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A final group of 130 Nigerian schoolchildren abducted last month have been freed, ending a mass kidnapping that drew global concern. The pupils were among more than 300 taken from St. Mary’s Catholic School in Niger state, spotlighting worsening insecurity and ransom attacks on schools.

Published On 22 Dec 202522 Dec 2025

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Richard Marles says the Richardson review into law enforcement and Asio processes leading up to the Bondi attack will involve a certain amount of reporting to the public, but there would be elements that would remain classified – so we won’t get to know everything Richardson finds out.

Marles says:

There will be a public version of the report. I mean, there will be elements of it which necessarily deal with classified information and it’s, by definition, important that remains classified. But we’ve made clear there’ll be transparency in respect of this.

Dennis Richardson is a person with enormous experience, firsthand experience, in terms of being secretaries of departments, but also these intelligence agencies.

He will do this independently. He’s not of the agencies or the department now, so he is able to go into this in an independent way. But we need to get to these answers quickly, and we cannot be waiting around for years, which is what a royal commission would take.

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Deputy prime minister Richard Marles has been speaking to ABC TV just now, and the first question he’s been asked is about the calls for a federal royal commission into the Bondi attacks.

He repeats the argument that we’ve heard a few times from the federal government over the last couple of days, which is about how slow royal commissions tend to be.

Marles says:

Royal commissions take years, and we need to be acting within weeks. It’s really as simple as that. We’ve had Jillian Segal do her report as our special envoy into combating anti-Semitism. We understand that anti-Semitism is at the highest point that I’ve seen in my lifetime. She has given us program of action. We have now endorsed that in full. And we are working on those actions. And we want to do that right now…

We need to be going after hate preachers, and that’s why we’ve announced that we will pursue law reform in that regard. And we want to do that in the coming weeks, not in the coming years. We need to be looking at the opportunities that those who seek to do this damage have in terms of access to guns, and there is further gun reform that can be done. And we need to be doing that right now. And there is a task in understanding what’s happened here in terms of intelligence, in terms of policing and the like.

He mentions the review into intelligence and law enforcement processes in the lead-up to the Bondi beach attack, to be led by former Australian Security Intelligence Organisation boss Dennis Richardson. You can read more about that announcement here:

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Good morning

Stephanie Convery

Good morning folks, I’m Stephanie Convery and I’ll be taking you through today’s live news for the rest of the morning and into the early afternoon.

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Updated at 21.26 CET

Woman to face court after allegedly yelling antisemitic comments at university group in October

A woman will face court following an investigation into alleged intimidation at a university in Sydney’s inner west, New South Wales police say.

Police said the woman allegedly yelled antisemitic comments at a group of students and other members of the Jewish community who were celebrating the Jewish holiday Sukkoth within the grounds of the university at Darlington campus on 9 October.

The matter was reported to police officers at the time, prompting an investigation which led to a 53-year-old woman’s arrest at Parramatta police station earlier today.

Police said she was charged with three offences – two counts of stalking or intimidating intending to cause fear or physical harm, and one count of offensive conduct.

The woman was granted conditional bail to appear at Newtown local court on 3 February, police said.

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Updated at 21.25 CET

Chants of ‘globalise the intifada’, the phrase Minns wants to ban, at Sydney rally against proposed protest law changes

Hundreds of people rallied in Sydney last night in support of Palestine and chanted a phrase the premier has sought to ban on the eve of a new legislation preventing protests.

Chants of “globalise the intifada” followed an address by Sara Saleh, a human rights lawyer with Palestinian heritage, who condemned the Bondi terror attack but also condemned the deaths of Palestinians in Gaza at the hands of Israel’s military.

“That is precisely why I intend to keep saying, ‘Globalise the intifada, free Palestine,’” Saleh said.

Our reporter Luca Ittimani was there and has sent this report:

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Updated at 21.23 CET

Greens lead constitutional challenge to anti-protest laws

The NSW Greens justice spokesperson, Sue Higginson, will join pro-Palestine and other activist groups to launch a constitutional challenge against the Minns government’s latest anti-protest laws this morning.

After the omnibus terrorism and other legislation amendment bill was passed by the lower house with Liberal support last night, Higginson will hold a press conference at 9.15am this morning to announce the challenge.

