Donald Trump is set to return to the White House, having promised action on issues including immigration, the economy and the war in Ukraine.

He looks likely to enjoy plenty of support for his political agenda in Congress after his Republican party regained control of the Senate.

In his victory speech, Trump vowed: “I will govern by a simple motto: Promises made, promises kept. We’re going to keep our promises.”

But in some cases, he has given little detail of how he might achieve his aims.

Asked in 2023 by Fox News whether he would abuse his power or target political opponents, he replied he would not, “except for day one.”

“No, no, no, other than day one. We’re closing the border, and we’re drilling, drilling, drilling. After that, I’m not a dictator.”

While campaigning, Trump promised the biggest mass deportations of undocumented migrants in US history.

He also pledged to complete the building of a wall at the border with Mexico that was started during his first presidency.

The number of crossings at the US southern border hit record levels at the end of last year during the Biden-Harris administration, before falling in 2024.

Experts have told the BBC that deportations on the scale promised by Trump would face huge legal and logistical challenges – and could slow economic growth.

Exit poll data has suggested the economy was a key issue for voters. Trump has promised to “end inflation” – which rose to historic levels under President Joe Biden before falling again. But a president’s power to directly influence prices is limited.

He has also promised sweeping tax cuts, extending his overhaul from 2017. He has proposed making tipped income tax-free, abolishing tax on social security payments and shaving corporation tax.

He has proposed new tariffs of at least 10% on most foreign goods, to cut the trade deficit. Imports from China could bear an additional 60% tariff, he has said. Some economists have warned that such moves could push up prices for consumers.

Trump has said he will “free” some of those convicted of offences during the riot in Washington DC on 6 January 2021, when his supporters stormed the Capitol building in an effort to thwart the 2020 election victory of Joe Biden.

Several deaths were blamed on the violence, which Trump was accused of inciting.

He has worked to downplay the riot’s significance and recast the hundreds of supporters who were convicted as political prisoners.

He continues to say many of them are “wrongfully imprisoned”, though has acknowledged that “a couple of them, probably they got out of control”.

Trump has vowed to sack “within two seconds” of taking office the veteran prosecutor leading two criminal investigations against him.

Special Counsel Jack Smith has indicted Mr Trump over alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election, and over his alleged mishandling of classified documents.

Trump denies any wrongdoing, and managed to prevent either case coming to trial before the election. He says Mr Smith has subjected him to a “political witch hunt”.

Trump will return to the White House as the first ever president with a criminal conviction, having been found guilty in New York of falsifying business records.

Trump has criticised the tens of billions of dollars spent by the US on supporting Ukraine in its war with Russia – and has pledged to end the conflict “within 24 hours” through a negotiated deal.

He has not said what he thinks either side should give up. Democrats say the move would embolden President Vladimir Putin.

Trump wants the US to disentangle itself from foreign conflicts generally. Regarding the war in Gaza – Trump has positioned himself as a staunch supporter of Israel, but has urged the American ally to end its operation. He has also pledged to end the related violence in Lebanon, without giving further detail.

Against the wishes of some of his supporters, Trump said during the presidential debate with Kamala Harris that he would not sign into law a national abortion ban.

In 2022, the nationwide constitutional right to abortion was overturned by the Supreme Court, which had a majority of conservative judges following Trump’s first presidency.

Reproductive rights became a key campaigning topic for Harris, and several states approved measures to protect or expand abortion rights on polling day.

Trump himself has regularly said states should be free to decide their own laws on abortion, but struggled to find a consistent message of his own.

During his first presidency, Trump rolled back hundreds of environmental protections and made America the first nation to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement.

This time, has again vowed to cut regulations, particularly as a way to help the American car industry. He has constantly attacked electric vehicles, promising to overturn Biden’s targets encouraging the switch to cleaner cars.

He has pledged to increase production of US fossil fuels – vowing to “drill, drill, drill” on day one in favour of renewable energy sources such as wind power.

He wants to open areas such as the Arctic wilderness to oil drilling, which he argues would lower energy costs – though analysts are sceptical.

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

The party that will control the US House of Representatives – one of two chambers that makes up the United States Congress – remains up in the air.

The lower chamber currently has a Republican majority, which Democrats were hoping to flip with several key races.

Every seat in the House is up for grabs this election cycle. It’s important to note the final tally may not be known for several more days.

Republicans won several races on Tuesday, giving them control of the upper chamber, the Senate.

Here are some of the races that could determine control of the US House of Representatives:

Sarah McBride made history becoming the first trans member of the US House of Representatives after winning in her Delaware district on Tuesday evening.

