Advisers to Vice President JD Vance are privately preparing for a fierce Republican primary battle in 2028, as GOP senators begin positioning themselves to succeed Donald Trump.

Vance’s team expects him to face serious opposition if he enters the race. The vice president has already begun working to rebuild support among Republicans whose enthusiasm for his potential candidacy has cooled, according to The Washington Post.

At the end of August, Vance traveled to Las Vegas to speak at the Republican Jewish Coalition summit. His appearance came as some members of the group questioned his relationship with Tucker Carlson, who has faced accusations of anti-Semitism while criticizing the war with Iran.

After missing each other at the RJC gathering, Vance invited conservative Jewish radio personality Sid Rosenberg to the White House last week. He later hosted Rosenberg and other guests for a Shabbat dinner at the Naval Observatory on Friday, shortly before Yom Kippur.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz has used Vance’s views on Iran and his association with Carlson as points of attack. Cruz has also said Republicans will eventually hold a “discussion” over Trump’s successor—and that he plans to be involved.

The early maneuvering has also prompted one of Fox News’ most recognizable Republican personalities to consider a presidential bid. Louisiana Senator John Kennedy, 74, followed Cruz to Iowa, the first state scheduled to hold a GOP nominating contest, and addressed a major Republican event there on Saturday.

“I’m planning on running for reelection,” Kennedy told the Post. “But if I get tired of this place and/or if a bunch of goobers run for president, then I reserve the right to run.”

The Louisiana senator’s national profile grew after the 2025 publication of his bestselling book, How to Test Negative for Stupid. His Senate campaign account held $18.6 million at the end of June.

“What was that song the Judds sang—‘Why Not Me?’” Kennedy said, invoking the country duo’s 1984 hit.

Vance led a recent Bowling Green State University/YouGov survey of Republican voters with 44 percent support. Secretary of State Marco Rubio followed at 21 percent, while Cruz received 3 percent. Rubio has said he does not intend to run and would support Vance.

Rubio also lacks the political infrastructure that could support a 2028 campaign, including a broad network of staff and allies. Vance, meanwhile, has frequent access to the Republican Party’s largest donors through his position as chair of the Republican National Committee’s finance operation.

Ken Griffin, the Citadel billionaire who donated more than $100 million to Republican-aligned groups during the 2024 election cycle, said in July that he would be “predisposed” to favor Rubio over Vance.

On prediction market Kalshi, Vance’s odds fell from 43 percent in February to 31 percent in June, while Rubio’s climbed to 30 percent as the Iran war reshaped the political landscape. Vance’s numbers have since rebounded to 45 percent, with Rubio slipping back to 21 percent.

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An Emerson poll in May showed Rubio just one percentage point behind Vance. A McLaughlin survey released last month placed Vance at 32 percent and Donald Trump Jr. at 19 percent.

Vance’s reservations about the Iran war have already emerged as a vulnerability. In late February, Trump publicly acknowledged that his vice president was “maybe less enthusiastic” about launching strikes.

“He was, I would say, philosophically a little bit different than me,” Trump told reporters in March, while emphasizing that the two men “get along very well on this.”

Asked about Vance on the Pod Force One podcast last week, Cruz said that the party was in the midst of an ideological battle: ‘Are we a small-government, free-market conservative party, or are we a big-government nanny-state party?’

‘That’s a really big, fundamental divide about what we believe … On foreign policy, are we an isolationist party? Do we want to just withdraw from the world? Or do we believe in American leadership?’

The Daily Mail has contacted the vice president’s office for comment. 

Florida Senator Rick Scott, one of the richest men in the Senate, insists he is not running but made clear which job he rates highest at a GOP dinner in New Hampshire on Friday.

‘The best job is to be the president,’ Scott said. ‘If that’s not available, be the governor. If that’s not available and you still have to do something, maybe be a US senator.’

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, who scored 1 percent in the Bowling Green/YouGov poll, says he is 50-50 on a run and will not decide until after the midterms.

‘I think the Republican primary electorate’s probably more with me than with the rest of them,’ he told the Post.

Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie, who lost his May primary to a Trump-backed challenger, has not ruled out a run but says it is pointless to size up the field before the midterms.

‘Maybe we lose the majority, everybody’s down on Trump, then he gets impeached three times and everybody likes him again,’ Massie said. ‘Who knows?’