She claims the new laws “impermissibly burden the constitutional freedom of political communication”.

She will be joined by other campaigners and activists opposing the laws including: Michelle Berkon of Jews Against the Occupation; Elizabeth Jarrett of Blak Caucus; Nick Hanna of Hanna Legal; Nasser Mashni, president of Australia Palestine Advocacy Network; Josh Lees of Palestine Action Group Sydney; NSW Timothy Roberts of the Council for Civil Liberties; Sheikh Wesam Charkawi; Shovan Bhattarai of Students for Palestine; Pete Moss of Labor Friends of Palestine; Zack Schofield of Rising Tide; April Holcombe of Community Action for Rainbow Rights; NSW Socialists; and the Coalition of Women for Justice and Peace.

NSW Greens MLC Sue Higginson. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAPShare

Updated at 21.22 CET

Anne Davies has also filed this analysis of the legal changes being planned for NSW.

She writes that while a tragedy like Bondi demands action, “the unpredictable political wave of public feeling after a disaster can either wipe you out or see you riding high”.

Drafting laws that significantly curtail rights – such as the right to express your view on political matters by peaceful protest, or even as some would have it, the ‘right’ to own guns – need to be approached with careful and forensic clarity.

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Updated at 20.54 CET

NSW lower house passes gun reform and anti-protest bill

Anne Davies

NSW parliament’s emergency sitting of parliament in the wake of the Bondi shootings will continue today with the omnibus bill to change gun laws and to restrict protests expected to move to the upper house.

The lower house passed the bill last night after nearly 10 hours of debate. The Liberals voted with Labor, while the Nationals opposed the bill.

Labor does not have the numbers to pass legislation in the upper house but will again be counting on the Liberals to support the bill.

The crossbench, the Nationals and the Greens are expected to move hundreds of amendments and could use debate on changes to force a marathon session on Tuesday night.

The usual rule to prevent the parliament sitting for very long hours will be lifted.

The Nationals, the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party and other independents are vehemently opposed to Labor plans to restrict the number of guns that individuals can own to 4 while farmers and professional shooters will be restricted to 10.

The Shooters plan to move about 120 amendments to this and other aspects of the proposed gun laws.

The Greens are planning numerous amendments to the bans on protests, which they argue are unconstitutional and undemocratic.

Government sources said the government was prepared to have the parliament sit on Christmas Day if it proved necessary, but added they were hopeful the bill would pass on Tuesday night.

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Welcome

Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the day’s breaking stories and then Stephanie Convery will take the reins.

NSW parliament’s emergency sitting of parliament in the wake of the Bondi massacre will continue today with the omnibus bill to change gun laws and to restrict protests expected to move to the upper house. More details coming up.

The NSW Greens, pro-Palestine and civil liberties groups will launch a constitutional challenge against the anti-protest laws this morning at 9.15. We’ll have more on this shortly.

Shareholders in Seven West Media have overwhelmingly thrown their support behind a deal to create an Australian media giant spanning television, radio, print and digital by merging with Triple M owner Southern Cross Austereo. We’ll have more very soon.

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A series of clashes erupted in the Syrian city of Aleppo, resulting in two civilians killed and several others wounded.

The cause of the clashes was not yet clear. The Syrian government’s forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) exchanged blame for the two deaths.

According to the state-run news agency SANA, citing the city’s health directorate, the two were killed as a result of SDF shelling of Aleppo neighborhoods. SANA also quoted the Syrian Defense Ministry, which blamed the SDF for attacking two Aleppo neighborhoods.

In response, the SDF said the bombing had been carried out by groups affiliated with the Syrian government led by Ahmed al-Sharaa. The government denied this accusation.

The SDF also accused Syrian government forces of opening fire on a Kurdish checkpoint.

Turkey’s Foreign Minister visits Syria

Just hours before the attacks, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan visited Damascus and blamed the SDF for failing to commit to integrating their weapons into the Syrian army by the end of the year, the originally agreed-upon deadline.

“Syria’s stability means Turkey’s stability. This is extremely important for us,” Fidan said, calling on the SDF to “cease to be an obstacle to Syria achieving stability, unity and prosperity.”