McBride, who already broke history as the first openly transgender person ever elected to a state Senate seat, faced off against Republican John Whalen, a former Delaware state police officer.

She defeated Whalen in Delaware’s at-large congressional district – which encompasses all of Delaware – by 15 points.

“Delaware has sent the message loud and clear that we must be a country that protects reproductive freedom, that guarantees paid leave and affordable child care for all our families, that ensures that housing and health care are available to everyone and that this is a democracy that is big enough for all of us,” she wrote on X after the win.

In Virginia’s 2nd district, which encompasses Virginia Beach, Democrat Missy Cotter Smassal challenged the incumbent Rep Jen Kiggans, a Republican.

Votes still are being counted in the race between the two Navy veterans, but Kiggans led by four points as of Wednesday morning. It marks one of the most competitive races in the state.

Also in Virginia, two candidates are looking to fill Democrat Abigail Spanberger’s seat after she decided not to run for re-election and instead run for governor.

Republican candidate Derrick Anderson and Democrat Eugene Vindman are fighting to represent Virginia’s 7th district, which encompasses Fredericksburg and Culpeper in the northern part of the state.

The district flipped from red to blue – by narrow margins – in 2018 when Spanberger first won.

As of Wednesday morning, the race had not been called.

Pennsylvania’s 10th congressional district, in the south-central part of the state, is seeing a match-up between six-term incumbent Scott Perry and Democratic challenger Janelle Stelson.

Perry, former chair of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, has yet to face a strong challenger. He helped lead the Trump campaign’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.

Stelson is a former TV news anchor and former Republican who registered as a Democrat last year.

As of Wednesday morning, Perry was leading by less than one point, BBC’s US news partner CBS reported. But the race has not been officially called.

In Pennsylvania’s 8th district, Republicans flipped one seat in the district encompassing President Joe Biden’s hometown of Scranton.

Business owner Robert Bresnahan defeated incumbent Democratic Rep Matt Cartwright by two points. Cartwright has served six terms.

Republicans flipped four seats during the 2022 midterm elections that helped pave the way to capture the House.

Democrats were looking to win them back but saw mixed outcomes on Wednesday morning.

In the 17th congressional district, seen as one of the most contested swing districts in the US, incumbent Republican Rep Mike Lawler saw off a challenge from former Democratic Congressman Mondaire Jones.

But in the 19th congressional district, Democrat Josh Riley claimed victory, taking the seat from Republican Rep Marc Molinaro.

The rematch race in upstate New York was seen as one of the most expensive House races in the country. Molinaro won by just 4,500 votes in 2022.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the UK’s Keir Starmer have been among the first world leaders to congratulate Donald Trump on winning the US presidential election.

The election of a new president is not just a big deal for the US – a new leader in the White House can transform the country’s foreign policy and its position towards its friends and foes internationally.

Here is how some of the world’s leaders have reacted so far.

In his statement, Netanyahu – who has had a difficult relationship with President Joe Biden – spoke of “history’s greatest comeback”, adding that Trump’s return to office offered a “new beginning for America, a powerful recommitment to the great alliance between Israel and America”.

Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said that Trump would be tested on his statements that he can stop the war within hours as US president.

“We urge Trump to learn from Biden’s mistakes,” he told Reuters news agency.

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said: “I look forward to working with Trump in the years ahead.”

He added: “From growth and security to innovation and tech, I know that the UK-US special relationship will continue to prosper on both sides of the Atlantic for years to come.”

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban – a close Trump ally – said his election was “a much-needed victory for the world”.

“The biggest comeback in US political history!” he wrote in a post on X.

Orban had openly endorsed Mr Trump’s re-election bid, after being the first and only EU leader to back him in 2016.

French President Emmanuel Macron also congratulated Trump, saying he was ready to work together with him just as before, “with respect and ambition. For more peace and prosperity”.

Macron also said that he had held talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, over working to defend Europe’s interests and values while co-operating with the US.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz congratulated Trump, adding that “Germany and the US have for a long time successfully worked together to promote prosperity and freedom on both sides of the Atlantic”.

Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte said Trump’s leadership “will again be key to keeping our alliance strong. I look forward to working with him again to advance peace through strength through Nato”.

Donald Trump has been critical of the Nato alliance, accusing its European allies of not paying enough for security.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on X: “I appreciate President Trump’s commitment to the ‘peace through strength’ approach in global affairs. This is exactly the principle that can practically bring just peace in Ukraine closer.”

Trump promised to push Zelensky to cut a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin, one that may involve a loss of territory. Ukraine fears he will reduce US military and financial support.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni congratulated Trump in a post on X, saying Italy and the US were “linked by an unshakable alliance, common values and a historic friendship. It is a strategic bond, which I am sure we will now strengthen even further.”

