This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.
I'm Ankur Desai, and in the early hours of Saturday, December the 13th, these are our main stories.
US Democrats released photos from the estate of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, featuring rich and powerful people, including President Trump.
Thailand has carried out further attacks on Cambodia the day after President Trump said the two countries' leaders had agreed to a new ceasefire.
And European Union member states decide to freeze Russian assets worth more than 200 billion for an indefinite period.
Also in this podcast, the security forces in Iran have arrested the winner of the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize, Narges Mohammadi.
And King Charles says his cancer treatment will be reduced in the new year.
This milestone is both a personal blessing and a testimony to the remarkable advances that have been made in cancer care in recent years.
We start in the US, where Democrats have released 89 photos from the estate of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, some of which feature rich and powerful people who'd mixed with him, including Donald Trump and the former President Bill Clinton.
All those pictured have strongly denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein and the images do not depict any misconduct.
The White House has accused Democrats of seeking to create a false narrative.
I asked a correspondent in Washington, Sean Dilley, what they showed.
They show absolutely nothing that we haven't known for a long time.
It does demonstrate, it reiterates, the very powerful relationships that Epstein had with some key world figures.
But Donald Trump's never denied, for example, that he and Jeffrey Epstein were friends.
He said they fell out. in the early 2000s, for instance.
So it's a matter of record and full admission that he would be in photographs historically.
Same with Bill Clinton, Bill Gates there, Steve Bannon, the former White House advisor, Andrew Mountbatten, you know, all these names that people would know are there.
And I'm going to be absolutely clear, having gone through the photos that have been released by the Oversight Committee and of course, there could be more released
But none of the photos are a smoking gun.
Barely any of them.
In fact, frankly, none of them are even a slightly soaking wet water pistol.
So then why are Democrats releasing them now?
And what are we hearing from the Republicans, where some have said in the past they wanted these files and photos released?
The Democrats and specifically let's focus on Robert Garcia, who essentially heads the Democrat part of this oversight committee.
They're saying that this is about transparency.
They say that they've obtained 95,000 images from the Epstein estate.
Now, what we do know is that separately, after this long-running sort of drama that was happening within the White House and Capitol Hill, Donald Trump, who during the election and his campaign said he would like to release them, suddenly seemed to be less keen on doing so.
That went through Congress and the Senate and at the last minute, the 11th hour, after falling out with key Republicans.
He decided that he would back that.
The Democrats are saying this is about transparency.
Donald Trump in the past actually has been more punchy than he has today.
He talks about it being a Democrat problem.
He talks about it being a Democrat distraction.
But in reality, as we can see, Jeffrey Epstein had very close friendships with people from all political parties and none
Now the Epstein files held by the Justice Department are due to be released next week, I believe the 19th of December, following that vote in Congress recently.
Do we know whether they'll be released?
They're due to be released by next Friday, which is the 19th.
That's 30 days after Donald Trump signed off on the act which became essentially the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
So in theory, most documents are going to be released.
However, there's a really important caveat, and a rider here is that particularly sensitive documents, those mentioning some vulnerable victims, those involving ongoing investigations, are not necessarily going to be released.
And there are going to be some held back and people are going to inevitably say well, what are they still hiding?
Why will they not release it now?
Sean Dilley in Washington.
Despite President Trump announcing that Cambodia and Thailand had agreed to halt fighting.
Cambodia says Thai warplanes have again attacked hotel buildings and bridges close to the border.
Mr Trump had made the announcement after telephone conversations with the two countries' leaders, following days of renewed border clashes that have left at least 20 people dead and half a million displaced.
I asked our Southeast Asia correspondent, Jonathan Head, what we know about the current state of hostilities.
They haven't changed and I don't think we ever thought they would.
I mean, the Thai side have made it clear that they were not ready for a ceasefire.
The Thai prime minister was the first person to speak to journalists immediately after his conversation with President Trump.
And he said essentially gave a completely different account to the one that President Trump has given.
