serial killers, and began his spree by attacking victims throughout the US Pacific north-west. He later killed victims in Colorado, Utah and Florida.
At the time of Laura's death, he was living in Salt Lake City and studying law at the University of Utah.
The sheriff's statement said Laura was remembered as an "outgoing free spirit who enjoyed outdoor activities and shared a passion for riding horses, hunting and caring for her several siblings".
Bundy was known to often approach women in public places, gain their trust with his charm or a fake injury, and then lure them to secluded areas and kill them.
He was first arrested in 1975 for kidnapping a woman and sentenced to 15 years in jail.
But in 1977 he escaped by jumping out of a prison library window.
He was recaptured for eight days and then escaped again, continuing to kill until he was finally caught in 1978.
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04-02 06:04 · 国际,新闻,BBC,国际
The quake struck between the islands of Manado and Ternate. Tsunami warnings have now been lifted.
Magnitude 7.4 earthquake hits off Indonesia, killing one
A 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck in the Molucca Sea off Indonesia's Ternate island early Thursday, killing at least one person.
The quake, which struck at 06:48 local time (22:48 GMT) at a depth of 35km, sparked tsunami warnings which have since been withdrawn.
A 70-year-old woman in North Sulawesi died after being crushed by building debris, and another person broke their leg after jumping off a building, Indonesia's national news agency Antara reported.
While the region experiences high levels of seismic activity, some residents told the BBC this was one of the strongest earthquakes they have felt in at least the past six years.
The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center initially warned that tsunami waves less than 0.3m (1 ft) "were possible" along the coasts of Guam, Japan, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and Taiwan. The tsunami alert was lifted after two hours.
Journalist Isvara Safitri, who lives in central Manado, recalled how furniture in her room shook for several seconds.
"It was really strong... My head even felt dizzy," Safitri told BBC Indonesian.
Even the roads outside the house were shaking, she said, adding that the earthquake "feels like the strongest" she's experienced over the past six years.
Yayuk Oktiani, who lives in Bitung, a city on the north-eastern coast of Sulawesi, said she often experiences tremors, "but they're never as strong as this one".
Oktiani was at the market when "everything started shaking". Several stores experienced power outages and as the tremors got stronger, people fled, she told the BBC.
She headed straight for her child's school, which is located "very close" to the sea.
"The situation there was chaotic... The teachers immediately told parents to bring their children home, even though they had only just arrived," she told the BBC.
In Ternate, resident Budi Nurgianto said the walls in his house vibrated for what felt like more than a minute. He rushed outside, into a scene of panic.
"There were many people outside... I even saw some people leaving their house without having finished their shower," he told AFP news agency.
Manado and Bitung are located on the island of Sulawesi, while Ternate is a volcanic island in the North Maluku province.
The epicentre of the quake was roughly midway between Manado and Ternate.
At least two aftershocks, with magnitudes 5.5 and 5.2, followed the major quake, with authorities warning of more to come.
The national geological agency reported "damage to buildings and injuries" about an hour after the initial tremor, but did not provide further detail.
Footage from a search and rescue team in Manado shows residents and officials walking through the rubble at a sports complex, with some shouting "oh my God".
Large pieces of furniture were flung onto the ground, with some metallic structures bent out of shape.
A patient at Siloam Hospital in Manado recalled the frantic efforts to evacuate staff and patients.
"We were sitting there drinking tea... [Initially we] didn't realise it was an earthquake. And then we heard a child scream, 'Come down, hurry up,' " said Admini, 69.
Nurses and doctors quickly set up makeshift treatment areas, out in the open and inside vehicles.
"Everyone was huddled together outside," Admini said. "Some were in wheelchairs, others were helping each other."
Additional reporting by Heyder Affan in Jakarta
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04-02 06:04 · 国际,新闻,BBC,国际
There were some glaring omissions in the president's primetime address, writes the BBC's Gary O'Donoghue.
Trump leaves key questions unanswered as he seeks to calm nerves over Iran war
US President Donald Trump's address from the White House on Wednesday evening was - despite some speculation beforehand - largely a rehash of what he has been saying for days about the Iran war.
