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BBC News with Roisin Hastie.
The White House has launched an online television channel named "Trump TV." It comes just hours after major television networks in the United States suspended their pooled coverage of the White House in protest at Donald Trump's decision to ban CNN, MS Now and Politico from the building, accusing them of publishing lies. After a meeting with the mayor of New York, Mr. Trump has given his reasons for blocking the media outlets from the White House. "It's interesting because they said they were gonna boycott me, but they never boycott me. So I wasn't very worried about that. Look at all that press. I think I have an obligation not to let fake news. They're very bad for the country, very bad for national security. So I have that obligation. So we'll see how it works out." Paramount Skydance and Warner Brothers Discovery have reached agreement with the attorneys general of 12 U.S. states who are suing to block their merger. The settlement clears the way for the $110 billion deal, one of the biggest media mergers ever. California Attorney General Rob Bonta said the companies have guaranteed that more films will be made in Hollywood. "Today we know that the vast majority of the company's global production takes place abroad. With today's settlement, Paramount is required to move production back to the United States by spending as a floor at least $300 million more each year in domestic production, in jobs and economic activity and productions right here in this country and including, of course, in this state." Shares in Paramount and Warner have risen in response to the settlement. Britain is to provide military support to Saudi Arabia in its war with the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. The Prime Minister Andy Burnham said he'd agreed to a request for assistance with what he called "defensive air-to-air refueling." Frank Gardner has this report. As military support goes, Britain's offer of a single-voyager refueling aircraft is at the lighter end of the spectrum. Saudi Arabia is struggling to fend off attacks by Yemen's Houthis, who seem to have an inexhaustible supply of drones and missiles. British officials have said this offer is, as they put it, "time limited," perhaps for just a few weeks. But Yemen has been at war on and off since 2014, and this latest upsurge in fighting is made more complicated by the fact the Houthis are backed by Iran, which is in its own on-off war with the U.S. The head of the U.N.'s agency for Palestinian refugees has called for Israel to be more flexible in allowing equipment and supplies into Gaza. Christian Saunders told the BBC that almost all of the people in the territory are living in tents or under half-destroyed buildings. The head of UNRWA said that unless there was a momentum with reconstruction, the desperate conditions risked becoming normalized. Mr. Saunders said items like tent poles and engine oil have been blocked by Israel, which had previously said restrictions on access are to prevent military use. BBC News. A Rwandan man living in London is to face trial in connection with alleged offenses committed during the Rwandan genocide. Sixty-five-year-old Dr. Vincent Brown had been charged with one offense of conduct ancillary to genocide. It's the first time in the United Kingdom that a suspect will face a genocide charge. British Columbia is suing one of the world's biggest artificial intelligence companies, Open AI, over its failure to report violent activity on chat GPT to the police. The Canadian province filed a lawsuit in California, where the tech giant is based. The attorney general says the company had refused to share the chatbot history of Jesse Van Rootselaar, an 18-year-old who committed a mass school shooting. President Trump has said he has been working on a deal to buy potash, a key ingredient for fertilizer, from Belarus. Currently, the Canadian province of Saskatchewan is America's main supplier of potash. It comes amid an escalating trade war with a long-term ally to the north. Belarus is closely aligned with Russia. And the head of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, has said he's open to reforms on decision-making at world football's governing body. He's seeking re-election as president. More from our sports correspondent, Ben Croucher. Back in July, Gianni Infantino's plans to sell off parts of major tournaments led to widespread condemnation across football and even threats of boycotts. Now, the FIFA president has written to the organization's members confirming that the plan has been abandoned and acknowledging it had caused concern. He also makes two key proposals for the FIFA council next month. The first is an independent external review into FIFA governance. The other, a direct consultation with the different countries' football associations about ways to overhaul FIFA's decision-making processes. BBC News. |