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez also congratulated Trump on X: “We will work on our strategic bilateral relations and on a strong transatlantic partnership.”

Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris said Ireland “will work to deepen and strengthen the historic and unbreakable bonds between our people and our nations in the years ahead”.

In her congratulatory message to Trump, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU and the US were “more than just allies”.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said he was “not aware of the president’s plans to congratulate Trump on the election”, since the US was an “unfriendly country”.

He added that Russia would judge Trump on his actions: “We will draw conclusions based on concrete steps and concrete words.”

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Trump, describing him as a friend on X: “As you build on the successes of your previous term, I look forward to renewing our collaboration to further strengthen the India-US Comprehensive Global and Strategic Partnership.

“Together, let’s work for the betterment of our people and to promote global peace, stability and prosperity.”

Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan also called Trump a friend, adding that he believed “more efforts will be given for a fairer world in this new era that began with the election by American people”.

Argentina’s President Javier Milei congratulated Trump on a “formidable electoral victory. Now, Make America Great Again. You know that you can count on Argentina to carry out your task.”

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Alabanese said the US “has long played a leadership role in the stability and security of the Indo-Pacific. Australia will strive to strengthen the co-operation between our two nations in the region.”

During a routine news briefing, Chinese ministry of foreign affairs spokesperson Mao Ning said “the US presidential election is their domestic affairs. We respect the American people’s choice”.

Trump threatened to impose massive trade tariffs on Chinese goods coming into the US, and he may push Europe to decouple more from China’s economy.

Speaking to reporters, Taiwan’s National Security Bureau Director-General Tsai Ming-yen said: “On relations across the Taiwan Strait, we believe that the US will continue its current approach of constraining China and being friendly to Taiwan.”

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr said that with Trump’s election, “the American people triumphed, and I congratulate them for their victory in an exercise which showed the world the strength of American values.”

There has been no official statement from North Korea, but analysts believe Kim Jong Un is invested in the US electoral outcome, because it could reopen the possibility of talks.

Kim held three historic meetings with Trump when he was president. In the run-up to the first summit, he announced that Pyongyang would be halting missile and nuclear tests.

After the talks failed, the reclusive country has continued expanding its nuclear weapons programme, despite UN sanctions.

A week after flash floods hit eastern Spain, recriminations are flying over who was to blame for the country’s worst natural disaster in living memory amid angry scenes on the part of those affected.

An initial image of cross-party unity has been replaced by disputes over which institutions had jurisdiction in the disaster areas where at least 218 people lost their lives.

In the immediate aftermath of the floods, Valencia regional leader Carlos Mazón of the conservative People’s Party (PP) welcomed Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and thanked him for his government’s support.

It was an unusual sight in the context of Spain’s deeply polarised politics, with Mazón even calling Sánchez “dear prime minister”.

Valencia’s regional leader has faced criticism for taking around 12 hours to respond to a red weather warning by Spain’s national meteorological office (Aemet) on 29 October and issue an alert directly to people’s phones, by which time the flood was already causing enormous damage.

However, the national leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, questioned the information provided by the Aemet, which is supervised by the central government. He also complained that the prime minister’s administration had not co-ordinated with the regional government.

In the days since, pressure has mounted on Mazón, with many commentators and political adversaries calling on him to resign for his actions on that day, as well as for eliminating the Valencia Emergency Unit (UVE) on taking office last year.

In response, he has taken a more confrontational approach, in line with that of his party boss.

That has included blaming the CHJ hydrographic agency, which is controlled by Madrid, for allegedly activating and then de-activating an alert on the day in question.

“If the CHJ had re-activated the hydrological alert, the alarm message would have been sent immediately” by the regional government, Mazón said.

The CHJ has responded by explaining that it provides data on rainfall and related matters but that it does not issue alerts of this kind.

Fifteen thousands troops, civil guards and police have now arrived in the Valencia region, double the number from last weekend.

Mazón has countered claims that his government did not request enough support from the military in the wake of the weather event, insisting that the armed forces themselves were responsible for such decisions.

The head of the military emergency unit (UME), Javier Marcos, responded by saying that protocol dictated that the regional government had to request any such support.

“I can have 1,000 men at the door of the emergency but I can’t go in, legally, without authorisation from the head of the emergency,” he said, referring to the Valencia leader.

Mazón’s comments about the military reportedly enraged the defence minister, Margarita Robles, who expressed her anger during a crisis meeting of ministers with King Felipe on Monday.