In a 20-minute primetime speech, he said the "core strategic objectives" of the US-Israeli military operation were "nearing completion" after a month of war and projected it would last another two to three weeks.
There were the usual threats against Iran, too, including a repeated pledge to bomb the country "back to the Stone Age".
If you were to copy and paste his posts on Truth Social over the last week or so, you would not be far off this address to the nation.
The president did attempt to persuade Americans of the merits of this war. There is good reason for that, as polls suggest a consistent majority of voters disapprove of the military operation he launched on 28 February.
Trump urged Americans to see this war as an "investment" in their future, and suggested it was nothing compared to other conflicts over the past century or more in which the US has ended up being involved for far longer.
But there was little here for those hoping for clear answers on where this war is heading or potential exit ramps for the US. There were glaring omissions which leave a plethora of questions unanswered.
Firstly, Israel is still attacking Iran and taking incoming drone and missile attacks – including earlier on Wednesday in Tel Aviv just hours before the beginning of Passover.
A key question is whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government agrees with the timetable of a few more weeks that was provided by Trump. We simply do not know at this point in time.
Secondly, what happened to the 15-point peace plan the White House was urging Iran to accept just days ago? There was no mention of it by Trump on Wednesday night. Is Washington now ditching many of those demands, including the retrieval of its stockpile of enriched uranium?
That, too, is unclear.
The reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world's busiest oil shipping channels, which has been effectively closed off by Iran, is a central issue in this conflict.
The president, however, does not appear to have a settled view on it.
One moment he is demanding Iran allow tankers through, and the next he is telling allies to go and sort it out for themselves. "Go to the strait and just take it, protect it, use it for yourselves," he said on Wednesday. "The hard part is done, so it should be easy."
He then simply said, without expanding further, that the strait would reopen "naturally" when the war was over. That is unlikely to reassure those concerned about oil prices.
Trump's pointed criticism of some allies - he said at one point that they should "build up some delayed courage" and lead an operation to reopen the strait - came after he floated the idea of pulling out of the Nato military alliance in an interview earlier on Wednesday.
But that rhetoric was completely absent from this speech, despite briefings suggesting it would be a key part of his words tonight.
Another key unanswered question relates to ground troops. What are the thousands of marines and paratroopers actually going to be doing in the region as they continue to arrive?
The truth is that after this national address, we are really none the wiser about what the president sees as victory in this war.
And given the often conflicting nature of his statements from one day to the next, everything could change at any time.
Meanwhile, the average price of gas in the US has topped $4 (£3) for the first time in nearly four years and the president's approval ratings are cratering, just months before the crucial midterm elections that will determine control of Congress.
This is a US president looking for a way out of this war – and he is still casting about to find one.
Follow the twists and turns of Trump's second term with North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher's weekly US Politics Unspun newsletter. Readers in the UK can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here.
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04-02 06:04 · 国际,新闻,BBC,国际
After delays and technical issues, the first crewed Moon mission in 50 years finally took off from Florida and is now in Earth's orbit.
Watch the moment Artemis II blasts into space on historic mission
The Artemis crew are officially on their way in a historic 10-day mission around the Moon, which could take them further from Earth than anyone has ever been before.
The crew on the 10-day mission won't land on the Moon, but plan to circle it, while travelling further from Earth than anyone has ever been before. Following on from the unmanned Artemis I mission in 2022, Nasa's Artemis programme is preparing for deep-space missions - with an ultimate goal of reaching Mars in the 2030s.
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04-02 00:00 · 国际,新闻,BBC,国际
Azzurri fans and management alike are pondering what went wrong after Italy fail to qualify for third World Cup in a row.
Devastated Italians reckon with 'third apocalypse' of World Cup failure
Leaning against a wall near a news-stand in central Rome, Tommaso Silvestri, 65, scans the morning's front pages, their headlines swinging between "apocalypse," "scandal" and "disaster" after Italy's latest footballing collapse.
"We've made a real mess of it," he says, shaking his head. "We had players who couldn't even find the target."
