Democrats on the House Oversight Committee said they were "a harrowing look behind Epstein's closed doors".

"We are releasing these photos and videos to ensure public transparency in our investigation and to help piece together the full picture of Epstein's horrific crimes," Representative Robert Garcia said.

The images are from Little Saint James, part of the US Virgin Islands, where Epstein is believed to have abused underage girls.

Faces of men hang on the wall in one room - which also appears to be equipped with a dentist's chair, while the words "deception", "power" and "truth" are written in chalk in the study.

Other images show a large shower room, a phone with some of the speed dial numbers redacted, and a photo of Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell meeting Pope John Paul II.

The US Department of Justice currently has until mid-December to release thousands of documents linked to civil and criminal cases involving Epstein.

Donald Trump previously opposed the move, but changed his mind last month after US Congress overwhelmingly voted in favour.

It could shed more light on the paedophile financier, who at one point socialised with the US president, as well as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Peter Mandelson.

All three men have denied wrongdoing.

Some details have already been revealed after more than 20,000 other files were disclosed last month - but much more seems set to follow.

The Epstein Files Transparency Act demands the release of all files relating to Epstein, including investigations, prosecutions, immunity and plea deals.

It also orders the publication of records connected to Ghislaine Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence.

Any flight logs and travel records for Epstein's vehicles must be disclosed, along with individuals named in relation to his criminal activities.

Read more:
Explainer - What will Epstein files show?
What do documents say about Trump, Andrew and Mandelson?

Politicians have said the release of the files is critical to uncovering whether powerful figures received special treatment or protection.

It is also a response to criticism of a controversial 2008 plea deal in Florida, which allowed Epstein to avoid federal sex trafficking charges and plead guilty to lesser state charges.

Epstein killed himself in a prison cell in New York in 2019 but conspiracy theories, once peddled by Mr Trump, remain.

Documents related to his death, such as witness interviews and post-mortem reports, must also be released under the law passed last month.

Anatolii, 59, said: "If someone took a piece of his territory, what would he say to that? The same goes for us."

Like many Ukrainians, the serviceman volunteered to join a territorial defence unit when Russia launched its full-scale war almost four years ago.

Follow live: Ukraine war latest

He has been fighting ever since, but will have the option to quit next year once he turns 60.

Unable to wear body armour anymore because of its weight, Anatolii now operates further back from the frontline in a small workshop on the outskirts of the city of Kramatorsk, where he helps to fix and improve the performance of drones - a crucial weapon on the battlefield.

"I want this war to finally end," he said. "I want to go home, to my family, to my land."

But not at any price.

He and other soldiers in 107 Brigade of Ukraine's Territorial Defence Force view Mr Trump's efforts to negotiate a peace agreement with suspicion.

An initial proposal envisaged the Ukrainian government giving up Donetsk and Luhansk, the two regions that make up the Donbas, to Russia.

This includes large swathes of land that are still under Ukraine's control, and that thousands of Ukrainian soldiers have lost their lives fighting to defend.

"I feel negative about it," Anatolii said, referring to the proposal.

"So many people already fell for this land ... How can we give away our land? It would be like someone comes to my house and says: 'Give me a piece of your home.'"

However, he added: "I understand, we have nothing to take it back with. Maybe through some political means...

"I do not want more people to fall, more people to die. I want politicians to somehow come to terms."

Ukraine and US negotiators will meet in Miami on Thursday to discuss peace efforts, after American and Russian teams met in Moscow earlier this week.

A short drive away from the workshop is a hidden bomb factory where other soldiers from the same unit are focused on a different kind of war effort.

Surrounded by 3D printed gadgets, metal ball bearings and plastic explosives, they make improvised bombs, including anti-personnel mines and devices that can be fitted onto one-way attack drones and exploded onto targets.

Vadym, 41, is in charge of the production line.

He has been fighting since Russian President Vladimir Putin first attacked eastern Ukraine in 2014.

Asked whether he felt tired, he said: "We are always tired, we have no motivation as such, but there is the understanding that the enemy will keep coming as long as we do not stop him. If we stop fighting, our children and grandchildren will fight. That keeps us going."

Vadym is also against simply handing over Ukrainian land to Russia.

"If we now give away borders, give away Donbas, then what?" he said.

"Any country can come to any other country and say: This is our land. Let's coordinate, do business, and keep living as before. That is not normal in my view."

The city of Kramatorsk stands testament to Ukraine's will to fight, remaining firmly in Ukrainian hands, though Russia's war is inching closer.

