An American pastor released from a Turkish prison on Friday knelt at Donald Trump’s feet on Saturday, praying for the US president during a gathering in the Oval Office. 

Andrew Brunson, a 50-year-old preacher from North Carolina, who has lived in Turkey for over 25 years, asked Mr Trump if he could pray for him.

“I need it more than anybody in this room,” the president replied.

Mr Brunson then knelt, asking God to give Mr Trump “the wisdom to lead this country into righteousness”.

He continued: "Protect him from slander, from enemies. Fill him with your wisdom, and strength, and perseverance."

Mr Brunson was detained in October 2016 and charged with links to Kurdish militants and supporters of Fethullah Gulen, the cleric blamed by Turkey for a failed coup attempt that year.  He strongly denied any links to militants, and Mr Trump took up his case with gusto, demanding the preacher be released. His case became a bitter diplomatic row between Ankara and Washington.

Mr Trump said the pastor’s release marked a significant improvement in US-Turkish relations.

“This is a great step towards having the kind of relationship with Turkey that we want to have,” he said, emphasizing that the US had not made any payment or granted concessions to Turkey in exchange for his release.

"The only deal, if you can call it a deal, is a psychological one," he said. "We feel much different to Turkey today than we did yesterday. I think we have a chance now to have a really great relationship."

Flanked by Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, and John Bolton, the national security advisor, plus a phalanx of senators and advisors, Mr Trump paid tribute to the work of his team in securing his release. He also said the country was delighted he was home.

“Right now the whole world is a fan of yours,” he said.

Mr Brunson said he and his family still loved Turkey and the Turkish people, but added that he was unsure what he would do next.

“Spend time with our children, and then pray and see what God wants next for us," he said.

"In the future we will probably be doing some interviews, but this is just a time to thank this administration. We love this country. Last night we arrived in Germany, and the ambassador met us at 1:30am – I couldn’t believe it. He had a flag and I took it and very naturally kissed it."

His wife, Norine, added her thanks to the president, who jokingly asked who she voted for. She replied that she had voted for him.

"I sent an absentee ballot from prison," Mr Brunson added.

Leaders of Asia-Pacific nations failed to agree a joint communique after a summit for the first time on Sunday after police had to be called when trade tensions between the US and China boiled over in Papua New Guinea.

Insiders said the sticking point was US demands to include reference to reforming the World Trade Organisation and “unfair trade practices” – which Beijing took as an unsubtle dig.

When Chinese diplomats turned up unannounced to persuade Papua New Guinea’s foreign minister to back their wording, things turned ugly.

Rimbink Pato refused to meet them.

“Police were posted outside the minister’s office after they tried to barge in,” one source privy to summit negotiations told the AFP news agency, requesting anonymity.

Instead of a leaders’ declaration backed by the 21 members of the the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec), Peter O’Neill, prime minister of Papua New Guinea, said he would issue a chairman’s statement.

It marks the first time in Apec’s 29-year history that its members have not been able to agree.

“You know the two big giants in the room,” Mr O’Neill said diplomatically when asked which nations could not agree.

East-West tensions were on display from the outset of the summit, with the two blocs manoeuvring for influence.

Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, was feted by PNG officials when he arrived on Thursday to pitch his Belt and Road initiative to Pacific island nations. The programme offers investment in infrastructure to less developed countries.

In response, Mike Pence, US vice president, warned smaller countries not to be seduced by Chinese money that comes with strings.

The US and its allies, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, countered with a $1.7 billion (£1.3 billion) plan to deliver reliable electricity and the internet to PNG.

China came away with at least one success. A Tongan official said it had signed up to the initiative and had been given a five-year deferral on loan repayments, as Chinese officials insisted they did not add to the burden on small countries.

The United States closed its busiest border crossing with Mexico for several hours on Monday, following a day of protests in the city of Tijuana against the arrival of the migrant “caravan”.

Queues at the Tijuana crossing stretched back for several miles as traffic into the US was blocked while new security barriers were installed, causing anger among the 110,000 people who enter the US every day.

An estimated 3,000 migrants have arrived in recent days in Tijuana, which sprawls into San Diego in southern California.

On Sunday several hundred Tijuana residents took to the streets to protest against the caravan, which set out from Honduras on October 13.

While many in Tijuana are sympathetic to the migrants’ plight and trying to assist, with a local priest handing out donated clothes at the weekend, some locals have shouted insults, hurled rocks and even thrown punches at them.

Carlos Padilla, 57, a migrant from Progreso, Honduras, told The San Diego Union Tribune that a Tijuana resident shouted “migrants are pigs” as he passed on the street recently.

“We didn’t come here to cause problems, we came here with love and with the intention to ask for asylum,” he said. “But they treat us like animals here.”

