The 29-year-old former model has been by Mr Trump’s side for years.

The news came a day after she testified in front of the House Intelligence Committee, but White House sources said this was not the reason.

She is the fourth person to serve as communications chief for this administration.

On Tuesday, Ms Hicks gave a nine-hour testimony in front of the panel investigating alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

Ms Hicks is reported to have admitted to the panel that she had occasionally told what amounted to “white lies” for President Trump, but she denied lying about anything relevant to the investigation.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders – who described Ms Hicks as “in a league of her own” – said it remained unclear when she would leave the administration.

There is no one that can fill the void Hope Hicks will leave behind. She is in a league of her own and no one can replace her. Far and away one of the most talented and skilled people I’ve ever met and coming to work won’t be the same without her.

Ms Hicks is reported to have told colleagues she was leaving because she felt she had accomplished all she could in the White House.

Her departure will come as a major blow to Mr Trump, who said he would miss having her by his side. A former press secretary, she rose through the ranks to occupy the desk closest to the Oval Office.

Ms Hick kept a low public profile but recently found herself part of a scandal when newspapers exposed that she was in a relationship with White House staff secretary Rob Porter, who had been accused of domestic violence against past partners.

When news of the allegations against Mr Porter broke last month, it was Ms Hicks who helped draft an initial White House statement defending him.

Mr Trump was reportedly not consulted and was unimpressed with her handling of the controversy.

Ms Hicks became head of the White House communications team last August, after the abrupt firing of Anthony Scaramucci.

In a statement, Mr Trump said: “Hope is outstanding and has done great work for the last three years. She is as smart and thoughtful as they come, a truly great person.

“I will miss having her by my side but when she approached me about pursuing other opportunities, I totally understood. I am sure we will work together again in the future.”

Mr Scaramucci, speaking on Fox News, said: “She’s one of the least malicious people I’ve ever met in my life. She’s dedicated, she’s charming, she’s thoughtful, at the end of the day she’s going to have an unbelievable career.”

A former campaign official quoted by Politico magazine said Ms Hicks’s departure left the White House without an expert “Trump translator”.

“She knew what the president wanted and could explain it to the communications [team],” the official said.

Ms Hicks, Mr Scaramucci, Sean Spicer and Mike Dubke have all served in the role since January 2017.

Hope Hicks had been there since the beginning; since before the beginning. When the Trump campaign was just a ragtag band of political neophytes, she was the one distributing press releases and answering media requests.

Where others had stumbled or been pushed out of Donald Trump’s orbit, Hicks quietly persevered – and rode the train all the way to one of the most powerful White House jobs.

Now she too is gone. She lasted nearly as long as the preceding three White House communications directors combined, but the position continues to be cursed.

Administration sources insist that it was a planned exit, that she was simply waiting for the right time. It’s hard, however, to imagine timing worse than this. It comes just a day after her eight hours of testimony before a congressional committee investigating possible Trump campaign ties to Russia, where she reportedly admitted to telling “white lies” in defence of the president.

Although she may be exiting the White House, it’s unlikely she escapes the spotlight so easily. She had a ringside seat to many of the controversies that have swirled around the Trump campaign and presidency – and subsequent revelations could put her name in the headlines again.

Ms Hicks is seen as a key witness in the ongoing inquiry into whether the Trump team colluded with Russia.

During the nine-hour hearing on Tuesday, she reportedly stonewalled lawmakers about a 2016 meeting between members of the Trump campaign and a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower.

Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, a member of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee investigating alleged Russian meddling, said that she now needed to testify.

“She has no right to claim executive privilege. She has no claim to refuse to come before the judiciary committee now she’s stepped down. She should be a witness before the judiciary committee,” he said.

Hope Hicks was Brought up in Greenwich, Connecticut, and was a talented lacrosse player at high school and college

Took up modelling as a teenager and once appeared in an ad for Ralph Lauren

Previously worked for a public relations company that handled Ivanka Trump’s fashion business and the Trump Organization’s property brand

Joined the Trump Organization in 2014 and Donald Trump brought her on to his campaign team a year later, despite her lack of political experience

Nicknamed “Hopester” by Mr Trump, she is said to be one of his most trusted aides and among the few who could challenge him to change his views.

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Source: BBC

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A report by UN human rights investigators says that 40 officials may be individually responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

It says civilians have been tortured and mutilated, and villages destroyed on an industrial scale.

The conflict between government factions has continued in South Sudan despite a peace deal signed in 2015.

The UN investigators collect evidence for use in future war crimes trials and the report will be presented to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Of the 40 senior officials identified as potentially responsible for atrocities, five are colonels.

