​​President Donald Trump has always understood the power of branding. As a celebrity businessman, he affixed his name to the facades of his skyscrapers and licensed his name to an array of products, from hotels to wines.

Now, he is attempting his boldest branding campaign yet: America itself.

On his first day back in office, he signed an order renaming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. Denali, the indigenous name for the famed Alaskan peak, will revert back to Mount McKinley, a reference to the assassinated 19th century president.

Fort Bragg, which was named for a Confederate general until the military changed it to Fort Liberty, will again bear its original name – but this time attributed to a far less controversial soldier from World War Two.

Trump is not the first US president to rename a monument. It was Barack Obama, a Democrat, who renamed Mount McKinley to its Native American name, Denali, after years of lobbying from Alaskans.

George W Bush, a Republican, renamed the Caribbean National Forest in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico to the El Yunque National Forest in 2007, to reflect the US territory's heritage.

And after the murder of George Floyd in 2020 sparked a national reckoning on race, Congress initiated a process to rename US military bases named after Confederate figures. In 2023, during Joe Biden's presidency, the Department of Defense renamed nine US military bases, including Fort Bragg.

At the heart of these decisions is a desire to portray America, and its values, in a particular light.

"The act of naming is a way that presidents can reshape their vision of the nation," said Allison Prasch, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies political rhetoric.

Trump's choices in his second term send a clear message about his priorities too, she said.

"It is elevating a very nationalist, imperialist vision of the United States," Ms Prasch said.

Some of Trump's name choices are callbacks to America's expansionist age, when the prevailing ideology said that America had a God-given mission to expand from shore to shore.

Part of President William McKinley's legacy was his role in annexing Puerto Rico, Guam, the Philippines and Hawaii. In changing Denali's name, Trump said he wanted to honour McKinley because he "made our country very rich through tariffs and through talent".

It's an ideology that seems to inform Trump today too, as he has also floated the idea of retaking the Panama Canal, which had once been under US control, buying Greenland and annexing Canada to become the "51st state".

Meanwhile, renaming Fort Bragg is the latest in an ongoing debate over the legacy of the Confederacy – the coalition of southern states that seceded from the US over the issue of slavery and triggered the Civil War.

During Trump's first administration, amid a national reckoning over racial injustice, Congress required the Pentagon to rename facilities named after Confederates and banned future military installations from being named after them.

The move rankled Trump then, who tried to veto the measure and declared that "our history as the Greatest Nation in the World will not be tampered with!" Congress overrode him with bipartisan support.

But historian Connor Williams, who served on the renaming committee that had recommended the name Bragg be removed in 2021, said that honouring the Confederacy is misguided.

"What makes Confederates such bad topics for commemoration is that they have very little to redeem them," Williams said. "They committed treason against the United States."

"What we commemorate, what we celebrate, what public displays we make, where we place wreathes – the president does have that ability to signal what he thinks is important," he added.

In 2023, the Biden administration changed Fort Bragg, named after Confederate general Braxton Bragg, to Fort Liberty.

"We seized this opportunity to make ourselves better and to seek excellence," Lt. Gen. Christopher Donahue said at the renaming ceremony. "That is what we always have done and always will do."

However, the name change prompted mixed feelings among lawmakers, former military personnel who spent time there, and the local community.

"I understand the reasoning behind the change, and I have to accept it because it's what the elected leadership has determined is in the best interest," Cumberland County Commissioner Jimmy Keefe said at the time according to local media. "But I hate that so many people who have had positive experiences at Fort Bragg, who have had children born there, weddings there, that they will no longer have that tether of Fort Bragg in the name."

This week, Trump's new Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, restored the base's name to Fort Bragg. But this time, he said the base will be named after Private First Class Roland Bragg, who fought in World War II, rather than a Confederate general.

"That's right," Hegseth said. "Bragg is back."

Republican lawmakers representing the base expressed enthusiasm about the change.

"Renaming Fort Bragg for Pfc. Roland L. Bragg, who earned the Silver Star and Purple Heart in WWII, was always the right decision," North Carolina Senator Ted Budd wrote on Facebook.