Police uncovered a plastic-lined “torture chamber” equipped with pliers and hammers at a Costa del Sol property after a bloodied man fled the house shouting: “They want to kill us.”

Officers were called to the home in Estepona on September 5 after a woman contacted emergency services, fearing her partner was in danger.

As police arrived, a Moroccan man emerged from the property covered in blood. He repeatedly warned officers: “They want to kill us! They want to kill us!”

Reinforcements were requested before officers entered the house, where they found a sinister room apparently used by gang members to torture and abuse victims.

Sources familiar with the judicial investigation told Spanish outlet El Español that the room was covered in plastic sheeting and contained tools including pliers and hammers.

A second victim, a Spanish national, was discovered tied to a chair and covered in blood. Police also seized two AK-47 assault rifles and several handguns during the operation.

Photographs taken inside the property show plastic covering the chair and walls, apparently allowing blood to be wiped away without leaving evidence behind.

The Moroccan man who escaped was the partner of the woman who alerted police.

He had told his girlfriend he was going to the house for a work meeting and instructed her to call police if she had not heard from him within 20 minutes.

When 40 minutes passed without any contact, she called the authorities.

Both men were found naked, bloodied and visibly injured when police rescued them.

Investigators are examining the motive behind the alleged torture.

Seven Georgian nationals believed to be connected to the property have been arrested, while officers continue searching for other suspects linked to the gang.

The Costa del Sol, home to tourist destinations including Marbella, Estepona and Fuengirola, has become an international centre for organised crime.

British expats living in the region have voiced growing concerns about safety amid a major increase in gang-related violence.

More than 100 mafia groups are reportedly operating along the 90-mile stretch of coastline.

The holiday destination has long been used as a base for organised crime because of its strategic position. It is a key entry point for hashish and weapons from Africa, as well as cocaine from South America.

Expats say increasingly brazen criminals are “tarnishing” the image of the popular coastal region.

Last year, a man was shot dead in front of tourists at the upmarket resort of Puerto Banus.

The 25-year-old victim was gunned down from close range in broad daylight as he sat on a cafe terrace. 

Footage from CCTV cameras appears to show the gunman with a baseball cap on but disguised as a tourist, approaching his target and opening fire and continuing to shoot him as he lay motionless on the ground.

The injured man was rushed to the nearby Costa del Sol Hospital, where he later died from his injuries on October 3. 

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And in 2024, a Liverpudlian was gunned down in the middle of the street in Mijas. 

The murder happened on a street called Don Jose de Orbaneja Street, where there is a well-known tennis and padel tennis club called Club del Sol, as well as a neighbouring holiday resort called Finca Naundrup, which has sports facilities. 

Locals told cops they had heard between eight and ten shots being fired. 

Two days later, a bound body of a man was found dumped in a ravine, also in Mijas, although authorities believe he had been dead for several days.

The corpse was found with a hood ‘over the head or next to it’ and had been partially burned, suggesting he had been tortured before he was killed. It is not yet confirmed whether the two cases are linked.

A week earlier, a man was shot in the shoulder outside a nightclub in Marbella before the attackers fled the scene in a car. That same night, a man was stabbed in the stomach in another Marbella venue.

Hours later, a chiringuito in Torremolinos was burned to the ground in a suspected arson attack. 

In June last year, 50 people were arrested as four tons of cocaine were seized in a major operation.

Spain’s largest police union last year claimed the country had lost control in its war against drug traffickers after an officer was seriously injured in a gun battle with narcos in Sevilla. 

The shootout last November happened when National Police officers attempted to intercept a drug shipment inside an industrial warehouse in Isla Mayor, south of Sevilla, a city hugely popular with British tourists.

According to police sources, the traffickers opened fire with assault rifles, including AK-47s, as cops tried to enter. 

One officer, a member of the elite Greco Tartesos anti-narcotics unit, was shot in the stomach and leg. He underwent surgery and remains in the hospital. 

Spanish media said police seized 700kg of hashish and recovered two vehicles.  

It came just days after dramatic footage showed suspected drug smugglers in a boat being handed several containers of gasoline by others in two smaller vessels in Cadiz. 

Cops shared the footage and wrote: ‘Drug traffickers unloading their cargo in broad daylight, with complete impunity.

‘Warning: Either they give us the resources to combat this crime, or this area of Spain will be taken over by drug traffickers.’ 

