Firms with ties to Cuba are getting a larger share of Venezuelan oil exports, as the island’s security agents boost President Nicolás Maduro’s defenses.
President Trump’s secretary of state and national security adviser has long sought to cripple or topple Cuba’s government, which has close security and economic ties to Venezuela.
The legislation, expected to come to a vote next week, would make changes that could eventually affect health care costs but are unlikely to immediately curb rising premiums.
US President Donald Trump was among several prominent figures featured in the images released on Friday
More images from the estate of convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein have been released by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.
The Democrats said the 19 images came from a tranche of 95,000 photos the committee received from Epstein's estate as part of its ongoing investigation.
US President Donald Trump, former Prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon are among the high-profile figures featured in the photos. The images, many of which have been seen before, do not imply wrongdoing.
It comes one week before a deadline for the US justice department to release all Epstein-related documents, which are separate from the images shared by the committee on Friday.
Watch: Massie and Garcia on latest photos from Epstein estate
The individuals featured in the images have not yet commented. Many of them have previously denied wrongdoing in relation to Epstein.
In a statement, Representative Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the committee, said: "It is time to end this White House cover-up and bring justice to the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein and his powerful friends."
"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" he added.
Republicans, who are in the majority on the committee, have accused Democrats of "cherry-picking photos and making targeted redactions to create a false narrative about President Trump".
The White House called the release a "Democrat hoax" against Trump that has been "repeatedly debunked".
Trump appeared in three of the images released on Friday. One image showed him standing next to a woman whose face has been redacted.
Another showed Trump standing next to Epstein while talking to model Ingrid Seynhaeve at a 1997 Victoria's Secret party in New York – an image that was already publicly available.
House Oversight Committee
A third photo showed Trump smiling with several women, whose faces have also been redacted, flanked on either side of him.
An additional photo showed an illustrated likeness of the president on red packets next to a sign that reads: "Trump Condom".
House Oversight Committee
House Oversight Committee
Among the images released was what appeared to be cropped photo of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor next to Bill Gates. A fuller version of the photo, which was available on photo agency Getty Images, showed King Charles, the then-Prince of Wales, on the right side of the photo.
The Getty Images' caption said the picture was taken during a summit during the Commonwealth heads of government meeting in London in April 2018.
Getty Images
Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon was also pictured in some of the images. He was shown speaking with Epstein at a desk, and in another, standing beside him in front of a mirror.
House Oversight Committee
A third image showed him speaking with filmmaker Woody Allen.
A photo featuring former US President Bill Clinton's showed him standing next to Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted in 2021 for her role in facilitating the disgraced financier's abuse.
Two other people the BBC has yet to identify are also in the image, which appeared to have been signed by Clinton.
Clinton has denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein. In 2019, a spokesperson said he "knows nothing about the terrible crimes" Epstein pleaded guilty to.
Other prominent figures which appear in the images include US economist Larry Summers, lawyer Alan Dershowitz and entrepreneur Richard Branson. Not all the images show those individuals in the company of Epstein.
Epstein was charged with sex trafficking in July 2019. He died in prison a month later while awaiting trail.
The president was a friend of Epstein's, but has said they fell out in the early 2000s, years before he was first arrested.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein.
The justice department is required to release investigative material related to Epstein by 19 December under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which was signed into law by Trump last month.
Firms with ties to Cuba are getting a larger share of Venezuelan oil exports, as the island’s security agents boost President Nicolás Maduro’s defenses.
A sale of insider shares at $421 a share would make Mr. Musk’s rocket company the most valuable private company in the world, as it readies for a possible initial public offering next year.
An American firm with experience in special operations spirited María Corina Machado, the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, out of the country in a secretive land, sea and air operation.
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The prospect of soaring health care costs could exacerbate Americans’ feelings about affordability, an issue that President Trump has tried to downplay. But Democrats plan to keep the issue front and center.
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Larry Downs Jr., of Pensacola, Fla., speaks against childhood vaccine mandates at a public hearing held by Florida’s Department of Health on Friday in Panama City Beach, Fla.
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Watch: King Charles issues update on his cancer treatment
King Charles has shared "good news" about his cancer, saying in a personal message that early diagnosis and "effective intervention" means his treatment can be reduced in the new year.
