Hello, I'm Charlotte Streetpartner. Welcome to BBC News. We begin in the US, where former rivals for the presidential nomination have been praising Donald Trump on the second night of the party convention. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, both used their speeches to give their full endorsement to Trump. The pair had run against the former President in a bid to become the Republican presidential candidate. Now, the four-day convention kicked off on Monday when Donald Trump, picked J. D. Vance as his running mate in November's election. Well, Nikki Haley, who had previously described Mr. Trump as unhinged and not fit to be President again, walked out to some booze from the convention crowd. She opened her speech with an endorsement for him and called for party unity.

For the sake of our nation, we have to go with Donald Trump. You don't have to agree with Trump 100% of the time to to vote for him. Take it from me. I haven't always agreed with President Trump, but we agree more often than we disagree. We agree on keeping America strong. We agree on I'm keeping America safe. I'm here tonight because we have a country to save, and a unified Republican Party is essential for saving her.

Well, that was Nikki Haley speaking there. Let's speak to our Chief Presenter now, Katrina Perry, who's at the RNC in Milwaukee. Hi, Katrina. Thanks for joining us. Some big names in the last 24 hours, all essentially calling for that party unity.

Absolutely. And that's what conventions are all about. It's about putting out the big guns of your party, the greatest star-studded lineup that you can put out. And this night, too, of the Republican National Convention was just that The atmosphere as excited and electric as it had been last night, particularly when the vice presidential nominee JD Vance arrived. And then just a few moments later, former President Donald Trump, who is the Republican Party nominee, arrived as well. Lots of chanting, lots of singing. Of course, what's become the chant of this convention is fight, fight, fight. Those words that Donald Trump issued from the stage after that assassination attempt at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday. And the Republican Party, led from the former President himself, have spoken, as you say, about unity here for this week, that he's changed the speech he's going to deliver on Thursday to address that. And that was really embodied in what we saw from the stage here tonight, particularly in that speech from former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and from the current governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, both of whom, just a few months ago, were heavily critical of Donald Trump, Nikki Haley saying that chaos followed him everywhere.

Ron DeSantis saying that he'd failed to get any good job done while he was President the first time around. And yet both of them here tonight addressing the crowd in front of the former President who arrived early in order so he could hear their speeches and appealing to their supporters to follow Donald Trump and giving their endorsements themselves as well.

Katrina, I was at the 2016 Convention in Cleveland, and back then, Donald Trump had a sense of victory in the air in the Convention Center. Describe for their candidate. It's somewhat of a reward getting to be a delegate and to come here and be here and celebrate the candidate and celebrate the ideals of the Republican Party and what it stands for.Anyone you talk to here, of course, will tell you that Donald Trump and JD Vance are going to win in November. However, that is also the way the polls are edging in so far as we can judge this far out from polling day. As we know, a month is a long time in US politics, a day is a long time in US politics this cycle.Okay, Katrina, thanks for joining us. Katrina Perry, there in Milwaukee at the Republican National Convention. Well, whilst Donald Trump has been making his mark, President Biden has been shoring up some support at the NAACP, which is the organization that lobbies for black Americans in Las Vegas. His message was critical of his opponent, but he once again was forced to address the attempt to assassinate Mr. Trump and called for a ban on the type of weapon used to shoot him.I'm truly honored to be here. To be in this tense moment in this country. It is a tense moment. It's a few days after the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, We pray for him. He was not seriously injured. We pray for him. We pray for him and his family. It's time for an important conversation in this country. Our politics has gotten too heated. I said The Whaling Ball was on Sunday night as it made clear throughout our presidency, we all have a responsibility to lower the temperature and condemn violence in any form.That was President Biden there. We can to our correspondence, Helena Humphrey, who joins us now from Washington. Helena, guns were a focus today at the convention. What's the latest on that investigation into that assassination attempt?Well, there are two prongs here. There is the investigation into Thomas Crooks and his motive, and then also an investigation now which has been opened by President Biden into the US secret services, how they planned for this rally, how they responded to that assassination attempt. On the first point, new details have been emerging about the moments leading up to that assassination attempt, video footage showing Thomas Crooks on that building and their members of the public gesturing to law enforcement about two minutes before Thomas Crooks was able to open fire. Then police have been speaking to his friends, his family. They've wrapped up their investigation into his vehicle, searching his home as well. Now we'll continue to look into his digital footprint and to try and assess the motive, which they say they haven't been able to do at the moment. In terms of that investigation into the Secret Services, we know that the director of that will be giving Congressional testimony on Capitol Hill on Monday. Kimberly Cheetle had previously said that she doesn't intend to resign over this, but accepts she said that this attack was unacceptable and instead wants to stay on in her position to learn from mistakes, to make sure that something like this can't come to pass again in the future.One other separate point to note, both the FBI and the Secret Services say, as well as the Department of Homeland Security, that there is the potential here for copycat attacks, for retaliatory attacks, and as such, they have called on authorities, states, people organizing rallies to be vigilant.Yes, Alana, and as we go more to the political race. I'm sure those concerns will be heightened. There's also been an Iranian link to that attempt on Mr. Trump's life, hasn't there?Yes, and it's important to note that authorities are saying that this is separate, this is not linked to what happened at the rally. But nevertheless, authorities had received, they say, information from a human source about the possibility for an assassination plot against Donald Trump coming from Iran. This is something that Tehran denies. But nevertheless, authorities say, and the secret services say, in light of this, they'd ramped up their protection of Donald Trump. Now, authorities say that they believe that this could have been potentially in retaliation for the assassination of Kassam Suleimani four years ago, the elite Kouds commander of the Revolutionary Guard at a time when Donald Trump, of course, was in office. Again, pointing out that has denied this, but also this points to these further questions that if indeed security was ramped up and protection was ramped up around Donald Trump in light of what was seen to be a threat of a plot for an assassination attempt, then how was it, nevertheless, that Thomas Crooks was able to gain that access that he did, which led, of course, to what we saw at that rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, which led, of course, as you know as well, to the loss of one of the attendees to other people who remain injured.Okay, Helena, thank you very much for that. Helena Humphrey, our correspondence in Washington there. If you'd like to read more about the convention, we've got all the latest on our website, bbc. Co. Uk/news.