The statement continued: ‘They murder police officers with powerful speedboats, they shoot at us with military-grade weapons, they have better resources.’

In the aftermath of the shooting, Spain’s top National Police union, Jupol, called for the immediate resignation of the interior minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, accusing him of abandoning officers and allowing criminal gangs to thrive.

In a blistering statement, Jupol said: ‘The narco roams freely in Spain; the State has lost control in the fight against the narcos and our police officers are unprotected. Marlaska is the main person responsible for this failure and must resign immediately.

The union described the shooting as ‘definitive proof of the failure’ of the government’s Special Security Plan for the Campo de Gibraltar, claiming it ‘has only served to hide the Government’s inaction while drug traffickers operate freely in Spain.’

Three off-road drivers who damaged a protected Welsh beauty spot with their 4×4 vehicles were identified after posting videos of the incident on TikTok.

John Robinson, Michael Williams and Joseph Hodgson were among a convoy that travelled from Liverpool into Wales, leaving deep tyre ruts across rare peatland and blanket bog habitats.

The group drove almost two miles into the Berwyn Site of Special Scientific Interest, a protected moorland area in north-east Wales, damaging extensive stretches of privately owned land.

Natural Resources Wales investigators were able to trace the drivers after they openly uploaded footage showing their vehicles causing what officials described as ‘irreversible damage’ to the sensitive landscape.

One video shows a 4×4 jolting over muddy tracks in heavy rain, while the other vehicles can be seen through the windscreen weaving across the rugged countryside.

In another clip, one of the vehicles is buried deep in mud as members of the group attempt to pull it out. Several other 4x4s are shown parked around the protected beauty spot.

Hodgson, 23, of Liverpool, has been prohibited from entering the entire Berwyn site for three years. The protected area covers more than 62,000 acres.

He was also ordered to pay more than £2,000 after Wrexham Magistrates’ Court convicted him of criminal damage.

Seven vehicles travelled together from Liverpool to Denbighshire on June 1 last year before heading onto countryside tracks where motor vehicles are prohibited.

The convoy crossed privately owned land towards the Moel Fferna summit before continuing into the protected Berwyn site.

Their off-road vehicles carved tyre tracks into the fragile terrain and inflicted damage that Natural Resources Wales said could be irreversible.

The agency said Hodgson did not assist with its investigation, failed to attend an interview and claimed that he had sold his vehicle.

However, investigators later established that he appeared in footage posted online by the group.

Hodgson also missed an earlier court hearing in August. He was convicted in his absence of criminal damage under the principle of joint enterprise.

The court ordered him to pay £1,000 in compensation for the environmental damage, £1,000 in costs, a £50 criminal damage surcharge and an additional £30 in compensation.

He was additionally given a three-year community behaviour order because the offence was committed while he was already subject to a community order for similar countryside-related offences.

Robinson and Williams, also from Liverpool, were convicted at an August hearing. Both received fines and were banned from driving for two months.

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Kirsty Roberts, from Natural Resources Wales, said: ‘Sites of Special Scientific Interest are designated and protected because they support the UK’s most important rare and fragile wildlife.

‘Blanket bog is particularly sensitive. Once it is cut up by deep ruts, the water balance can be altered for years, degrading habitat and reducing carbon storage.

‘Illegal off-roading also impacts farmers and landowners who manage these privately owned working landscapes, disrupting farming operations, increasing costs, and undermining long-term conservation efforts.’

The incident is the latest in a string of young people who have been caught ‘baiting’ police officers by posting videos of their crimes on social media platforms.

Arrogant drivers joyriding in stolen cars or inhaling laughing gas behind the wheel are becoming increasingly popular on social media platforms such as TikTok.

Most clips follow a similar theme where the camera zooms in on a speedometer climbing rapidly before the lens pans to the driver and their laughing passengers.

Andy Burnham previously addressed the issue, telling reporters that sharing footage glorifying dangerous driving was ‘truly reprehensible’.

He said: ‘We’ve communicated to those social media platforms that have been hosting content that celebrates this type of dangerous behaviour on our roads and urged them to take it down.’

The Government has urged social media platforms including TikTok to remove videos glorifying dangerous driving after two tragedies in the space of a few days left 12 people dead 

A Downing Street spokesman said Ofcom has the Government’s ‘full backing to take tough action’ against platforms which fail in their legal duties.