He said he explained to President Trump that Thailand did not see itself as the aggressor, that a ceasefire could only come about once there was a verified withdrawal of Cambodian forces and the removal of landmines.
And he said President Trump said he understood that and simply told him to call if he needed any help.
That was his understanding.
In other words, no ceasefire, no end to the fighting.
And the Thai military have made it clear they're not finished yet, they've got objectives.
So I don't think anybody's surprised in this region that Thai aircraft have continued to bomb Cambodia As they have.
The Cambodians are reporting they said a hotel was hit.
The Thais have said that buildings near the border they claim have been used by Cambodian military for sort of command and control.
A bridge was hit as well.
And the Thai military itself also says as far as that, yeah, that fighting is continuing.
They haven't stopped.
No one's told them to stop.
So, you know, it looks like wishful thinking in Washington.
President Trump, of course, came out to claim that both sides had said they would cease shooting that evening on Friday evening last night.
And the Cambodian side have been eager for a ceasefire and for US intervention for several days now.
But Thailand is not ready, and they've made it clear.
Interestingly, President Trump does not appear to have used any kind of threats or leverage, as he did back in July when he threatened to stop tariff talks.
And that did force both countries to stop fighting very quickly.
That does not appear to have happened this time.
OK, so, Jonathan, is there an outcome that could satisfy both sides?
And what do we make of the peace that he so-called brokered, Mr Trump, that peace accord, which was signed back in October?
He didn't broker a peace.
What he did although he called it a peace and he gave some very big claims what he did was have a ceremony to formally mark the ceasefire that he did very effectively broker back in July.
But it was an uneasy ceasefire.
The Thai military at the time felt it was gaining momentum.
The Thais have claimed right throughout the ceasefire.
They say that Cambodia has continued to violate it.
They're particularly aggrieved by landmines, which they've provided pretty compelling evidence of that.
They've been laid, they've had seven soldiers lose limbs.
But there's an element of pretext on the tight side as well, because the fighting this week, over the past week, broke out on monday with very heavy thai bombing and airstrikes after what most people would consider a relatively minor incident two thai soldiers receiving non-life-threatening injuries on sunday and a skirmish.
Those kinds of skirmishes have gone on all year.
So I think this time around, as opposed to July, it looks like the Thai military was ready for this fight and is certainly not ready to stop it.
There isn't an outcome that will satisfy them, because trust has collapsed on both sides, but also because in Thailand you've got a government that's just called an election and the government was weak to start with.
The current prime minister gave full authority to the military to prosecute the conflict any way it liked.
And in Cambodia, we have a secretive authoritarian system.
It's almost impossible to divine what its motives are.
So in the end, the ingredients sensible, cool leadership on both sides are just not there for any kind of meaningful long-term peace to be achieved at this stage.
Jonathan Head reporting.
The security forces in Iran have arrested the winner of the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize, Nargis Mohammadi.
Mohammadi, who spent more than 10 years in detention for her activism, had been granted temporary leave from prison and was in poor health.
Her brother, who lives in exile in Norway, said she'd been beaten, held by her hair and dragged to the floor during her rearrest.
Now, I guess Mohammadi's son, Ali Rahmani, lives in France and spoke to us in French.
He began with more detail about his mother's detention.
Two to three weeks ago, a lawyer named Khosrow Alikordi was found dead in his office in Iran.
Unfortunately, he was found dead in extremely unclear circumstances.
My mother and many other activists, like those who were part of the group, were paying their last respects at a mosque in his hometown.
We know that unfortunately, during the tributes, when my mother was about to speak, the forces of the Islamic Republic began attacking simultaneously.
They attacked with tear gas and then there was a mass arrest of everyone present.
There are reports that she was violently arrested.
Can you tell us any more about that?
Yes, that was the case.
I want to clarify that it wasn't just her who was violently arrested.
You should know that the repressive forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran are aware that my mother and many other activists are in need of significant operations and care.
They're in a very fragile state of health.
But that didn't stop them at all from using tear gas and attacking them head on, even though these people were simply expressing their support for the family of the deceased and the lawyer and highlighting once again the murky circumstances surrounding his death.