"The golden days of Italian football are well and truly gone."
On Tuesday night in Zenica, four-time World Cup winners Italy failed to qualify for the tournament for a third consecutive time, losing 4-1 on penalties to Bosnia and Herzegovina after being reduced to 10 men before halftime.
Since winning the World Cup in 2006, the Azzurri have largely disappointed in international tournaments - with the exception of their surprise victory at the Euros in 2021 against England at Wembley.
"We are what our results say we are," Silvestri said. "When you shoot and can't even hit the goal, you're not going to go far. When it comes to taking the game home, Italy just doesn't get there anymore."
Last night's defeat drew swift and emotional reactions across Italian politics and society.
"Everything has a limit," lamented Ignazio La Russa, president of the Senate and a senior figure in Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's far-right Brothers of Italy party.
In a post on X, he wrote: "We're not going to the World Cup. We supported them, we hoped, we even railed against a couple of questionable refereeing decisions... but deep down we feared it. In fact, we knew it."
Gomorrah author and anti-mafia writer Roberto Saviano also weighed in, pointing to deeper structural failures in Italian football, from governance to youth development.
"Clubs are corrupt and at the mercy of criminal organisations. True laundering vaults. No investment in young players, no care for second-generation talent. It's easier to buy foreign players than to develop new athletes," he said in a post on Instagram.
Across Italy, a legendary football nation with a rich history of producing world-class talent, many are wondering what went wrong. Giovanni Colli, 71, rolling his eyes while sipping an espresso at a café near the Pantheon, says he feels "betrayed."
"Not going to the World Cup three times in a row, how on earth did it happen? What a huge disappointment. Everyone should resign. Give the young players a chance," he says.
Italy's World Cup heartbreak was crystallised in the tear-streaked face of coach Rino Gattuso, who struggled to hold back his emotions after the national team's defeat.
"We don't deserve this, it's not fair. I'm sorry I couldn't make it happen," Gattuso said, eyes glistening, before retreating to the dressing room.
The legendary 2006 World Cup-winning midfielder was only given the job of coach last June.
Despite the disappointment, Gattuso expressed pride in his players: "I'm proud of my boys and what they gave on the pitch."
The match, decided on penalties after Italy were reduced to 10 men following Alessandro Bastoni's early red card, gave a brief moment of hope to Italians with Moise Kean's goal, only for it to end in dismay.
Gattuso admitted the team's shortcomings: "When you have chances and don't take them, football punishes you."
Reflecting on their elimination, he added: "This hurts. We gave everything we could. It's a real shock."
Sport journalist Elisabetta Esposito of La Gazzetta dello Sport told the BBC that Italian football was facing a difficult period - one that would take time to overcome, during which loyalty to individual clubs was outweighing support for the national team.
"The risk is that this third consecutive failure to qualify will deepen young people's disengagement from the Azzurri," she said.
"The disappointment is profound, but the country is not only disappointed but almost disillusioned. It's as if a new generation no longer knows what it means to cheer for their country."
Reflecting on Tuesday's match, Esposito added: "From a technical standpoint, everything went wrong. The team hasn't worked together enough. Rebuilding will require a long-term strategy, chasing immediate wins with rushed decisions won't succeed."
On a busy street in central Rome, 56-year-old Teresa is walking her dog among tourists and commuters rushing to work.
"Oh, we are not going to the World Cup?" she asks. "I don't know much about football, but that's a bit of disaster, isn't it?"
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04-02 00:00 · 国际,新闻,BBC,国际
Baidu has not responded to a request for comment about the outage, which affected at least 100 cars.
Mass robotaxi malfunction halts traffic in Chinese city
A mass robotaxi outage in the Chinese city of Wuhan caused at least a hundred self-driving cars to stop mid-traffic, sparking renewed debate around the safety of driverless vehicles.
Local police said initial findings suggested a "system malfunction" caused multiple vehicles to stop in the middle of the road on Tuesday.
Videos on social media have documented the outage, with one appearing to show it resulting in a highway collision, although police said no injuries had been reported and passengers exited their vehicles safely.
