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BBC News with Neil Nunes.
Donald Trump has said the resumption of U.S. strikes against Iran was "quite unlikely" and "unnecessary." Speaking after his party's resounding defeat in the mid-term elections, Mr. Trump said Iran was "militarily effectively over" and there was positive momentum towards a deal to end the war. He said he had spoken to the Prime Minister of Qatar, a key mediator, and was told Gulf powers wanted to maintain the status quo, but he said if the U.S. had to re-engage, its military was locked and loaded. The Iran war has been blamed as a key reason voters turned against the Republicans. The president was addressing reporters at the White House. "Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait and others would prefer the status quo that we remain as is, in other words, a continuation of the greatest naval blockade in the history of our country. Probably in the history of the world, nothing has gotten through at all." The Republican Congressman Thomas Massie has introduced articles of impeachment against the Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, alleging he's violated the U.S. Constitution. Mr. Massie, a vocal Trump administration critic, sid Mr. Hegseth was breaking the law by engaging in hostilities in Iran and elsewhere without congressional approval. Mr. Trump [was] has reacted by again expressing his support for Mr. Hegseth. Bernd Debusman is in Washington. So far, the administration really seems to be standing behind him, and Hegseth himself has been quite defiant. Just a short while ago here at the White House, President Trump was asked about this repeatedly, and similar to Marco Rubio, he said that in his view, Pete Hegseth has done a good job at military operations this year in both Venezuela and Iran, and he doesn't really see any reason to get rid of him at the moment. France has accused Iran of being behind cyberattacks last month that heated up supermarket fridges and freezers, spoiling millions of dollars worth of food. The Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot described the attacks as "unprecedented" in scale. There's been no response from Tehran. Here's Hugh Schofield in Paris. Back in mid-October, about 700 fridges and freezers in supermarkets were hit by this hack. Subsequently, there was another wave about a week ago. We don't know if that was linked to this wave. That was in other countries in Europe. All that we know today from this development is that the French believe that the Iranians were behind that initial wave which targeted France back in October. Prosecutors in Paraguay say they'll ask for international help to trace funds from Ueno Bank, whose collapse last week triggered a financial crisis and the dismissal of the president. Santiago Peña is accused of using his influence to steer millions in government deposits to Ueno and covering up its impending downfall. BBC News. President Trump has said the FBI's investigating claims that the boss of the U.S. tech giant NVIDIA, Jensen Huang, had an affair with a suspected Chinese agent. He said he had spoken to Mr. Huang, who had told him he had no idea the woman was a spy. Mr. Trump said he believed him. On Monday, hundreds of billions of dollars were wiped off the firm's value. Samira Hussain is in New York. This was the first time that investors were able to react to the news of what had happened with Jensen Huang. And so investors did what they do and they dumped some of the stock. And as we heard, as soon as the stock opened, it dropped eight percent, but it recovered and it ended up falling by about four and a half percent. So that's wiping more than $200 billion dollars off the market value of this company. Thousands of people have taken part in a silent march through the Polish city of Krakow in memory of the victims of a mass shooting on Saturday. Led by Poland's president and prime minister, they walked towards the market square where six people were killed. Officials now stress there is no clear motive for the attack. The University of Oxford has handed over the remains of 39 people taken during Britain's colonial rule of India to the ethnic Naga community. A delegation of almost 30 people from Nagaland, a mountainous state in northeastern India, attended the ceremony. This year's prestigious Booker Prize has been won by the science fiction author M. John Harrison for his dystopian novel "The End of Everything." At the age of 81, he's the award's oldest recipient. The Booker Foundation described him as a "genre-defying writer" and the judging panel said their decision was unanimous. That's the latest BBC World News. |