Category World News

Democrats in the United States Congress have released a new batch of photos from the estate of the late sex offender Jeffry Epstein, featuring rich and powerful public figures, including President Donald Trump.

The minority on the House Oversight Committee made 19 photos public on Friday, calling for Trump to end what they called a “cover-up” in the case.

The pictures showed Trump, his former adviser Steve Bannon, ex-President Bill Clinton, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, billionaire businessman Bill Gates and film director Woody Allen.

“It is time to end this White House cover-up and bring justice to the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein and his powerful friends,” Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the panel, said in a statement.

“These disturbing photos raise even more questions about Epstein and his relationships with some of the most powerful men in the world. We will not rest until the American people get the truth. The Department of Justice must release all the files, NOW.”

One photo showed Trump flanked by three young women on each side with his hand clutching the waist of the woman to his right.

Progressive Congresswoman Pramila Jaypal called the pictures “repulsive”.

These images are repulsive. The Trump administration needs to stop their cover-up and release ALL of the Epstein Files. https://t.co/dyFf0hPa1m

Trump has repeatedly denied any close ties to Epstein, saying that he only knew the sex offender as a neighbour in Palm Beach, Florida, and eventually kicked him out of his Mar-a-Lago resort for being a “creep”.

Earlier this year, The Wall Street Journal published what it said was a birthday card with sexual connotations that Trump sent to Epstein with a message written inside of a drawing of a naked woman.

Trump denied writing or drawing the card and sued the newspaper over the allegation.

Last month, Congress passed a law to compel the Trump administration to release all government documents related to Epstein while protecting the victims’ identities.

Epstein ran a sex abuse ring of girls and young women.

Trump’s top aides previously opposed making the files public, saying that they would amount to “child pornography”.

But after mounting pressure, including from segments of his own base, Trump – who can authorise releasing the records without congressional intervention – lifted his opposition to the “Epstein files” bill, allowing it to pass.

The law requires the Justice Department to release the file by December 19.

Epstein first pled guilty to charges of solicitation of prostitution with a minor in 2008 and was given a lenient sentence that critics describe as a sweetheart deal that did not match the severity of the offence.

After the Miami Herald investigated the prosecution against Epstein, federal authorities reopened the case against him, arrested him and charged him with sex trafficking of minors in 2019.

Two months later, he was found dead in his jail cell in New York City. His death was ruled a suicide.

Epstein’s associates included Clinton, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and the United Kingdom’s Prince Andrew.

The scandal and the manner in which Epstein died have fuelled speculations that he may have been working for foreign or domestic intelligence services – particularly Israel’s Mossad.

Thailand and Cambodia have agreed “to cease all shooting” effective Friday, according to United States President Donald Trump.

Trump announced the agreement to restart the ceasefire in a social media post following calls with Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet on Friday.

“They have agreed to CEASE all shooting effective this evening, and go back to the original Peace Accord made with me, and them, with the help of the Great Prime Minister of Malaysia, Anwar Ibrahim,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Fighting between the Southeast Asian neighbours this week has killed at least 20 people and displaced about half a million on both sides of the disputed border.

The original ceasefire between the two nations in July was brokered by Malaysia and pushed through by pressure from Trump, who threatened to withhold trade privileges unless Thailand and Cambodia agreed.

It was formalised in more detail in October at a regional meeting in Malaysia that Trump attended.

However, Thailand suspended the agreement in November after Thai soldiers were wounded by landmines at the border.

Both sides have continued a propaganda war, repeatedly blaming the other for reigniting a long-running conflict over the colonial-era demarcation of their 800-kilometre (500-mile) border.

The latest flare-up in violence began when a Thai engineering team was allegedly fired on by Cambodian troops.

The fighting entered its fifth day on Friday, with Thailand upping air strikes in recent days.

Neither Thailand nor Cambodia have independently confirmed the latest deal.

However, earlier in the day, Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said he told Trump that the onus was on Cambodia to end the violence.

Anutin said Trump had voiced his support for a ceasefire during a call.

“I replied that he’d better tell that to our friend,” Anutin added, referring to Cambodia.

“It needs to be announced to the world that Cambodia is going to comply with the ceasefire.”

Reporting from Washington, DC, on Friday, Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett said Trump appeared to be using the announcement to again burnish his self-styled image as a global “peacemaker”.