But the court has still not been set up because South Sudan’s parliament has not yet approved it.

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Source: BBC

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Journalists from across the continent are invited to apply for the award, which aims to uncover and promote fresh talent from Africa.

The winner will spend three months at the BBC headquarters in London, gaining skills and experience.

Applications close on 23 March 2018 at 23:59 GMT.

The award was established to honour Komla Dumor, an exceptional Ghanaian broadcaster and presenter for BBC World News, who died suddenly aged 41 in 2014.

This year’s award is being launched from the Ghanaian capital Accra.

It will be made to an outstanding individual living and working in Africa, who combines strong journalism skills, on-air flair, and an exceptional talent in telling African stories with the ambition and potential to become a star of the future.

As well as spending time with the BBC in London, the winner will also get to travel to Africa to report a story – and have that story shared across the continent and the world.

Previous winners of the award are Nancy Kacungira from Uganda, Didi Akinyelure from Nigeria and Amina Yuguda, also from Nigeria.

For her main project, Amina reported from Uganda on the threat facing Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest freshwater lake, which scientists warn could be dying.

“Being the winner of the 2017 BBC World News Komla Dumor Award felt like the beginning of my career. Getting an international platform, to be recognised at an international level, it’s like I arrived,” Amina said.

“During my placement, I learned the importance of truth, balance and fairness, and gained invaluable insights into how to give African stories a global appeal.

“We are proud of how Komla represented the continent to the world, and I feel honoured to be helping continue that legacy.”

Amina will take part in the 2018 launch event, alongside Jamie Angus, director of the BBC World Service Group.

Speaking ahead of the launch, he said:

“It’s an honour to be here in Ghana, in Komla’s homeland, amongst his family and his friends, to celebrate his legacy and find Africa’s next rising star in journalism.

“The three previous winners – Nancy, Didi and Amina – have all shown they’re talented journalists, with a deep-rooted understanding of the continent, and insights in how to improve engagement with local audiences.

“We’re looking forward to finding another exceptional journalist from the continent and welcoming them as the next BBC World News Komla Dumor Award winner.”

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Source: BBC

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If confirmed, it would make Monday one of the deadliest days for the district since it came under siege in 2013.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said at least 100 civilians, including 20 children, were killed by rockets and air strikes.

Syrian forces stepped up an offensive to retake the area earlier this month.

The SOHR said 470 people had been injured, some critically.

Urging a halt to the bombardment, a UN official said the situation was spiralling out of control.

The Eastern Ghouta is the last remaining opposition-held enclave near the capital and is completely surrounded by areas under government control.

Last week the Eastern Ghouta, home to almost 400,000 people, received its first aid delivery in almost three months.

Meanwhile, Turkey warned the Syrian government not to help Kurds fighting against Turkish forces in northern Syria.

The attacks on the Eastern Ghouta area since Sunday have hit not only civilians but also their means of survival, targeting bakeries, warehouses and anything else that may hold food supplies.

It is the worst single day of the bombing that people there have seen in years. People are fearful of it becoming another Aleppo scenario.

Aid workers say the attacks targeted major roads in the area, which will block any aid or rescue operation and hinder the movement of ambulances.

The death toll is rising because medical facilities were also hit. Four makeshift hospitals, including a maternity facility, were struck on Monday. The rebels have been responding with mortar attacks on Damascus but the government’s military might is far stronger.

Monday’s reported death toll has not been independently verified.

Videos from Hamouria, a town in the enclave where at least 20 people were reportedly killed in air strikes on Monday, showed people fleeing heavily damaged buildings covered in dust and debris.

In December international aid organisations warned conditions in the rebel-held area had reached a “critical point” for civilians because of shortages of food, fuel and medicines.

UN regional humanitarian coordinator Panos Moumtzis said it was “imperative” to end the “senseless human suffering” in the Eastern Ghouta.

“Many residents have little choice but to take shelter in basements and underground bunkers with their children,” he noted.

However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said conditions in the enclave were being exaggerated by international actors.

“In the UN, the topic of humanitarian problems in the Eastern Ghouta and Idlib is being actively hyped up,” he said, according to Russian media reports.

Media captionFather describes a ‘miserable day for Eastern Ghouta’

Next month marks seven years of civil conflict in Syria.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and an estimated five million have fled the country.

Eastern Ghouta is an agricultural belt, about 15km (nine miles) east of the city centre.

The area is made up of 22 communities.

It has been designated a “de-escalation zone” by Russia and Iran, the Syrian government’s main allies, along with Turkey, which backs the opposition.

