Minimalist News

Watch: New Footage Shows Bannon Exploding At Epstein: "Total And Complete Bullshit!!" Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, In a heated exchange from a long-unreleased 2019 interview that was just made public through recent Department of Justice Epstein file releases, Steve Bannon confronts Jeffrey Epstein on the question of when human life begins. Epstein dodges by suggesting it “can’t be measured,” then doubles down by claiming he doesn’t even know “what it means to be measured” - prompting Bannon to unleash on what he calls “bullsh*t and happy talking.” Bannon accuses Epstein of feigning ignorance despite his elite status in finance: “You do know

US Military Still Not Prepared For Major Attack On Iran, Only 'Limited' Strikes President Trump has acknowledged that he has a plan for Iran, but naturally isn't going to make it public. "Well, we can’t tell them the plan," Trump said Saturday. "If I told them the plan, it would be almost as bad as telling you the plan - it could be worse, actually." Several Gulf allies have meanwhile complained of being "in the dark" on what the US might do next. Fresh quotes from US officials in The Wall Street Journal suggest major military action is not imminent, but 'limited' strikes

Bears Are An Endangered Species Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com, 🏛️ MARKET BRIEF – MARKET VOLATILITY RETURNS Markets ended the week mixed as investors processed the Federal Reserve’s latest policy decision, rising geopolitical tensions, and the early results of the S&P 500 earnings season. The Fed held the federal funds rate steady at 3.50–3.75 percent, as expected. Chair Jerome Powell maintained a neutral stance, noting that inflation is moving toward the target, but the labor market remains tight enough to avoid immediate policy shifts. There was no indication of a near-term rate cut, but Powell left the door open for adjustments later in the

Latest Epstein Emails Reveal Bill Gates Slipped Wife Antibiotics For STD He Got From Russian Hookers Democrats thought that the firehose release of Epstein files would "finally" bring down Trump. Instead, not only is that not happening (one can argue the latest batch of docs further cements Trump's claim that he had distanced himself far enough from Esptein in recent decades as this admission from Epstein himself to his favorite scribe Michael Wolff reveals), but it is taking down Democratic "thought titans", each one bigger than the next: first it was Larry Summers, then Bill Clinton, now it's Bill Gates. In what

ICE Buys Warehouse Network To Support Ramped Up Deportation Operations The Trump administration is moving ahead with plans to convert 23 e-commerce warehouses across the country, primarily in the eastern U.S., into a large-scale network of immigration detention centers aimed at expanding capacity to fulfill the mandate the American people gave President Trump to deport more than one million illegal aliens per year and restore national security. This comes after the Biden-Harris globalist regime collapsed borders and allowed a nation-killing invasion of ten million or more third-worlders. Bloomberg reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement's rapid move to build out a network of

Bifurcation Nation & The TINA Economy's Freefall Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via Substack, The term “The K-Shaped Economy” has entered the lexicon to describe the divergence of the top tier of earners and owners of capital from the lower tiers, as the trajectory of the first is up and that of the second is down. While the “The K-Shaped Economy” offers visual clarity, it’s ultimately an abstraction. Longtime correspondent Harvey D. recently offered a more accurate term, The Bifurcation Economy, which describes (as he put it) the reality that 50 miles outside major US cities, the precarity and quality of life is Third World. I modified his term

Joe Rogan Defines Chaos In Minneapolis As "Color Revolution" Left-wing unrest in Minneapolis and elsewhere across the country - whether protests or riots over the past few weeks or over the last decade targeting President Trump and the America First agenda - is being framed as a color revolution operation fueled by dark-money-funded NGOs, and that narrative is now reaching a wider audience. Democrats are uneasy that this framing is gaining traction after the left-wing revolution was most recently discussed on The Joe Rogan Experience, where host Joe Rogan and guest Andrew Wilson, a conservative podcaster, discussed it. Rogan discussed how, shortly after

Convicted Terrorist Who Plotted To Bomb British Consulate Now Standing For Election In UK Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, Shahid Butt, a 60-year-old Muslim activist with a conviction for conspiring to bomb the British consulate in Yemen, is now gunning for a seat on Birmingham City Council.  Yes, really. Convicted in 1999 and sentenced to five years in a Yemeni prison, Butt was found guilty of forming an armed gang to target the consulate, an Anglican church, and a Swiss-owned hotel. > ‘Can you see what’s happening to our country!’@PatrickChristys reacts to Shahid Butt, an activist running for election in Birmingham, who’s been convicted

UBS CIO Americas: AI Remains "Underhyped And Underappreciated" Building on Goldman analyst Brian Singer’s comparison of the AI data-center buildout to the U.S. shale boom, where AI remains in the early "appraisal phase” of the innovation cycle, a stage historically most bullish for infrastructure spending and equity multiple expansion, fresh commentary earlier this week from UBS CIO Americas reinforces the view that bubble conditions have not yet been met. Ulrike Hoffmann-Burchardi, CIO of Global Equities at UBS Global Wealth Management, spoke at the Latin America Investment Conference, where she said AI remains underhyped in the near term. Ulrike continued: > AI is underhyped and underappreciated

Brussels Versus Washington Authored by Cláudia Ascensão Nunes via the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE), For years, Europe has tried to convince itself that it could regulate its way to technological greatness. Instead of becoming a technological powerhouse, it produced rules, many rules, with effects now extending far beyond its own borders. In 2026, those rules are colliding head on with an American president who refuses to accept that U.S. innovation could be governed from Brussels. Two regulations sit at the center of this escalating tension. The Digital Markets Act, or DMA, applies to the world’s largest digital platforms, the so-called gatekeepers, and forces them to

Five Insights Into The Trilateral Russian-Ukrainian-US Talks Authored by Andrew Korybko, Russia’s agreement to this format represents a significant policy shift. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that the second round of the trilateral Russian-Ukrainian-US talks in Abu Dhabi will be held on 1 February. There haven’t been many leaks from the first round so observers can only speculate about the subject and significance of this new format. Nevertheless, it’s still possible to intuit some insight into this based on what’s known and has been reported, thus enabling folks to obtain a better understanding of this latest development. What follows are five important points: > 1. Territory Is Reportedly