Nets stretched like a tunnel line a main road leading into the city to protect vehicles from the threat of small, killer drones.

Coils of barbed wire are also strung across fields around the outskirts of Kramatorsk along with other fortifications such as mounds of dirt and triangular lumps of concrete.

Many civilians have remained here as well as the nearby city of Slovyansk, even as other landmark sites such as Mariupol, Bakhmut and Avdiivka have fallen.

Yet the toll of living in a warzone is clear.

Stallholders swept away rubble and broken glass on Sunday after a Russian missile smashed into a central market in Kramatorsk on Saturday night.

Some, like Ella, 60, even chose to reopen despite the carnage.

"It's frightening. We need to earn a living. I have my mother, I need to look after her, help my children. So we do what we have to do," she said.

Her adult children live in Kyiv and want her to leave, but Kramatorsk is her home.

"We've been living like this for four years now. We're so used to it. A drone flies overhead and we keep working," she said.

Asked how she felt about what the war had done to her city, Ella's voice wobbled and she wiped tears from her eyes.

"We keep it all inside, but it still hurts. It's frightening and painful. I just want things as they used to be. We don't want anything here to change," she said.

As for what she would do if a future peace deal forced Ukraine to surrender the area, Ella said: "That's a hard question ... I wouldn't stay. I'd leave."

Production by security and defence producer Katy Scholes, Ukraine producer Azad Safarov, camera operator Mostyn Pryce

The British Geological Society (BGS) said it was "felt across the South Lakes and Lancashire, mainly within 20km of the epicentre", including Kendal and Ulverston in neighbouring Cumbria.

Preliminary data suggests it struck off the coast of Silverdale at 11.23pm, at a depth of 1.86 miles (3km).

Each year, between 200 and 300 earthquakes are detected and located in the UK by the BGS.

Between 20 and 30 earthquakes are felt by people each year, and a few hundred smaller ones are only recorded by sensitive instruments.

Most of these are very small and cause no damage.

People posted their reaction online. Reports included that the earthquake "felt like an explosion and vibration coming from underground".

Another comment said it "sounded like bricks falling/the roof falling in", while another wrote that it was "so powerful to shake the whole house".

Dozens of messages on X reported the earthquake in the surrounding area.

"Whole place shook twice, here in a lakeside holiday rental in Carnforth," wrote one.

Another person also from Carnforth, near the epicentre, said: "I'm used to my door slamming as it is hard to shut, but only registered it was an earthquake after someone had told me."

While the accounts are unverified, some people also commented they had felt shaking as far away as the Fylde Peninsula, specifically Poulton-le-Fylde and Fleetwood, both north of Blackpool.

According to the BGS, the most recent earthquake to measure over 3.3 was recorded on 20 October near Loch Lyon in Perth and Kinross. The 3.7-magnitude quake was one of a series of tremors registered over a number of days.

Meanwhile, Lancashire has suffered a series of tremors in the past as a result of fracking, including a 2.1-magnitude tremor at Cuadrilla's site near Blackpool in 2019, prompting a fracking ban in England.

But not all tremors are naturally occurring, including Liverpool fans' reaction to a goal in the Premier League and celebrations from Scotland fans, which the BGS said their instruments were able to register.

More than 400 online safety workers have agreed to leave the social media company, with only five left in consultation, Sky News understands.

"[The workers have] signed a mutual termination agreement, a legally binding contract," said John Chadfield, national officer for the Communication Workers' Union.

"They've handed laptops in, they've handed passes in, they've been told not to come to the office. That's no longer a proposal, that's a foregone conclusion. That's a plan that's been executed."

Safety workers and unions have told Sky News the decision could impact online safety.

But TikTok said it was using "the most advanced technology" to make sure the platform "is as safe as possible".

In August, TikTok announced a round of mass layoffs to its Trust and Safety teams.

"Everyone in Trust and Safety" was emailed, said Lucy, a moderator speaking on condition of anonymity for legal reasons.

After a mandatory 45-day consultation period, the teams were then sent "mutual termination agreements" to sign by 31 October.

Sky News has seen correspondence from TikTok to the employees telling them to sign by that date.

"We had to sign it before the 31st if we wanted the better deal," said Lucy, who had worked for TikTok for years.

"If we signed it afterwards, that diminished the benefits that we get."

Despite hundreds of moderators signing the termination contracts by 31 October, Ali Law, TikTok's director of public policy and government affairs for northern Europe, said to MPs in a letter on 7 November: "It is important to stress the cuts remain proposals only."