for their candidate. It's somewhat of a reward getting to be a delegate and to come here and be here and celebrate the candidate and celebrate the ideals of the Republican Party and what it stands for.

Anyone you talk to here, of course, will tell you that Donald Trump and JD Vance are going to win in November. However, that is also the way the polls are edging in so far as we can judge this far out from polling day. As we know, a month is a long time in US politics, a day is a long time in US politics this cycle.

Okay, Katrina, thanks for joining us. Katrina Perry, there in Milwaukee at the Republican National Convention. Well, whilst Donald Trump has been making his mark, President Biden has been shoring up some support at the NAACP, which is the organization that lobbies for black Americans in Las Vegas. His message was critical of his opponent, but he once again was forced to address the attempt to assassinate Mr. Trump and called for a ban on the type of weapon used to shoot him.

I'm truly honored to be here. To be in this tense moment in this country. It is a tense moment. It's a few days after the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, We pray for him. He was not seriously injured. We pray for him. We pray for him and his family. It's time for an important conversation in this country. Our politics has gotten too heated. I said The Whaling Ball was on Sunday night as it made clear throughout our presidency, we all have a responsibility to lower the temperature and condemn violence in any form.

That was President Biden there. We can to our correspondence, Helena Humphrey, who joins us now from Washington. Helena, guns were a focus today at the convention. What's the latest on that investigation into that assassination attempt?

Well, there are two prongs here. There is the investigation into Thomas Crooks and his motive, and then also an investigation now which has been opened by President Biden into the US secret services, how they planned for this rally, how they responded to that assassination attempt. On the first point, new details have been emerging about the moments leading up to that assassination attempt, video footage showing Thomas Crooks on that building and their members of the public gesturing to law enforcement about two minutes before Thomas Crooks was able to open fire. Then police have been speaking to his friends, his family. They've wrapped up their investigation into his vehicle, searching his home as well. Now we'll continue to look into his digital footprint and to try and assess the motive, which they say they haven't been able to do at the moment. In terms of that investigation into the Secret Services, we know that the director of that will be giving Congressional testimony on Capitol Hill on Monday. Kimberly Cheetle had previously said that she doesn't intend to resign over this, but accepts she said that this attack was unacceptable and instead wants to stay on in her position to learn from mistakes, to make sure that something like this can't come to pass again in the future.

One other separate point to note, both the FBI and the Secret Services say, as well as the Department of Homeland Security, that there is the potential here for copycat attacks, for retaliatory attacks, and as such, they have called on authorities, states, people organizing rallies to be vigilant.

Yes, Alana, and as we go more to the political race. I'm sure those concerns will be heightened. There's also been an Iranian link to that attempt on Mr. Trump's life, hasn't there?

Yes, and it's important to note that authorities are saying that this is separate, this is not linked to what happened at the rally. But nevertheless, authorities had received, they say, information from a human source about the possibility for an assassination plot against Donald Trump coming from Iran. This is something that Tehran denies. But nevertheless, authorities say, and the secret services say, in light of this, they'd ramped up their protection of Donald Trump. Now, authorities say that they believe that this could have been potentially in retaliation for the assassination of Kassam Suleimani four years ago, the elite Kouds commander of the Revolutionary Guard at a time when Donald Trump, of course, was in office. Again, pointing out that has denied this, but also this points to these further questions that if indeed security was ramped up and protection was ramped up around Donald Trump in light of what was seen to be a threat of a plot for an assassination attempt, then how was it, nevertheless, that Thomas Crooks was able to gain that access that he did, which led, of course, to what we saw at that rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, which led, of course, as you know as well, to the loss of one of the attendees to other people who remain injured.

Okay, Helena, thank you very much for that. Helena Humphrey, our correspondence in Washington there. If you'd like to read more about the convention, we've got all the latest on our website, bbc. Co. Uk/news.