Venezuela Unveils Amnesty Bill For Mass Release Of Political Prisoners  Venezuela's US-backed and CIA-installed interim president Delcy Rodriguez has unveiled a sweeping amnesty bill that could pave the way for the release of hundreds of detainees, in a first major political move since former President Nicolas Maduro and his wife were ousted and whisked off to New York earlier this month. "We have decided to push ahead with a general amnesty law that covers the whole period of political violence from 1999 to the present day," Rodriguez announced Friday. She issued her address before a who's who of government figures, including judges and

Will He, Won't He 'TACO' On Iran? Authored by Alastair Crooke via LewRockwell.com, As so often these days, a decisive attack on Iran – comes down in the final analysis to Trump’s psychology, and his need to dominate the attention of everyone around him. He understands that for however much his maximalist pronouncements look — and are — crazy, they nonetheless do usually default to a ‘strong man image’. Trump’s career has been founded on the predicate that his base loves the ‘strong guy’ and any sign of weakness detracts from the illusion of strength. It is the thing that has generally worked for him. European élites however, find

Explosion In AI Data Center Buildouts Will Demand Next-Gen Counter-Drone Security Despite trillions of dollars slated for global data center buildouts, power grid upgrades, and other artificial intelligence infrastructure expansion through the end of the decade, there remains very limited investor discussion about the next-generation physical security architecture required to defend these increasingly critical and high-value infrastructure nodes.  Protection of data centers from suicide drone swarm attacks is currently assessed as a lower risk at the moment, while the Trump administration, particularly following last year's "Restoring American Airspace Sovereignty" executive order, is primarily focused on counter-UAS measures to secure stadiums and related

SCAM Act Introduced To Revoke Citizenship Of Migrants Who Commit Fraud, Serious Felonies Via American Greatness, Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) has introduced the Stop Citizenship Abuse and Misrepresentation (SCAM) Act that would strip citizenship from individuals who commit serious crimes within 10 years of their naturalization. According to Schmitt, the legislation would expand the grounds for beginning the denaturalization process to include welfare fraud, aggravated felonies and joining a terrorist organization, including gangs and cartels. Fox New reports that the SCAM Act would create a 10-year window, post-naturalization, which would lower the threshold for federal authorities to strike an individual’s citizenship and to begin deportation proceedings. > 🚨

Dear ICE Protestors: We Need To Talk... Authored by Jenna McCarthy via Jenna's Side Rocks, Dear ICE Protestors, It’s been a rough few months out there. You’ve shown up. You’ve resisted. You’ve rallied. You’ve organized. You’ve made signs. So. Many. Signs. You’ve launched illegal fireworks, damaged property, blocked traffic, broken the law, bashed in windows, assaulted agents, and berated scores of strangers simply for doing their jobs. You must be exhausted. I see you. I feel you. I am in awe of your stamina. So let’s pretend, for argument’s sake and to give you a desperately-needed break, you win. Let’s pretend all the chanting, the honking, the whistling, the street-blocking, the papier-mâché puppets,

US Warns Iran Over Weekend Live Fire Drills Close To American Forces Iran's military starting Thursday issued a warning to ships at sea that it planned to run a drill starting this weekend which is to include live firing in the Strait of Hormuz, potentially disrupting traffic through a waterway which sees 20% of all the world's oil pass through it. This prompted a US warning in response, given US forces are also in the region - but quite a bit further away. On Iran's two-day live-fire naval exercise, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said it will not tolerate any unsafe behavior which threats

New SNAP Work Requirement Rules To Start Feb. 1 In Multiple States Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epcoh Times, The new work requirements to gain or continue eligibility for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will start being implemented in several U.S. states beginning Feb. 1. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law by President Donald Trump in July, instituted new work requirements for SNAP beneficiaries to continue receiving benefits, targeting able-bodied adults without dependents. People ages 18 to 54 are required to meet these conditions to receive SNAP benefits for more than three months in a three-year period, according

Huge Verdict Could Destroy 'Gender Transition For Minors' Industry A jury on Friday found a psychologist and a surgeon liable for malpractice after they convinced a 16-year-old girl to lop off her breasts. This marks the first medical malpractice case involving a detransitioner to reach a verdict - and it has huge implications.  Fox Varian, who identified as transgender at the time, was awarded $2 million in damages - which includes $1.6 million for past and future pain and suffering, and $400,000 for future medical expenses. Now 22, Varian identifies as a woman.  The January 30 decision at Westchester County Courthouse in White Plains, New York,

Bitcoin Crashes To Nov 2024 Lows Amid $1.5 Billion In Levered Liquidations In an otherwise quiet session - as one would expect for a Saturday, certainly the algos would - starting early this morning there has been concerted pressure to sell into the bitcoin spot price following yesterday's Warsh-inspired rout which repriced bitcoin from 88K to 84K, pressure which grew into a liquidation firehose just after 9am ET and especially at noon, when we saw massive algo-driven volumes hitting the bid. The selling has pushed Bitcoin as low as $74,000 (it was almost at $100K last week), and is at the lowest

After stories revealed high levels of contamination in neighborhood around factory processing US toxic waste, government announces sweeping array of tactics The Mexican government has announced it will pursue a sweeping array of tactics to combat industrial pollution, from $4.8m in fines against a plant processing US hazardous waste to the rollout of a new industrial air-monitoring system, following investigations by the Guardian and Quinto Elemento Lab, a Mexican investigative unit. Those stories revealed high levels of heavy-metal contamination in the neighborhood around the factory, Zinc Nacional, in the Monterrey metropolitan area, and showed the broader extent of industrial pollution in the

Country is already suffering acute fuel shortage; experts say complete cutoff will be ‘catastrophic’ to its infrastructure It’s just gone midday on Linea, one of the main roads through Havana’s Vedado neighbourhood, and Javier Peña and Ysil Ribas have been waiting since 6am outside a petrol station. They’re passing the time fixing a leak on Ribas’s 1955 gold and white Mercury. A tanker has pulled up on the forecourt in front of them, and so the queue behind is growing fast. Although this station only takes US dollars, at a cost far out of reach of most Cubans, Peña says it’s their

Voters to choose president and 57 members of congress, with current president’s hardline pick Laura Fernández expected to win first round Costa Rica heads to the polls on Sunday in an election dominated by increasing insecurity and warnings of an authoritarian turn in a country long seen as a model of liberal democracy in the region. Crime is a big concern for many voters as criminal groups battle to control lucrative cocaine trafficking routes to Europe and the US, casting a shadow on the Central American country famous for its wildlife tourism. Continue reading...