It's important to know that my mother is an Iranian woman and, like many other Iranian women, she witnessed the Islamic Republic of Iran come to power in 1979.
Like many Iranian women, she saw fundamental freedoms reinstated, freedoms that were later revoked.
Her struggle goes against the very essence of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
It's important to understand that under the Islamic Republic, my sister didn't have the same rights.
It's something extremely difficult for my mother And, simply as a woman in Iran, she feels more involved in this fight because it's not just women who are attacked, precisely because they're women, because they're subjected to a very archaic patriarchal, theocratic vision.
And this fight is precisely for freedom, for democracy, through the struggle of feminism.
My mother, like many other women, is a feminist, and that's what gives her the strength to fight.
Our global affairs reporter, Sebastian Usher, told us more about the background to the arrest.
This was in Mashhad and it was at a ceremony marking seven days since a human rights lawyer there was found dead in his office.
Now officials say that he died of a heart attack, but activists say it might be something much more suspicious than that and want a full investigation.
This was a lawyer who had acted for people like those who were at this event, who have stood out against the Iranian government regime, no one more so than Nagez Mohammadi herself, of course.
I mean, she was three on medical grounds.
She'd had some serious medical issues.
There was a concern that she might have cancer in her leg.
That, I think, has been resolved.
It was only meant to be three weeks at a time, but it's been pretty much a whole year since then.
But always, people around her were saying there's a good chance that she could be re-arrested.
I mostly in Avine Prison, the notorious prison where activists are held.
One of the things she did during this time that she's been out was actually to attend a protest outside that prison.
She's met activists.
She has gone on broadcasts.
She can't leave the country herself.
Sebastian Asher.
King Charles says his cancer treatment will be reduced in the new year thanks to early diagnosis, effective intervention and adherence to doctor's orders.
He was speaking in a recorded message and said this milestone is both a personal blessing and a testimony to the remarkable advances that have been made in cancer care.
The news that he's responding well to treatment is the biggest update on the King's health since he revealed his diagnosis back in February of last year.
Here's our senior royal correspondent, Daniela Ralph.
The King was last on public duty on Wednesday, an Advent service at Westminster Abbey.
Royal engagements have been combined with weekly cancer treatment for close to two years.
We have a very special broadcast tonight from His Majesty King Charles.
But in a personal message delivered as part of Channel 4's Stand Up To Cancer fundraiser, the King revealed his treatment was being scaled back.
Today I am able to share with you the good news that, thanks to early diagnosis, effective intervention and adherence to doctor's orders, My own schedule of cancer treatment can be reduced in the new year.
This milestone is both a personal blessing and a testimony to the remarkable advances that have been made in cancer care in recent years.
Testimony that I hope may give encouragement to the 50 of us who will be diagnosed with the illness at some point in our lives.
After being diagnosed with cancer in February 2024, the King withdrew from public duties for several weeks.
His first engagement back was with cancer patients at a London hospital.
But Buckingham Palace did not want his diagnosis to dominate his work.
Cancer-related visits came occasionally with a focus on patients.
But do they allow you a tiny dram of whisky occasionally?
Here?
Yes.
No.
No, sir.
No.
I knew I should have brought one.
The King's message about his own treatment is both personal and campaigning.
His diagnosis came early.
He's now urging people to take up all offers of cancer screening.
This December, as we gather to reflect on the year past, I pray that we can each pledge, as part of our resolutions for the year ahead, to play our part in helping to catch cancer early.
Your life or the life of someone you love may depend upon it.
This is the most direct the king has been in discussing his own condition.
The palace says he now moves to what they call a precautionary phase of treatment.
Our senior royal correspondent, Daniela Ralph.
Still to come on this podcast.
Tonight, I officially announce my retirement from the WWE.
John Cena retires from wrestling.
European Union member states have agreed to freeze Russian assets worth more than 200 billion for an indefinite period as they examine ways to help Ukraine.
Britain's Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, and his Belgian counterpart met in London on Friday to overcome Belgium's concerns about using the assets to support the Ukrainians.