Baidu did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to the police statement, posted on social media site Weibo, the cause of the incident is still under further investigation.
However, both still need approval from regulators before they can begin the pilot programmes.
Jack Stilgoe, professor of science and technology policy at University College London said while driverless tech "may be safer on average" than human drivers, this incident showed it could "still go wrong in completely new ways".
"If we're going to make good choices about this technology, we need to understand entirely new types of risk," he told BBC News.
The outage is not the first time self-driving cars have faced technical difficulties.
Meanwhile in August 2025, an Apollo Go robotaxi carrying a passenger in Chongqing fell into a construction pit.
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04-02 00:00 · 国际,新闻,BBC,国际
Magyar represents the biggest threat to Viktor Orban's rule in Hungary since he won the first of four consecutive victories in 2010.
Peter Magyar, the former Orban ally vying for power in Hungary
"Now or never," Peter Magyar has been telling Hungarians, in a breathless campaign across the country in the run-up to 12 April elections that opinion polls suggest he can win.
This 45-year-old former Fidesz party insider represents the biggest threat to Viktor Orban's rule in Hungary since he won the first of four consecutive victories in 2010.
Magyar's slogan dates back to a revolutionary poet's 19th Century rallying cry to rise up for the homeland.
After more than 100 campaign stops his message has been shortened to "Now": the words "or never" have been crossed out, adding to the urgency.
He is on course to visit all of Hungary's 106 constituencies, and he has given four, five, even six speeches a day. Magyar has built a powerful support base in more than two years of touring the country, even in the small towns and villages were Fidesz traditionally dominates.
Last year he walked 300km (185 miles) from Budapest to the Romanian border in a campaign to "reunite" the nation, in a bid to bring natural Fidesz voters to his side.
Magyar promises to tackle corruption, improve the economy and he has sought to woo Hungary's disadvantaged Roma community. He has also promised to unlock billions of euros in EU funds, frozen largely because of concerns over Hungary's rule of law.
But Orban has depicted him as a "puppet" of the EU and Ukraine, and he has been wary of getting too close to Brussels and has promised voters "we are the real party of peace".
His self-confidence stems from a deep understanding of the rival he faces.
Until February 2024, Magyar was very much part of the Fidesz family.
He joined the party at university and married one of its rising stars in Judit Varga, with whom he had three children.
Then Magyar stunned Hungarians with a live appearance on a pro-opposition YouTube Channel called Partizán.
In a country of 9.6 million people, a million watched as a solemn Peter Magyar explained why he had had enough of his own party.
"Everyone warned me against it, friends, family people I know," he told presenter Márton Gulyás. "Obviously I've been in this system, in this circle, for a very long time."
Hungary was in the midst of a scandal in which President Katalin Novak had granted a pardon to a man who had helped cover up sexual abuse in a Hungarian state-run children's home.
She resigned, and so did Magyar's ex-wife. Varga had been justice minister and had co-signed the pardon. Two leading Fidesz women were left to carry the can. Varga had been destined for big things in Fidesz, having left her job as minister to spearhead Fidesz European election campaign. That career was over.
Now she was no longer part of the Fidesz machine, Peter Magyar sensed this was his moment.
"I do not want to be part of a system in which the real people in charge hide behind women's skirts," he wrote on Facebook.
Towards the end of his Partizán interview Magyar spoke of his hope for political change, while realising it would be very difficult while Orban was still in power.
The current opposition was totally inept, he complained, so change would have to come from within. But one day there would be change and when it did happen it could be fast, he predicted.
His YouTube appearance went viral.
"It was not a planned move," he later told the BBC. "My mother called me not to go, but I did the opposite. Everybody knew the situation in Hungary - it's not very safe to go against this government."
Peter Magyar's high-profile party marriage had fallen apart in 2023 but he was still an important figure in Fidesz even if he was little known to the wider public.
He was a natural fit for Orban's social conservatives.
The son of two lawyers - his mother was as senior judge - Peter Magyar also counts a former Hungarian president as his godfather, and he was very interested in politics from an early age.
