Epstein files: More than three million new pages released

0:00This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. If journalism is the first draft of history, what happens if that draft is flawed? In 1999, four Russian apartment buildings were bombed, hundreds killed. But even now, we still don't know for sure who did it. It's a mystery that sparked chilling theories. I'm Helena Merriman, and in a new BBC series, I'm talking to the reporters who first covered this story. What did they miss the first time? The History Bureau. Putin and the apartment bombs. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.

0:47I'm Will Chalk and in the early hours of the 31st of January, these are our main stories. The US Justice Department releases over three million more documents related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Mexico's president, Claudia Sheinbaum, warned that US tariffs on countries helping Cuba could trigger a humanitarian crisis. Thousands of protesters have again gathered in the city of Minneapolis in the United States to demand the withdrawal of federal immigration agents. Also in this podcast. Being watched and being followed by the same faces I see in different places, it was something that I couldn't comprehend.

1:32We'll hear from a human rights YouTuber who's won a court case after his phone was infected with spyware.

1:43So three million pages, 180 ,000 images and 2 ,000 videos. In other words, it's going to be a busy few weeks for lawyers, journalists and anyone else just curious to sift through the latest, and we're told, last dump of files relating to the case of the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. We're told there are references to public figures who've previously been associated with Epstein, including the former Microsoft boss Bill Gates, President Donald Trump and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. But there's no suggestion that appearing in the files implies any wrongdoing, and many people who have featured in previous releases have denied any illicit behaviour in relation to the late sex offender.

2:24Women who were abused by Epstein want criminal charges brought against some of his associates. Todd Blanche is U.S. Deputy Attorney General. There's this built-in assumption that somehow there's this hidden tranche of information of men that we know about that we're covering up or that we're choosing not to prosecute. That is not the case. I don't know whether there are men out there that abuse these women. If we learn about information and evidence that allows us to prosecute them, you better believe we will. Our North America correspondent Peter Bowes told me more. It is, as you imply, a vast collection of documents, images, videos, many with redactions, and that's what's making it so difficult.

3:04In some cases, entire pages blacked out, and that fact in itself has caught the eye of many, since it makes it very difficult to verify any of the claims being made. But we know that there are several high-profile figures who are mentioned, including Donald Trump, with hundreds of references in one document. There are a number of allegations about the president that come from an FBI tip line, which investigators at the time deemed not to be credible. Many of these appear to be based on unverified tips received by the agency and were made without any supporting evidence. And Donald Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing in relation to Jeffrey Epstein and has not been accused of any crimes.

3:51Bill Gates, a high-profile figure, has dismissed claims that he caught a sexually transmitted disease, claims made in email sent from Epstein's email account. A spokesman for Mr Gates told the BBC that these allegations were absolutely absurd and completely false. Obviously there's the redactions, but there are also documents that still haven't been released. is this doing anything to satisfy those people who are convinced that there is a cover-up still? No, far from it. In fact, there's probably more suspicion now than before this latest release of documents, which, as you say, would appear to be the final one.

4:31Campaigners still say that they haven't been given full transparency. The Epstein Survivors Group of Women issued a joint statement saying, this is not over, we will not stop until the truth is fully revealed. adding that the Justice Department can't claim it is finished releasing files until every legally required document is released. And a similar theme from the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, which is investigating this as well, saying that it is outrageous and incredibly concerning that roughly only 50 % of these files have been released. That was Peter Bowes. A warning next from the president of Mexico about Cuba.

5:16Claudia Sheinbaum says Donald Trump's threat of new tariffs on countries exporting oil to Havana could completely cripple the island. She's determined to find, she says, a diplomatic solution.

5:31It's very important that there is no humanitarian crisis on the island. So I instructed the Secretary of Foreign Affairs to discuss this with the US government or have then the US send the oil. This is a matter of supporting the Cuban people. Our correspondent Will Grant in Mexico City told me more about that executive order which was signed by Donald Trump on Thursday. In essence, part of the aim of Donald Trump's executive order is to issue a warning, I think, to Mexico and any other prospective energy partners to Cuba to basically say to them, look, do not step up and try to replace Venezuelan crude oil supplies to Cuba.

6:12The aim, it appears, to all intents and purposes, is to see the end of the Cuban revolution in power in Havana. So I think what we're seeing on the Mexican side is that message being delivered to the presidency of Claudia Sheinbaum. And her reaction has been, in her morning press briefing, that the Trump step could essentially lead to what she called a widespread humanitarian crisis on the island, involving hospitals, the provision of basic food and other services. And you were the Cuba correspondent. How bad are things on the island right now? Well, I was there just two weeks ago and the short answer is very, very bad.