The cold reception contrasts sharply with the warmth that accompanied the migrants in southern Mexico, where residents of small towns greeted them with hot food, campsites and even live music.

“Out! Out!” they chanted, demanding that the caravan be diverted and worried about the impact of many hundreds of migrants and asylum seekers stuck in their city for months.

US border inspectors are currently processing only about 100 asylum claims a day at Tijuana’s main crossing to San Diego, and Juan Manuel Gastelum, mayor of Tijuana, said he estimates the migrants will remain in his city for at least six months as claims are processed.

He has called the migrants’ arrival an "avalanche" that the city is ill-prepared to handle, and has appealed to the federal government – which has already flown in food and blankets – for more assistance to cope with the influx.

“Some of them are a bunch of bums, smoking marijuana in the street, and attacking our families in Playas de Tijuana,” the mayor said last week, on Mexican television. “Who is leading them?”

Tijuana officials have converted a municipal gymnasium to hold 3,000 migrants, and the city’s privately run shelters have a maximum capacity of 700.

Alden Rivera, the Honduran ambassador to Mexico, visited the shelters at the weekend and appealed once again for the migrants to return to Honduras – a country with a murder rate around the same as Detroit and New Orleans.

He said 1,800 have been convinced so far to return to his country. A further 2,697 Central American migrants have requested asylum in Mexico, the Mexican interior ministry said, under a program that the country launched in haste on October 26 to speed the issuing of credentials needed to live, work and study in southern Mexico.

Donald Trump, the US president, who sought to make the caravan a campaign issue in the midterm elections, voiced his support for the mayor of Tijuana on Sunday.

He wrote on Twitter that, like Tijuana, "the U.S. is ill-prepared for this invasion, and will not stand for it. They are causing crime and big problems in Mexico. Go home!"

Democrats have called for emergency hearings in Congress after Donald Trump appointed a vocal critic of the Russia investigation as acting attorney general to replace Jeff Sessions. 

Matt Whitaker, Mr Sessions’s former chief of staff, will now oversee Robert Mueller’s probe into 2016 Russian election meddling despite repeatedly criticising the scope of the investigation. 

Mr Whitaker was a legal commentator before joining the Justice Department last year, and he echoed the president by warning the probe could become a “witch hunt” and that Mr Trump’s finances should not be investigated, calling that a “red line”. 

His new role as acting attorney general gives him the power to reject requests by Mr Mueller, the special counsel, as well as end parts of his investigation, fire him and even keep secret his final report. 

The personnel changes, which saw Mr Trump ask Mr Sessions to resign as attorney general just hours after the midterm elections, have triggered fears that the president is moving to restrict the Russia probe.

All 17 Democrats who sit on the House Judiciary Committee penned a letter to the Republican chairman warning the country was “in the throes of a constitutional crisis”.

They called for “emergency hearings” and that “all relevant materials” to the firing be preserved.

A protest in New York City  drew several hundred people calling for the protection ofMr Mueller’s investigation.

The protesters gathered in Times Square on Thursday night and chanted slogans including "Hands off Mueller" and "Nobody’s above the law" before marching downtown. They held signs saying "Truth Must Triumph" and "Repeal, Replace Trump."

Similar rallies were being held across the country. Organizers say the appointment of Mr Whitaker is a "deliberate attempt to obstruct the special counsel’s investigation".

Democrats will take control of the committee in January after winning back the House of Representatives in the midterms but for now are reliant on the Republicans to approve hearings, which seems unlikely. 

The Russia probe, which is looking into whether Trump campaign figures conspired with the Kremlin in the 2016 election and if the president obstructed justice, has dogged Mr Trump’s first two years in office. 

Mr Mueller, appointed to lead the investigation early last year, is still hoping to interview the president – something the White House has been resisting for months and which could soon come to a head. 

Mr Trump was infuriated by Mr Sessions’s decision to recuse himself from overseeing the probe in March 2017, often complaining that he needed an attorney general who would protect him. 

In Mr Whitaker, Mr Trump has found a man who echoes the president’s attacks on Mr Mueller. 

The 49-year-old former college American football star wrote that Mr Mueller had come “dangerously close to crossing” a “red line” by looking into the finances of Mr Trump and his family in an opinion piece for CNN last year. 

He also shared an article with the headline "Note to Trump’s lawyer: Do not cooperate with Mueller lynch mob” on Twitter, adding himself that it was “worth a read”. 

And on funding for the Russia probe, he said on CNN in July 2017: “I could see a scenario where Jeff Sessions is replaced, it would [be a] recess appointment and that attorney general doesn’t fire Bob Mueller but he just reduces his budget to so low that his investigations grinds to almost a halt.”

The comments have raised suspicions that Mr Whitaker, who once ran for the US Senate and was a frequent critic of the Hillary Clinton email scandal, could try to limit Mr Mueller’s investigation. 