Island country only has oil enough to last 15-20 days, and 12-hour blackouts have become commonplace Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has warned that Donald Trump’s move to slap new tariffs on countries sending oil to Cuba could trigger a humanitarian crisis on the island, which is already suffering from chronic fuel shortages and regular blackouts. The US president signed an executive order on Thursday declaring a national emergency and laying the groundwork for such tariffs, ratcheting up the pressure to topple the communist government in Havana. Continue reading...

Panama’s president says strategic waterway will operate as normal after ruling that advances US policy aims Panama’s president said ports at each end of the Panama canal would operate as usual after the country’s supreme court ruled the concession held by a subsidiary of a Chinese company was unconstitutional. The court’s decision on Thursday, which helps US attempts to block any Chinese influence over the strategic waterway, immediately drew a sharp rebuke from Beijing. Continue reading...

About 20 countries including G7 states in talks on rare earths including calls for US to guarantee minimum price Ministers from the US, EU, UK, Japan, Australia and New Zealand will meet in Washington this week to discuss a strategic alliance over critical minerals. The summit is being seen as a step to repair transatlantic ties fractured by a year of conflict with Donald Trump and pave the way for other alliances to help countries de-risk from China, including one centred on steel. Continue reading...

Plaintiffs in case say they were lured from Japan, exploited for labour and cut off from families for generations It has been more than six decades since Eiko Kawasaki left Japan to begin a new life in North Korea. Then 17, she was among tens of thousands of people with Korean heritage who had been lured to the communist state by the promise of a “paradise on Earth”. Instead, they encountered something closer to a living hell. They were denied basic human rights and forced to endure extreme hardship. Official promises of free education and healthcare plus guaranteed jobs and housing had

PM flies out after courting world’s second biggest economy aware of difficult balance of risks and potential rewards The last British prime minister to visit China was Theresa May in 2018. Before the visit, she and her team were advised to get dressed under the covers because of the risk of hidden cameras having been placed in their hotel rooms to record compromising material. Keir Starmer, in Beijing this week, was more sanguine about his privacy, even though the security risks have, if anything, increased since the former Tory prime minister was in town. Continue reading...

Prime minister suggests US president was ‘talking more about Canada’ when asked for reaction to Beijing visit Prominent Hong Kong and Uyghur activists living in exile in the UK have accused Starmer of seeking China’s desperate approval, after the prime minister visited Beijing for the first time in eight years this week. Pro-democracy campaigner and prominent critic of the Communist Party, Finn Lau said the Hong Kong community is disappointed by Starmer’s visit, but unsurprised by the government’s “short sightedness”. “While British citizen Jimmy Lai remains imprisoned and Uyghurs continue to suffer atrocity crimes, we take no comfort in this decision and will

Starmer confirms immediate removal, but it is unclear if sanctions remain on former MP, academic and barrister China has lifted the sanctions it imposed on serving British MPs and peers in a significant sign of warming relations after Keir Starmer travelled to Beijing for landmark talks with Xi Jinping. Nine UK citizens were banned from China in 2021, including five Conservative MPs and two members of the House of Lords, targeted for highlighting human rights violations against the Muslim Uyghur community. Continue reading...

Labor set to take advantage of shambles with blistering attacks in question time as Sussan Ley presides over barest opposition benches since 1943 Normally this column focuses on the agenda for the coming parliamentary week, unpacking a dense policy issue or two that will dominate the political discussion. This week is a little different. You would expect the government’s big agenda would be front and centre in the first regularly scheduled programming sitting week of the year – but not this Monday. Continue reading...

Documents released under FoI show Wells’ department worried about how gambling reforms would affect sporting codes and media companies * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast There is growing frustration in the government caucus about the delay to gambling advertising reforms, according to a group of Labor MPs who say they want the communications and sports minister, Anika Wells, to take action. Documents recently released under freedom of information laws revealing details of Wells’ meetings with major TV broadcasters about wagering restrictions show her department has conceded the popularity of an ad ban, but is concerned about

‘This is a blatant and disturbing disregard for the law and for people’s security,’ digital rights advocate says * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Australian platforms used by real estate agents to upload documentation for renters and landlords are leaving people’s personal information exposed in hyperlinks accessible online. An analysis of seven rent platforms provided to Guardian Australia by a researcher, who wished to remain anonymous, revealed millions of leasing documents could be accessed by threat actors. Continue reading...

Recreating cosmic dust may help answer questions about how meteorites hitting Earth came to contain organic matter * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast How does one acquire star dust? One option, as the Perry Como song suggests, is to catch a falling star and put it in your pocket, so to speak. Thousands of tonnes of cosmic dust bombard the Earth each year, mostly vaporising in the atmosphere. The asteroid and comet fragments that don’t burn up – known as meteorites and micrometeorites if they hit Earth – provide scientists with valuable clues about the cosmos. Continue

Safety advocates want laws strengthened to ensure child sexual abuse offenders cannot referee children’s sport * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast A man convicted of two child sexual abuse offences has been able to work as a referee for Touch Football NSW for more than a decade, including for junior teams, with the organisation citing a legal “loophole” for his continued employment. The New South Wales government passed new laws in September to strengthen the working with children check scheme and the Office of the Children’s Guardian is currently reviewing the framework to assess whether it

Mette-Marit apologises for ‘poor judgment’ as documents reportedly include scores of email exchanges with child sex offender Norway’s crown princess has become embroiled in another scandal after newly unsealed files appeared to show her years of extensive contact with the late child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The latest tranche of Epstein files, released on Friday by the US justice department, appear to include nearly 1,000 mentions of the crown princess, Mette-Marit. Continue reading...