6:53As bad as it has been at any time since the height of the Cold War, people by and large who lived through that experience say the current situation is significantly worse. You've got the potential complete loss of Venezuelan oil now, and it does look like the Trump administration has been successful in its aim to cut out Venezuela from propping up the Cuban revolution any longer. So although we're getting noises in diplomatic notes from Caracas about how it is inhumane and unjust and incorrect to sort of isolate Cuba in this way, the truth of the matter is that Washington is increasingly controlling the energy sector in Venezuela.

7:35And as part of that strategy, it will be cutting off the supply to the communist run island of Cuba. You talk about Mexico filling that Venezuelan void, if you like, in terms of oil shipments. How important are the shipments that Mexico is supplying? They're vital. I mean, at the height of the relationship between Venezuela and Cuba, the supply is knocked on the door of 100 ,000 barrels of oil a day. In recent years, they've dwindled to more like 35 ,000 barrels of oil a day. But that has also completely vanished now from Venezuela. That makes Mexico the biggest supplier in maybe 25 ,000 barrels a day.

8:14So to take that out, those rolling blackouts that I've mentioned will just get worse and worse. I was seeing them at sort of 12, 15-hour stretches in parts of Havana. That's the capital. That's the bit that they're suggesting. Always they try to keep online as much as possible. That's going to be a struggle. It also means food rotting in fridges. It means difficulties, as Claudia Sheinbaum says, for hospitals, schools being shuttered and closed, businesses being closed. And obviously people very, very worried about what comes next. And when we add to the fact that there is this threat of tariffs to all future and possible energy partners to Cuba, then it's worth remembering that there are estimates that suggest in terms of the oil supplies that Cuba has in reserve, those could dwindle within as little as two weeks.

9:05Will Grant there, speaking to me from Mexico City. Now, Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araqci, insists his country is ready to discuss its nuclear program with the United States. But he pointed out that any talks must be on an equal footing and not dictated by the threat of military action. US warships have been deployed to the region as part of what President Donald Trump has described as a massive armada. Mr Trump also says he wants Iran to stop killing anti-government protesters and end its nuclear ambitions. Batman Kalbassi from BBC Persian told me more. The internet shutdown obviously made it a lot harder to get information from every corner of the country to realise the depth of the crisis that this mass crackdown has caused.

9:53But still there is a very small level of connectivity that goes on, sometimes spikes. And in those periods, we get a clear idea of this catastrophe. We see the numbers of different human rights organizations, but even though none is exact, we can confidently say tens of thousands of people have been killed and injured. And thousands more are in detention centers under horrific conditions, torture, the possibility of executions, just a wide array of methods that the government is using to shut down dissent. And, you know, next to images of mothers and fathers burying their 20-year-olds all across the country.

10:48Still, we had just one case of a 19-year-old whose family thought he was somewhere in a detention center since January 8th and 9th. Because they basically lost touch with him and only to find his body in a makeshift morgue. It just gives you the mass scale of the killing by the government. The images we're getting show how they opened fire on unarmed protesters everywhere. Women, children just sprayed them down and killed as many as possible, clearly with an intention that to create such level of horror and terror that people would go home and not come out protesting again. So clearly a lot of grieving going on.

11:33But do we know how people are reacting to this news of the American Armada approaching? That is a question that you will get mixed answers from depending on who you speak with. But what I can say is that having spoken to very much the same groups of people throughout the decades of this going on, I see an increased number of people who used to be against any foreign intervention to be now for the kind of intervention that wouldn't hurt the civilian population, wouldn't hurt the civilian infrastructure, but somehow bring the regime down. And now there can be a lot of debates if that's even a possibility, but the feeling, the mood has changed dramatically post-January 8th and January 9th.

12:22There is no polling in Iran. Nobody can tell what the majority thinks, but one can feel the mood of people who were against it and now for it in result of this catastrophe. Batman Kalbassi from BBC Persian. The Emmy-winning actress, comedian and screenwriter Catherine O 'Hara, you might know her from her roles in Home Alone in Schitt's Creek, has died at the age of 71 after a brief illness. Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney's paid tribute, saying over five decades of work, Catherine earned her place in the canon of Canadian comedy and added that the country had lost the legend. Our arts correspondent, David Silito, looks back at her life.

13:01I've had a terrible feeling. About what? That we didn't do something. It was more than 30 years ago that Catherine O 'Hara, playing Kate McAllister, the mother on the plane, realising she'd left something behind. Kevin! Home Alone was just one of a string of hit movies in the 80s. Beetlejuice, after-hours, heartburn for this Canadian actor who'd come up through the comedy circuit. And then in her 60s saw her career take off again with comedies such as Schitt's Creek and The Studio. In a statement, it was said she died at home after a brief illness. Among those paying tribute, Kevin Macaulay Culkin, who wrote, I thought we had time.