In a recorded video message broadcast on Channel 4 for the Stand Up To Cancer campaign, the King said: "This milestone is both a personal blessing and a testimony to the remarkable advances that have been made in cancer care."
According to Buckingham Palace, the King's recovery has reached a very positive stage and he has "responded exceptionally well to treatment", so much so that doctors will now move his treatment "into a precautionary phase".
The regularity of treatment is going to be significantly reduced - but the King, 77, is not described as being in remission or "cured".
"Today I am able to share with you the good news that thanks to early diagnosis, effective intervention and adherence to 'doctors' orders', my own schedule of cancer treatment can be reduced in the new year," the King said in his speech.
The video message, recorded in Clarence House two weeks ago, was played in the Stand Up To Cancer show on Channel 4 on Friday evening, in a fundraising project run with Cancer Research UK.
The campaign encourages more people to get tested for cancer and to take advantage of national screening schemes - and the King's message emphasised the importance of checks to catch cancer at an early stage.
"I know from my own experience that a cancer diagnosis can feel overwhelming. Yet I also know that early detection is the key that can transform treatment journeys, giving invaluable time to medical teams," said the King.
Early detection could be a lifesaver, he said: "Your life, or the life of someone you love, may depend upon it."
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King Charles had a message of "hope" at an Advent service this week
The King also spoke of how much he had been "profoundly moved by what I can only call the 'community of care' that surrounds every cancer patient - the specialists, the nurses, researchers and volunteers who work tirelessly to save and improve lives".
Until now the King has said little publicly about his illness.
He didn't seem to want to be defined by the disease and his approach has been to keep working, with a busy schedule including overseas trips and hosting state visits, including last week's by the German president.
A couple of days ago he was sending a message of optimism and seasonal "hope", when he attended an atmospheric, candle-lit Advent service at Westminster Abbey.
The Stand Up To Cancer show, presented by celebrities including Davina McCall, Adam Hills and Clare Balding, has urged people not to be frightened of getting cancer checks.
In particular, the show has appealed to the estimated nine million people in the UK who Cancer Research UK says are not up to date with NHS screening schemes, offering an online checker to let people see if they are eligible for tests for breast, bowel and cervical cancer.
The King said it "troubles me deeply" that this represents nine million missed opportunities to catch cancer early - and he urged people to use the screening checker online tool.
"The statistics speak with stark clarity. To take just one example: When bowel cancer is caught at the earliest stage, around nine in 10 people survive for at least five years. When diagnosed late, that falls to just one in 10," he said.
According to royal sources, the King's reference to bowel cancer should not be seen as linked to his own condition, and prostate cancer has previously been ruled out.
In an attempt to demystify cancer checks and show the value of early diagnosis the Stand Up To Cancer show had a live broadcast from cancer clinics at Addenbrooke's and Royal Papworth hospitals in Cambridge.
"I want to take the fear out of cancer screening and show everyone that they are not on their own in this," said McCall, 58, who recently said she was recovering from breast cancer surgery.
Reuters
The King has talked about the shock of receiving a cancer diagnosis
Currently in the UK, there are three NHS cancer screening programmes - for bowel, breast and cervical cancer - available to certain age groups.
A new lung cancer screening programme is also being slowly rolled out for anyone at high risk of developing the disease, specifically targeting people aged 55-74 years old, who currently or used to smoke.
Men may enquire about prostate cancer checks, but there is no national programme in place.
The Stand Up to Cancer project, which has raised £113m since 2012, is funding 73 clinical trials involving 13,000 cancer patients.
Michelle Mitchell, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, said public figures speaking openly about cancer can encourage others to have a check up.
"Spotting cancer early can make a real difference and provides the best chance for successful treatment," she said.
Supporters are continuing to speak of their frustration at the astronomical cost of following the 2026 World Cup.
The Football Supporters' Association has called ticket prices a "laughable insult" to fans.
For some smaller nations, the cost of group-stage tickets is going to be higher than a month's wages in that country. And that is before factoring in travel and accommodation.
One Ghana fan told the BBC of "anger and disappointment" that Black Stars supporters might now be forced to cancel their plans.