Here's our diplomatic correspondent James Landau.
Britain and the EU want to use frozen Russian assets to raise almost 100 billion euros for Ukraine over the next two years.
The debt would be called in only if Russia ever paid reparations.
But Belgium where most of the assets are held is worried.
It fears legal action and being forced to pay the money back.
It wants the EU to share the risk more equally.
Downing Street said.
Both Zakir Starmer and Bart de Wever discussed using the frozen assets and agreed that keeping up economic pressure on Russia and putting Ukraine in the strongest possible position was the only way to achieve a just and lasting peace.
The meeting came as EU governments decided to freeze Russian assets indefinitely.
Currently, the sanctions are renewed every six months and thus vulnerable to veto another Belgian concern.
Earlier, Russia's central bank said it would sue the financial body in Brussels, where its assets are frozen.
A decision about how the Russian money will be used is expected at an EU summit next week.
Diplomatic correspondent James Landau.
The man in charge of organising South Korea's eight-hour-long university entrance exam has stepped down after complaints about the difficulty of the English language section.
Oh Sung-gyul says the test fell short.
One professor called the questions maddeningly confusing.
Our World News correspondent Jo Inwood sent this report.
Kant was a strong defender of the rule of law as the ultimate guarantee not only of security and peace, but also of freedom.
What you're currently hearing is one of the questions that 17- and 18-year-old Koreans were expected to answer as part of their English as a foreign language test on the philosophy of the 18th century German thinker, Immanuel Kant.
However, his belief in inevitable progress was not based on an optimistic or high-minded view of human nature.
They had to choose the correct sentence to complete the 170-word extract.
They were also asked to place a sentence in the correct spot in a pretty impenetrable 150-word passage on the nature of reality as applied to video game avatars.
The test, in which only 3% of students got top marks, down from 6% the year before, has been widely criticised for being far too hard.
Some compared it to deciphering an ancient script.
That criticism has cost the man behind it his job.
Urs Angol apologised for what he said were inappropriate questions.
Admitting the test fell short, despite having gone through several rounds of editing.
South Korea's Sonnong is an eight-hour exam marathon, also featuring maths and history.
It's said to impact everything from getting into university to job prospects and even future relationships.
If such laws forbid them to do something that they would not rationally choose to do anyway, then the law cannot be.
Oh and in case you were wondering, in Immanuel Kant's view, law cannot be understood as a restraint on human freedom.
Obviously.
Joe Inwood reporting.
The curtain is about to come down on one of the most celebrated wrestlers from the world of sports entertainment.
The last time is now.
So if you want some...
That famous catchphrase of WWE superstar John Cena has been associated with him for 24 years.
But later on Saturday, he will wrestle for the final time in his career.
He's been arguably the industry's most popular and bankable star in that time.
And now looks set to focus on a career in Hollywood, much like his old adversary Dwayne The Rock Johnson.
So what's the secret behind Cena's success and longevity?
And is he arguably the greatest of all time?
Manish Pandey reports.
There's, of course, only one place you can start, and that's his wrestling career.
That soundtrack, made by Cena himself, is synonymous with the WWE's record-breaking 17-time world champion.
But it's one fans won't get to hear as much anymore.
Tonight, I officially announce my retirement from the WWE.
Joe Clarkson was five years old when he first saw Cena in action.
I think just over time, the respect to have that longevity, to go for such a long time in an industry which is quite heavily taxing on the body is absolutely fascinating.
I think, over time, people just gain more and more respect for him, not just as a performer, but also as an individual.
That respect and connection with fans like Joe meant.
From 2005 to 2015, Cena was widely regarded as the company's biggest star.
And it's the hard work and commitment to his craft which has made Cena stand out beyond the wrestling world.
Hey, Dad.
It's been kind of a rough go for me lately, Dad.
You don't say.
Somebody shot me and a building fell on me.
You let somebody shoot you?
While Cena's first film appearance came in WWE production The Marine in 2006, it's from 2015 onwards that he reduced his wrestling and increased his studio credits to now over dozens of movies, including the Suicide Squad, Fast and Furious 9 and Superman, and TV shows like Peacemaker.
