President Donald Trump urged his political base on Saturday to stop attacking his administration over files related to notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a case that has become an obsession for conspiracy theorists.Trump’s Department of Justice and the FBI said in a memo made public last week there was no evidence that the disgraced financier kept a “client list” or was blackmailing powerful figures.They also dismissed the claim that Epstein was murdered in jail, confirming his death by suicide at a New York prison in 2019, and said they would not be releasing any more information on the probe.The move was met with incredulity by some on the US far-right — many of whom have backed Trump for years — and strident criticism of Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel.”What’s going on with my ‘boys’ and, in some cases, ‘gals?’ They’re all going after Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is doing a FANTASTIC JOB!” Trump said Saturday in a lengthy post on his Truth Social platform.”We’re on one Team, MAGA, and I don’t like what’s happening. We have a PERFECT Administration, THE TALK OF THE WORLD, and ‘selfish people’ are trying to hurt it, all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein,” he added, referring to his “Make America Great Again” movement. Many among the MAGA faithful have long contended that so-called “Deep State” actors were hiding information on Epstein’s elite associates.”Next the DOJ will say ‘Actually, Jeffrey Epstein never even existed,'” furious pro-Trump conspiracy theorist Alex Jones tweeted after last week’s move. “This is over the top sickening.”Far-right influencer Laura Loomer called for Trump to fire Bondi over the issue, labeling her “an embarrassment.”But on Saturday, Trump came to the defense of his attorney general, suggesting that the so-called “Epstein Files” were a hoax perpetrated by the Democratic Party for political gain, without specifying what benefits they hoped to attain.On Saturday, Trump struck an exasperated tone in his admonishment of his supporters.”For years, it’s Epstein, over and over again,” he said. “Let’s…not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about.”The US president called for Patel and Bondi to instead focus on what he terms “The Rigged and Stolen Election of 2020,” which Trump lost to Joe Biden.The Republican has repeatedly perpetuated unfounded conspiracy theories about his loss being due to fraud.He called for the FBI to be allowed to focus on that investigation “instead of spending month after month looking at nothing but the same old, Radical Left inspired Documents on Jeffrey Epstein. LET PAM BONDI DO HER JOB — SHE’S GREAT!”Trump, who appears in at least one decades-old video alongside Epstein at a party, has denied allegations that he was named in the files or had any direct connection to the financier.”The conspiracy theories just aren’t true, never have been,” said FBI Director Patel on Saturday, hours before Trump’s social media post.Not everyone, however, seemed to be on the same page.US media reported that Dan Bongino — an influential right-wing podcast host whom Trump appointed FBI deputy director — had threatened to resign over the administration’s handling of the issue. 

Bad Bunny’s sweeping first concert of his three-month Puerto Rico residency was a night of palpable emotion for the megastar whose latest smash artistic endeavor brings his global stardom back to his roots.The marathon show in San Juan late Friday was flush with styles — from club beats and high-octane salsa to folkloric dance and soulful acoustics.At one point, the enormously popular Bad Bunny — born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio — appeared to pause to soak in the moment, breaking into a heartfelt smile as he gazed out at his thousands of ecstatic compatriots.Savoring the present and honoring the past is a lesson taken from the 31-year-old’s sixth album “Debi Tirar Mas Fotos” (“I Should Have Taken More Photos”) and a theme the residency is celebrating, with a full-throated ode to Puerto Rican heritage.The ambitious setlist included many of Bad Bunny’s most recent tracks that underscore injustices in the US Caribbean island territory, but the evening was one of celebration: a lens on Puerto Rico that focuses on its resistance, pride and joy.The first song was previously unreleased, and there were no details on whether the track will eventually have an official drop.Some fans online speculated that perhaps he’ll keep it exclusive to the residency.That would be a fitting move for the artist who, after a blazing burst to global fame that saw him briefly move to Los Angeles, has returned home and intensified his efforts to make music about Puerto Ricans, for Puerto Ricans.The first nine shows of his 30-concert stretch, which will take over San Juan’s Coliseo for consecutive three-day weekends into September, are only open to Puerto Rican residents — and the odd celebrity like LeBron James, who attended Friday night.