"We continue to engage directly with potentially affected team members," he said in a letter to Dame Chi Onwurah, chair of the science, innovation and technology committee.

After signing the termination contracts, the employees say they were asked to hand in their laptops and had access to their work systems revoked. They were put on gardening leave until 30 December.

"We really felt like we were doing something good," said Saskia, a moderator also speaking under anonymity.

"You felt like you had a purpose, and now, you're the first one to get let go."

A TikTok worker not affected by the job cuts confirmed to Sky News that all of the affected Trust and Safety employees "are now logged out of the system".

"Workers and the wider public are rightly concerned about these job cuts that impact safety online," said the TUC's general secretary, Paul Nowak.

"But TikTok seem to be obscuring the reality of job cuts to MPs. TikTok needs to come clean and clarify how many vital content moderators' roles have gone.

"The select committee must do everything to get to the bottom of the social media giant's claims, the wider issues of AI moderation, and ensure that other workers in the UK don't lose their jobs to untested, unsafe and unregulated AI systems."

What TikTok has said about the job cuts

In an interview with Sky News on 18 November, Mr Law again called the cuts "proposals".

When asked if the cuts were in fact a plan that had already been executed, Mr Law said there was "limited amounts" he could directly comment on.

TikTok told us: "It is entirely right that we follow UK employment law, including when consultations remained ongoing for some employees and roles were still under proposal for removal.

"We have been open and transparent about the changes that were proposed, including in detailed public letters to the committee, and it is disingenuous to suggest otherwise."

The three whistleblowers Sky News spoke to said they were concerned TikTok users would be put at risk by the cuts.

The company said it will increase the role of AI in its moderation, while maintaining some human safety workers, but one whistleblower said she didn't think the AI was "ready".

"People are getting new ideas and new trends are coming. AI cannot get this," said Anna, a former moderator.

"Even now, with the things that it's supposed to be ready to do, I don't think it's ready."

Lucy also said she thought the cuts would put users at risk.

"There are a lot of nuances in the language. AI cannot understand all the nuances," she said.

"AI cannot differentiate some ironic comment or versus a real threat or bullying or of a lot of things that have to do with user safety, mainly of children and teenagers."

TikTok has been asked by MPs for evidence that its safety rates - which are currently some of the best in the industry - will not worsen after these cuts.

The select committee says it has not produced that evidence, although TikTok insists safety will improve.

"[In its letter to MPs] TikTok refers to evidence showing that their proposed staffing cuts and changes will improve content moderation and fact-checking - but at no point do they present any credible data on this to us," said Dame Chi earlier this month.

"It's alarming that they aren't offering us transparency over this information. Without it, how can we have any confidence whether these changes will safeguard users?"

TikTok's use of AI in moderation

In an exclusive interview with Sky News earlier this month, Mr Law said the new moderation model would mean TikTok can "approach moderation with a higher level of speed and consistency".

He said: "Because, when you're doing this from a human moderation perspective, there are trade-offs.

"If you want something to be as accurate as possible, you need to give the human moderator as much time as possible to make the right decision, and so you're trading off speed and accuracy in a way that might prove harmful to people in terms of being able to see that content.

"You don't have that with the deployment of AI."

As well as increasing the role of AI in moderation, TikTok is reportedly offshoring jobs to agencies in other countries.

Sky News has spoken to multiple workers who confirmed they'd seen their jobs being advertised in other countries through third-party agencies, and has independently seen moderator job adverts in places like Lisbon.

"AI is a fantastic fig leaf. It's a fig leaf for greed," said Mr Chadfield. "In TikTok's case, there's a fundamental wish to not be an employer of a significant amount of staff.

"As the platform has grown, as it has grown to hundreds of millions of users, they have realised that the overhead to maintain a professional trust and safety division means hundreds of thousands of staff employed by TikTok.

"But they don't want that. They see themselves as, you know, 'We want specialists in the roles employed directly by TikTok and we'll offshore and outsource the rest'."

Mr Law told Sky News that TikTok is always focused "on outcomes".

He said: "Our focus is on making sure the platform is as safe as possible.

"And we will make deployments of the most advanced technology in order to achieve that, working with the many thousands of trust and safety professionals that we will have at TikTok around the world on an ongoing basis."

Asked specifically about the safety concerns raised by the whistleblowers, TikTok said: "As we have laid out in detail, this reorganisation of our global operating model for Trust and Safety will ensure we maximise effectiveness and speed in our moderation processes.