A lesson in patience.
Don't deviate too much.
Don't try initially to do it all.
You have to do one thing really, really well to start with.
Dr Gillian Brooks is Associate Professor in Marketing at King's Business School, King's College London.
And I think that's what John has done here.
He became a legend in the ring and then was able to sort of accrue these other skills or these other personas to make himself a bigger and better person brand.
Both as a wrestler and often as a film star, Sina has played the hero.
And it's a familiar theme when looking at his charity work.
He holds the Guinness World Record for the number of wishes granted through the Make-A-Wish Foundation, with over 650 fulfilled wishes for children with critical illnesses.
I think that he turns up at things that he doesn't need to do.
He can just come in and be a wrestler and walk out.
The fact that he's doing charities.
He's written a children's book, he's been in films, he's done some music on the side.
All of these things illustrate that he's not a one-show pony.
He knows exactly what he wants.
And while never say never is a favourite saying in the wrestling world, fans like Joe think Cena will be a man of his word and not make a return after his last match.
It's very sad to see him retire now, but I think he said it himself, it's the right time.
He wants to step aside for new talent to sort of take his place.
And I'm just happy that we got to see a lot of John Cena this year.
Finally, complaining that modern music is getting worse is, let's be honest, a bit of a cliché.
Every generation seems to think it sounded best when they were young.
But one thing that is apparently true is that over the last 50 years Western pop music has got sadder.
A reportable chalk has been looking into it.
It's come from a study by the University of Vienna in Austria, which has been published in the journal Nature.
So the researchers analysed the lyrics from every song in America's Billboard Top 100 between 1973 and 2023, and then ran them through software to analyse how much stress-related language and positive sentiment they contained, as well as how complex they were.
Well, they found that over those 50 years, the lyrics steadily got sadder and less complicated.
So at first glance, this might seem like a negative trend, but is it?
To find out, I spoke to two young songwriters.
Lapsley who, as well as being an artist in her own right, has written hits for Charli XCX and Paloma Faith.
And Favourite Daughter, an up-and-coming singer-songwriter from London.
Hi, I'm Lapsley.
I'm a songwriter and artist.
I mean, music is the way that we translate our lives as writers.
And I do feel like my generation, we have a bigger emotional toolbox than our parents did.
So I can only imagine that the songs that we write are more in touch with the reality of emotions, rather than painting a picture of, you know, an imagined situation.
When you sit down to write a song, whether it's with someone else or for yourself, do Are you consciously thinking oh God, this is coming out another sad one.
It's funny.
I'm running a songwriting camp this week and speaking to the young people.
It's very easy to write a sad song and it's very hard to write a happy song and for it to come across as genuine.
And so, in a strange way, it's quite impressive that we have all these happy-go-lucky songs in the 70s, because it's incredibly hard to recreate.
But similarly, I'm sure they find a difficult writing sad songs and songs that reflect our day-to-day life rather than this perceived vision of a happy time.
Maybe that's like music used to be more aspirational, whereas now it's more reflective.
Hello, i'm favorite daughter.
Your songs are quite sad.
They are, they are horrendously sad.
Yeah, i'm so sorry about that.
They are particularly like a sad person.
I think I just find it easier to write about the harder things in life and I think social media has kind of done that thing where everyone gives a really sparkly representation of their lives and it's super false and you know, it doesn't really help anyone.
And I think, musically now I'm just like craving some, some honest, sad truths.
But also I get the impression and I might be well off here but is an element of tongue in cheekness as well.
For sure.
You know, it's a bit of dark comedy, I guess, I think.
And it's like a level of sarcasm that a lot of me and my friends have.
And it's very conversational and relatable and kind of how we get through life and joke about it.
Will Chalk reporting.
For more on one of today's big stories, you can also go on YouTube and search for BBC News.
Click on the logo, then choose podcast and global news podcast.
There's a new story available every weekday. and I'm Ankur Desai.
Until next time, goodbye.