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan visited Syria just hours before the clashes eruptedImage: Murat Gok/Anadolu Agency/IMAGO

The SDF, which controls large parts of northeastern Syria while being backed by the US, is seen by Turkey as a terrorist organization due to its connections to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Ankara has also threatened to take military action against the SDF.

Turkey was one of the main countries that pressured US President Donald Trump to remove the sanctions on Syria. The country’s military provided training for Syrian army soldiers and officers, which was reinstated after the fall of Bashar Assad.

Syria still scarred after 14-year civil war

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Edited by: Dmytro Hubenko

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Israeli officials have slammed the latest report from an organization that earlier this year claimed there was famine in parts of Gaza, saying the new document is biased and that its conclusions were “predetermined.”

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a United Nations-backed organization, previously claimed famine conditions were met in Gaza Governorate in August but now says that about 1.6 million Gazans are facing “high levels of acute food insecurity.

IDF Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian, of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), which deals with Gaza, called out what he said were “biased claims” by the IPC which he said, “disregard the volumes of food that entered during the ceasefire, indicating that the report’s conclusions were predetermined.”

ISRAEL PUSHES BACK AT ‘TAILOR-MADE’ UN-BACKED REPORT CLAIMING GAZA FAMINE

Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025.  (Ramadan Abed/Reuters)

A statement from COGAT noted, “It is important to recall that this is not the first time IPC reports regarding the Gaza Strip have been published with extreme forecasts and warnings that do not materialize in practice. Time and again, IPC assessments have proven to be incorrect and disconnected from the data on the ground, contradicting verified facts, including aid volumes, food availability and market trends. The international community must act responsibly, avoid falling for false narratives and distorted information and refrain from legitimizing a biased and unprofessional report.”

In its latest report, the IPC’s Famine Review Committee addressed the changing circumstances, explaining that “following the publication of the [last] FRC report, there was a partial relaxation of the blockade and an increase in the availability of food and other essential supplies.” While the FRC says this “came too late to avoid famine in Gaza Governorate in July and early August, the persistence of Famine and its spread to other governorates during the projection period has been avoided.”

Gazans carry food airdropped by Jordan and the United Arab Emirates on July. 27 (TPS-IL)

In August, the IPC projected that two additional governorates would experience famine by Sept. 30. At the time, several experts disputed the presence of famine conditions, including Dr. David Adesnik, vice president of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Adesnik told Fox News Digital that mortality figures, while worrisome, did not reach levels expected during famine conditions. He also said that the prices on key food items had remained relatively stagnant or even declined during the period of alleged famine.

Following the IPC’s latest report, Adesnik said that the IPC are still “dodging the question of proving that they were right” about prior famine declarations.

US REPORT URGES UN AGENCY’S SHUTDOWN OVER HAMAS TIES, OCT 7 TERROR LINKS

In assessing the lack of mortality numbers that indicate famine, Adesnik said one of the IPC’s current arguments is that “data largely capture trauma-related deaths and overlook a substantial proportion of non-traumatic mortality.”  He called this “a big leap,” explaining “They’re basically saying that with all of its efforts to track down every name of someone killed during the war, the Gaza Ministry of Health somehow missed all the people who didn’t die because of bullets, shrapnel or falling buildings — that there’s just all these people who would have died of hunger, disease, other things.”

He said that the IPC’s figures show the highest number of malnutrition-related deaths per month being 27, with all malnutrition deaths peaking at 186. “Hundreds of people dying from malnutrition is still a terrible, terrible thing,” Adesnik said. “But we were asking a question: Is this famine? And that is not remotely close to the threshold for determining famine.”

Palestinians await donated food at a community kitchen in Jabalia, northern Gaza Strip, Monday, May 19, 2025. (Jehad Alshrafi/AP Photo)

The IPC told Fox News Digital that to meet the famine threshold, “at least two in every 10,000 people” “or at least four in every 10,000 children under five are dying daily” on account of “outright starvation or the interaction of malnutrition and disease.”

US-BACKED AID GROUP ENDS GAZA MISSION AFTER DEFYING HAMAS THREATS, UN CRITICISM

In response to questions about its famine data, the IPC told Fox News Digital that “in the case of the Gaza analysis, there was clear evidence that thresholds for starvation and acute malnutrition had been reached, and analysts reasonably assessed from the broader evidence that the mortality threshold (third outcome) has likely been reached.”

Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Oren Marmorstein said on X that “The IPC also disregards the fact that, on average, between 600 and 800 aid trucks enter the Gaza Strip every day, 70% of them carrying food – nearly five times more than what the IPC itself said was required for the Strip.”

Palestinians carry bags and boxes containing food and humanitarian aid packages delivered by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a U.S.-backed organization, in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Monday, June 16, 2025. (Abdel Kareem Hana/AP Photo)

Though it is not claiming famine is underway, the IPC still states that in a “worst-case scenario” of a return to conflict, “the entire Gaza Strip is at risk of famine through mid-April 2026.”

Adesnik said that the IPC is merely “guessing about the future.” He noted that accuracy from the IPC holds serious importance given the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice’s allegations of war crimes and genocide against Israel. A declaration of famine would be a “big building block in what seems to prove part of the case.”

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Last week, the Secretary of State Marco Rubio, sanctioned two more members of the ICC for engaging “in efforts by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute Israeli nationals, without Israel’s consent, including voting with the majority in favor of the ICC’s ruling against Israel’s appeal on December 15.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the State Department “will continue to hold accountable those responsible for the ICC’s morally bankrupt and legally baseless actions against Americans and Israelis.”

Beth Bailey is a reporter covering Afghanistan, the Middle East, Asia, the United Nations, Central America and antisemitism. She was formerly a civilian intelligence analyst with the Department of the Army. You can follow Beth on X @BWBailey85

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Supporters of a prominent Colorado immigration and labor activist say an immigration judge has ruled that she can post bond and be released after spending nine months in detention.

The judge issued a written ruling Sunday allowing Jeanette Vizguerra to post $5,000 bond, said Jennifer Piper of the American Friends Service Committee, who has been working with Vizguerra’s lawyers and her family. Vizguerra’s family and a nonprofit group that helps pay bonds for people in immigration detention were working Monday to post the bond, which can take a day or more to process, she said.

Emails seeking comment from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security were not immediately returned.

Vizguerra gained prominence after she took refuge in churches in Colorado to avoid deportation during the first Trump administration. She was arrested in the parking lot of the Denver-area Target store where she worked on March 17.

Vizguerra, who came to Colorado in 1997 from Mexico City, has been fighting deportation since 2009 after she was pulled over in suburban Denver and found to have a fraudulent Social Security card with her own name and birth date but someone else’s actual number, according to a 2019 lawsuit she brought against ICE. Vizguerra did not know the number belonged to someone else at the time, it said.

Vizguerra’s lawyers have said ICE was attempting to deport her based on an order that was never valid and challenged her detention in federal court.

A federal judge recently ordered that a bond hearing be held in immigration court to determine whether Vizguerra should be continue to be held in detention facility in suburban Denver as her immigration case plays out.

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NEED TO KNOW

• Kylie Kelce revealed her top hacks for navigating Christmas as a mom to daughters Wyatt, Elliotte, Bennett, and Finnley
• She shares her secrets for curating the perfect gift list and finding the best places to take family photos with Santa
• Kylie even pulled inspiration from Mandy Moore, who shared one of her own favorite hacks on social media

Kylie Kelce is sharing all her best holiday tips. 

On Monday, Dec. 22, the mom of four, 33, gave insight into how she navigates the holiday season with her husband, Jason Kelce, and their four daughters, Wyatt, 6, Elliotte, 4, Bennett, 2, and Finnley, 8 months, during a special “More ‘S— Monday” clip of her Not Gonna Lie podcast. 

To begin, Kylie revealed that she has two very specific go-to destinations that she visits every time she wants to take her kids to “meet a Santa.” And although she often turns to her personal photographer to take their family portraits with a “great Santa” that she knows, Kylie noted that the Santa at the King of Prussia mall, not far from Philadelphia, is a close second. 

“You need to take them to a large mall; it can’t be the mall that’s half forgotten,” she emphasized. “You can’t do that. Don’t do that. You gotta go to the big mall.”

Kylie also passionately advised against taking any child to a Santa that might have a fake beard that pulls down away from his face. 

“Go to the big mall,” she repeated. “They grow that s—, it’s crazy.”

