security services access to users�* encrypted data. a us federaljudge has blocked some of president donald trump's plans to dismantle the us agency for international development in what the judge described as a "very limited" it comes after two unions sued the trump administration, largest aid organization would be put on leave. reports suggested that usaid's staff could be slashed from a force of about 10,000 worldwide tojust a few hundred. this was the scene today at the organization's

the move is part of president trump's efforts to reshape these developments usaid is the world's largest provider of humanitarian aid, set up by president kennedy in 1961. but it's long been criticised, especially by republicans who claim it's mismanaged. when you look at usaid, that's a fraud, the whole thing is a fraud. very little being put to good use. and transactions, is either corrupt or ridiculous.

the agency signs are being removed from its offices. the total usaid budget makes up less than 1% of all us government spending. however, donald trump considers many of the projects out his press secretary listed some of them earlier this week. 10,000 for a transgender opera in colombia. 32,000 for a transgender comic book in peru. supporters of the agency argue that most of the $40 billion budget goes on food aid and health care, vital programmes which have now been shut down. it said stop everything you are doing globally right now, stop it, no matter the human consequences. we have stories of kids who were going in for their tb long line waiting out in the hot sun got the tb the dismantling of usaid is being led by the world's

richest man, elon musk. spending, with musk posting on his x platform that he is working to shut it down. staff have been protesting. on forced leave from tonight. some essential programmes will be kept on, like funding we are seeing a lot of disruption of delivery of treatment services, especially at the community level. terminated. the trump administration's moves to gut the agency are raising fears lives may be lost and that america powers rush to fill the void.

he's the president of the american foreign service association, one of the unions that is challenging the administration's policy. would block 2,200 employees from being put on that leave as was scheduled by midnight on friday. but this must have been a pretty confusing week it has been a really quite shocking, disturbing, great uncertainty. what does that mean — being put on administrative leave 7 why the rush to get everybody out to washington or maybe your home town? we are not certain. what happens when you get to washington? your pets, any property

you need to dispose of? i have been a foreign service officer for nearly 3a years and it is traumatic enough to have your move every two as you put it. employees had no answers to those questions, pretty much, yeah. we have been trying as the union of the 1800 trying to get the answers — but it has been difficult. so we have tried to send messages of what we know but to be honest it is still very little. there are exceptions apparently, but it is not quite clear how you go about getting those exceptions, how long the process would take. the argument from the trump administration as you well know

i think that any administration and president — by the way we are non—partisan of course — because of the union and the workforce. any administration has the right to look at programmes and see which ones are more in line with their view of the world, and that is to be expected, but this is sort of unprecedented. this is a wholesale stoppage of what usaid is doing around since 1961. i think that is an absolutely unprecedented, and what we are seeing. i have never seen it before, and i don't think any of my colleagues have either. when you speak to your colleagues and the people

are they saying they already crisis zones? kind of what your reporter just talked about — all the things that are done. usaid is the premier development humanitarian assistance, life—saving medicine, are so many implications. i don't think we even know all of them yet. you lose a huge amount of expertise, you lose with the continuation of these vital services. it is pretty bad.

itjust is. president trump's pick for head of the office of management financial protection bureau, according to a report vought now serves as the acting director of the cfpb, which is tasked with regulating financial institutions it comes four days after president donald trump fired the biden administration. meanwhile, 19 democratic attorneys general sued the trump administration on friday to stop musk�*s from accessing sensitive data in the us treasury department. they allege trump allowed doge central payment system, which contains personal and financial data and sends out trillions of dollars in payments. trump has granted doge a sweeping mandate to review costs at various agencies in what supporters applaud as reigning in spending. however, musk�*s team has sparked concern among critics who perceive the tech boss's

actions as an overreach of power. here's a bit of what new york's attorney general letitia james said in a video statement posted on x. president trump does not have the power to give our private information away to whomever he wants. and he does not have the power to cut federal spending that congress approved, much less to do so by giving the richest sensitive information. and to protect your personal information. and amid efforts by the trump administration to cut costs, the us president says he wants to slash america's trade deficit with japan and warned tokyo that tariffs against them

minister shigeru ishiba to the white house for their first face—to—face meeting. mr trump also announced that japan's nippon steel instead making an investment in the american company. national security concerns. mr trump reiterated friday that he also opposes a sale. meanwhile, the us president postponed a call with his "lies and falsehoods" about the panama canal. mr mulino made those comments in response to claims constitution.

