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BBC News with Gurvinder Gill.
The former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has told the BBC that she believes there's been a cover-up by the Trump administration in relation to Jeffrey Epstein. Ms. Clinton and her husband, the former President Bill Clinton, have agreed to testify in a congressional investigation into the late sex offender. She said the government's behavior indicated it had something to hide. "We have nothing to hide. We have called for the full release of these files repeatedly. We think sunlight is the best disinfectant. Get the files out. They are slow-walking it. They are redacting the names of men who are in it. They are stonewalling legitimate requests from members of Congress. That has nothing to do with us. Something is going on. They know it. I know it." In response, the White House said it had released thousands of documents on Epstein and had cooperated with a subpoena request from Congress. President Trump has repeatedly denied wrongdoing. Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said that his country will neither repatriate nor provide assistance to a group of Australians in Syria associated with the Islamic State. On Monday morning, 34 wives and children of former IS fighters who were attempting to start their journey to Australia were returned to their detention camp in north-eastern Syria. Speaking to ABC Australia, Mr. Albanese said if Australian nationals who were part of IS returned home, they'd face prosecution. "We have a very firm view that we won't be providing assistance or repatriation. Of course, Australian law applies and there are obligations that Australian officials have, but we wanna make it clear as well as we have to the people involved that if there are any breaches of the law, then they will face the full force of the Australian law." The British and Canadian prime ministers have issued a joint statement saying the NATO military alliance should be more European. Keir Starmer and Mark Carney restressed the need to boost defense spending, something President Trump has argued for. A group of former independence fighters in Zimbabwe have filed a legal challenge against the government's plans to extend President Emmerson Mnangagwa's term in office. Shingai Nyoka reports from Harare. The war veterans' legal challenge seeks to stop the constitutional amendments citing a conflict of interest. They say the president cannot oversee a process to extend his own term of office. The proposals officially tabled today and approved by the cabinet last week will extend term limits for the president and members of parliament until 2030, effectively cancelling elections that were due in two years. The president would also be chosen by parliament rather than in popular vote. This is the world news from the BBC. Belgium has summoned the U.S. ambassador in Brussels after he demanded that local authorities drop what he called "anti-Semitic" charges on three Jewish men arrested for carrying out circumcisions without a medical license. Bill White had said the three detained in Antwerp last year were doing what they had been trained to do for thousands of years. Belgium's Foreign Minister Maxime Preveau said the ambassador had violated basic norms of diplomacy. At the Winter Olympics in Italy, Japan has won its first ever title in the figure skating pairs event. Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara gave a rousing performance to the "Gladiator" soundtrack. In women's bobsleigh, the American Elana Meyers Taylor won her first gold Olympic medal at the age of 41. The American actor Robert Duvall, who starred in some of the most critically acclaimed films of the 20th century, has died. He was 95. Duvall won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role in "Tender Mercies" and was nominated for six others. He told the BBC in 1998 that he nearly gave up acting after finishing theater school in New York. "I got a job at the post office after the neighborhood playhouse and I had money in my pocket which was really great. But six months later, I was living, for me, prosperously. And I said, 'Look, I have to quit. Otherwise I'll be here in 20 years. I'll still be working here in 20 years, so I just quit.' And I began to get some television and some things and, you know, things began to work after that." The French government says it's going to make it easier for farmers to kill wolves. At present, farmers can only shoot wolves that have attacked their livestock in protected enclosures. But the Agriculture Minister Annie Genevard says farmers will be allowed to shoot wolves that have attacked their animals outside protected enclosures, too. Wolves killed about 12,000 farm animals in France last year. BBC News. |