Members of a US congressional committee investigating the Jeffrey Epstein case have intensified their calls for Andrew Mountbatten Windsor to answer questions about his links to the late sex offender.

King Charles stripped his brother of his “prince” title on Thursday, following months of pressure over Andrew’s ties to Epstein. Andrew has always denied wrongdoing.

At least four Democrat members of the House Oversight Committee have since renewed their calls for Andrew to testify – although the panel is controlled by Republicans, who have not indicated they would support the move.

Congressman Suhas Subramanyam told the BBC: “If he wants to clear his name, if he wants to do right by the victims, he will come forward”.

Andrew could appear remotely, have a lawyer present and could speak to the panel privately, Subramanyam said.

“Frankly, Andrew’s name has come up many times from the victims,” he told Radio 4’s Today programme on Saturday.

“So he clearly has knowledge of what happened and we just want him to come forward and tell us what he knows.”

He added: “No matter who it is – American or not – everyone should be looked at.”

Fellow committee memberRaja Krishnamoorthi told BBC Newsnight he would be willing to formally summon Andrewwith a subpoena – although he conceded this would be difficult to enforce while he was outside of the US.

He said on Friday: “However, if Andrew wishes to come to the United States or he’s here, then he’s subject to the jurisdiction of the US Congress, and I would expect him to testify.”

He added: “At the end of the day, we want to know exactly what happened, not just to give justice to the survivors, but to prevent this from ever happening again.”

“Come clean. Come before the US Congress, voluntarily testify. Don’t wait for a subpoena. Come and testify and tell us what you know.”

Congressman Stephen Lynch also told the BBC hearing from Andrew “might be helpful in getting justice for these survivors” but said the committee would be unable to subpoena him “as the situation stands”.

Meanwhile, Liz Stein – one of Epstein’s accusers – said Andrew should “take some initiative” and help US investigators.

She told BBC Breakfast on Saturday: “A lot of us are curious as to why he’s unwilling to cooperate and be questioned about his involvement with Epstein.”

“If he has nothing to hide, then why is he hiding?”

“We know he had a longstanding friendship with Epstein and that he was in his social circle – so he may have seen things during his involvement with Epstein that he could speak to.”

Another of Epstein’s accusers, Anouska De Georgiou, likewise told Newsnight Andrew should appear before Congress, saying “it would be appropriate for him to be treated the same as anybody else would be treated”.

It comes after UK trade minister Chris Bryant told the BBC Andrew should go to the US to answer questions about Epstein’s crimes if invited, “just as with any ordinary member of the public”.

Meanwhile, the police watchdog said it had approached the Metropolitan Police to ask whether there are matters it should be looking into, in light of media reports about Andrew.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct said it had contacted Scotland Yard’s Directorate of Professional Standards last week – which oversees internal investigations into misconduct – and had not yet received any referrals.

Reports emerged in mid-October that Andrew sought to obtain personal information about his accuser Virginia Giuffre through his police protection in 2011. He has not commented on the reports, while the Metropolitan Police previously said it was “actively” looking into them.

Separately, new court documents published in the US on Friday showed that Andrew wrote in an email in 2010 that it would be “good to catch up in person” with Epstein, after he was released from prison for soliciting prostitution from a minor.

The pair were then pictured together in Central Park in New York in December 2010, in a meeting that Andrew later told the BBC was to break off their friendship.

Andrew’s ties to Epstein were at the centre of Thursday’s decision, with the Palace announcement stating: “These censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him.”

“Their Majesties wish to make clear that their thoughts and utmost sympathies have been, and will remain with, the victims and survivors of any and all forms of abuse.”

In recent weeks, pressure had increased on the monarchy to resolve the issue of Charles’s brother.

In early October, emails which re-emerged from 2011 showed Andrew in contact with Epstein months after he claimed their friendship had ended.

A posthumous memoir by Virginia Giuffre was also released – repeating allegations that, as a teenager, she was forced to have sex with Andrew on three separate occasions, claims he has always denied.

And earlier this week, the King was heckled about the matter.

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Although Andrew denies the accusations, the Royal Family considers there have been “serious lapses of judgement” in his behaviour.

As well as losing his titles and honours, he was ordered to move out of his Windsor mansion – Royal Lodge – and into a property on the King’s Norfolk estate, paid for by the monarch.

The BBC understands that he will not have to move out immediately, and could move to Sandringham as late as the new year.

On Saturday, a black Land Rover with a number plate ending DOY was seen leaving Bishops Gate near Royal Lodge just before 08:00 GMT.

Only a driver was in the vehicle as it left the grounds of Windsor Great Park. Andrew has previously been pictured driving a vehicle with the same private number plate.

A photographer who witnessed the aftermath of a massive Brazilian police operation in Rio de Janeiro has told the BBC of how residents came back with mutilated bodies of those who had died.

The bodies “kept coming: 25, 30, 35, 40, 45…”, Bruno Itan told BBC Brasil. They included those of police officers.

One of the bodies had been decapitated – others were “totally disfigured”, he said. Many also had what he says were stab wounds.

More than 120 people were killed during Tuesday’s raid on a criminal gang – the deadliest such raid in the city.