infrastructure programme — a move criticized by china's foreign ministry as "sabotage." this update from mexico city. jimmy carterto sign an agreement that put it back in panamanian control in 1999. that, of course, is going to continue to keep the two countries apart on this issue, because the panamanian government, the panamanian president, jose raul mulino, is completely convinced that this is panamanian territory, it is sovereign territory, and it is not to be meddled with. let's talk about some of the positives that have come out of this week of washington's attempts at diplomacy on this issue. first, secretary of state marco rubio�*s first international trip was to panama. his trip around the region began there, and he held talks

with president mulino on this issue. involvement in a chinese initiative called the belt and road initiative — which is about global infrastructure flows, global flows of trade — would come to an end. that is something that the white house, under donald trump, will have wanted to hear. those are all positive steps, i think, in terms the less positive steps are, of course, that that claim still continues — that mr trump continues to suggest that china government robustly denies. all as well — and that is the fact that panama represents

the issue of the panamanian canal has brought them together for many, many years. towards central america and onto the united states. they're essentially doing everything that mr trump would want of them — and yet now there is this will get organised, that donald trump is essentially trying to push panama to the negotiating table. so far, he's been pretty successful in that regard, but they are still a long way from resolving it.

president trump announced he is revoking former daily intelligence briefings. in a post on truth social, president trump said there was no need for his predecessor to receive classified information. he also pointed to the fact that during his time in office, former president biden instructed the intelligence community to stop donald trump from accessing details on national security. is the first person to be hit with economic and travel sanctions after. us. , two anonymous sources have told the reuters news agency that mr khan, who is a british citizen, has been named it comes as nearly 80 countries throw their support behind the global court.;calling "the international justice system". the icc says that it will stand by its personnel

"of innocent victims of atrocities around the world". the court was established in 2002 to hold individuals accountable for atrocities such as war crimes and genocide. last year, the tribunal issued an arrest warrant in gaza — claims that israel denies. the icc also issued warrants for top hamas leaders on the same day. and now with trump sanctioning the hague—based court, ongoing investigations into alleged israeli war crimes could prove difficult. the israeli prime minister, who's wanted by the icc, has praised the us president for ordering sanctions on friday, hamas announced the names of three male israeli hostages it's due to release from captivity on saturday. the group says israel is expected to release 183

we now finally have the list of the next three hostages between israel and hamas, so by the end of the weekend, a total of 21 hostages will have been released from israeli jails. particularly for those who want the war against hamas to restart. the next three hostages to be released are all men.

one abducted from the music festival where more than 300 people were killed on october 7. this is, of course, very good news for theirfamilies. they will be bittersweet moments because many of those they were killed on october 7 when hamas gunmen stormed across the border and more than 1200 people were killed. since then, more than 117,000 people are reported to have been killed in gaza as well. there is a lot of support on both sides of the fence, in israel and palestinian circles, for the ceasefire means a certainty. the british government is demanding access in its cloud service. as it stands now, only the apple account holder can cannot.

the uk government says security agencies need the access to be able to pursue people suspected of terrorism and other criminal activity. zoe kleinman reports. national security versus privacy, a debate that's been this move from the uk government, which apple legally cannot comment on, would mean authorities could access the home office says it cannot confirm or deny the notice, but apple has previously warned it would pull security services from the uk market rather than comply with any government you can use apple's icloud to store all sorts of data —

wants to be able to access it if there's a national security risk. door, and there are concerns that, once it does, it's only a matter of time before criminals also find their way cybersecurity experts have raised concerns that such which means that essentially this could just impact in a lot of the debates, is that once you create a master key for the government, that becomes a target for foreign adversaries, for criminals, and puts all of our privacy and security at risk.

but children's safety campaigners have been warning are suddenly going to start combing through everybody�*s data. there would still need to be a legal process to request access to a person's account. but all eyes will be on apple to see if it pulls this encryption service in the uk. of the cybersecurity firm sentinel0ne and a former chief from the uk government. as we just heard in the report, the argument from the uk government is that security agencies need the access to be able to pursue criminals.