Magyar went to an elite Catholic boys' high school near the centre of Budapest before studying law at a Catholic university in Budapest while Orban was serving his first term as prime minister from 1998-2002.
Magyar joined the party after Orban's election defeat, and the woman he married, Judit Varga, was destined for Fidesz success, becoming justice minister in 2019, nine years after Orban's return to office.
Magyar himself became a diplomat at Hungary's permanent mission in Brussels, later running Orban's team working with the European Parliament. He went on to serve on the boards of state-owned companies.
His disaffection with the party was gradual.
"After a while I became more and more critical, openly and just among friends. I can tell you that the Fidesz we see today is very very different from the one I joined in 2002."
"I was always told by the politicians it's necessary to keep power - I accepted it for a time. But of course the turning point was in 2024," he told the BBC's Budapest correspondent Nick Thorpe.
For a while, Magyar worried if he had made a mistake: "I have t
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04-02 00:00 · 国际,新闻,BBC,国际
Fifty-seven people were killed when two trains collided in 2023 in the worst rail accident in Greek history, with 36 accused in a trial expected to last years.
Families cram into Greek court for trial into deadliest train crash
Relatives of the 57 people who died in Greece's worst ever train disaster crowded into a courtroom on Wednesday, demanding justice for the victims.
The trial had already been postponed once because of the chaotic start last week.
Most of the victims of the crash three years ago were students, killed when their intercity service from Athens to Thessaloniki smashed head-on into a goods train on the same line near Tempi in the centre of the country.
Some of the victims are thought to have burnt to death after surviving the initial collision.
Many relatives were unable to get into the courtroom in the central town of Larisa last week, and the situation was little different when it resumed on Wednesday.
Police officers allowed in only participants who were legally scheduled to attend.
Some relatives complained that two rows of seats had been taken up by police, while others said they still could not witness proceedings clearly enough.
Defence lawyer Zoe Konstantopoulou appealed for the proceedings to be filmed as access for families had been restricted.
The February 2023 disaster is widely known in Greece as the "Tempi crime" - with many arguing it encapsulates negligence and corruption at the heart of the state.
Thirty-six people are on trial in a case that is expected to hear from 350 witnesses and set to last years.
She, like so many other victims, was travelling back to lectures in the northern city after spending a public holiday with her family.
In the weeks after the crash, her grieving father Dimitris told the BBC he would always be proud of his daughter who "only had love to give".
He said: "We relatives call it a state assassination of our children, and all the people who were aboard that train… in which European country could this be possible?"
Anastasia had been travelling with her 20-year-old twin cousins, Thomi and Chrysa, who were also killed.
Thirty-three of the defendants face up to life in prison if convicted.
Among those in the dock is a station master who failed - along with everyone else - to spot that the two trains had been travelling towards each other on the same line for 10 minutes.
Other railway officials are also on trial along with two Italian former employees of the trains' parent company, Ferrovie dello Stato.
The railway network had not made use of EU funding intended to improve safety. The head of the European Public Prosecutor's Office, Laura Kovesi, later said the collision could have been avoided if the money had been spent on modernising the signalling system in time.
Trade unions in Greece had warned that some sort of catastrophe on the railway network was waiting to happen.
To the amazement of some, the crash site was bulldozed within days, which experts say destroyed potentially crucial evidence.
This fuelled claims of a cover-up, which authorities have denied.
Mitsotakis apologised to the families of the victims in the days after the crash and has asked repeatedly for public patience so that justice can take its course.
To the frustration of many campaigners, no politician is among those on trial.
The case is taking place in a remodelled conference hall that cost hundreds of thousands of euros and Mitsotakis has said it is "among the most functional and modern in Europe".
More than 60,000 pages on evidence is to be presented and 200 lawyers are involved in the case, but proceedings descended into chaos on 23 March when the courtroom became overcrowded.
Survivors of the disaster and family members of the deceased were forced to sit in the seats of the accused, most of whom were absent.
Lawyers argued health and safety regulations were being violated.
Maria Karystianou, who lost her 19-year-old daughter Marthi, said relatives had been "packed like sardines" and the spectacle was "an absolute disgrace".
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