But nationally, many of Trump's name changes have proved controversial. A Marquette University poll suggested that 71% of US adults did not support changing the Gulf of Mexico's name, and just 29% supported it.

Some of the changes have sparked debates about whose vision of American history should officially stand.

A poll by Alaska Survey Research suggested 47% of Alaska's Trump voters favoured the name change. But overall, Alaskans opposed the name change by a two-to-one margin, the Juneau Express reported.

Democrats and Republicans in Alaska's legislature banded together to pass a resolution urging Trump not to change Denali's name.

"To officially change the name would not only dishonor those who have fought to protect Denali's legacy but also dismiss the voices of the Native communities whose roots are intertwined with this land," said Alaska Representative Maxine Dibert, a Democrat and a member of the indigenous Koyukon Athabascan community.

Time will tell whether Trump's symbolic name changes endure. But the arguments about them shows no signs of abating.

This week, the White House blocked an Associated Press reporter from the Oval Office this week because the wire service kept Gulf of Mexico in its popular style guide. AP executive editor Julie Pace called the decision "alarming" and said it violated the constitution's free speech rights.

Meanwhile, Google - which now uses the name Gulf of America on its maps for US users - has begun deleting negative reviews of the name change.

Renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America might be a land (or water) grab on paper only, but its symbolism is undeniable, said Ms Prasch, the professor of political rhetoric at the University of Wisconsin.

And it goes beyond geography to strike a chord about how the country views itself - and its history.

"I actually think that this is much more than renaming a body of water on a map," she said. "It is a fundamentally rhetorical decision about how we think about the story of the nation."

In a room at the luxury Decápolis Hotel in Panama City, two girls hold a piece of paper to the window with a written message. "Please help us," it reads.

The hotel offers its clients rooms with sea views, has two exclusive restaurants, a swimming pool, a spa and private transportation. But it has now become a "temporary custody" centre housing 299 undocumented migrants deported from the US, the Panamanian government said on Tuesday.

Some migrants raise their arms and cross them at the wrists to indicate that they are deprived of their freedom. Others hang small signs with other messages such as: "We are not safe in our country."

The Trump administration has pledged to deport millions of people who crossed illegally into the US. Those in the Panama City hotel arrived on three flights last week, after President José Raúl Mulino agreed that Panama would become a "bridge" country for deportees.

However, of the 299 undocumented migrants - from India, China, Uzbekistan, Iran, Vietnam, Turkey, Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka - only 171 have agreed to return to their countries of origin.

The remainder now face an uncertain future, and it is the Panamanian authorities who are in control of what happens next.

According to the government, this group will be transferred to a camp in the province of Darién, which has temporarily housed migrants crossing the jungle en route to the US.

On a normal day, tourists can enter and leave the Decápolis Hotel with ease, but now heavily armed members of the Panamanian National Aeronaval Service enforce strict security measures inside and outside of the building.

From the street, laundry can be seen hanging in a window. One of the items is a yellow Los Angeles Lakers basketball jersey with the number 24, worn by the legendary player Kobe Bryant.

In another window, a group of adults and three children raise their arms with their thumbs in their palms - the international symbol for those needing assistance. "Help us," is written in red letters on the glass.

And two children with their faces covered hold up sheets of paper against the glass with the message: "Please save the Afghan girls."

An Iranian woman who has lived in Panama for a number of years told the BBC she was in contact with one of the migrants inside the hotel. She said they were "terrified" of the possibility of being returned to Iran.

The woman, who asked not to be named, said she went to the hotel to offer her help as a Farsi translator but was told they already had one.

She added, however, that people inside the hotel said that was not true.

Using a hidden mobile phone, since contact with those outside of the Decápolis Hotel is reportedly not allowed, the Iranian woman said the migrant told her there were several children in the hotel, that they have been denied a lawyer and that they are not allowed to leave their rooms even to eat.

After the story of the deportees being held at the hotel was first reported on Tuesday, the security measures put in place were tightened and migrants' access to the internet was cut off, the woman said.