Meanwhile, the political situation has been further complicated after calls by Núñez Feijóo for the prime minister to declare a national state of emergency, which would centralise management of the crisis in Madrid, wresting powers from Valencia’s regional government.

The leader of the far-right Vox party, Santiago Abascal, has also backed such a measure, which has been ruled out by the government.

“Sánchez is the one responsible for not activating all the state resources when lives could have been saved,” he said, denouncing the “evil and incompetence” of the administration.

The king, Sánchez and Mazón were all hit by the blowback of public anger over the handling of the tragedy on Sunday, when people in the Valencian town of Paiporta, the worst hit by the floods, threw mud and jeered at them, calling them “murderers”.

As the scenes became increasingly violent, the prime minister’s security detail led him away to his car. Mazón stayed near the king and Queen Letizia, who both engaged with some of the local people in an effort to reassure them that everything possible was being done to help.

While the wisdom of that visit has been widely questioned, Mazón has since presented a €31.4bn proposal for the reconstruction of the flood-devastated areas, to be financed by the central government.

Sánchez, meanwhile, has announced a separate initial aid package worth €10.6bn.

“What Spaniards want is to see their institutions, not fighting with each other, but working shoulder to shoulder,” he said as he announced it.

At the wheel of an ambulance, Samir El Chekieh drives with sirens wailing to the latest Israeli air strike in El Karak in the Bekaa Valley, eastern Lebanon.

The 32-year-old firefighter and paramedic with the Lebanese Civil Defense Force (CDF) only got a few hours’ sleep last night. It is now the middle of the afternoon and he still hasn’t had breakfast.

Since the escalation of the war between Israel and the Shia Muslim Hezbollah, the men and women of the CDF see little rest, and brace themselves for a mass casualty incident every day.

This article contains graphic descriptions

It is starkly different from the last war with Israel in 2006, Samir says. “We didn’t have those kind of air strikes. Recently, a fire station was hit, and a church in the south, and our humanitarian colleagues have been killed.”

CDF workers say civilians, including women and children, are increasingly among the dead and injured when they attend a call out.

The war between Israel and Hezbollah is spreading deeper and wider across Lebanon.

An intense bombing campaign has broadened far beyond the country’s southern border villages and the capital Beirut, to towns in the fertile Bekaa and the historic city of Baalbek, principally Shia areas, where Hezbollah was founded. The port cities of Sidon and Tyre have also seen an increase in attacks.

Israel says it is only targeting Hezbollah fighters, weapons and infrastructure. Since its campaign against the militant group escalated, Israel estimates it has destroyed two-thirds of Hezbollah’s rocket and missile stockpile.

But Hezbollah is still firing rockets daily towards Israel.

The BBC spent two weeks with Civil Defense Force crews in the Bekaa Valley, which stretches eastwards to the border with Syria. Permission from Hezbollah was required to visit the scene of Israeli attacks.

In that time, the number and frequency of strikes in the area dramatically increased.

On 28 October, there were more than 100 Israeli strikes, and in the past week alone 160 people were killed in the Bekaa, according to official figures. The Lebanese government does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its figures.

Samir and his men arrive in the Shia village of El Karak to find chaos and destruction – the air is thick with smoke and dust.

Earlier at their station in the nearby city of Zahle, they had heard a powerful explosion – and from their balcony seen a plume of smoke in the distance. They jumped into their fire trucks and ambulances and headed straight there.

A woman in chador sits on the pavement begging to be let into the smoking ruins of an apartment block, but men reason with her to stay put. It is too dangerous, a second Israeli air strike could be coming.

The first body they find is of a man, blown across the ground by the explosion.

There are survivors underneath the pancaked floors of the apartments and Samir goes deep in the rubble. He is not wearing plastic protective gloves as fire is still blazing inside, so when he finds a child, he can feel shattered bones beneath his fingertips. As he carefully retrieves the child, he realises it is only half a body.

“The first victim I found was a child. I don’t know if it’s a girl or a boy,” he tells me afterwards. “Sorry to explain that. But it’s from the stomach and up – from stomach and down there is nothing.”

In the past, the CDF crew have received phone calls telling them to evacuate a site they are attending. They assume they are from the Israelis. No such call comes on this day, so for an hour Samir and others dig deeper into the ruin.

Eventually they find a 10-year-old girl alive. She tells the rescuers that her eight-month-old brother, Mohammed, was next to her.

“After that, we started hearing the screaming of a small child,” Samir says.

Through a small crevice in the rubble they spot the trapped boy, trying to move his legs, his babygrow and a single blue sock visible to the rescue crew. They painstakingly remove the debris around him and he is gently cradled in Samir’s hands and brought to safety. Mohammed is now being treated in Iraq for the head injury he suffered, his family says.

