BBC State Department correspondent. Former Middle East. Foreign policy & international relations. Signal tom.6441 bit.ly/3Pi6Pzi email tom.b.dc@proton.me
Washington, DC
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1. Civilians who escaped Mariupol in recent days have described the growing desperation in the besieged city, including accounts of bodies buried in shallow graves, looting by Chechen fighters, and starving residents being killed when they venture out of shelters to find water
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Tom Bateman retweeted
Scoop: Classified documents provided to Congress include an assessment by the U.S. intelligence community that Saudi Arabia has not ruled out the option of developing a nuclear weapons program, per U.S. officials...
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Tom Bateman retweeted
Per the NYT, Trump had decided to strike Houthi targets on Thursday after the Saudi Crown Prince called him again & urged him to step in. But on Sunday, he changed his mind again and decided not to — just as target lists were approved & troops were loading bombs onto US warplanes
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CIA Director John Ratcliffe met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi during a rare visit to Cairo on Sunday. cbsn.ws/4Ait2jH
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RT @katyballs
NEW: Burnham’s meeting with Trump on Tuesday at Unga
- hope is for 30 minutes, with the potential to run over
- plan is to tread carefully and focus on building a rapport (golf has already been mentioned)
- aides have been brainstorming gift ideas related to Manchester
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Interesting graphs chat: Ahead of UN General Assembly, how the US and China's percentage contributions to the UN budget have changed over time.
Together the two powers now pay nearly half of the UN's $3.5bn yearly regular budget.
Source: @pewresearch
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Ukraine launches 1,000 drones at Russia, including hundreds fired at Moscow in what mayor describes as "largest ever" attack cbsn.ws/4rjBwmN
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Tom Bateman retweeted
🚨 Houthis says they attacked “sensitive sites” in Saudi capital Riyadh with ballistic missiles and drones.
Also say they attacked Aramco in Yanbu.
— military spokesperson
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Tom Bateman retweeted
Update: Tehran prosecutors filed charges against the organisers of Tehran’s 10km run, and alleged that “legal and religious regulations” were not observed during the event, the judiciary's Mizan News Agency today…
Video shows women taking part in a 10km run in Tehran, Iran today with some not wearing the mandatory hijab.
Running events across the country have previously been cancelled or faced backlash amid authorities’ enforcement of the country’s mandatory hijab law.
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Tom Bateman retweeted
Important story by @VeraMBergen who spoke with opposition leader Maria Corina Machado in Panama City as she prepares to return to Venezuela. Machado warns that interim president Delcy Rodriguez "represents chaos" — even as President Trump prepares to meet with Rodriguez in New York in a few days.
wsj.com/world/americas/insid…
Trump to meet with Venezuela's interim president Rodriguez in New York on Tuesday reut.rs/4rmF3Rg reut.rs/4rmF3Rg
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A lot of the White House pool coverage for tv networks is the intensive and expensive work of staffing a 3 person crew (camera op, sound op, producer/reporter) at the tv networks’ expense filming the President getting on/off AF1, travelling, speaking in the Oval Office 1/
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It is demanding, skilled technical work that comes with the highest levels of expectations as Americans righty want top quality, timely accessible coverage of what the president is doing. Much of it consists of filming and live feeding 2/
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CNN and MSNow correspondents doing live hits across the street from the White House after their credentials were yanked this morning.
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Large plume of black smoke rises from the fuel storage area at King Khalid International Airport, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, September 19, 2026. Picture taken with a mobile phone. REUTERS/Stringer
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Tom Bateman retweeted
Scoop from WaPo colleagues: More U.S. troops have died amid Iran war than Pentagon has disclosed publicly washingtonpost.com/national-…
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The Constitution protects the freedom of the press from government interference. That protection does not depend on whether the president likes a news organization’s coverage, agrees with its reporting, or approves of the questions its journalists ask.
The president said it plainly in the Oval Office, describing his own planned action as a “ban on the free press.”
The Constitution protects the freedom of the press from government interference. That protection does not depend on whether the president likes a news organization’s coverage, agrees with its reporting, or approves of the questions its journalists ask.
This is about more than the rights of journalists. It is about the right of the American people to receive a full and independent account of the activities, policies and decisions of whoever occupies the nation’s highest office.
The WHCA stands in defense of our colleagues at CNN, MSNOW, and Politico who are being singled out for doing their jobs.
- Jacqui Heinrich, WHCA President
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Nine months after the US military attack on Venezuela and the apprehension of then-President Nicolás Maduro, institutions responsible for repression, gross human rights violations and crimes against humanity remain intact, UN Fact-Finding Mission warns.
news.un.org/en/story/2026/09…
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