The BBC contacted both the Decápolis Hotel and the Panamanian government to ask about the conditions inside the building, but did not receive a response.

However, Panama's Minister of Public Security Frank Ábrego said migrants are not allowed to leave the hotel because his government must guarantee the safety and peace of Panamanians.

A video posted on social media on the weekend showed one of the migrants describing in Farsi how they had been detained after crossing the border to the US and told that they would be taken to Texas, but ended up in Panama.

The woman in the video said her life would be in danger if she returned to Iran because of possible reprisals of the government.

Her intention, she said, is to ask for political asylum.

Analysts say this is difficult to obtain without access to a lawyer - even more so when the Panamanian government announced that this access would not be offered to deportees.

Minister Ábrego said on Tuesday that the migrants would remain temporarily in Panama under the protection of the country's authorities.

"What we agreed with the US government is that they are here and will remain in our temporary custody for their protection," he said.

He also warned that those migrants who did not wish to return to their country of origin would have to choose a third country.

In that case, he said, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) would be responsible for their repatriation.

An IOM spokesperson told the BBC that the organisation is in charge of "providing essential support" to people deported from the US.

"We are working with local officials to help those affected, supporting the voluntary return of those who request it and identifying safe alternatives for others," he said.

"While we have no direct involvement in the detention or restriction of movement of persons, we are committed to ensuring that all migrants are treated with dignity and in accordance with international standards," he said.

Ábrego also said the migrants were being housed in the Decápolis Hotel because of its capacity to receive them.

Another senior official said "the arrival of more migrants is not expected" because no more flights of this type have been agreed with the US.

Panama agreed to be a "bridge" country for deportations after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited the country as tensions simmered over Trump's threats to "recover" sovereignty of the Panama Canal.

Muzaffar Chishti, a senior researcher at the Migration Policy Institute - a think tank in the US - said many of the deportees come from nations not open to accepting the return of nationals deported from the US.

"That implies constant diplomatic negotiations with those governments," he told the BBC.

"By sending them to Panama, the US is out of the picture," he added. "It is a headache for Panama to take charge of those negotiations and see how to get those countries to agree to receive them again."

This week, a flight carrying deportees from the US is expected to arrive in Costa Rica, another Central American country that has agreed with Washington to become a "bridge" nation for deportees.

Additional reporting by Sheida Hooshmandi, BBC Persian

Capturing water from fog - on a large scale - could provide some of the driest cities in the world with drinking water.

This is what researchers in Chile have concluded after studying the potential of fog harvesting in the desert city of Alto Hospicio in the north of the country.

Average rainfall in the region is less than 0.19in (5mm) per year.

"Like a lot of cities, Alto Hospicio has its social problems," said lead researcher Dr Virginia Carter Gamberini, from Universidad Mayor. "There is a lot of poverty", she explained, and many people there have no direct access to the networks that supply clean water.

Many who live in the city's poorest communities rely on drinking water that is delivered by truck.

However, clouds of fog that regularly gather over the mountain city are an untapped source, researchers say.

Capturing fog water is remarkably simple - a mesh is hung between poles, and when the moisture-laden clouds pass through that fine mesh, droplets form. The water is then channelled into pipes and storage tanks.

It has been used at a small scale for several decades, mainly in rural South and Central America - in places with the right foggy conditions. One of the biggest fog water harvesting systems is in Morocco, on the edge of the Sahara Desert.

However, Dr Carter says a "new era" of much larger-scale fog harvesting could provide a more secure and sustainable supply of water in urban environments where it is most needed.

She and her colleagues carried out assessments of how much water can be produced by fog harvesting, and combined that information with studies of cloud formation in satellite images and with weather forecasts.

From this, they concluded that the clouds that regularly form over the Pacific - and are blown across the coastal mountain city - could provide the people of Alto Hospicio's slums with a sustainable source of drinking water. They published their findings in a paper in the journal Frontiers of Environmental Science.