“The US president has invested himself personally in all of this. And as a result, he really is keen to see this truce that was brokered in July resume,” Halkett said.

“He keeps repeatedly saying, ‘I’ve solved eight wars’. He is desperate to position himself and to position his legacy as being one of a peacemaker and a global deal maker, and the fact that this unravelled so quickly, obviously eroded that,” she added.

The roots of the Thai-Cambodian border conflict lie in a history of enmity over competing territorial claims stemming from a 1907 map created while Cambodia was under French colonial rule, which Thailand maintains is inaccurate.

Former Iraqi President Barham Salih is on course to become the next head of the United Nations refugee agency after Secretary-General Antonio Guterres recommended him for the job.

A signed letter from Guterres, dated Thursday and addressed to Atsuyuki Oike, Japan’s top diplomat in Geneva and chair of UNHCR’s executive committee, that was seen by news agencies, confirmed the appointment pending formal approval.

All going according to plan, Salih, 65, will succeed Filippo Grandi, whose second five-year term as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees expires on December 31, becoming the first non-Western head of the Geneva-based agency in about half a century.

Alessandra Vellucci, chief spokesperson for the UN office, told reporters that the appointment would have to go through “a proper process” that includes consultations with the UNHCR committee, with a final decision taken by the UN General Assembly in New York.

“The process is ongoing. And once it’s finished, there will be an official announcement made by the United Nations,” said Vellucci.

Salih, who studied engineering in the United Kingdom to escape persecution under the rule of Saddam Hussein, served as Iraqi president from 2018 to 2022.

Originally from Iraq’s Kurdish region, Salih said during his campaign for the job that he believed deeply in the refugee agency’s mission “because I have lived it”.

“My vision is a UNHCR that places refugees at the centre, recognising that humanitarian aid is meant to be temporary,” he said.

The expected succession comes at the end of a devastating year, with UNHCR having slashed its 2026 budget by nearly a fifth to $8.5bn, with 5,000 job losses coming down the line, even as global displacement spikes amid conflicts in Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine.

Key donors like the US under President Donald Trump have cut contributions, and others have shifted funds to defence.

Salih aims to broaden funding sources, tap Islamic finance, and enlist private-sector partners through a proposed “Global CEO Humanitarian Council”.

He faces growing Western restrictions on asylum, amid anti-immigration sentiment, as well as frustration in poorer states sheltering refugees.

About a dozen candidates competed for the role, including politicians, an IKEA executive and a TV personality. More than half were European.

Supporters of 2023 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi say she has been arrested while attending a memorial ceremony in the northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad.

The Narges Foundation said on Friday that Mohammadi, 53, was arrested during an event honouring a human rights lawyer who recently died in unclear circumstances.

Iranian authorities have not commented on her reported detention, and it remains uncertain whether she will be returned to prison to complete a previous sentence.

The arrest comes amid a broader clampdown on activists and civil society figures as Iran faces sanctions, economic pressures and heightened regional tensions.

Her supporters described Mohammadi as having been “violently detained earlier today by security and police forces”, adding that several other activists were also taken into custody.

They had gathered to commemorate Khosrow Alikordi, a 46-year-old lawyer and rights advocate who was found dead in his office this month. Local officials said he suffered a heart attack, though more than 80 lawyers have signed a statement seeking further clarification.

“The Narges Foundation calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all detained individuals who were attending a memorial ceremony to pay their respects and demonstrate solidarity,” the group said. “Their arrest constitutes a serious violation of fundamental freedoms.”

Regular protests

Footage circulating online appeared to show Mohammadi addressing the crowd without a headscarf and leading chants referencing Majidreza Rahnavard, who was executed in public in 2022.

Mohammadi was granted temporary medical leave from prison in December 2024 after suffering longstanding health problems.

Although the leave was initially limited to three weeks, it was extended as she underwent treatment, including surgery for a bone lesion and ongoing cardiac care.

The Free Narges Coalition said earlier this year that doctors advised she should remain on medical leave for at least six more months.

“Mohammadi’s doctors recently prescribed an extension of her medical leave … and specialised cardiac care,” the group said, warning that a return to prison “could severely worsen her physical well-being”.