The main rebel groups are the Salafist Jaish al-Islam (formerly known as Liwa al-Islam), al-Rahman Corps, an affiliate of the Free Syrian Army, and also Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which is made of several smaller groups including former members of Jabhat al-Nusra, which has its roots in al-Qaeda.

Source: BBC

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Their digital content is mainly aimed at audiences who use mobile phones.

Igbo is primarily spoken in south-east Nigeria and Yoruba in the south-west, as well as in Benin and Togo.

The new services are part of the World Service’s biggest expansion since the 1940s, following a government-funding boost announced in 2016.

In total, 12 services are being launched by the BBC in Africa and Asia.

Best-known Igbo speaker was Chinua Achebe, regarded as the founding father of African literature

Estimated to have more than 30 million speakers, mainly in south-eastern Nigeria

A word with the same spelling can have different meanings, for example, “akwa” is bed, egg, cloth or burial rights – depending on its tone

An Igbo secessionist movement sparked a brutal civil war in 1967

The caffeine-rich kola nut is all important in Igbo culture – always offered to welcome guests

A famous proverb: “Onye wetara ọjị, wetara ndụ” meaning: “He who brings kola, brings life”

The BBC’s expansion in Nigeria – Africa’s most populous country where more than 200 languages are spoken – began last year with BBC Pidgin, which targets those who use the regional English-based lingua franca.

It is primarily an oral language, without a standard agreed written form.

The BBC Igbo and Yoruba teams have also faced challenges to standardise their written languages for modern audiences – and have sought advice from academics.

“Yoruba can be very confusing for younger readers because it has so many inflexions, so we using a less complex system to appeal to them,” says Yoruba service editor Temidayo Olofinsawo.

Best-known Yoruba speaker is Wole Soyinka, Nobel Prize-winning playwright and poet

More than 40 million speakers, mainly in south-western Nigeria.

A word with the same spelling can have different meanings, for example, “owo” is money, honour, hand or broom – depending on the tone

More people practise the traditional Yoruba religion in South America and the Caribbean than in Nigeria – as a result of the Transatlantic Slave Trade

A famous proverb: “Ile laawo k’a to s’ọmọ lorukọ” meaning: “You should name your child to reflect your family background”.

There are very few news publications in Igbo and Yoruba in Nigeria, so it is hoped the new BBC services will be popular with Nigerians at home – and in the diaspora.

“This is the first time the Igbo language will be written and broadcast for international consumption,” says Adline Okere, editor of the Igbo service.

“Igbos are known for their entrepreneurial spirit – and they are spread all over the world,” she says.

The teams will produce a twice-daily bulletin of BBC Minute – an audio round-up of stories as well as news, analysis, explainers and features on the web and social media.

The BBC’s head of West Africa, Oluwatoyosi Ogunseye, says the focus will be on original journalism.

“Delivering content and engaging with the Igbo and Yoruba audiences in their mother tongues is authentic, exciting and refreshing,” she says.

“We have had BBC Hausa [mainly spoken in northern Nigeria] for decades and we’ve seen the impact it had on its audience.

“When we look at Nigeria we have a multicultural society and the BBC felt that it was very important to give all the cultures a platform to communicate, a platform to interact.”

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Source: BBC

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A statement by the state broadcaster said the move was necessary to stem a wave of anti-government protests.

Hundreds of people have died in three years of unrest in the country.

A 10-month state of emergency that ended last year failed to stop the protests, as did the release from jail of thousands of opposition supporters.

No details were given of how long the latest state of emergency will last or what the restrictions are.

The government has been under pressure because of continuing street protests.

In recent weeks it has released hundreds of prisoners including opposition politicians but the protests have shown no sign of ending.

On Thursday, Mr Hailemariam said he had made his decision to stand down in the hope that it would help end the years of unrest and political upheaval.

“I see my resignation as vital in the bid to carry out reforms that would lead to sustainable peace and democracy,” Mr Hailemariam said.

The political demonstrations in Ethiopia began in Oromia in November 2015. Protests later sprung up in the Amhara region.

Oromia and Amhara are the homelands of the country’s two biggest ethnic groups.

Many people in these communities feel they have been marginalised since the current government took power in 1991.

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Source: BBC

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The report by a panel of experts said several countries including China, Russia and Malaysia had failed to stop the illegal exports.

It said there was evidence of military co-operation with Syria and Myanmar.

Pyongyang is subject to sanctions from the US, UN and EU over its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.

But the report, which was submitted to the UN Security Council, said the North “continued to export almost all the commodities prohibited in the resolutions… between January and September 2017”.

The report said several unnamed multinational oil companies were being investigated for their alleged role in supplying petroleum products to North Korea.