Mr Trump said on Wednesday he planned to nominate a permanent attorney general, but that process could take months.

Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor, was one of the names rumored to be in the mix. 

The next few weeks are expected to be critical for the Mueller investigation, which has avoided big public moves in the run-up to the midterms – perhaps to avoid accusations of seeking to influence elections. 

CNN reported on Thursday that Mr Mueller’s team has begun writing its final report and there are signs the special counsel’s team are looking into Roger Stone, a political consultant and ally of Mr Trump. 

A homeless man who used a shopping trolley to fend off a knife-wielding attacker as he stabbed at police in Melbourne has been unexpectedly rewarded by grateful citizens who had donated more than A$50,000 (£28,000) by Sunday evening to help him.

Michael Rogers, nicknamed "Trolley Man" on social media, repeatedly tried to ram the attacker, Hassan Khalif Shire Ali, who was lunging at police and had earlier stabbed three people, one fatally, in Friday’s attack.

His actions were filmed by witnesses, and local media and a charity tracked him down afterwards to get his story.

"I have seen the trolley to the side, so I’ve picked it up and I ran and threw the trolley straight at him. Got him but didn’t get him down," Mr Rogers told Channel Seven.

"And I did that motion about – quite a number of times, but it just wasn’t getting him down," he said.

Mr Rogers’ bravery was made even more remarkable as he was metres away from a vehicle containing gas cylinders that Shire Ali had set alight. He quickly became a hero on social media as people praised his selfless act.

Donna Stolzenberg, the founder of registered charity Melbourne Homeless Collective, started a fundraising page on GoFundMe to help the homeless man.

"As a person he just deserves it," she told Reuters by telephone from Melbourne.

By Sunday evening it had raised more than A$52,000, exceeding its original goal of A$45,000.

Ms Stolzenberg said Mr Rogers was going to need a lot of support including with financial literacy and in making sure nobody takes advantage of him.

"This funding is growing and may grow further," she said.

"Michael is experiencing homelessness and probably hasn’t had much experience with large sums of money."

Ms Stolzenberg said her organisation would also help him to find housing and organise trauma support for him to process the extraordinary events of Friday afternoon.

Reuters was unable to contact Rogers.

UK officials have picked up nine migrants off Dover who crossed the Channel aboard an inflatable boat, a day after 17 others were arrested on British shores after landing in a stolen fishing boat.

The latest group, who told police they are Iranian, included both adults and children, French officials said.

"Overnight towards 4am , what appears to be an inflatable boat carrying nine people crossed over to England after apparently leaving from Calais" in northern France, maritime authorities told AFP.

A French helicopter was dispatched but the vessel was finally intercepted near Dover by British authorities, they added.

On Tuesday, a group of 17 Iranians – 14 men and three minors – managed to reach Dover after stealing a fishing trawler from the French port of Boulogne-sur-Mer and hotwiring it.

Ingrid Parrot, spokeswoman for maritime authorities in northern France, called the crossing “unprecedented” as the boat was much bigger than the usual smaller craft used.

British officials said the Iranians’ asylum cases would be reviewed.

Thousands of migrants from Africa, the Middle East and Asia attempt to sneak into Britain by stowing away on trucks crossing to England.

Far fewer try do so by crossing in boats, though the numbers have been rising.

According to French authorities, the number of operations to either arrest or save migrants attempting to cross the Channel from France has almost doubled in 2018 compared to last year to 23 – up from 12 last year. 

France shut the notorious “Jungle” migrant camp in Calais late 2016 and both French and UK authorities said that this would put stop to attempts to illegal enter Britain.

But police say the problem has been displaced along the coast. Last month, they evicted 1,800 from the Grande-Synthe camp outside Dunkirk in the fifth such operation in five months.

Heather Nauert’s promotion to America’s UN ambassador will solidify one of the more notable trends in Donald Trump’s presidency – the remarkable influence of Fox News. 

Ms Nauert, who takes up the role from after being top spinner at the US State Department, spent more than a decade at the Right-leaning cable news channel before hopping into government two years ago. 

Her lack of top-level diplomatic experience has left critics seething, questioning whether she really has the credentials to replace Nikki Haley at the UN top table in New York, where she will be expected to face down America’s foes and lobby to pass crucial resolutions. 

But the big brand on her CV – Fox News – is one that Mr Trump has proved especially drawn to since he entered the Oval Office, not least in his top hires. 

Earlier this year, John Bolton, the mustachioed foreign policy hawk and a former US ambassador to the UN himself, was picked for the position of White House national security adviser despite his ties to former president George W Bush, usually a negative point for Mr Trump. 

His repeated appearances on Fox News, banging the drum for a hard line on Iran and North Korea, were said to have caught Mr Trump’s eye – offering a marked contrast to the formal military style of HR McMaster, the man who held the role at the time. 

