Paul Moss

I'm Paul Moss, and in the early hours of Saturday, the 20th of December, these are our main stories. The US has released 300,000 official documents, photographs and video recordings relating to Jeffrey Epstein. American forces have struck suspected Islamic State targets in Syria, and the BBC has heard claims from Palestinian prisoners that they were sexually abused while in Israeli custody. Also in this program...

He's going upstairs without a light. Yes, he likes to move around in the dark, poor man. More than four decades after his death, a radio play written by Tennessee Williams is heard for the first time.

So, Bill Clinton is in a hot tub. Britain's former Prince Andrew is stretched across the laps of what look to be five women. And the photographs released as part of the Epstein files also show Mick Jagger and Ghislaine Maxwell at a dinner table, while Michael Jackson and Diana Ross also put in an appearance. The US Justice Department released more than 30

300 000 kertaa tuntemuksesta Epsteinin kanssa, aiemmin finanssialaisen ja syrjinnän syrjinnän kanssa. Ei vain fotografioita, vaan myös audiotutkimuksia ja dokumentteja aiemmin kriminaalin vastaan Epsteinin kanssa. Nyt, olen hyvin selkeä, että fotografioida jotain tai olla lähellä heidän kanssaan ei itse asiassa ole väärin. Ja toivottavasti se on argumentti, joka on tehty yhdessä presidentin Trumpin kanssa.

He of course appears in that much viewed video clip apparently laughing and joking with Epstein at a social event. But he dismissed the importance of a previous batch of photographs released just a week ago. I haven't seen it but I mean everybody knew this man. He was all over Palm Beach. He has photos with everybody. I mean almost there are hundreds and hundreds of people that have photos with him. So that's no big deal. I know nothing about it.

What's frustrating for those trying to learn anything from these files is that the photographs have no dates or locations, no context at all. Much of it is in any case redacted, faces covered up, whole chunks of text blacked out. The Justice Department says it's identified more than 1,200 Epstein victims or their relatives. And that explains, it says, why the files have been so heavily redacted.

Marino Lacerda was just 14 when she was first groomed and abused by Epstein in New York. She's chosen to waive her right to anonymity and expressed her doubts.

Within the thousands of files, one Epstein accuser found a sense of vindication. Maria Farmer, who reported on him as early as 1996 for child pornography, found her complaint to the FBI in the files, made years before any investigation into the financier began. Jennifer Freeman is her lawyer.

Donald Trump did anything wrong and hasn't been accused of anything but it is certainly a reference to the current sitting president. We heard earlier the reaction of disappointment I suppose from the victims of Jeffrey Epstein. Is that the general tenor of reaction to this release in political circles as well?

Donald Trump was under a lot of pressure to get these documents released by his own people, his own supporters, many of whom are perhaps I could say conspiracy theorists who were convinced there was a cover-up going on. Do you think they're going to be satisfied by the release that's happened now?

Peter Bowes. While many were still pouring through the contents of those newly released files, the US announced it had launched a wave of strikes against the Islamic State group in Syria. This, President Trump says, was a retaliation for the killing of two American soldiers in the country last week. The US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the operation was not the beginning of a war.

Instead calling it a declaration of vengeance, intended to eliminate fighters and weapons. The military said more than 70 targets have been hit. Moez Mustafa is the executive director of the US-based organization, the Syrian Emergency Task Force. He told the BBC's Claire Richardson that the Americans' response came as no surprise.

When South Korea's then president Yoon Suk-yeol declared martial law a year ago, many in the country feared for the future of its democracy. In the end, the coup failed. Mr. Yoon ended up in prison rather than in office. And yet, 12 months on, he seems to be finding new fans.

particularly among young, disaffected people. Earlier in December, thousands in their 20s and 30s came out on the street defending Mr Yun's actions and demanding his release from prison. Our sole correspondent Jake Kwan sent us this report.

Jake Kwan reporting. Still to come in this podcast. I think it's a shame because it should be a free attraction, being one of the most important monuments in Rome. I think it's fine to pay. It will add to cleanliness. As Rome tries to manage over tourism, visitors to the city tell us their thoughts on a new entrance fee for the capital's most famous fountain.

This is the Global News Podcast. It was last month that the United Nations Committee against Torture said it was worried about reports coming out of Israel, reports which suggested the country had a de facto policy of torturing Palestinian detainees. Israel rejected that claim, but now two Palestinian men have told the BBC they were beaten and sexually abused by prison guards while in Israeli detention. Our correspondent in Jerusalem, John Donison, has this report, and...

It was very much a plan B. Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky had hoped that the European Union would agree to lend his country perhaps close to 200 billion dollars using frozen Russian assets as collateral. Instead, as you heard on an earlier edition of this podcast, he's getting just over 100 billion to fight Russia's invasion and the Russian assets are not involved. Now Mr. Zelensky has thanked EU leaders.

And he did so just as Kiev claimed a new and perhaps controversial success on the battlefield, attacking and badly damaging a Russian oil tanker in the Mediterranean. And that marks a significant shift, according to Elizabeth Braugh, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, as she told my colleague Lena Nathu.

It's one of the highlights for any tourist visiting Rome, the majestic Trevi fountain. But that's just the problem. Being a highlight, the fountain is often severely overcrowded, and it's become a focal point for the more general debate in Italy about the problem of over-tourism. Rome city officials do have an idea for how to deal with the Trevi crowds, charging people for visiting. But critics fear this would turn a public square into a ticketed attraction. Carla Conti reports.

It was nearly 90 years ago that the then unknown writer Tennessee Williams wrote a letter to his mother, in which he mentioned a radio play he'd sent to a local radio station in the hope they might consider broadcasting it. It may lead to something, he wrote, hopefully. Well, Williams did of course become something, with works like A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof becoming huge hits on stage.