13:43We had so much more to say. David Sillitoe, looking back on the life of Catherine O 'Hara. Still to come on this podcast. We begin another season. I should like great gossip. The social season. It's number one in more than 80 countries on Netflix. We'll hear from the stars of period drama Bridgerton.

14:12If journalism is the first draft of history, what happens if that draft is flawed? In 1999, four Russian apartment buildings were bombed, hundreds killed. But even now, we still don't know for sure who did it. It's a mystery that sparked chilling theories. I'm Helena Merriman, and in a new BBC series, I'm talking to the reporters who first covered this story. What did they miss the first time? The History Bureau, Putin and the apartment bombs. Listen on bbc.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

14:50This is the Global News Podcast. Thousands of protesters have again gathered in Minneapolis in the United States to demand federal immigration agents leave the city. Police fired tear gas at crowds in Government Plaza and outside the building where immigrants have been detained. It's been around a week since the death of protester Alex Pretty at the hands of federal immigration officers. The death, which followed the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an ICE officer, has ignited public outcry across the US. At a news conference in Minneapolis on Thursday, White House Bordersar Tom Homan vowed to continue the immigration enforcement operation.

15:28In my meetings with folks so far, most importantly the governor and the AG, the Mayor Fry, we didn't agree on everything. I didn't expect to agree on anything. I've heard many people want to know why we're talking to people who they don't consider friends in administration. bottom line is you can't fix problems if you don't have discussions i didn't come to minnesota for photo ops or headlines you haven't seen me i came here to seek solutions and that's what we're going to do and we we we've come a long way and we got some good wins for the people of minnesota i think and for the administration and for the safety security of this city well let's hear it from Richard Carbham, who's the chairperson of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer Labour Party, which is affiliated with the National Democratic Party.

16:27He's been talking to my colleague, Paul Henley. What we see on the ground here is more than 3 ,000 ICE agents violating our constitutional rights, roughing up American citizens. The morning they asked us to ramp down the rhetoric, they were throwing tear gas outside of a preschool in a suburb. But are you powerless to change what is happening, even though you have the political majority there? We're not powerless. We can continue to do all the organizing we can. And we can continue to demand that our members of Congress, that federal elected officials stand up and stand with Minnesota, do not stand with Donald Trump.

17:02One of the things that you are doing practically is offering people training in peaceful protesting. Tell us about that and the demand for it at the moment. Yeah. In the last three weeks, we've trained over 8 ,000 individuals to be constitutional observers. What this means is that people understand what their rights are in a moment when federal agents are acting lawlessness. And the result of this is people around the world are seeing video evidence of federal agents violating constitutional rights and breaking the law. So the constitutional observers are doing really important work on the front lines revealing the lawlessness.

17:39How important is that video evidence, even when officials deny it? How crucial is the film that your trainees are taking? Well, people can see with their own two eyes the truth. Public opinion when it comes to ICE actions and federal agents' actions in Minnesota and around the country has shifted dramatically over the last several weeks because our observers are collecting that video evidence, producing it on the internet. And people around the world are watching Donald Trump's federal agents violating rights, and people are ready to hold them accountable. Has the situation been diffused now? Well, what I would tell you is that because Tom Homan's in Minnesota, they want us to accept the same kind of actions we are under for the last several weeks, but only now the person doing it is smiling at us.

18:28Are protesters being scared off the streets? Some must be. I mean, there's an obvious risk in taking part in protest, even peaceful protest. I'm so proud of the Minnesotans who show up because it is a scary situation, but they continue to show up. What's really devastating to me is that there are American citizens because they are black or brown who are afraid to leave their house. I know people who are American citizens who literally when they go get groceries, they carry their passport because they've been stopped. And that is really the devastating consequence. You are encouraging protest, which the government says is a provocation.

19:05How do you react when people say you are provoking trouble? One week ago today, on Friday, we had thousands, tens of thousands of people peacefully protest in a march in downtown Minneapolis. And it was one of the most beautiful things. All of that was peaceful. The next morning at 9 a.m., ICE agents executed Alex Preddy on the streets of Minneapolis in broad daylight. That is not peaceful. That was Richard Carbone, the chairperson of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer Labour Party. And that's just a flavour of some of the outrage that's been sparked by the Trump administration's operation, among some in Minneapolis.

19:43The Department of Homeland Security claims its goal is to target and remove violent, undocumented immigrants. But Native Americans say they're also being targeted by ICE agents. Anna Fagey reports. We're citizens. OK, then show your ID. Get your ID. We're Native. What are you doing? This is the moment a member of a Native American tribe in Minnesota gets dragged out of a car by federal immigration agents. It is part of a trend observed by Native Americans across the U.S., where federal immigration agents, or ICE, increasingly target, harass, and detain members of the Native American community.