As for how she gets her girls the perfect gifts? This year, Kylie admitted that her kids’ wish lists, which their Elf on the Shelf personally delivers to Santa, have been a little “out of pocket.”

“We can’t find the middle ground between actual things that exist and crazy whack ass options and I wanna meet in the middle on one gift — we were always a one big gift house — one gift that’s really really cool and exactly what they want,” she explained. “That’s how I ended up with, I believe it was three different doll houses last year to figure out which one was the correct one.”

Despite their best efforts last year, she and Jason ended up being “Santa’s elves” and painting rainbows all over one of the houses on Christmas Eve. 

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. 

Jason Kelce and Kylie Kelce with daughters Wyatt, Elliotte and Bennett.

Kylie Kelce /Instagram

So, Kylie decided to turn to a “parenting hack” that she learned from one of her former podcast guests, Mandy Moore. 

“Taking pics at the toy store to send to Santa,” Moore, 41, wrote on one of her previous Instagram Stories, as seen in a clip from Kylie’s podcast. “Any other parents use this as a hack to get out of getting something on the day?”

Calling the idea an “outstanding safety net,” Kylie made it clear that she’s “very much in on this.” In fact, she’s already been taking pictures of various items her daughters have pointed out for future birthdays and holidays. 

“We have had things over the year that I have taken a picture of and been like ‘Oh, we could ask for that for your birthday, or we could put it on your Christmas list,’ ” she explained. “I really love to have them focus on, you either earn it by doing something where it warrants this type of reward, or you ask for it and save up for Christmas, birthday, things like that.”

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Philip Young, 49, was charged with 56 sex offences including multiple rapes and administering a substance with intent to stupefy or overpower to allow sexual activity – as five others also face trial



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Authorities say they don’t have enough food, tents, and equipment to accommodate everyone fleeing Sudan’s war. Al Jazeera’s Mohamed Vall visited the Ghoz-el-Salam camp in northern Sudan.

Published On 22 Dec 202522 Dec 2025

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A court in Ecuador has sentenced 11 air force personnel to decades in prison over the forced disappearance” of four Afro-Ecuadorian boys aged between 11 and 15 during security operations in the country’s largest city last year.

The case of the “Guayaquil Four” is widely seen as the starkest example of human rights abuses under the iron-fist security policy pursued by the rightwing president, Daniel Noboa, who placed the armed forces at the centre of the fight against drug trafficking.

Eleven servicemen were sentenced to 34 years and eight months in prison. Five others, who confessed and cooperated with the investigation, received reduced sentences of two years and six months, and one was acquitted.

“The cruelty with which the four minors were victimised has been proven,” said the presiding judge, Jovanny Suárez, who was joined by two other judges.

It remains unclear who exactly killed the boys. The trial focused on the crime of forced disappearance, and the public prosecutor’s office is still pursuing a separate investigation into kidnapping resulting in death.

On 8 December last year, Steven Medina, 11, Nehemías Saúl Arboleda, 14, and brothers Josué and Ismael Arroyo, aged 14 and 15, were returning from a football match in Las Malvinas, an impoverished neighbourhood in southern Guayaquil, when they were stopped by air force personnel – who have been deployed on street patrols since Noboa declared a state of “internal armed conflict” two years ago.

For more than two weeks, their families had no news of them, until charred bodies were found on Christmas Eve about 25 miles away.

Noboa’s defence minister, Gian Carlo Loffredo, repeatedly denied the involvement of the military and said instead that the youths had been victims of “criminal groups”.

But CCTV footage later emerged, capturing the moment the boys were assaulted and forced into vehicles.

The case has also been seen as an example of how Afro-Ecuadorians are particularly vulnerable to human rights violations: after their abduction, the boys were taunted with racist insults and beaten with punches, kicks, and blows from belts and gun barrels.

They were stripped naked and abandoned far from home, at a location where one of them managed to call his father to ask for help.

By the time the father arrived, however, the boys were no longer there. Their bodies were eventually discovered on Christmas Eve.

Forensic examinations concluded that all four had been killed by gunshots at close range to the head and back. Their bodies were then burned and dismembered.

The defence teams for the servicemen, including those who confessed to taking part in the abduction and torture, deny that they were responsible for the killings.

