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BBC News with Sue Montgomery.
Hungary has secured an exemption from U.S. sanctions on Russian oil and gas introduced in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Reports say the exemption will last one year. It follows a meeting in Washington between the Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and President Trump. Nick Thorpe is in the Hungarian capital, Budapest. The Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán went to Washington and appears to have got what he asked for. Hungary can continue to buy Russian oil through the friendship pipeline, entering the country from the east, and Russian gas through the TurkStream pipeline from the south without fear of U.S. sanctions. Heating bills will stay low, a triumphant Mr. Orbán told reporters. This is important to him just five months before a parliamentary election. But questions remain about the details. Republican senators in the U.S. have failed in their latest bid aimed at ensuring pay for essential federal workers while the weeks-long government shutdown continues. The measure sought to provide immediate compensation for about two million civilian and military employees who have been obliged to work without pay. Democrats opposed the partial [play] pay plan, saying it was a tactic to prolong the shutdown without addressing their demands for health care and social funding protection. Sudan's ambassador to the United States has called for concrete steps of accountability against countries that backed the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in the country's civil war. It comes as progress remains uncertain over an American-led attempt for a three-month humanitarian truce. Tom Bateman reports. The Sudanese ambassador, Mohamed Idris, said countries that backed the RSF, which he called its "regional enablers," should face accountability. Sudan's military-led government accuses the United Arab Emirates of being among those who have armed the paramilitary group during the war. The UAE has rejected this despite evidence compiled by the U.N. and independent experts. More than 150,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the past two and a half years of fighting, in which both sides stand accused of war crimes amid the world's biggest displacement crisis and parts of the country in famine. James Watson, the American scientist who co-discovered the structure of DNA, has died aged 97. He unraveled the double helix alongside the British scientist Francis Crick. In 2003, James Watson was asked if he appreciated the nature of the revolution his discoveries unleashed. "I really thought it was a beautiful molecule and I think Francis got it correctly. I saw it as a combination of genetic thinking and he saw it as the start of a new era and he was right." BBC News. Donald Trump has said that no U.S. officials will attend the G20 summit in South Africa later this month. He had announced in September that the vice president, J.D. Vance, would represent the U.S. at the meeting, but has now confirmed that no Americans will be taking part. Mr. Trump said on social media it was a "total disgrace" that South Africa was hosting the annual gathering of industrialized countries. New Zealand's former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, a special envoy for Oceania at this year's COP climate summit, has warned that inaction and political division risk the survival of entire nations in the Pacific. Speaking to the BBC in Brazil, she called on countries to work together in climate change. "Multilateralism is important in any crisis that affects us collectively and no greater example than a collective challenge that spans decades and goes beyond electoral cycles than the challenge of climate change. And that's why the multilateralism in that arena is so incredibly important." Turkish prosecutors have issued arrest warrants on war crimes and genocide charges against the Israeli prime minister, his defense minister and 35 other senior Israeli figures. The Istanbul prosecutor's office said the warrants related to their actions in Gaza and against an international flotilla attempting to bring aid to beleaguered Palestinians. Israel has strongly rejected accusations that it's committed genocide in Gaza. Archaeologists have compiled the most detailed map yet of the roads that crisscrossed the Roman Empire in 150 AD. The routes total about 300,000 kilometers. Researchers hope it will help historians understand the movement of people and goods throughout the Roman Empire. |