PM says Europe must ‘step up’ and signals he wants to work more closely with other states to build military capability The UK should consider re-entering talks for a defence pact with the EU, Keir Starmer has said, arguing that Europe needs to “step up and do more” to defend itself in uncertain times. The prime minister signalled that he wanted to work more collaboratively with other European countries to increase defence spending and build up military capability, and doing so through the EU’s scheme is one option available. Continue reading...

Employees of Ukraine’s largest private energy firm, DTEK, were travelling about 40 miles from frontline, says police A Russian drone attack on a bus carrying mine workers in Ukraine’s central-eastern Dnipropetrovsk region has killed at least 12 people, officials said. The bus was driving about 40 miles (65km) from the frontline, according to police. Images published by Ukraine’s state emergency service showed what appeared to be an empty bus, its side windows shattered and windscreen hanging from the front. Continue reading...

Cherub at landmark church causes ecclesiastical and political uproar with alleged resemblance to Italian PM Italy’s culture minister and the diocese of Rome have launched investigations after claims were made that an angel in a landmark church in Rome was restored in the likeness of the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni. The resemblance was first flagged by the newspaper La Repubblica, which noted that one of the two angels flanking a marble bust of Italy’s last king in the Basilica of St Lawrence in Lucina now had “a familiar, astonishingly contemporary face”. Continue reading...

Film with a cast headed by Anthony Hopkins tells the story of a supercar marque that began in a small Bologna garage Dozens of Maseratis of 1920s and 1930s designs have been built specially for a feature film about the Italian car company’s earliest days, with a cast headed by Anthony Hopkins. Maserati: The Brothers tells the story of siblings driven by their love of cars to create an automotive company from scratch. It all began in a little garage in the Italian city of Bologna: in 1914 they founded a sports supercar company that went on to make some of the

US naval battle group gathers off Iran’s shores as supreme leader in Tehran warns attack would spark regional war Donald Trump has said Iran is talking to the US, hinting at a deal that would avoid the use of military strikes, as Iran’s supreme leader warned that any attack by the US would spark a regional war. The US president’s comments came as Washington deployed a naval battle group led by the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln off Iran’s shores, after Trump’s threats to intervene in Iran’s deadly crackdown on anti-government protests. Continue reading...

Officials say Gaza residents travelling on foot only will be allowed through border point, which was shut in May 2024 Gaza’s main border crossing in Rafah will reopen for Palestinians on Monday, Israel has said, with preparations under way at the war-ravaged territory’s gateway, which has been mostly closed for almost two years. Before the war, the Rafah crossing with Egypt was the only direct exit point for most Palestinians in Gaza to reach the outside world as well as a key entry point for aid. It has been largely shut since May 2024. Continue reading...

Pressure mounts after government said it would publish names of those killed during recent unrest Calls are growing inside Iran for an independent inquiry into the number of people killed during recent protests after the government said it would oversee the publication of the names of the deceased. The highly unusual government move, announced on Thursday, is designed to head off claims that crimes against humanity have been committed and that as many as 30,000 Iranians have been killed. Iran’s official death toll released by the Martyr’s Foundation is 3,117, including members of the security services. Continue reading...

Nick Carter says easing controls on MDMA will allow drug to be used as alternative treatment for those with PTSD A former head of the British military is calling for the government to ease restrictions on the party drug MDMA so that it can be tested more cheaply as a treatment for veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Sir Nick Carter, who was chief of the defence staff until 2021, said existing regulations meant a single gram of “medical grade” MDMA cost about £10,000 compared with a street price of about £40, inflating the cost of trials. Continue reading...

Deadly attacks launched day before border crossing due to open as part of ceasefire deal Israel has carried out some of its deadliest airstrikes on Gaza in months, killing at least 30 Palestinians, some of whom were sheltering in tent cities for displaced people. Despite a nominal ceasefire, the Israeli military struck a police station in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood west of Gaza City on Saturday, killing 10 officers and detainees, the civil defence said. It indicated the death toll could rise as emergency responders searched for bodies. Continue reading...

Officials say calm restored to province day after dozens killed in suicide and gun attacks in at least 10 cities Pakistan’s security forces have intensified their operations against separatist militants in Balochistan province who launched a large-scale assault on Saturday in which at least 31 civilians and 17 security personnel were killed. A day after the militants carried out suicide attacks in the heart of the province’s capital, Quetta, the chief minister of the south-western region, Sarfraz Bugti, said 145 people he described as militants had been killed in 40 hours and that their bodies were in the custody of the authorities. Continue

Five years after the junta’s coup, the civil war devastating Myanmar has reached a turning point. The military is carrying out large-scale counter-offensives across the country to reclaim territory seized by pro-democracy rebels of various ethnic and religious backgrounds In Tanintharyi, the southernmost region of Myanmar, the local resistance has managed to contain the military. After five years of guerrilla warfare, the revolutionary youth there remain determined to restore democracy through armed struggle. A long, narrow stretch of land at the southern tip of Myanmar, between the Andaman Sea to the west and Thailand to the east, Tanintharyi region is one of

* Concern raised over politicisation of sport * Bangladesh pulled out of men’s World T20 after row Bangladesh’s withdrawal from the men’s T20 World Cup could have implications for India’s 2036 Olympic bid amid concern at the International Olympic Committee over the potential politicisation of sport. Bangladesh pulled out of next month’s tournament last weekend after the International Cricket Council declined a request to move their group matches from India to the co-hosts Sri Lanka, after a long-running political row triggered by Kolkata Knight Riders’ decision to remove the Bangladeshi bowler Mustafizur Rahman from their Indian Premier League squad. Continue reading...