- ‘He made it’ -The night paid homage to Puerto Rican culture and history — including with percussive plena music and bomba-infused rhythms — but it was also a career retrospective of sorts, showcasing the immense range that Bad Bunny has exhibited since his major breakthrough less than a decade ago.The show featured the heavy Latin trap of his 2018 hit “La Romana” and the 2020 club smash “Yo Perreo Sola” — shining examples of his earlier work in reggaeton that catapulted him to stardom.”His reggaeton never fails,” student John Hernandez Ramirez said ahead of the concert.The 21-year-old said he was drawn to Bad Bunny for the heart-pounding beats. But more recently, he said he has been inspired by the artist’s lyrical evolution.Hailing from a rural area of Puerto Rico, Hernandez Ramirez said he found particular resonance in “Lo Que Paso a Hawaii” — Bad Bunny’s exploration of gentrification, detrimental tourism and the colonization of both the state and his homeland.Bad Bunny highlighted those issues in the lead-up to the concert, projecting historical facts onto a big screen over the lush, tropical set on which chickens roamed freely. Many of the sentiments drew enormous cheers from spectators as they filed in.”Puerto Rico has been a colony since Christopher Columbus ‘discovered’ the island during his second voyage to the New World in 1493,” one read, with a parenthetical explaining that “the Taino tribe already inhabited the island.”From atop a house built in the island’s typical style, Bad Bunny delivered some of his most iconic songs, including the recent “Nuevayol” along with “Titi me pregunto.”He then returned to the main stage for a hip-swiveling salsa sequence, wearing a 1970s-style tailored suit in the style of the genre’s icons who preceded him.Streamers in the colors of the Puerto Rican flag burst from the ceiling as he led fans in a mesmerizing medley that included “Baile Inolvidable,” accompanied by a full band.The show clocked in at three hours but fans — many adorned in flag attire and others sporting baseball jerseys of the Puerto Rican baseball legend Roberto Clemente — couldn’t get enough.Marta Cuellar, a 61-year-old Colombian and longtime Puerto Rican resident, told AFP that the series of concerts is a great way to celebrate the island — and a gift to Latin American culture more generally.”Bad Bunny,” she said, “is going to be a legend.”Jorell Melendez Badillo, a Puerto Rican scholar who collaborated with Bad Bunny on visual elements of the latest album, said that the residency is a celebration of “not only Benito, but ourselves.””He’s ours. We feel as if we are there with Benito along this journey. We’ve seen him also grow through the spotlight, through his career.” “He made it,” the historian said. “And we all made it with him.”

US Attorney General Pam Bondi said Saturday she had ordered charges to be dropped against a doctor accused of destroying Covid-19 jabs and issuing fake vaccination certificates.The abrupt halt to proceedings comes just days after the trial commenced, and is the latest boost to the vaccine-skeptic movement from President Donald Trump’s administration.Michael Kirk Moore, a plastic surgeon in the western state of Utah, was charged by the Department of Justice in 2023 alongside his clinic and three others for “running a scheme” to defraud the government.He was accused of destroying or disposing of over $28,000 worth of government-provided Covid vaccines and handing out at least 1,937 false vaccine record cards in exchange for payment.Moore, who faced decades behind bars, was also accused of administering a saline solution to children — at the behest of their parents — so that they would think they had been vaccinated against Covid.Moore’s trial began this week at a federal court in Salt Lake City.But on Tuesday, Republican lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of Trump’s most vocal hard-right supporters, said she had written to Bondi calling for charges against Moore to be dropped.”Dr. Moore gave his patients a choice when the federal government refused to do so. He did not deserve the years in prison he was facing. It ends today,” Bondi wrote on X.Bondi’s decision also notably comes as she faces fire from right-wing activists over her handling of a probe into the late financier Jeffrey Epstein.She thanked Greene and Utah Senator Mike Lee, another hard-right lawmaker, for their advocacy for dropping charges against Moore.The Covid-19 pandemic sparked fierce political division in the US between those who supported lockdowns and vaccination drives, and those who considered the measures as restrictions on freedom.Trump, himself vaccinated against Covid-19, has appointed as his Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has initiated an overhaul of American vaccine policy.Kennedy said Moore “deserves a medal for his courage and commitment to healing,” in an X post in April.At the end of May, Kennedy announced that federal authorities would no longer recommend Covid-19 jabs for children and pregnant women, prompting accusations from medical groups that he was taking away parents’ ability to opt for vaccinations.Kennedy has been accused of spreading vaccine misinformation, including about the measles vaccine, even as the US grapples with its worst measles epidemic in 30 years.