"We will continue to use a combination of technology and human teams to keep our users safe, and today over 85% of the content removed for violating our rules is identified and taken down by automated technologies."

*All moderator names have been changed for legal reasons.

The mother of three, 44, unwittingly sprayed herself with novichok on 30 June 2018 and collapsed in a flat in Amesbury, Wiltshire. She died in hospital a little over a week later on 8 July.

A seven-week inquiry into her death heard she was caught in the "crossfire of an illegal and outrageous international assassination attempt" on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, who - with his daughter Yulia - had been poisoned on 4 March 2018.

The UK government has blamed Russia for the attack but the military intelligence agents named as suspects are unlikely to ever face justice.

With a long-awaited report by former Supreme Court judge Lord Hughes published today aiming to establish the circumstances of Ms Sturgess's death, who was to blame and what lessons can be learned, here are some of the questions that need to be answered.

Did the UK government fail to stop a chemical weapons attack on UK soil?

Mr Skripal served as a member of Russian military intelligence, the GRU, but was convicted in Russia on espionage charges in 2004 after allegedly spying for Britain.

He was sentenced to 13 years in prison, but in 2010 he was given a presidential pardon and brought to the UK on a prisoner exchange before settling in Salisbury.

The inquiry heard he wasn't on the radar of either Wiltshire Police or counter terrorism police and he was living under his real name without any apparent security systems or CCTV.

Michael Mansfield KC, representing Ms Sturgess's family, said the attack on Mr Skripal and his daughter Yulia was "preventable" and that Russia had "alarming access" to where he lived.

He said the threat to Mr Skripal from Russia was "manifestly obvious" and "there has been an abject failure by the UK Government to protect the UK public", while the local police were forced to rely on Wikipedia for information on how to respond to the poisonings.

Most of the evidence relating to national security at the inquiry was held behind closed doors.

Who was behind the attack?

The three named suspects in the case - who used the aliases Alexander Petrov, Ruslan Boshirov and Sergey Fedotov - have all been identified as GRU officers.

Fedotov is believed by police to have acted as a coordinator or in a support role while the other two travelled to Salisbury to apply poison to Mr Skripal's front door.

Russia has denied involvement, while Ruslan and Boshirov gave an interview to Russian state media claiming they were only in the UK briefly, to visit Salisbury Cathedral.

Counter terrorism police said they don't know how exactly how the novichok came into the country but it was disguised in an ordinary perfume bottle to allow it to be transported.

The lead scientific adviser to police investigating the attack, known only by the codename MK26, told the inquiry a sample the size of "a third to a sixth of a grain of salt" could have been a fatal dose for a human and "many lethal doses" were likely applied.

The Skripals went for lunch at Zizzi and for a drink in a nearby pub before they were found collapsed on a bench in the centre of Salisbury.

One of the most surprising moments of the inquiry came when fresh CCTV footage showed an already-poisoned Mr Skripal handing a little boy a piece of bread to feed the ducks.

The boy and two others he was with fell ill, but no traces of novichok were found in their systems

Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey fell seriously ill during a search of Mr Skripal's house before officers knew what they were dealing with.

The former officer fought back tears as he gave harrowing evidence about the impact it had on his life, while his commanding officer said he was "still haunted" by what happened.

Within two days, scientists identified a nerve agent as the cause of the poisoning.

Mr Bailey and the Skripals survived while more than 80 other people were admitted to A&E.

Were the public warned of the risks?

Former chief medical officer for England and Wales, Dame Sally Davies, said she had nightmares about someone picking up the discarded novichok in the wake of the Skripal poisoning.

She told the inquiry she had a "strong recollection" of a warning being made soon after in March 2018, though no record of one can be found.

A letter dated 16 March said that on 7 March, at the request of Number 10 and the Met Police, Dame Sally had issued a statement alongside then assistant commissioner Mark Rowley announcing that the risk to public health was "low, based on the current evidence available", the inquiry heard.

The head of the Met Police's counter-terrorism command, Dominic Murphy, said the priorities for police after the attack on Mr Skripal were to find the point of contamination and trace any novichok discarded in Salisbury.

"I don't recall any advice about not picking up coming out at that point," he said.

He said he believed public health leaders did not issue a warning until after the poisoning of Ms Sturgess three months later.

Mr Mansfield, representing Ms Sturgess's family, said documents showed public health bodies were concerned that "secrecy, withholding of relevant information and an over-centralisation of decision-making in central government hampered the response" and in the early stages it was "very difficult" to access credible information.

Where was the perfume bottle found?