It said shipments of coal had been delivered to China, Malaysia, South Korea, Russia and Vietnam in breach of sanctions using “a combination of multiple evasion techniques, routes and deceptive tactics”.

Monitors found that Myanmar and Syria continued to co-operate with North Korea’s main arms exporter, Komid, despite it being on a UN sanctions blacklist.

The report said there was evidence that the North was helping Syria to develop chemical weapons and providing ballistic missiles to Myanmar.

Syrian officials had told the monitors that the only North Korean experts on its territory were involved in sports.

Myanmar’s ambassador to the UN said the country had no arms relationship with North Korea.

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Source: BBC

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Mike Pompeo told the BBC that the Chinese “have a much bigger footprint” to do this than the Russians do.

As examples he cited efforts to steal US commercial information and infiltration of schools and hospitals – and this extended to Europe and the UK.

Mr Pompeo was a hardline Republican congressman before becoming CIA chief.

In his BBC interview, Mr Pompeo also said:

• He expected Russia to try to disrupt US mid-term elections in November 2018. There had been no significant diminishing of Russian attempts at subversion in Europe and the US.
• North Korea may have the ability to strike the US with nuclear missiles “in a handful of months”
• Recent claims in the book Fire and Fury that Mr Trump was not up to the job were “drivel”.

Focused efforts

“Think about the scale of the two economies,” Mr Pompeo said of Russia and China.

“The Chinese have a much bigger footprint upon which to execute that mission than the Russians do.”

Earlier this year, a former CIA officer was arrested on charges of retaining classified information in a case thought to be connected to the dismantling of the agency’s spy operations in China.

In the two years before Jerry Chun Shing Lee’s arrest, some 20 informants had been killed or jailed – one of the most disastrous failures of US intelligence in recent years.

But officials did not know at the time whether to blame a mole or data hack.

The US spy chief told the BBC countries could collectively do more to combat Chinese efforts to exert power over the West.

“We can watch very focused efforts to steal American information, to infiltrate the United States with spies – with people who are going to work on behalf of the Chinese government against America,” he said.

“We see it in our schools. We see it in our hospitals and medicals systems. We see it throughout corporate America. It’s also true in other parts of the world… including Europe and the UK.”

Mr Pompeo also challenged the idea that the US had little influence on the conflict in Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad is still in power and backed by Russian and Iranian support.

“We’re going to work on those complicated problem sets and push back against the Iranians everyplace we can,” he told the BBC.

It emerged last year that he had written to Qasem Soleimani – the leader of the Quds force, part of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards – to warn him that any attacks on US interests would not go unpunished.

“I wanted to send a clear message to Qasem Soleimani that there are American interests – there are Western interests, British interests and others – and an attack on those will be met with an equal response.

“He should be deeply aware that it is intolerable for the Iranians to take on American interests,” he continued.

The CIA director said that Iran firing missiles at Saudi Arabia through a proxy force in Yemen was “unacceptable” and constituted “acts of war”.

He told the BBC the best way of avoiding an escalation of conflict was to make sure the Iranian people understood the cost of such activities by their government, not just in the region but also in Europe.

“I hope that they will rise up and understand that it is not the best interests of their country to send forces to places like Europe as proxies to try and conduct malign activity in Europe when there’s so much that can be done to make Iran a better place,” he said.

“We are confident that the Iranian people will understand that. We are hopeful that their leaders will accept that proposition as well.”

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Source: BBC

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Jeremy Vine, John Humphrys and Huw Edwards have agreed to reductions, either formally or in principle, the BBC’s media editor Amol Rajan said.

It follows Carrie Gracie’s resignation from her post as BBC China editor in protest at unequal pay between male and female international editors.

5 live presenter Nicky Campbell told listeners he had also taken a cut.

And North America editor Jon Sopel is believed to be in discussions with the corporation.

The corporation said: “The BBC has agreed pay cuts with a number of leading BBC News presenters and others have agreed in principle.”

Carrie Gracie published an open letter giving her reasons for resigning as China editor

On his way into work at Radio 2 on Friday, Jeremy Vine was asked by reporters why he had agreed to a lower wage.

‘No-brainer’

“I think it needs to be sorted out and I support my female colleagues who have rightly said they should be paid the same when they’re doing the same job,” he said.

“It’s just a no-brainer, so it wasn’t a problem for me to accept one.”

When asked if it was up to the BBC or individuals to sort out the problem, he added: “I think the BBC’s on it and this story is part of it.”

Asked if he was aware of the problem before Carrie Gracie stepped down as China editor, he said: “Of course, yeah.”

The BBC revealed the pay of on-air talent earning over £150,000 in July, with two-thirds of stars on the list being men.