The CDF works across Lebanon’s sectarian divide. It does not discriminate, says Samir, who is Christian and is the head of operations at the station in Zahle – a predominantly Christian town, dominated by a statue of the Virgin Mary, which rises 54m above a hilltop.

“We don’t ask the sex of the victim. We don’t ask if he’s black, white. We don’t ask if he’s Christian or Muslim. We are humanitarians,” Samir says.

The UN estimates that every day in October at least one child was killed and 10 were injured in Israeli attacks. Those losses, combined with those of their colleagues killed in strikes, are taking their toll on Samir and his men.

Almost 24 hours after they left the El Karak site, a second Israeli attack brought down the rest of the apartment building.

In the early evenings, Hezbollah still fires rockets from nearby hillsides, targeting Israel. One salvo of at least six projectiles causes a brush fire near Zahle.

In the town of Khodor, the Hezbollah flag is planted on the ruins of one of the many buildings that have been flattened by Israeli bombs. Children’s toys have been arranged at its base. A large red Shia flag flaps in the wind nearby – it is almost the only sound in the largely abandoned town.

With a bandaged head, Jawad Hamzeh takes me through the rubble of his home.

His three daughters died in the attack, including 24-year-old Nada who was pregnant. He holds up another daughter’s law books, she was studying to be a lawyer.

There were no militants here, he says. “Where are the missiles, do you see them?” he asks.

The Iranian-backed Hezbollah began attacking Israel on 8 October 2023 in solidarity with its ally Hamas, which had carried out a devastating attack on Israel the day before. Months of cross-border exchanges followed, and then, in late September this year, Israel assassinated Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nassrallah, and followed that with a ground invasion.

Hezbollah is committed to Israel’s destruction, but it is more than a militant group. It is the most powerful political force in Lebanon and a social movement which serves as a bulwark for Lebanon’s long-discriminated Shia communities against other sects in the country.

Tens of thousands of Israelis have been displaced by the year-long war. By attacking Hezbollah on multiple fronts, Israel hopes to degrade the group and let its people return home.

Despite US-led ceasefire talks, neither side appears willing to back down.

On 30 October, the Israeli military issued an evacuation order in the Bekaa city of Baalbek, which the UN described as the “largest forced movement Lebanon has experienced in a single day” since the start of the conflict. As many as 150,000 people were given only hours to flee another Israeli assault.

There, not far from the magnificent Roman ruins with its towering temple of Bacchus, I met Hussein Nassereldine, 42, whose home had been destroyed in an Israeli strike the night before.

“No terrorist or bad person lived here,” he says. “All who lived here were decent people.” He says it was home to families who had fled Beirut in 1982 during the country’s civil war, including his own. “We were born here and lived here, and we will stay and won’t leave here,” he says.

As I leave, men with pickaxes and shovels are making slow progress in the rubble and Hussein prepares to erect a tent on what was left of his home.

Outside the city, at the Dar Al Amal hospital, the injured are recovering from Baalbek’s deadliest day. Of the 63 people killed, two thirds of those were women and children according to the local governor. Israel says it struck 110 Hezbollah-linked targets.

In a bare room, filled only with screams, three-year-old Selin’s tiny hand reaches out for comfort. But there is no-one there. She has burns to her face, a fractured leg and wounds to her groin and side. Her mother, father, two sisters and brother were all killed in the Israeli air strike that left her broken and alone.

Across the corridor of the intensive care unit, two-year-old Kayan Smeha has a fractured skull. His mother, Najat, 24, kisses him gently on his cheek and cradles him to quieten him.

“He is still panicking,” she tells me. “And he is probably re-running the scene as I am doing. I can handle it, but he is small, he can’t.”

Tears roll down her cheek, but she is defiant.

“I’m crying because I am afraid for my baby. But if they think they can break us they are mistaken. If I had to, I will sacrifice my son and my husband, my father, my mother, my sister,” Najat says.

“Death of loved ones is hard but not harder than getting humiliated. And we will hold on to our faith and to our traditions till death.”

At the small CDF station in the village of Ferzoul, between orchards and vineyards, the Sun comes up after a cold night. The seasonal temperature is dropping here and most of Lebanon’s shelters for the displaced are full.

Samir arrives and I ask him how he copes with what he has seen.

“Some of the pictures are stuck in our head,” he says, adding that they will never go away.

He leans heavily on his faith.

“When you manage to keep one [person] alive, that will give you the strength to keep going,” he says.

“And this is a power that’s given from God and we’re going to still do our job. Even if we were directly targeted, we say here in Lebanon, God will keep us safe and we have faith in God and he will keep us safe.”