i understand their argument, but the problem here — it is a couple of faults — firstly according to the report in the washington post, apple is asking for the ability not just to request the data of uk citizens but to request that has not played well here in america. the uk should not have the ability to request the data once the back door exists, who has access to it is no question. the unfortunate fact is that the people's republic for apple — it is not the united kingdom. china is one of the largest market in the world and where

so far, it has given in to the prc on a couple the world and one of the big fears for people outside situation, it will be extremely hard for them to say no to china and any other country that now wants to have the same kind of extraterritorial access the uk is asking for. you are clearly raising these huge, very important questions that go right to the heart of this, but also at the centre comes to terrorism or child abuse, for example. what more should be done about this? are these companies doing enough in that regard, is apple? there will always have to be a trade—off. the crimes have been prosecuted, investigated before before.

digital dust — of huge amount of evidence created conversations or talking in person. now all that stuff is done and creating electronic records that are gettable. that we have in the us to prevent the unlocking so, for example, when criminals are caught, there is a capability to force them to unlock these devices,

i do not think it works of the uk, in new orleans. at the biggest us sporting event of the year. the match—up is between the philadelphia eagles and kansas city chiefs who are hoping to make history but the game in new orleans comes just one month after 1a people were killed early on new year's day. than in years past. the stadium hosting the game — will be scoured by the bbc�*s nesta mcgregor, who is new orleans, has more you might be able to hear those we are outside. with sirens. we are outside. with the super bowl, there is usually super security. i spoke to the commissioner who to the nfl commissioner who said it is up with a said it is up there with a presidential inauguration, and mentioned, the new as you mentioned, the new year's day attack is still fresh in the memory of people

in new orleans. bourbon street is closed off to traffic and there are extra security measures. there are roadblocks, and the national sniffer dogs and the national guard are on patrol. so it is a city on high alert but trying filo’ok" " 753051145; f ' . tiallfswqfaft’hr ' . 7°21; {qwafaft'hjtis' . 7°11;{qwqfafr'hslis'itf to look forward. that is it. you are to date. thanks you are up to date. many thanks for being with from our team for being with us from our team in washington, dc. 0urteam in london will take over from have a very good evening. here. have a very good evening. bye for now. hello there. we've got a wintry mix of weather this evening and overnight. lower levels seeing the rain, and, in fact, it will be reverting back to rain across southern areas as we pick up some less cold air.

north out of iberia, squeezing the isobars together, bringing the windy weather. but you'll notice it also bring some lighter colours across the country for this weekend, area of high pressure for next week snow across the hills of wales — certainly the south pennines across the peak district. but the rest of scotland and northern ireland will see clear skies, a sharp frost in places. the breeze and the rain. so for saturday, it's a rather grey picture. we'll have further spots of rain across england and wales, a bit of wintriness on the pennines, maybe some wintry showers for eastern scotland. the best of the sunshine, again, one or two rain showers here. and the winds lighter across the board on saturday

to what we've had today. to eight or nine degrees. so that's how saturday is looking. through saturday night, it looks like that cloud starts to thin and break, allowing more clear spells to develop. across northern england and into southern scotland. where skies are clear, then we're likely to see frost and maybe some fog, because the winds where we hold on to the cloud, then generally above freezing. so for sunday, high pressure starts to build back in. that will be noticeable across north sea coasts. the better day of the weekend, perhaps drier and a bit brighter. should be more sunny spells around, but some areas could stay cloudy all day. and temperatures 6—9 degrees — that's a little above the seasonal norm. but into next week, temperatures drop below the seasonal norm. it turns colder, easterly winds. a lot of dry weather because of high pressure, and some hill snow across central,

voice-over: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. welcome to romania.

this is a country that's been described to me as a land up until now, it's not been that high on many people's travel bucket lists... look, look — the bear. oh, wow. here's the bear. in the spring of 2024, the eastern european nation joined the schengen area, a group of 29 countries across the continent that allow passport—free travel over their internal borders, meaning that tourism here should be in line for a big boost. it's been over three decades since the nation turned its back on communism. and now it's ready to show the world its diverse culture... traditional folk music that some villages can survive and develop.