Donald Trump has said he has an “obligation” to sue the BBC over an edit of a speech he gave before the US Capitol riot in 2021.

The president doubled down on his legal threat to the corporation in a Fox News interview on Tuesday night, as the corporation remains in crisis after the resignation of two of its top figures – including director-general Tim Davie.

“They defrauded the public, and they’ve admitted it,” Mr Trump said.

“And this is within one of our great allies, you know?”

It came after concerns emerged about a Panorama documentary from last year which showed Mr Trump appearing to tell supporters he was going to walk to the Capitol with them to “fight like hell”. There was in fact around an hour in between the two parts of the speech that were spliced together.

He told Fox News the Panorama edit had made a “beautiful” and “very calming speech” sound “radical”, which was “incredible” and “very dishonest”.

Mr Trump had faced charges of trying to overturn the 2020 election in light of the violence that befell the Capitol in January 2021, but those efforts were dropped when he beat Kamala Harris in 2024.

Trump’s three demands

Mr Trump is threatening to sue the BBC for $1bn unless it issues a “full and fair retraction” of the documentary, apologises immediately, and “appropriately” compensates him. It’s been given a deadline of 10pm UK time on Friday.

Read Trump’s legal letter in full

The BBC has come under increasingly heavy fire from its critics in the UK over the Panorama programme. The Conservatives have demanded it apologise to Mr Trump and the public, while Reform has reportedly pulled out of a documentary the corporation was planning about the party.

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy defended the BBC in the Commons on Tuesday, denying accusations it’s institutionally biased and calling on MPs to “value it, uphold it, and fiercely defend it”.

She said she has been in “regular contact” with BBC chair Samir Shah, ensuring that where standards were not met, “firm, swift and transparent action follows”.

Ms Nandy said a review of the BBC’s Royal Charter will begin “imminently” and a public consultation will be launched, with more details in the “coming weeks”.

‘We made a mistake – but need to fight,’ says outgoing BBC boss

Her Commons statement came after outgoing director-general Mr Davie said the corporation “made some mistakes that have cost us”, but added he was “proud” and that the organisation needed to “fight” for its journalism.

Mr Davie told staff on a call: “I think we did make a mistake, and there was an editorial breach, and I think some responsibility had to be taken.”

Mr Davie, who has worked for the BBC for 20 years and been in charge for the past five, is not stepping down immediately but hopes a successor will be put in place “over the coming months”.

There are several potential candidates who could replace him. The job effectively serves as both the corporation’s chief executive and its editor-in-chief across television, radio and online.

Leak reveals staff anger at Tory-linked board member

In a Q&A with Mr Davie after the all-staff call, staff were frustrated by having their questions vetted, Sky News arts and entertainment correspondent Katie Spencer reported.

Some questions were about the controversial appointment of Sir Robbie Gibb, the former Tory director of communications for prime minister Theresa May, to the BBC board. But when these questions were getting through the vetting process, staff tried to ask questions in the reply boxes, which were public.

Read more:
The man behind the leaked BBC memo
Who is Sir Robbie Gibb and why are there calls to get him off BBC board?

The anonymous comments included questions like “How can we claim to be unbiased if Gibb is on the board?” and “Why is Robbie Gibb still on the board?”.

“I find Robbie Gibb’s continued presence at the BBC to be incredibly demoralising. It feels as if he is fighting against and undermining the work we’re trying to do,” another comment read.

The leaders of the Lib Dems and SNP have both called for Sir Robbie’s removal.

But Ms Nandy told the Commons the government is “unable” to remove Sir Robbie, as “the charter sets a strict legal threshold that must be met before dismissal of a board member”.

US bank SoFi Technologies has launched crypto trading services to its customers, as clearer rules have allowed the crypto market to court greater interest from traditional finance.

SoFi said on Tuesday that its crypto service will aim to offer dozens of cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), and started in a phased rollout on Monday, with more customers able to gain access in the coming weeks. 

SoFi CEO Anthony Noto told CNBC’s Squawk Box on Tuesday that his bank is the first and only nationally chartered bank to launch crypto trading to consumers and was spurred to do so after the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) eased its stance on how banks can engage with crypto in March.

“One of the holes we’ve had for the last two years was in cryptocurrency, the ability to buy, sell, and hold crypto. We were not allowed to do that as a bank. It was not permissible,” he said. 

SoFi withdrew from the crypto industry in 2023 as a condition of obtaining a bank charter in a stricter regulatory environment. The bank returned to crypto in June, when it rolled out international payment options, allowing conversions from fiat to crypto and transmission via the blockchain. 

Blockchain and crypto a “super cycle technology”

SoFi also plans to introduce SoFi USD, a stablecoin backed dollar-for-dollar by reserves, and integrate crypto into its lending and infrastructure services for borrowing and faster payments.