(Mr Trump would get bored during briefings from Mr McMaster and once mocked his dress sense, according to Bob Woodward’s book Fear, which quotes the president saying his cheap suits made him look “like a beer salesman”.)

Two months later Mr Trump appointed another Fox name to his inner circle –  Bill Shine, a former executive at the broadcaster with two decades of experience there.  

Mr Shine was given the title of White House director of communications and is known to have played a hand in the staging of many of Mr Trump’s set-piece interviews since joining. 

It is not just appointments where the influence of Fox News can be seen. Mr Trump enjoys a close relationship with many of the channel’s top stars. 

Sean Hannity, whose evening show is often the highest rating on cable news, is an arch supporter of the president and enjoys access few other media figures can rival. 

Mr Hannity and Mr Trump frequently share late-night phone calls, usually after his 9pm programme has aired, where they chat through the latest developments making the headlines, according to a deep dive into their relationship published by New York Magazine. 

It is Mr Hannity who often gets the Trump interviews. The president in turn is known to urge his 56 million-plus followers on Twitter to tune into his ally’s show. 

And in the final days of the November midterm elections campaign Mr Hannity even appeared on stage at one of the president’s rallies, prompting a rare public rebuke from his employers. 

In fact it is Fox – whose editorial line chimes with Mr Trump, not least on demands for a harder stance on immigration and law enforcement – that almost always gets the interviews. 

CBS’s White House correspondent keeps a tally of the numbers. Last month, he noted that Mr Trump had given 40 interviews to Fox as president. That compared with four for CBS, three for ABC and zero for CNN. 

But the channel’s influence spreads wider than that. Mr Trump, who records cable news shows and watches them back via his TiVo box, is an avid consumer of the channel’s output. 

One of his favourite programmes is Fox & Friends, the breakfast show. Another is Lou Dobbs Tonight, a nightly programme on Fox Business. 

Mr Trump will tweet quotes from these shows wholesale, using the quotation marks to hammer home points he appears to endorse without directly putting them in his own name. 

Often, the remarks of Fox News talking heads appear to directly lead to the president taking some form of action. 

Back in January, Congress was due to sign-off a bill renewing surveillance powers for intelligence agencies. Bipartisan support had been secured, with the White House backing the bill. 

Then, on the day of the vote, Mr Trump unexpectedly tweeted that the act “may have been used, with the help of the discredited and phony dossier, to so badly surveil and abuse the Trump Campaign”. 

It caught the Republicans on Capitol Hill totally off guard. Why was the US president suddenly lashing out against a piece of legislation he was meant to be backing? 

Soon an explanation was found. Forty-seven minutes earlier a talking head had said on Fox & Friends: “I don’t understand why Donald Trump is in favor of this. His woes began with unlawful foreign surveillance and unconstitutional domestic surveillance of him…”

It took a phone call from Paul Ryan, the Republican leader in the House of Representatives, which reportedly lasted 30 minutes for the president to eventually relent. 

He tweeted somewhat sheepishly two hours later: “With that being said, I have personally directed the fix to the unmasking process since taking office and today’s vote is about foreign surveillance of foreign bad guys on foreign land. We need it! Get smart!”

Another example came in March during negotiations for government spending – something decided by Congress but ultimately approved by the White House. 

After weeks of wrangling, a $1.3 trillion spending bill was passed by Congress (both parts of which were controlled by Republicans at the time). Mr Trump was expected to sign it into law. 

But the lack of funding for his Mexico border wall – just $1.9 billion had been set aside, well short of the $25 billion being sought – left Fox News hosts fuming. 

Laura Ingraham, who has her own show on the channel, called it a “legislative scam”. Ann Coulter, another leading conservative name and regular Fox guest, warned the president he would be impeached if he followed through. 

In the face of the conservative onslaught, Mr Trump announced he was considering vetoing the legislation. He eventually relented, but his sensitivity to the criticism was plain to see.

So why the closeness with Fox News? The president’s admiration for its Australian owner Rupert Murdoch is one possible explanation. Michael Wolff’s book Fire and Fury details how Mr Trump sees him as one of the last great media titans and was hurt by his lack of interest before he ran for the White House. 

Another is the overlap in agenda. Many of the touchstones of Mr Trump’s presidency are championed by the news channel. His presidency gets a sympathetic hearing. 

A third is its audience. Fox viewers are Trump voters. The channel contributed to his unprecedented rise from reality TV star and business mogul to president. 

To keep his supporters on side, and to remain in tune the conservative movement he attached himself to with such success, Mr Trump turns to Fox News. 

When Ms Nauert takes her seat at the top UN table, America’s voice will be that of a Fox News correspondent with just two years’ diplomatic experience – and the mindmeld will become that bit more pronounced.