Human rights groups and some western countries have denounced the election, the first held since the 2021 coup, describing it as neither free nor fair Myanmar’s military-backed party has completed a sweeping victory in the country’s three-phase general election, state media said, cementing an outcome long expected after a tightly controlled political process held during civil war and widespread repression. The Union and Solidarity Party (USDP) dominated all phases of the vote, winning an overwhelming majority in the two legislative chambers in Myanmar. It secured 232 of the 263 seats up for grabs in the lower Pyithu Hluttaw house and 109 of

Voting ends in month-long poll derided internationally as sham designed to cement army’s grip on power Voting in Myanmar has ended with the military-backed party expected to win a landslide victory after a month-long election that has been widely derided as a sham designed to cement the army’s grip on power. The junta leader, Min Aung Hlaing, has rejected criticism of the vote, saying it has the support of the public and presenting it as a return to democracy and stability. Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed. For the latest, you can read our Epstein coverage here. * Handling of Epstein files is ‘outrageous’, say attorneys of his survivors We can bring you more from the interview with housing secretary Steve Reed on Sky News’ Trevor Phillips programme this morning (see this post for what Reed said about Peter Mandelson in the same interview). When asked if the British government would comply with an extradition request from the US if there was a charge brought against Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, Reed said he could not answer that question as it was an “entirely hypothetical” one. Continue

Patients missing out on effective new radiotherapies widely used in other countries, health secretary told Cancer patients are being denied access to cutting-edge treatments on the NHS because of a “deadly postcode lottery” in access, doctors have warned. Patients in England are missing out on two innovative forms of radiotherapy that are known to be effective against several forms of the disease and are widely available in other countries, due to “red tape” and lack of funding. Continue reading...

Families allege Bright Horizons brushed concerns aside allowing Vincent Chan to commit dozens of offences Families of victims of a paedophile are taking legal action against a north London nursery where their children were abused, as they allege a “consistent culture of brushing concerns aside”. Vincent Chan, 45, is facing prison for molesting girls aged between two and four while working at the now-closed Bright Horizons nursery in Finchley Road, West Hampstead. Continue reading...

Three bishops accuse British government of contributing to ‘culture of impunity’ in the occupied territory Three prominent Church of England bishops have accused the UK government of contributing to a “culture of impunity” in which Israel has accelerated its de facto annexation of the West Bank. Guli Francis-Dehqani, the bishop of Chelmsford, Rachel Treweek, the bishop of Gloucester, and Graham Usher, the bishop of Norwich, visited Palestinian Christian communities in the occupied West Bank last week. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Dr Susan Gilby, who won £1.4m bullying payout, says whistleblower protections must be strengthened Patients are being put at risk by NHS bosses launching “sham investigations” into whistleblowers to shut down concerns, a former hospital chief executive who won a £1.4m bullying claim has said. Dr Susan Gilby took over as chief executive at the Countess of Chester hospital in 2018 after it was rocked by the Lucy Letby case. She was awarded the payout – one of the biggest in NHS history – last month after a tribunal ruled she had been unfairly dismissed after raising concerns about alleged bullying

Melania, however, cost quite more than a typical documentary, at $40m to make and $35m to promote. Amazon’s Melania Trump documentary has reportedly beaten box office expectations and recorded the strongest start of any documentary in over a decade, taking $7m at the US box office during its lavishly-promoted opening weekend. But it also cost quite more than a typical documentary, at $40m to make and $35m to promote. And Amazon – which recently cut 16,000 corporate jobs – has been hit with criticism that making the documentary about the first lady, and paying so highly for it, was little more than

Boy and his father back in Minneapolis after being detained by ICE and held in immigration facility for more than a week A five-year-old boy and his father were back in Minneapolis on Sunday after being released from a Texas immigration detention center where they were held for more than a week, according to US House representative Joaquin Castro. “Liam is now home. With his hat and his backpack. Thank you to everyone who demanded freedom for Liam,” Castro, a San Antonio Democrat, said in a post on X. “We won’t stop until all children and families are home.” Continue reading...

Deputy US attorney general says victims ‘want to be made whole’ but that doesn’t mean ‘we can just create evidence’ The deputy US attorney general, Todd Blanche, the point person on the Trump administration’s Epstein files release, told ABC News on Sunday that prosecutors’ review of the Jeffrey Epstein-Ghislaine Maxwell sex-trafficking case “is over”. Separately, in comments to CNN about Epstein, Blanche said that “victims want to be made whole” after surviving the scheme attributed to the late convicted sex offender and which led to a 20-year prison sentence for Maxwell beginning in 2022. Continue reading...

Wilson found fame in the seminal 1970s sitcom and then went on to become a minister in the 1980s Demond Wilson, who found fame in the 1970s playing Lamont on Sanford and Son and went on to become a minister, has died. He was 79. Mark Goldman, a publicist for Wilson, confirmed to the Associated Press that he died following complications from cancer on Friday. Continue reading...

Speaker Mike Johnson is ‘convinced’ the impasse over homeland security funding will be resolved by Tuesday The ongoing partial US government shutdown is expected to continue into early next week, with no reopening likely before Tuesday, if what federal officials on both sides of the country’s political aisle are saying is any indication. House Democrats have so far said they are refusing to guarantee the votes needed to speed passage of a funding measure that would restore government operations. Continue reading...

The Nigerian army said on Sunday it killed a top commander of Boko Haram and 10 members of the Islamic extremist group in a night raid in the northeastern part of the country. Abu Khalid, a commander of Boko Haram in the Sambisa Forest in Borno state, was a key figure within “the terrorist hierarchy, coordinating operations and logistics in the Sambisa axis,” army spokesman Sani Uba said in a statement. The soldiers attacked the Boko Haram militants on Saturday night in the Kodunga area of Borno...

Iraq’s parliament has again postponed the election of the country’s new president, state media reported on Sunday, amid intense political horse-trading and US pressure over the new prime minister. It was the second time parliament has delayed the presidential vote, which had first been due last week. A journalist in the parliament said the required quorum was not reached on Sunday. The vote was therefore delayed, according to the official INA press agency, which did not say whether a new date...

US President Donald Trump is bringing back the law of the jungle to the world as he systematically dismantles the post-war rules-based international order built and forged by the United States and its allies. His speech last month at Davos, Switzerland, contained a blunt message: the US was done “keeping the whole world afloat”, where “everybody took advantage of the United States”. Trump is unabashed about what he wants. He flexed American muscle and ignored international norms by abducting...