Paul Williams, acting deputy national chairman for the Police Federation of England and Wales, told BBC Breakfast: ‘Every day we can identify now numerous examples of young people sensationalising dangerous driving.

‘Not just dangerous driving, but baiting police officers who are out there to protect the public. It’s a real problem. It’s causing officers concern.

‘They shouldn’t have to be going out and worrying about whether they’re going to return home from their shift or not. But on top of that, wondering if they’re going to be plastered all over social media.

‘It’s absolutely unacceptable and social media platforms need to take some action.’

Demands for action have intensified after two police officers died alongside five ‘TikTok joyriders’ in a catastrophic head-on collision on the A66 in Teesside last month.

PC Matthew Blades, 37, and PC Tom Clough, 38, were in a marked response vehicle that was struck by a VW Passat carrying Michael Robert Cahill, 23; Jacob Matusiak, 23; Makai Saddington, 18; Theo Rae, 17; and Cole Robert Worthy, 17.

Another police car had been pursuing them before calling off the chase. Just ten seconds later, the VW struck Mr Blades and Mr Clough, who had not been involved in the pursuit.

In the months leading up to the crash, Saddington had posted a string of TikTok clips that appeared to show him taking part in police chases. He had also been awaiting trial for racially abusing and assaulting officers.

Jesse Baird’s mother did not have to hear the gunshots that killed her son when an audio recording of the fatal moments was played to a jury on Tuesday.

Helen Baird also did not hear Beau Lamarre-Condon give his long-awaited account of how her son and his new partner were allegedly shot dead.

As a Crown witness, Ms Baird was barred from sitting in the public gallery of the NSW Supreme Court until she had completed her own emotional testimony.

Lamarre-Condon is accused of murdering television presenter Jesse Baird and Qantas flight attendant Luke Davies at Baird’s share house in Sydney’s eastern suburbs in February 2024.

The former police officer, who had previously been involved in a brief relationship with Baird, has pleaded not guilty to two murder charges and aggravated break and enter.

CCTV footage recorded outside Baird’s terrace captured three shots fired from Lamarre-Condon’s .40 Glock service pistol on the morning of February 19 at 60 Brown Street, Paddington.

The first shot was heard at 9.49am, with a second following four seconds later. A third gunshot was recorded 51 seconds after that.

Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC told jurors the first bullet struck Baird in the neck, while the second hit his temple. The third shot, he said, was fired into Davies’s head.

The bodies of Baird and Davies were placed inside surfboard bags and discovered eight days later at Bungonia, approximately 185km south-west of Sydney.

Mr Hatfield previously told the court that Lamarre-Condon, who was 28 at the time, had become obsessed with 26-year-old Baird and deeply jealous after Baird ended their relationship and began seeing 29-year-old Davies.

The jury heard details of Lamarre-Condon’s defence for the first time after Mr Hatfield completed his opening address on Monday.

Defence barrister John Stratton said his client went to the Paddington terrace to collect personal belongings, including jewellery, believing the property would be empty.

He allegedly disguised himself as an Uber Eats delivery driver and wore a motorcycle helmet so he would not be recognised if Baird’s flatmates or another person answered the door.

Mr Stratton said Lamarre-Condon knocked before entering when no one responded. Baird did not recognise him because he was still wearing the helmet.

“The two men struggled,” Mr Stratton told the court. “The gun went off twice, wounding Jesse Baird fatally. The gun was flung into the loungeroom.

“The accused picked up a mobile phone and began ringing Triple Zero.

“The accused began walking towards the front door, and in the hallway he encountered a second man, who was later identified as Luke Davies.”

‘Mr Davies was now holding the gun.’

Mr Stratton said Lamarre-Condon grabbed Davies by the arm, pushing the pistol away from himself and towards Davies.

‘And in the struggle that followed,’ Mr Stratton told the jury, ‘Mr Davies pulled the trigger and fatally shot himself.’

Mr Stratton said of his client: ‘It’s his case that what he did was in self-defence.’

Mr Hatfield had said it was Davies who rang Triple Zero, at 9.50am, and could be heard saying, ‘Get out – f*** off,’ or something similar.

He also said the bullet which killed Davies was fired through a bedroom door, entered his left eye socket and exited the back of his head.

‘Of course, we have no direct witnesses,’ Mr Hatfield said.