20:20Two people posing as volunteers come here over the weekend. Ruth Buffalo is the president of the Minnesota Indian Women's Resource Center, a Native American community center feeling the direct impact of the federal immigration operation. One man was parked at a stoplight and then harassed by ICE, and he gave him his tribal ID. ICE was very aggressive to him and threw his card back at him. So it really doesn't matter, really, if you have a tribal ID. Tribal ID is a federally recognized form of identification. And Jacqueline DeLeon, a lawyer, says ICE has absolutely no business of detaining and targeting Native Americans.

21:03A Native American is a United States citizen. We've seen that Native Americans have been unfairly racially profiled. It's certainly alarming to seize the disregard for regular process that would allow ICE to find out relatively quickly that Native Americans are, in fact, United States citizens. The BBC reached out to the Department of Homeland Security and asked for their motivation for detaining members of the Native American community. So far, we've had no reply.

21:36Around 35 ,000 Native Americans live in the Minneapolis area. At the local coffee shop Pow Wow Grounds, a neighborhood aid hub has sprung up. Volunteers gather here, and to them, it's clear that ICE is picking up people based on their skin color. Lincoln is a volunteer at the aid hub. These are our families, our friends, that are being taken and detained for however long. Maybe we don't see them for weeks, maybe we don't see them ever again. That worry, that fear has brought a lot of people together. While Donald Trump's administration has somewhat softened its tone about the operation, on the ground, in Minneapolis, the locals, including the Native American community, are still feeling its effects.

22:21For many, including Ryan, one big question remains unanswered. So what's the plan? Like, are they going to deport them? I even asked them that. Where are you going to send me? I'm Native American. Where are you going to send me? The answer that I got is back to your reservation where you belong. You don't belong out here in society anyway. That report was by Anna Fagey in Minneapolis. A Saudi human rights activist who accused Saudi Arabia of targeting him with spyware has been awarded almost$4 million in damages by a UK court. The High Court effectively proved that the Saudi royal family ordered the hack with the infamous Pegasus spyware and also organised an assault on the British citizen in central London.

23:10Joe Tidy has been speaking to the once popular YouTuber who says the ordeal has ruined his life. I never ever heard of Pegasus. I don't know what it is until I found out my phone was hacked.

23:29London-based Saudi dissident Ghanem al-Masari was a popular YouTuber, but then he was hacked. In 2018, his iPhones were infected with the infamous Pegasus spyware. He started to notice strange things. Being watched and being followed by the same faces I see in different places, it was something that I couldn't comprehend. And they can see your location, they can turn on the camera, they can turn on the microphone, listen to you. They get your data, all pictures, everything. You feel you've been violated. After years of legal fighting, a UK court has now found the Saudi government was responsible for the hack and ordered it to pay Mr Al-Masarir three million pounds in compensation.

24:20Not just for hacking him, but also for arranging for him to be harassed and assaulted in the street. Basically, they have ruined my life. I used to be a person who is happy and enjoying life and waking up early in the morning and going to day-to-day life and doing work. I can't do that anymore. And that's because of what they have done to me. His videos criticising the Saudi royal family were funny and satirical, but also at times personal and offensive. They gathered more than 300 million views, allowing him to earn a living. But he hasn't posted in three years and is now shy about being in public.

25:00In a sense then, am I right in saying it's tragic here, but they've won, they've silenced you? I think that's what they wanted and they have got it. How do you feel about that? I feel depressed that they can get away with something like that, especially in London and Greater Britain. The hack and assault happened in the same year that Saudi journalist and dissident Jamal Khashoggi was hacked and murdered in the Saudi consulate in Turkey. US authorities assess that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the killing, something that the ruler denies. Saudi Arabia initially fought al-Masari in court arguing that it had immunity because it's a country but it lost that immunity in 2022 and has not made any attempt to defend itself since, which begs the question, do you think they'll ever actually pay?

25:56If they don't pay, we will take enforcement measurement and they will be forced. We will take the money anyway. Saudi Arabia has spent the last few years and lots of money on sporting and cultural events, including a large comedy festival in October. Big-name Western performers, including Jimmy Carr and Kevin Hart, performed, in spite of criticism from Human Rights Watch, something that angered Alma Sarir. They are inviting comedians to attend to Saudi Arabia in a massive festival. At the same time, they are hacking a comedian and attacking them and ruining their life in broad daylight in London.

26:37That shows you how hypocrite the Saudi regime is. We asked the Saudi embassy in London to respond to the court ruling but received no response. That report by Joe Tidy. Now, if you're a fan of Bridgerton, the period drama on Netflix that critics and reviews pretty much universally refer to as steamy, you'll have spent the last few days pretty excited.