French IT company Capgemini will sell its US ‌subsidiary Capgemini Government Solutions, it said on Sunday, after coming ‍under pressure to explain a contract the latter signed with US immigration enforcement agency ICE. French lawmakers, including Finance Minister Roland Lescure, had asked the company to shed light on the contract amid concern over the tactics used by ICE agents following the fatal shooting of two US citizens in Minnesota last month. “Capgemini considered that the usual legal...

Almost a decade after launching the Vision 2030 programme to diversify its oil-dependent economy, Saudi Arabia is redirecting its spending away from attention-grabbing futuristic urban projects into sectors that hold more promise to deliver results. Since last year, the programme has undergone a review following a US$8 billion writedown at the end of 2024. The kingdom’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has scaled down glitzy projects significantly, such as the US$500 billion 170km (105 mile) long...

Marius Borg Hoiby, the son of Norway’s future queen from a previous relationship, was initially welcomed into the royal family, but now, facing trial accused of four rapes, he has become a liability. The 29-year-old, who was born before his mother Mette-Marit Tjessem Hoiby married Norway’s Crown Prince Haakon, goes on trial in Oslo’s district court on Tuesday accused of 38 counts, including four rapes and assaults against ex-girlfriends. He was arrested on August 4, 2024, suspected of assaulting...

Come Thursday, barring a last-minute change, the final treaty in the world that restricted nuclear weapon deployment will be over. New START, the last nuclear treaty between Washington and Moscow after decades of agreements dating to the Cold War, is set to expire, and with it restrictions on the two top nuclear powers. The expiration comes as President Donald Trump, vowing “America first”, smashes through international agreements that limit the United States, although in the case of New START,...

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Saturday that disgraced former prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor should testify in the US Congress over what he knows about the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes. Asked on the final day of a visit this week to China and Japan whether King Charles’ brother should answer US lawmakers’ questions about his knowledge of the American financier’s wrongdoing, Starmer replied “yes”. “I’ve always said anybody that [has] got information should be...

A five-year-old boy and his father must be released by Tuesday from the Texas centre where they have been held after being detained by immigration officers in Minnesota, a federal judge ordered Saturday in a ruling that harshly criticised US President Donald Trump’s administration’s approach to enforcement. Images of Liam Conejo Ramos, with a bunny hat and Spider-Man backpack being surrounded by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in the Minneapolis suburb of Columbia Heights on January...

The India–EU trade agreement marks a significant moment in the development of the global political economy. Described by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as the “mother of all deals”, the agreement links one of the world’s fastest-growing major economies with the world’s biggest single market. Yet, within hours of Brussels and New Delhi announcing their “strategic partnership”, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent accused the EU of putting trade ahead of the Ukrainian people....

A fresh cache of files released on Friday related to the investigation into the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein contains documents that refer to numerous high-profile figures. US President Donald Trump, tech billionaire Elon Musk and Britain’s former prince Andrew are among those making headlines after being named in the documents. Here are key details about some of the others mentioned, none of whom has been accused of wrongdoing: Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates In a draft email...

Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni joked on Saturday that she does not look like an angel, after a row blew up in the media over a restored fresco in a Rome church. Some of Italy’s press have been asking whether the premier served as inspiration for a cherub painted in a chapel in the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Lucina, located a few metres (yards) from the main building of the Italian government. The basilica is one of the oldest Christian churches in the city. The newspaper La Repubblica...

Britain’s former prince Andrew was again engulfed by the Epstein scandal on Saturday, after newly released files included photographs of him kneeling on all fours over a woman lying on the floor. The images were among millions of new documents disclosed Friday by the US Justice Department from the Jeffrey Epstein files, which also featured the late sex offender proposing in 2010 that the then prince meet a Russian woman. That was two years after the disgraced US financier had pleaded guilty in...

An explosion that hit a building in the southern Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas on Saturday was caused by a gas leak, according to a preliminary assessment, the local head of the fire department said. Earlier, Iranian state media reported that at least one person had been killed and ⁠14 injured in the blast, which comes amid heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington over Iran’s crackdown earlier this month on nationwide protests and over the country’s nuclear programme. “This [gas...

A documentary about a community resisting an immigration raid in Scotland has won an award at a major film festival. Everybody To Kenmure Street was recognised with the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Civil Resistance at the Sundance Film Festival in the US. The film documents events on May 13, 2021, when hundreds of people gathered in Kenmure Street in the Pollokshields area of Glasgow to prevent two of their neighbours being detained. The two men were released after protesters...

Ukraine’s power grid experienced mass outages on Saturday after a “technical malfunction” caused electrical lines between Moldova, Romania and Ukraine to fail, Ukraine’s energy minister said. The outages knocked out water supplies to Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and prompted a complete shutdown of the city’s metro network, paralysing transport for thousands. “Today at 10.42am a technical malfunction occurred, causing a simultaneous shutdown of the 400-kilovolt line between the power grids of Romania...

Labubu toymaker Pop Mart plans to establish its European headquarters in London, as UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer met the company’s founder during a high-profile China visit aimed at rebuilding Britain’s economic ties with the world’s second largest economy. That plan was revealed at a closed-door CEO round table on Friday during the UK-China Business Forum, where Starmer met a group of Chinese business leaders that included Pop Mart founder and CEO Wang Ning. “London stands at the heart of the...

Hospitals in Gaza said Israeli strikes killed at least 30 Palestinians including several children on Saturday, one of the highest tolls since the October ceasefire, a day after Israel accused Hamas of new truce violations. The strikes hit locations throughout Gaza, including an apartment building in Gaza City and a tent camp in Khan Younis, said officials at hospitals that received the bodies. The casualties included two women and six children from two different families. Another airstrike hit a...

The leaders of Japan and Britain agreed on Saturday on the urgent need for their countries and like-minded partners to cooperate in strengthening supply chains of critical minerals, as Tokyo seeks to align more closely with London in the face of China’s growing clout. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told a joint press event with her British counterpart Keir Starmer after their meeting in Tokyo that they affirmed the two nations will strategically promote cybersecurity cooperation and set up a new...