Fifa's ticket price policy was revealed on Thursday, with group-stage tickets up to three times the prices of those for Qatar in 2022. The cheapest ticket for the final will cost £3,119.
BBC Sport has contacted Fifa for comment.
Ticket prices outstrip wages for many countries
Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,
Many Ghana fans are rethinking their plans to support their team at the World Cup
"It's a chance to qualify. It is a chance to participate in a big event," Fifa president Gianni Infantino declared in January 2017.
The Fifa Council had just unanimously voted to expand the World Cup to 48 teams. Nations who had never or rarely reached the finals were being given hope.
Infantino added: "Football is more than Europe and South America. Football is global.
"The football fever you have in a country that qualifies for the World Cup is the most powerful tool you can have, in those nine months before qualifying and the finals."
Yet that "football fever" is falling a little flat after the ticket prices were released.
While the players will be there, the price of tickets could outstrip wages.
Take Haiti, one of the poorest countries in the world. The average wage in the Caribbean nation is around $147 (£110) a month.
The cheapest tickets for Haiti's first game at the World Cup in 42 years, against Scotland, cost $180 (£135).
To attend all three matches - they also play Brazil and Morocco - would cost $625 (£467). That's more than four months' salary for the average Haitian, just to get into the ground.
It's a similar story for Ghana, where the average monthly salary is around $254 (£190).
Ghana supporter Jojo Quansah told BBC World Service that fans would have to cancel their plans.
"It's a bit of a disappointment for those who, for the last three-and-a-half years, have been trying to put some money away in the hope that they can have their first World Cup experience," he said.
"Fifa themselves have gone ahead to increase the number of teams so a lot more smaller football nations will get a chance to have themselves and their fans represented.
"It's been overshadowed by pricing those same fans out of a chance to watch their country play at the World Cup.
"I have a feeling that quite a number of people within the next couple of months, are going to drop out of that desire to be at the next World Cup. Sadly. So sadly."
Other nations could see their fans priced out.
You've bought your tickets, how about the flights?
Any fan wanting to follow their team from the first game to the final - if they get there - will spend a minimum of £5,200 on tickets.
There there's travel. For an England fan planning to attend the group stage, current prices show flights from London to Dallas to Boston to New York/New Jersey and then home are £1,300. Add on £526 if you get the cheapest match tickets.
It gets a lot more expensive if you want to go for the whole tournament. If they were winners of Group L, England would have to go from Atalanta to Mexico City and then to Miami. Those two flights alone would cost £800.
Flights across the tournament could cost £2,600. Add on the cheapest match tickets, and it is £7,800.
What about Scotland fans travelling from Glasgow? Flights across the group stage would cost £1,675 each, with the lowest ticket price bracket £500 on top.
If Scotland were to win Group C, flights through to the final would be £2,357. With tickets that is £7,567.
These prices are as of today. Many supporters would not want to book flights for the knockout rounds before they know they need to travel. By then, it could be a lot more expensive.
What England and Scotland fans are saying
Paul Clegg (61), from Blackburn, says: "This will be my fifth World Cup. I haven't missed a game since 2014.
"I'm in contact with England fans all over the country. I'm a top capper.
"We all plan to boycott games after the group stage.
"Football is dead."
Anne-Marie Carr (54), from York, says: "I have diligently attended England matches so that I can earn the caps to get tickets for major tournaments only to then find that I, as so many others, are being priced out.
"WC 26 will be for the few, the sponsors and the glory hunters who've got the money to attend the big matches when they come along."
Katie, from Glasgow, says: "Buy a ticket, you must be joking!
"These prices are not for the real fans, these are for corporates, bigwigs, sponsors. The real fans cannot afford those glorified prices."
Ian, from Glenrothes, says: "Not sure why anyone is surprised.
"One of the reasons I'm not going, as much as I would want to see my country at a World Cup, is that there are too many practical things negating it.
"Airline and hotel greed, and now ticket prices.
"Not for me!"
Ticket prices have soared since the bid document
Every nation that wants to host the World Cup has to present its case from stadiums, to sustainability, to ticket prices.
The world has changed a lot since the United States, Mexico and Canada set out its plan in 2017.
Covid has placed a great deal of inflationary strain across the globe. But not this much.