One of those who confessed, Christian Eduardo A. Q., said during the trial that troops were being sent to patrol the streets without any training to do so.

“I never received any training in human rights or operational procedures. I worked in the control towers in Quito as a weather observer and air traffic technician. I should never have been sent out on to the streets. They took untrained personnel, because of staff shortages, and sent us to patrol,” said the soldier.

One possible line of investigation is that, after being tortured and abandoned naked miles from home in an unfamiliar area with high crime rates, the four were killed by local criminals.

Suárez, the presiding judge ruled that “the abandonment of the minors in a dangerous and desolate place was the cause of the victims’ deaths.”

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Watch: Images, cassettes and high-profile figures – What’s in the latest Epstein files?

A pair of US lawmakers have threatened legal action against US Attorney General Pam Bondi, after her deadline to release all government files related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was met only in part.

The release of the Department of Justice (DoJ) documents was highly anticipated but in the end, only a portion of the available material was made public.

A leading campaigner on the issue, Republican congressman Thomas Massie, said he could try to bring contempt proceedings against the attorney general as a result.

The DoJ insists it is complying with its legal obligations, and Bondi herself has said she is part of “the most transparent administration in American history”.

In addition to the move by Massie in the House, the top Democrat in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, has announced an effort of his own to put pressure on the DoJ.

On Monday, Senate Minority Leader Schumer said he would introduce a resolution in the Senate to take legal actions of its own against the Trump administration for failing to release the files in full and “to hold the Department of Justice accountable”.

The issue would be considered when the upper chamber reconvenes in January. Schumer appealed for support from Republican senators, pointing out that the law to release of the full trove was a bipartisan effort.

The phrase “Epstein files” refer to the trove of information that was amassed by the US justice department during its two criminal investigations into Epstein.

A law that compelled the release of the full trove was signed by US President Donald Trump in November, after pressure from his supporters and members of his own Republican Party. Friday was the deadline for the release of the material.

Although some material was released, there were many redactions and other information was withheld – which angered Massie and his allies, as well as survivors of Epstein’s abuse. Trump himself is yet to comment.

The DoJ has said that more material will follow in the coming weeks.

But speaking to CBS programme Face the Nation on Sunday, Massie suggested that the justice department was “flouting the spirit and the letter of the law”.

He went on to say: “The quickest way, and I think most expeditious way, to get justice for these victims is to bring inherent contempt against Pam Bondi, and that doesn’t require going through the courts.”

Inherent contempt is a little-used legal recourse that can be used by either the Senate or House – the upper and lower chambers of Congress respectively – which has not been invoked for nearly a century, according to the American Bar Association.

Massie added that “Ro Khanna and I are talking about and drafting that right now”, referring to a Democratic congressman who has also been prominent in the campaign for the release of the full Epstein files.

Speaking to the same programme, Khanna gave further detail on how the contempt proceedings could work. “We’re building a bipartisan coalition, and it would fine Pam Bondi for every day that she’s not releasing these documents,” he said.

Unlike an impeachment effort – another option that would be theoretically available to critics of Bondi – the contempt move would only require support from the House of Representatives, Massie pointed out in Sunday’s interview.

During an interview of his own on Sunday, with a different broadcaster, Bondi’s deputy Todd Blanche was defiant.

Asked by the Meet the Press programme on NBC News whether he took threats from Congress members seriously, the deputy attorney general said: “Not even a little bit. Bring it on. We are doing everything we’re supposed to be doing to comply with the statute.”

Blanche pointed to the magnitude of the task. “You’re talking about a million or so pages of documents,” he said. “Virtually all of them contain victim information.”

He continued: “And if by complying with the statute we don’t produce everything on Friday, we produce things next week and the week after, that’s still compliance with the statute.”

Speaking to the same programme, another member of Khanna’s party, Democratic Senator Tim Kaine, said contempt or impeachment efforts would be “premature”.

“We have tools in appropriations bills and other tools to force compliance if somebody is dragging their feet and I’d rather focus on those tools,” Kaine said.

Blanche said elsewhere on Sunday that certain Epstein-related files that were originally released on Friday were later removed by the DoJ from its website because of concerns raised by victims.

One of those files – an image featuring Trump – was later reinstated after review, said Blanche.

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