A landslide earlier this week collapsed several mines at a major coltan mining site in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), leaving at least 200 people dead, rebel authorities said on Saturday. The collapse took place on Wednesday at the Rubaya mines, which are controlled by the M23 rebels, said Lumumba Kambere Muyisa, spokesman for the rebel-appointed governor of North Kivu province. He said the landslide was caused by heavy rains. “For now, there are more than 200 dead, some of whom...

Wingtech Technology, the Chinese owner of chipmaker Nexperia, is expected to post a loss of between 9 billion yuan (US$1.3 billion) and 13.5 billion yuan in 2025, owing to the Dutch government’s takeover of the semiconductor firm, the Shanghai-listed company said in a statement on Friday. Wingtech said that its authority over the chipmaker continues to be “temporarily restricted” since the October 7 ruling of the Dutch Enterprise Chamber, a special division of the Amsterdam Court of Appeal,...

A Nevada jury on Friday convicted Dances With Wolves actor Nathan Chasing Horse of sexually assaulting indigenous women and girls in a case that sent shock waves through Indian Country. The jurors in Las Vegas found Chasing Horse guilty of 13 of the 21 charges he faced. Most of the guilty verdicts centred on Chasing Horse’s conduct with a victim who was 14 years old when he began assaulting her. He was acquitted of some sexual assault charges when the main victim was older and lived with him and...

There was no mayday call from the commercial fishing vessel Lily Jean as it navigated the frigid Atlantic Ocean on Friday morning on its way home to Gloucester, Massachusetts, America’s oldest fishing port. The US Coast Guard was notified by the boat’s beacon that alerts when it hits the water. When rescuers arrived they found one person dead, floating in the water, along with a debris field and an empty lifeboat. Six people remain missing. The fate of the Lily Jean, a 22-metre (72-foot) fishing...

The Trump administration has approved a massive new series of arms sales to Israel totalling US$6.67 billion and to Saudi Arabia worth US$9 billion. The State Department announced the sales to America’s allies in the Middle East late on Friday as tensions rise in the region over the possibility of US military strikes on Iran. They were made public after the department notified Congress of its approval of the sales earlier in the day. The sales also come as President Donald Trump pushes ahead...

This year started with a bang – from the United States’ intervention in Venezuela and the investigation opened against US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to US President Donald Trump’s renewed claims on Greenland and the potential for US action following instability in Iran. Amid these crises, gold prices are now over US$5,500 per ounce, up over 27 per cent from the price on January 1. This comes after the price of gold jumped by 65 per cent in 2025 after soaring by 27 per cent in...

Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodriguez ‌on Friday announced a proposed “amnesty law” for hundreds of prisoners in the country, and said the infamous Helicoide detention centre in the capital Caracas, which rights groups have long denounced as the site of prisoner abuse, would be converted into a centre for sport and social services. “May it be a law that serves to heal the wounds left by political confrontation, violence and extremism. May it serve to restore justice in our country and...

The man who dumped a five-year-old girl in the Everglades – leaving her to be killed by alligators – had his life spared by a jury on Friday afternoon in a Miami-Dade courtroom. Harrel Braddy, 76, sat quietly when the verdict was read, briefly putting down his head before looking up at the ceiling. His eyes appeared to water. Braddy hugged his lawyers as the jury walked out of the courtroom. The girl’s mother, who testified about the horrific details of Braddy’s attack, was not in the...

Former Google software engineer Ding Linwei was convicted by a federal jury in San Francisco ‌on Thursday of stealing AI trade secrets from the US tech ‍giant to benefit two Chinese companies he was secretly working for, the US Department of Justice said on Thursday. Ding, a 38-year-old Chinese national, was found guilty after an 11-day trial ⁠of seven counts of economic espionage and seven counts of theft of trade secrets for stealing thousands of pages of confidential information. Each...

Three news items caught my eye over the past few days. The European Union is finally ready to totally ban the import of Russian natural gas. (You mean they have still been buying Russian gas?) The new National Defence Strategy put out by the Pentagon says the United States will de-prioritise Europe – which must address its own regional security needs – and focus on deterring China. And former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder wrote a piece in a newspaper that ended up drawing a lot of flak for...

Washington on Friday welcomed a Panamanian court ruling cancelling a contract held by a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison Holdings to operate two ports along the Panama Canal, a decision seen as a boost to the United States’ efforts to counter Chinese influence in the western hemisphere. The reaction came as Panama’s government sought to reassure workers and investors on the ground that trade and jobs would not be affected. “The United States is encouraged by the recent Panamanian...

Catherine O’Hara, a gifted Canadian-born comic actress and SCTV alum who starred as Macaulay Culkin’s harried mother in two Home Alone films and won an Emmy as the dramatically ditsy wealthy matriarch Moira Rose in Schitt’s Creek died on Friday. She was 71. O’Hara died at her home in Los Angeles “following a brief illness”, according to a statement from her agency, Creative Artists Agency. Further details were not immediately available. O’Hara’s career was launched at the Second City in Toronto...

The US Justice Department has opened a federal civil rights investigation into the shooting of Alex Pretti, the Minneapolis resident killed by Border Patrol officers on January 24, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Friday. “We’re looking at everything that would shed light on what happened that day and in the days and weeks leading up to what happened,” Blanche said during a news conference. Blanche did not explain why the DOJ decided to open an investigation into Pretti’s killing,...

The World Trade Organization has faulted the United States in a dispute brought by China over US green energy subsidies introduced under former US president Joe Biden, according to a ruling issued on Friday. The global trade body’s dispute panel said that large tax credits granted under Biden’s landmark climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), were “inconsistent” with several WTO agreements and should be withdrawn. That law, which was signed by Biden in 2022, was the largest climate...

Beijing has lifted sanctions on British peers and lawmakers, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said, following his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. “This has been a cause of concern in parliament and for parliamentarians for some time and that is why I raised it on this visit,” Starmer told ITV News in Shanghai. “And the response from the Chinese is that the restrictions no longer apply and President Xi has told me that that means that all parliamentarians are welcome to visit,” he...

Federal prosecutors cannot seek the death penalty against Luigi Mangione in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, a judge ruled on Friday, foiling the Trump administration’s bid to see him executed for what it called a “premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America”. US District Judge Margaret Garnett dismissed a federal murder charge that had enabled prosecutors to seek capital punishment, finding that it was technically flawed. She wrote that she did so to...