In fairness, the ticket prices for the group stage are not vastly higher. For games such as Scotland v Haiti ($180) the prices for the cheapest tickets are in line with the $174 in the bid document.
It's for the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final where Fifa has massively increased the prices.
Category three for the final was proposed to be $695 (£520). Adjusted for inflation, it would cost $890 (£666). Yet Fifa is now charging $4,185 (£3,119).
How do World Cup ticket prices compare to other major events in the United States?
The biggest sporting event of the year in the United States is the Super Bowl - the finale to the NFL season.
Super Bowl tickets are not released for sale to the general public but can be bought via official resale sites.
According to Forbes,, external tickets for the 2025 Super Bowl started at around £3,500 - £5,000 each.
Basketball's NBA finals are not priced as high. Last year, tickets at Oklahoma City Thunder started at £52 in the top tier of their Paycom Center home as they won their first NBA Championship.
Away from sport, tickets for next year's WWE Wrestlemania in Las Vegas are available for between £250 and £1,000.
While musician Taylor Swift's hugely successful Eras Tour tickets at US venues were typically priced at between £37 and £335 each - although the resale market had tickets priced well above £1,000.
Festive forecast: Will we see a white Christmas this year?
Image source, Getty Images
Published
As the mild December continues, are our hopes of a white Christmas melting away?
It's still a little too early to confirm the details of the forecast for Christmas 2025, but there are some signs we may see the weather turning a little cooler and calmer.
Since the turn of the century, more than half of all Christmas Days in the UK have seen snow falling somewhere.
But at this early stage what do we actually know about the chances of this Christmas being "white"?
What is in the Christmas forecast?
Forecasters look at data produced by several different weather supercomputers generated over different timescales.
Not all computer models are in agreement about how the finer details of the Christmas forecast will look, but there are some themes now emerging.
The first half of December has been mild and wet, dominated by rain-bearing Atlantic low pressure systems. This general set-up is expected to continue for the next week or so, but there is a chance of higher pressure building into late December, which would bring a drier spell compared to recent conditions.
Whilst temperatures are likely to drop a little, returning to more typical for the time of year, there is no especially cold weather expected at this stage. Overnight frost and fog could well become more of an issue over the Christmas period. Wintry showers cannot be ruled out, especially over high ground in the north, but there are currently no indications of widespread snow.
Forecasting snow in the UK is notoriously difficult, and it is still too early to know for certain whether we will see a white Christmas in 2025.
The festive forecast will become much clearer about five days before Christmas, so keep an eye on the BBC Weather app or website for the latest updates.
Image caption,
Lying snow looks beautifully festive but a Christmas is only officially 'white' if snow is recorded falling from the sky
What makes a Christmas officially 'white'?
Christmas cards often depict snow that is "deep and crisp and even", but often a "white Christmas" will be much less wintry in reality.
In fact, just a single snowflake has to be recorded falling at any point during the 24 hours of 25 December at any of the Met Office's network of around 300 observing stations.
Snow already lying on the ground on Christmas Day may make things look merry and bright, but it does not count under the official definition.
Will it be a White Christmas?
Join BBC Weather’s Carol Kirkwood, Matt Taylor and Barra Best, along with famous faces Jeremy Vine and Lucy Porter, to explore where our fascination with a white Christmas comes from.
Since 2020, every year except 2024 has officially been a white Christmas. However, in each of these years very few places reported any snow actually settling on the ground.
The last time the UK saw a widespread white Christmas was back in 2010, when snow fell at 19% of weather stations and, very unusually, 83% of stations reported snow lying on the ground.
Whilst snow is more common between January to March than in December, odds are still pretty high that somewhere in the UK will see snow on 25 December.
However, as our climate warms, winters in the UK are becoming milder and wetter. Whilst the Met Office says, "This generally reduces the chances of a white Christmas," it also recognises that, "The natural variability of the weather will not stop cold, snowy winters happening in the future".
On Theo Von’s show this week, Mr. Carlson lashed out at a major supporter of the president, the F.B.I. and “unimpressive, dumb, totally noncreative people” leading the nation.
Tucker Carlson did not mention President Trump by name in his attacks on Theo Von’s podcast, but his broadsides were the latest evidence of a deepening divide in Republican politics.
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