Alto Hospicio's fog forms over the Pacific Ocean - when warm, moist air flows over cold water - and is then blown over the mountains. The reliably foggy conditions here allowed Dr Carter and her colleagues to pinpoint areas where the largest volumes of water could be harvested regularly from the clouds.

Based on an annual average water collection rate of 2.5 litres per square metre of mesh per day, the researchers worked out:

• 17,000 sq m of mesh could produce enough water to meet the weekly water demand of 300,000 litres that is currently delivered by truck to urban slums
• 110 sq m could meet the annual demand for the irrigation of the city's green spaces
• Fog water could be used for soil-free (hydroponic) agriculture, with yields of 33 to 44lb (15 to 20kg) of green vegetables in a month

Alto Hospicio is on the edge of the Atacama Desert - one of the driest places on Earth. With little to no precipitation, the main water source of cities in the region are underground aquifers - rock layers that contain water-filled spaces - that were last refilled thousands of years ago.

With urban populations growing, and demand on those water supplies from mining and industry, the scientists say there is an urgent need for other sustainable sources of clean water.

Dr Gamberini explained that Chile is "very special" for its sea fog, "because we have the ocean along the whole country and we have the mountains".

Her team is currently working on a "fog harvesting map" of the whole country.

"Water from the clouds", as Dr Carter describes it, could, she said, "enhance our cities' resilience to climate change, while improving access to clean water".

Brazil's chief prosecutor has accused former President Jair Bolsonaro of leading an attempted coup after the ex-leader was defeated by his left-wing rival in the 2022 presidential election.

According to the prosecutor, the alleged plot aimed to prevent Bolsonaro's successor in office, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, from taking office and included a plan to poison Lula.

Bolsonaro, 69, denies any wrongdoing and says he is the victim of a political witch hunt.

It is now up to Brazil's Supreme Court to decide whether to accept the prosecutor's charges and put Bolsonaro and 33 others accused on trial.

In a sign of how divided Brazil remains two-and-a-half years after the bitterly fought presidential election, critics of Bolsonaro celebrated news of the charges, saying that the former president belonged in jail, while his supporters insisted he was innocent.

The focus is now on Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who will have to weigh up the merits of the accusations made by the chief prosecutor and decide whether the case should proceed to the trial stage.

There is no deadline for Mr Moraes to make his decision, but legal experts quoted in Brazilian media said they expected him to rule in favour of a trial, which could get under way later this year.

Political analysts say a potential trial could have an impact on the 2026 presidential election.

While Bolsonaro is barred from running for office until 2030 for falsely claiming that Brazil's voting system was vulnerable to fraud, he remains a strong political force.

Many think he could use a potential trial as a platform for his agenda.

In his 272-page report, Attorney-General Paulo Gonet said that he had concluded that Bolsonaro and the 33 other accused had formed a criminal group which had tried to instigate a coup against Lula's newly elected government - an allegation those named have denied.

The document alleges that Bolsonaro and his vice-presidential candidate Walter Braga Netto led the group.

"Allied with other individuals, including civilians and military personnel, they attempted to prevent, in a co-ordinated manner, the result of the 2022 presidential elections from being fulfilled," it reads.

According to the report, the alleged plot included a plan to poison Lula and shoot dead Alexandre de Moraes - the same Supreme Court justice now tasked with deciding whether the case should proceed to trial.

The prosecutor's charges are based on a police investigation into the events leading up to 8 January 2023, when Bolsonaro supporters stormed government buildings in the capital, Brasilia.

Parts of the buildings were ransacked and police arrested 1,500 people.

Bolsonaro was in the United States at the time and has always denied any links to the rioters. But the prosecutor's report alleges that he started sowing doubts about Brazil's voting system as early as July 2021, which are thought to have encouraged those storming Congress.

Lawyers representing the former president said they were "astonished" by the accusations levelled against their client and insisted that he had never supported any movement aimed at dismantling Brazil's democratic rule of law or the institutions that uphold it.

The said the prosecutor had come up with a "fanciful narrative" that would not stand up to legal scrutiny.