After hearing preliminary evidence was given from the officer in charge of the investigation, Detective Sergeant Sasha Pinazza, Helen Baird was called to the stand.

This was the first time the jury had heard from anyone who knew Jesse Baird or Luke Davies and the first time they would see someone weep for one of the dead men. 

‘You are the mother of Jesse Baird?’ Ms Baird was asked. ‘That’s right,’ she said.

Ms Baird confirmed her son’s date of birth – September 4, 1997 – and that he was the third of her four children. 

She said Jesse had been raised in Victoria and moved to Brisbane when he was 19, where he worked for Network Ten.

‘He got a job on Totally Wild, as a TV presenter,’ she said.

Jesse had also been an AFL goal umpire and at the end of the 2022 football season moved to Sydney to work on the now-defunct Studio 10.

Two minutes after taking the oath, Ms Baird broke down when she was asked if she had been close to Jesse. ‘Yes, very close,’ she said, choking back tears.

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The pair had spoken ‘all the time, every week’, with Jesse often talking about his relationships and always having been open about his sexuality.

Before moving to Sydney, Jesse had split with his partner of five or six years but the two men had remained ‘very good friends’.

‘He just wanted to make new friends and have fun,’ Ms Baird told the jury. 

Having come out of a long-term relationship, ‘he definitely didn’t want anything serious’.

Ms Baird said her son told her about meeting Lamarre-Condon and how they would go out for lunch and take trips hiking and four-wheel driving, while insisting ‘he definitely didn’t want anything serious’.

Jesse had later told his mother about Lamarre-Condon’s ‘concerning behaviour’, including removing contacts from his phone and deleting messages.

Asked whether her son believed Lamarre-Condon was becoming ‘obsessive,’ Ms Baird said: ‘Yes.’

Late in 2023, Baird told his mother he had decided he no longer wished to see Lamarre-Condon, she said.

He had also informed her a female friend of Lamarre-Condon’s had contacted him to say his spurned sometime lover had cancer. The court has previously heard Lamarre-Condon had no such disease.

Jesse had spent Christmas 2023 with his mother in Victoria and brought down his new boyfriend. Ms Baird was happy her son had found Davies.

‘It was early days but they were both smitten with each other and they were great together,’ she said.

Jesse’s last visit with his mother had not started well, however.

‘He drove down from Sydney and when he got to my place there was something wrong with the vehicle,’ Ms Baird said.

‘It turned out that there’d been water poured into the fuel tank.’

The court has previously heard there would be evidence presented that Lamarre-Condon had tampered with Jesse’s new ute.

Ms Baird said her son and Davies grew even closer after the Christmas break.

‘Jesse messaged me and he sent me a photo of him and Luke at the Pink concert, and he’d said underneath, ‘Luke is my boyfriend’,’ she said.

‘And I sent a big love heart and said, ‘I’m just so happy for both of you’.’

Ms Baird became emotional once more, and was not required for cross-examination. She then sat in the public gallery and watched her daughter give evidence.

Kourtnee Baird had been living in her brother’s Brisbane house in 2023 after he moved to Sydney and she had ‘very much so’ stayed in touch with him.

The two were close, communicating mostly through social media, and the last time she saw her brother was Christmas Day, 2023.

Over the dinner table, Jesse told Kourtnee about Lamarre-Condon, who she had never spoken to or met.

‘Jesse said that he was fearful, that he was a NSW police officer, he had access to a weapon, to a gun,’ she said. ‘He said that he would go on his phone and block contacts from Jesse’s male friends.’

Asked how she knew that, Kourtnee answered: ‘He caught him doing it.’ 

‘Jesse told me that he would often post things on Instagram to make it out like Jesse and him were together,’ she said.

Kourtnee said her brother had blocked Lamarre-Condon but he would receive messages from him such as ‘you looked really good in the gym tonight’.

‘He was fearful, scared, shaken up a little bit,’ she said.

‘He couldn’t comprehend that someone could do these things.’

Kourtnee’s last contact with Jesse was on February 18, 2024 – the day before he was shot -– via Instagram. 

Asked if she had ever met Luke Davies, she told the jury: ‘I did not. I wish I did.’

The recording of those three gunshots heard coming from inside 60 Brown Street, Paddington will be played again later in the hearing.  

The trial, which is expected to last three months, continues before Justice Natalie Adams on Wednesday.