The US Justice Department on Friday published millions of ‌new files related to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, including emails that show Howard Lutnick, President Donald Trump’s commerce secretary, apparently visited Epstein’s private island for lunch years after he claimed to have cut off ties. Todd ‍Blanche, the US deputy attorney general, said Friday’s massive batch of documents marked the end of the Trump administration’s planned releases under a law passed in November that...

Spanish police have detained a 38-year-old Chinese national who owned a ‌hair salon near Barcelona on suspicion of financing ‍the militant group Hamas through about €600,000 (US$715,000) in cryptocurrency transfers, regional police said on Friday. Investigators traced at least 31 crypto transactions ⁠from virtual wallets controlled by the suspect to addresses that are suspected of being linked to an entity used by the Islamist group, whose attack on Israel on October 7, ‍2023, triggered a...

The Islamic State extremist group on Friday claimed responsibility for an attack in Niger on an air force base in the capital that wounded four soldiers and damaged an aircraft. The claim of responsibility was contained in a statement on Amaq News Agency, the group’s propaganda wing, that said it was “a surprise and coordinated attack” that inflicted heavy losses. State television reported that Niger’s forces responded quickly to the assault early on Thursday, killing 20 of the attackers and...

Former CNN anchor Don Lemon has been arrested after he entered a Minnesota church and recorded anti-immigration enforcement protesters who disrupted a service in an incident that increased tensions between residents and the Trump administration, his lawyer said on Friday. Lemon was taken into custody by federal agents in Los Angeles, where he had been covering the Grammy Awards, Abbe Lowell said. It is unclear what charge or charges Lemon is facing in the January 18 protest. The arrest came...

Israel said Friday that it will reopen the pedestrian border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt in both directions over the weekend, marking an important step forward for US President Donald Trump’s Gaza ceasefire plan. COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of coordinating aid to Gaza, said in a statement that starting on Sunday a “limited movement of people only” would be allowed through the Rafah crossing, Gaza’s main gateway to the outside world. The announcement followed...

China and the United Kingdom are expected to sign more business deals as the British delegation, which comprises 54 companies, heads to Shanghai from Beijing as part of Keir Starmer’s visit, the first by a UK prime minister since 2018. The UK delegation will attend a reception in Shanghai on Friday evening, according to Peter Burnett, chief executive of the China-Britain Business Council. A business forum will be held, followed by lunch on Saturday before the group departs the country. “I think...

US Agency for International Development staffers in early 2024 drafted a warning to senior officials in Joe Biden’s administration: Northern Gaza had turned into an “Apocalyptic Wasteland” with dire shortages of food and medical aid. Three months after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks and Israel’s incursion into the Gaza Strip, the internal message laid out in gruesome detail scenes observed by United Nations staff who visited the area on a two-part humanitarian fact-finding mission in January...

In Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, Mike Campbell described how he went bankrupt: “Gradually, and then suddenly.” Over the past weeks, there is a feeling that US President Donald Trump and his administration have reached the “suddenly” bit. First, Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney captivated a World Economic Forum audience when he described the “rupture” in the rules-based order, a “bargain” that “no longer works”: leaving middle countries like Canada with no choice but to dilute their...

“Assemble!” someone bellowed in the prison corridor, cutting through the silence. Murmurs began echoing off the white walls, and the stairwells filled with people from all over the world: Egyptians, Chinese, Cameroonians, Kenyans, an Italian - all soldiers captured fighting for Russia, now held in a Ukrainian jail. Some joined the Russian military in search of a better life or to escape their home countries, while others were persuaded by Russia’s war aims. Some say they were tricked or forced...

US President Donald Trump sued the US Treasury and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for at least US$10 billion over an unauthorised disclosure of his tax returns to the press during his first term in office, potentially putting American taxpayers on the hook for a massive payout. The suit was filed on Thursday in Miami federal court by Trump, his sons Donald Jnr and Eric, and the Trump Organization, which manages the president’s real estate holdings. Trump had long criticised the IRS for allegedly...

Trump allies have called for Judge James E. Boasberg to be investigated and impeached after decisions that questioned the administration’s respect for the rule of law.

A Democrat won a state legislative special election in a district that President Trump carried by 17 percentage points, unnerving Republicans in Texas and beyond.

Mr. Newsom, the California governor and a potential presidential candidate, writes that the privileged caricature of his background is mistaken.

His introspective memoir tries to challenge the conventional wisdom about his upbringing, explores his marriages and airs a little dirty laundry — but says relatively little about politics.

All have amassed enormous war chests, new filings show, making them the financial wild cards of this year’s midterm elections and feared political spenders.

Kendrick Lamar has the most nominations on Sunday, followed by Lady Gaga. But one week before his Super Bowl halftime show, the Puerto Rican superstar could make history.

The 32-year-old performer has spent years coming up as a singer and songwriter. On Sunday, he’ll compete for two top awards, album of the year and best new artist.

A guide to everything you need to know for the 68th annual awards on Sunday night.

Blanketed beaches. Frozen suburbs. Football fields buried in snow. Everywhere in the region, people felt the storm, which caused two deaths.

The 50 units in Upper Manhattan will house single people who may be reluctant to stay in group shelters.

New York City is icy and cold right now, but you’re probably not going to be able to walk to New Jersey any time soon.

Warm temperatures and extremely low snowfall threaten water resources for the year.

Jacob Kornbluh, a former lox-slinger with no degrees, became an unlikely fixture in New York politics. Now he is chasing the story of a lifetime, inside the new City Hall.

How doctors can better navigate difficult patients and families.

This is a presidency that is, by any measure, failing.

The attack comes during a winter freeze and despite efforts by President Trump and others to get the two countries to negotiate a truce.

A yearslong effort to convince Washington of religious persecution is shifting foreign policy toward the West African nation, with major consequences.

Spurning the free verse of many of his contemporaries, he held to an older tradition. He also wrote spirited poems for children.

The woman told police she was at a party when she was drugged and assaulted by five boys, including Mr. Alexander, who is currently on trial for sex trafficking.