Bruno Itan told BBC Brasil that he was first alerted to the raid early on Tuesday by residents of the Alemão neighbourhood, who sent him messages telling him there was a shoot-out.

The photographer made his way to the Getúlio Vargas hospital, where the bodies were arriving.

Itan says that the police stopped members of the press from entering the Penha neighboorhood, where the operation was under way.

“Police officers formed a line and said: ‘The press doesn’t get past here.'”

But Itan, who grew up in the area, says he was able to make his way into the cordoned-off area, where he remained until the next morning.

He says that Tuesday night, local residents began to search the hillside which divides Penha from the nearby Alemão neighbourhood for relatives who had been missing since the police raid.

Residents of the Penha neighbourhood proceeded to place the recovered bodies in a square – and Itan’s photos show the reaction of the people there.

“The brutality of it all impacted me a lot: the sorrow of the families, mothers fainting, pregnant wives, crying, outraged parents,” the photographer recalled.

The governor of Rio state said that the massive police operation involving around 2,500 security personnel was aimed at stopping a criminal group known as Comando Vermelho (Red Command) from expanding its territory.

Initially, the Rio state government maintained that “60 suspects and four police officers” had been killed in the operation.

They have since said that their “preliminary” count shows that 117 “suspects” have been killed.

Rio’s public defender’s office, which provides legal assistance to the poor, has put the total number of people killed at 132.

According to researchers, Red Command is the only criminal group which in recent years has managed to make territorial gains in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

It is widely considered one of the two largest gangs in the country, alongside First Capital Command (PCC), and has a history dating back more than 50 years.

According to Brazilian journalist Rafael Soares, who has been covering crime in Rio for years, Red Command “operates like a franchise” with local criminal leaders forming part of the gang and becoming “business partners”.

The gang engages primarily in drug trafficking, but also smuggles guns, gold, fuel, alcohol and tobacco.

According to the authorities, gang members are well armed and police said that during the raid, they came under attack from explosive-laden drones.

The governor of Rio state, Cláudio Castro, described Red Command members as “narcoterrorists” and called the four police officers killed in the raid “heroes”.

But the number of people killed in the operation has come in for criticism with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights saying it was “horrified”.

At a news conference on Wednesday, Governor Castro defended the police force.

“It wasn’t our intention to kill anyone. We wanted to arrest them all alive,” he said.

He added that the situation had escalated because the suspects had retaliated: “It was a consequence of the retaliation they carried out and the disproportionate use of force by those criminals.”

The governor also said that the bodies displayed by locals in Penha had been “manipulated”.

In a post on X, he said that some of them had been stripped of the camouflage clothing he said they had been wearing “in order to shift blame onto the police”.

Felipe Curi of Rio’s civil police force also said that “camouflage clothing, vests, and weapons” had been removed from the bodies and showed footage appearing to show a man cutting camouflage clothing off a corpse.

Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes has summoned Governor Castro to a hearing on Monday to explain the police actions “in detail”.

US presidential trips abroad have traditionally been an opportunity to display the power of the American nation on the world stage. Donald Trump’s five-day swing through eastern Asia, on the other hand, has been a display of the power of Trump – but also, at times, of that power’s limitations.

Trump’s stops in Malaysia, Japan and South Korea over the course of the first four days were an exercise in pleasing a sometimes mercurial American president. It was an acknowledgement that Trump, with the flick of a pen, could impose tariffs and other measures that have the potential to devastate the economies of export-dependent nations.

His sit-down with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday, however, was something entirely different.

It was a meeting of equals on the global stage, where the stakes for both nations – for their economies, for their international prestige, for the welfare of their people – were enormous.

With China, Trump may flick his pen, but such actions come with consequences. They come with a cost.

For the first four days, Trump’s most recent foray into global diplomacy was smooth sailing.

Each stop was punctuated by a blend of traditional trade negotiations – deals made under the shadow of Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs – and personal accommodations that at times bordered on the obsequious.

In Malaysia, Trump secured access to critical minerals and made progress toward finalising trade arrangements with south-east Asian nations. He also presided over a treaty that should ease border tensions between Thailand and Cambodia – the kind of “peace deal” the American president loves to tout.

In Japan, Trump’s Marine One flew past a Tokyo Tower lit red, white and blue – with a top in Trumpian gold.

Newly elected Prime Minister Sanai Takaichi detailed $550bn in Japanese investments in the US and offered the American president a gift of 250 cherry trees for America’s 250th birthday, and a golf club and bag that belonged to Shinzo Abe, the assassinated former prime minister who bonded with Trump in his first term.

She also became the latest foreign leader to nominate Trump for his much-desired Nobel Peace Prize.

Not to be outdone, South Korea welcomed Trump with artillery firing a 21-gun salute and a military band that played Hail to the Chief and YMCA – the Village People song that has become a Trump rally anthem.

President Lee Jae Myung held an “honour ceremony” for Trump during which he gave the American leader his nation’s highest medal and a replica of an ancient Korean dynastic crown.

Lunch with Lee featured a “Peacemaker’s Dessert” of gold-encrusted brownies. Later that day, the Koreans served Trump vineyard wine at an intimate dinner in Trump’s honour with six world leaders attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Conference summit.