Police identified Mr Skripal's front door handle as "ground zero" - the point where he and his daughter were poisoned - but a search for the discarded nerve agent ended in the middle of April.

The inquiry heard Charlie Rowley, who was too ill to give evidence, has given "confused and contradictory" accounts about where he picked up the bottle - which was contained in a sealed Nina Ricci Premier Jour perfume box - with the nerve agent inside.

His previous history of drug and alcohol abuse, combined with the long-term impact of the novichok poisoning, has left him with significant memory difficulties.

In early police interviews, he said he may have picked it up on the ground in Amesbury, but later said he was "99% sure" it was from a bin in Salisbury.

The inquiry heard he would go "bin dipping", searching for things he could sell, and a CCTV still showed him approaching large bins behind shops in the centre of Salisbury on the day the Russian suspects are alleged to have carried out the attack.

Commander Dominic Murphy said he believes Mr Rowley most likely found the bottle that day and had it for more than three months, taking it with him when he moved from Salisbury to Amesbury, before he gave it to Ms Sturgess.

But he accepted police may never be able to know the exact movement of the bottle and could not disprove a theory that the agents "cached" the poison to be picked up later.

Were there two bottles?

The bottle found by Mr Rowley was inside sealed plastic packaging so he would have had no suspicions about what was inside.

It's been suggested the suspects may have repackaged the novichok in a public toilet in Salisbury - where traces were found - using a portable heat sealer.

But police said it is possible the box was sealed because it was a spare carried by the agents.

MK26 also said it was "not possible to exclude that there were two bottles".

Could Ms Sturgess have been saved?

The inquiry heard the perfume bottle given to Ms Sturgess by her partner contained enough novichok to kill thousands of people.

Mr Rowley, who was also poisoned but survived, said in a statement she began to feel unwell about 10 to 15 minutes after spraying the nerve agent on her wrist, before he found her "convulsing and foaming at the mouth".

The inquiry heard local emergency services had not been given extra training after the attack on Mr Skripal and his daughter.

But paramedics who saw Mr Rowley did think he was suffering from nerve agent poisoning, while police officers didn't accept the diagnosis, believing they were dealing with opiate poisoning.

Lawyers representing Ms Sturgess's family were critical of the Wiltshire Police response with barrister Jesse Nicholls saying the force was "blighted by arrogance, stereotyping and a lack of professionalism".

"In acting in that way, they put other first responders and the public at grave risk - and their actions could have cost Dawn and Charlie their lives," he said.

"Officers' failings were then compounded by a serious failure to provide Dawn's doctors with accurate information.

"The police response has caused unjustified and lasting damage to Dawn, her reputation, and to her family."

Wiltshire Police deputy chief constable Paul Mills apologised to the family after internal force documents suggested Ms Sturgess was a "known drug user".

He said there were "reasons to suspect that she may have become unwell due to her association with drugs", but added that there was "no police intelligence that she was a drug user".

Medical expert Professor Jerry Nolan said Ms Sturgess's condition was "unsurvivable" by the time paramedics arrived on scene.

Another, Dr Jasmeet Soar, explained she was the only victim who had a cardiac arrest because she was probably exposed to a relatively large dose of novichok compared to Mr Rowley and the Skripals.

"Unfortunately she unwittingly applied it in a deliberate manner and sprayed it on herself on her wrists ... as opposed to had accidental or a more touch type contact with it," he said.

Her mother Caroline Sturgess described her daughter as an "intelligent ... extremely selfless and very kind person" and said her family found comfort that she was the only person to be killed.

Was Vladmir Putin ultimately to blame?

The Skripals did not give evidence at the inquiry due to safety concerns, but in a statement, Mr Skripal said only Mr Putin could have authorised the attack.

He had told neighbours he believed the Russian president would "get him" if he returned to his home country, but the attack on UK soil "was an absolute shock".

He said: "I believe Putin makes all important decisions himself. I therefore think he must have at least given permission for the attack on Yulia and me. Any GRU commander taking a decision like this without Putin's permission would have been severely punished."

The inquiry also heard a statement from senior foreign office official Jonathan Allen, who said it is the government's view that Mr Putin "authorised the operation".

Adam Straw KC, representing Ms Sturgess's family, invited the chairman to find that the novichok that killed her was intentionally left in the UK by Petrov and Boshirov on the weekend of 2 to 4 March 2018 in an operation brought about by other Russian officials, including Mr Putin.

He suggested "this was obviously extremely dangerous" and "caused Dawn's death", adding: "We invite you to conclude that this was an unlawful killing."