BBC taking ‘a range of action’

Nicky Campbell confirmed on BBC 5 live’s Breakfast show on Friday that he had taken a pay cut.

Just after the latest news story about male presenters was read out, he added: “And I am also on that list.”

An independent audit into equal pay at the BBC will be published next week.

The corporation added: “We’ve already set out a range of action we’re taking on fair pay, and we’ll have more to say on the issue next week.”

• Jeremy Vine – the Radio 2, Eggheads and Points of View presenter earned between £700,000 and £749,999 in 2016/17
• John Humphrys – the Today programme and Mastermind host earned between £600,000 and £649,999
• Huw Edwards – the BBC News presenter earned between £550,000 and £599,999
• Nicky Campbell – the BBC Radio 5 live and The Big Questions presenter earned between £400,000-£449,999
• Jon Sopel – the BBC’s North America editor earned between £200,000 and £249,999

Chris Evans topped the list of the best-paid BBC presenters that was published last summer, earning between £2.2m and £2.25m in 2016/2017.

The highest-paid woman, Claudia Winkleman, earned significantly less – between £450,000 and £500,000.

After leaving her post as China editor, Gracie is now returning to the BBC newsroom in London, saying she expects to be “paid equally”.

Amol Rajan said while competition in the entertainment industry had intensified, the opposite has happened in news.

Gender pay gap

“Many of those now taking pay cuts secured generous deals years ago,” he said.

“That world has disappeared – and these presenters now accept that a chunk of their salaries will have to disappear with it.”

Gracie is due to appear before a select committee of MPs next week, shortly before the director general of the BBC, Tony Hall, his deputy, Anne Bulford and the director of news and current affairs, Fran Unsworth.

They were called to discuss what action the corporation is taking to address the gender pay gap.

There have been three investigations into gender pay at the BBC:

• A report was published in October, in line with a requirement on all large organisations. It found the gender pay gap at the BBC was 9.3%, against a national average of 18.1%
• A judge-led audit of equal pay among rank-and-file staff published at the same time found there was “no question of any systemic gender discrimination”
• A review into the BBC’s approach to the pay of on-air presenters, editors and correspondents is due to be published next week

Lord Hall pledged to close the gap by 2020, saying the corporation should be “an exemplar of what can be achieved when it comes to pay, fairness, gender and representation”.

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Source: BBC

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Instead, content that sparks conversations among family and friends who use the site will be emphasised, explained chief executive Mark Zuckerberg on his page.

Organisations on Facebook may see the popularity of their posts decrease as a result, the firm acknowledged.

The changes will take effect over the coming weeks.

“We’ve gotten feedback from our community that public content – posts from businesses, brands and media – is crowding out the personal moments that lead us to connect more with each other,” wrote Mr Zuckerberg.

He said that he and his team felt a responsibility to make sure Facebook was good for people’s wellbeing.

If public content is to be promoted, it will now have to be seen to encourage community interaction – as happens within the tight-knit groups that discuss TV programmes and sports, he said.

Another example given by Facebook in a separate post was live video feeds, which tend to generate much discussion.

“By making these changes, I expect the time people spend on Facebook and some measures of engagement will go down,” added Mr Zuckerberg.

“But I also expect the time you do spend on Facebook will be more valuable.”

In a previous post, Mr Zuckerberg had vowed to “fix” Facebook in 2018, saying he wanted to ensure that users were protected from abuse and that time spent on the site would be time well spent.

He also pledged to defend Facebook from nation states.

Analysis has recently suggested that some actors, including Russia, have tried to manipulate content on the social network.

“It’s definitely a significant change,” said Laura Hazard Owen at Harvard University’s Nieman Journalism Lab.

“It’s going to affect publishers a lot, we’re going to be seeing a lot less news organically pop up in our news feeds.”

Ms Owen added, however, that Facebook had not been very clear about what sort of discussions the site’s revamped algorithms would prioritise.

It might end up being “the most controversial stuff” that generates heated conversations, she suggested, or simply content pulled in from group pages where users engage with others on specific topics.

Powerful ‘admission’

Given recent public scrutiny, the social network was currently “in the hot seat”, said Gabriel Kahn from the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

“Facebook is in the midst of all of these fires it’s trying to put out, it’s trying to reassert its warm and fuzzy brand value that it has always tried to put forth,” he told the BBC.

Mr Kahn added the update from Mr Zuckerberg was a “clear admission” that Facebook wielded significant power over the health of society.

However, he argued that the new priorities could further distort views and the nature of conversations.

“There should be public debate about the values they’re applying to that algorithm,” he said.

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Source: BBC

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