BBC News Briefing

26 February, 2026

Sofia has long brown hair and brown eyes and is wearing a green top

Sofia Lotto Persio

Hello. Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is appearing in front of the US House Oversight Committee investigating the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. We have the latest. In Bangladesh, my colleague Soutik Biswas speaks to survivors of a mob attack on newspapers' offices. And finally, check out the Stone Age artefacts that may bear the first signs of writing.

TOP OF THE AGENDA

Clinton calls for President Trump to testify

Chairman of the House Oversight Committee James Comer (C) speaks to the press in Front of the Chappaqua Performing Arts Centre, a white building that resembles a temple from Ancient Greece

Former President Bill Clinton is set to testify before the committee in Chappaqua on Friday. Credit: EPA/Shutterstock

Former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has stated in her testimony to the House Oversight Committee she did not have any information about Epstein - whom she said she does not recall meeting - or his crimes. She also urged the Republican-led committee to have President Donald Trump testify as well. Her call comes after the top Democrat on the committee accused the Department of Justice of withholding files containing allegations of sexual abuse of a minor made against Trump. The president has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in relation to the Epstein case and has recently said he has been "totally exonerated". Clinton's testimony was briefly paused due to a photo leak from inside the closed-door session, of which a recording will be released later.

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GET UP TO SPEED

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British far-right anti-Islam activist Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, poses for a photo with US State Department official Joe Rittenhouse in Washington, DC, on February 25, 2026.

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AT THE SCENE

Dhaka, Bangladesh

The night a mob burned a newspaper

a wooden sign reading 'the Daily Star centre' lays on the floor and it's seen from a smashed window.

The Daily Star estimates its losses at about $2m - a steep toll for a single night of violence. Credit: Nurphoto via Getty

After the assassination of Sharif Osman Hadi, a prominent figure in the youth movement that had ousted former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in August, protesters targeted Bengali-language daily Prothom Alo, a sister newspaper of The Daily Star, Bangladesh's largest English-language publication, accusing the papers of "setting the ground" for Hadi's killing. Protests erupted into violence on one night in December.

Soutik has dark hair and brown eyes. He is wearing glasses and a pink shirt.

Soutik Biswas, BBC News

Nearly three months on, the building still carries the attack in its bones: insurers picking through debris, piles of glass heaped by the entrance, the auditorium a burnt-out shell. Foreign diplomats still file through, surveying the devastation - a reminder that the assault reverberated well beyond the newsroom.

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Below the roof where staff had cowered on the fateful night, the mob had unleashed what the paper later called "nightlong mayhem". Furniture was smashed, archives torched, a photo exhibition torn down and burned. Yet by the next day reporters were working from home; broken glass was replaced; laptops sourced; the sixth-floor newsroom patched up. The 20 December morning paper arrived with a single-word headline: "Unbowed".

Read in full

Election result: What you need to know about newly elected Bangladesh prime minister Tarique Rahman.

Watch: Hasina's former residence is now a memorial for the student protesters killed in the uprising.

Sofia Coppola holds a clapperboard in front of Marc Jacobs, who is sat on a chair and look in Sofia's direction

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