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Hello I'm Chris Barrow with the BBC News.
Democrats on the U.S. House Oversight Committee have released two batches of photographs from the estate of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The first group shows some of the rich and powerful who consorted with him including Donald Trump who's in three photos. From Washington here's Nomia Iqbal. One of these photos shows President Trump with six women whose faces have been redacted by the committee. In others, Mr. Trump's former adviser Steve Bannon and Jeffrey Epstein take a photograph in a mirror and Bill Clinton can be seen with Epstein, his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell and another couple. Not all these photos are new but taken collectively they reinforce the fact that were powerful people who were in Epstein's orbit. The Republicans on the committee have accused the Democrats of cherry-picking to create a false narrative of Donald Trump. President Trump says that the leaders of Thailand and Cambodia have agreed to stop the fighting between their countries five days after hostilities again broke out. Mr. Trump said that both prime ministers had promised to abide by the terms of the peace accord he had helped broker which was signed in October. However the Thai Prime Minister Anantin Chanwarakoon gave a different account. European Union governments have agreed to immobilize indefinitely Russian assets of more than $200 billion that have been frozen in the EU since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Most of Moscow's cash is held in the Belgian bank Euroclear. Danny Eberhard has more details. Nearly $250 billion worth of Russian assets have been held frozen in the European Union. The EU has already been using the interest from that to help Ukraine but it's also looking at using the assets to secure a loan for Kyiv. That makes Belgium nervous and angers Moscow. No decision will be made on that until an EU summit next week at the earliest. But this latest step may make any such move a little easier. It means EU countries don't need to keep renewing the freeze every six months. Iranian security forces have arrested the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi while she was attending a memorial service for a lawyer in the city of Mashhad. Several other activists were also detained at the ceremony. The Nobel Committee condemned what it called a "brutal arrest." With the latest here's Sebastian Usher. It was at a ceremony marking seven days since a human rights lawyer there was found dead in his office. Now officials say that he died of a heart attack but activists say it might be something much more suspicious that wants a full investigation. This was a lawyer who had acted for people like those who were at this event who have stood out against the Iranian regime. No one more so than Narges Mohammadi herself of course. This is the world news from the BBC. In Britain, King Charles has announced that his cancer treatment will be reduced next year thanks, he said, to "early diagnosis" effective intervention and following doctors orders. In a pre-recorded message for a British Cancer Awareness Program, the king said his recuperation was a milestone and testimony to the remarkable advances that have been made in cancer care. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations says Washington is profoundly concerned and disappointed by the renewed fighting in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo just a week after it brokered a peace deal. Mike Waltz told the Security Council that Rwanda was leading the region towards increased instability and war and the U.S. would use all means to hold to account those spoiling the peace. The Colombian guerrilla group the ELN, or the National Liberation Army, has announced three days of widespread military exercises from Sunday in protest against U.S. military operations in the region. The group has said that civilians will not be targeted but warn people to stay home. A U.S. heritage body tasked by Congress with helping to protect America's historic sites has launched legal action to try to halt President Trump's construction of a new ballroom at the White House. The National Trust for Historic Preservation argues in its filing that the project was proceeding without legally required reviews or approvals. Tom Bailey reports. The lawsuit filed in a federal court represents the first major legal challenge to President Trump's controversial project to build a glittering new ballroom. The trust said it was compelled to act after concerns it had raised were ignored. It added that it wanted construction paused until proper federal oversight procedures can be completed. Work on the vast new ballroom funded by private donors is already well underway. It's seen the historic East Wing of the presidential residence demolished sparking outrage from many. And that's the latest BBC News. |