Former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton is to testify behind closed doors Thursday before a congressional committee investigating the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.Former president Bill Clinton is scheduled to answer questions the following day from the Republican-led House Oversight Committee about his relations with Epstein, who died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial.The Clintons had initially rejected subpoenas ordering them to testify in the panel’s probe, but the Democratic power couple eventually agreed to do so after House Republicans threatened to hold them in contempt of Congress.Democrats say the investigation is being weaponized to attack political opponents of Republican President Donald Trump — himself a former Epstein associate who has not been called to testify — rather than to conduct legitimate oversight.Trump and Bill Clinton, both 79, feature prominently in the recently released trove of government documents related to Epstein, but have each said they broke ties with the financier before his 2008 conviction in Florida as a sex offender. Mere mention in the files is not proof of having committed a crime.The Clintons called for their depositions to be public but the committee insisted on questioning them behind closed doors, a move Bill Clinton denounced as “pure politics” and akin to a “kangaroo court.””If they want answers, let’s stop the games & do this the right way: in a public hearing, where the American people can see for themselves what this is really about,” the former Democratic president said on X.Hillary Clinton, 78, who lost the 2016 presidential election to Trump, said in an interview with the BBC last week that she and her husband “have nothing to hide.”She met Maxwell “on a few occasions,” she said, but never had any meaningful interactions with Epstein.Republicans are trying to deflect attention away from Trump by having them testify, she said.”Look at this shiny object. We’re going to have the Clintons, even Hillary Clinton, who never met the guy,” she said.The depositions are being held in Chappaqua, New York, where the Clintons reside.- Clemency -Bill Clinton has acknowledged flying on Epstein’s plane several times in the early 2000s for Clinton Foundation-related humanitarian work, but said he never visited Epstein’s private Caribbean island.Ghislaine Maxwell, 64, is the only person who has been convicted of a crime in connection with late financier.The former socialite is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking.She appeared via video-link before the House Oversight Committee earlier this month but refused to answer any questions, invoking her Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate herself.Her attorney, David Markus, said Maxwell would be prepared to speak publicly if granted clemency by Trump.Markus also said that Trump and Bill Clinton are “innocent of any wrongdoing.””Ms Maxwell alone can explain why, and the public is entitled to that explanation,” he said.Epstein cultivated a network of powerful business executives, politicians, celebrities and academics and the release of the Epstein files has had repercussions around the globe including the arrests in Britain of former prince Andrew and Peter Mandelson, the ex-ambassador to the United States. A number of prominent Americans have had their reputations damaged by their friendships with Epstein and have resigned their positions, but no one other than Maxwell has faced legal consequences.

When Khalid, Julia and Benjamin won their immigration cases last year, they were all given a similar message by the judge: You can now “can live freely.” “Congratulations.””Welcome to America.”The three are now being held by armed guards in Equatorial Guinea, a small, authoritarian petro-state in Central Africa, after being secretly deported by the United States as President Donald Trump pursues an unprecedented immigration crackdown.The three East Africans — who did not want to disclose their real names or nationality, for fear of repercussions — described their cases in interviews with AFP. They are part of a group of 20 deportees sent to Equatorial Guinea last month. Twenty-nine people in total have been sent there as part of an opaque $7.5 million deal with the Trump administration, according to a report by Senate Democrats.All 29 had deportation protections, according to Meredyth Yoon, a US-based attorney familiar with their cases.Equatorial Guinea has already sent most of the deportees back to their home countries or onto yet another country, and is pressuring the three deportees to do the same, the East Africans told AFP.Khalid, Julia and Benjamin don’t have passports, and they’ve had to pay for things like toothbrushes out of pocket while detained in a hotel in Malabo, the economic capital.”We can’t leave the hotel,” Khalid said.- Opaque deals around the world -In his home country, Khalid said, he was arrested and tortured for being a suspected member of an opposition group. A US judge granted him a status called “withholding of removal” last year, he said, because it was likely he “would face the same situation” if he were sent home. Benjamin and Julia also won withholding of removal, the two of them said. Benjamin was also granted deportation protection under the Convention Against Torture, a legally binding international treaty that has been ratified by Washington.The Trump administration deported them anyway, as part of a sweeping expansion to deportations where the government has argued it can send people to a country that isn’t their home nation.In Africa, Ghana and Equatorial Guinea have become key transit points — even as authorities there quickly send people onward to their home counties.The Senate report tracked at least 25 countries that have received or made deals to take third country nationals as deportees, including remote Uzbekistan and impoverished South Sudan.- ‘They will kill me’ -In Equatorial Guinea, only 11 of the 29 deportees remain in the country, with most having been sent back to their home nations, a lawyer representing those still held in Malabo told AFP. The deportees were mostly African nationals.The lawyer requested anonymity to speak about the issue due to its sensitivity in Equatorial Guinea, which has been ruled by Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo since 1979 and is regularly criticized for rights abuses.”They will kill me,” Julia told AFP of her home country’s government. She has already been beaten, jailed and raped by security forces because of her family’s alleged ties to opposition groups.Benjamin said when US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents came to his cell to deport him — all three had been held by ICE for months despite immigration judges ruling in their favor — they didn’t give him time to call his lawyers. They initially told him they were deporting him to his home country, which he thinks was done “to terrorize us.”Benjamin’s account echoes those of deportees sent to Ghana and interviewed by AFP last year, who said ICE agents misled them about the flight destination and beat people who resisted boarding.ICE did not respond to a request for comment.Khalid, Benjamin and Julia all had applied for asylum. They were instead granted withholding of removal, which comes with less rights but in the past has been treated as a “win” in court, said the US-based attorney, Yoon. Those with withholding of removal can’t be sent back to their home country, and are allowed to live in the United States and seek work authorization.The lawyer representing the detainees in Malabo said that it has been difficult to speak with his clients, because “authorization from the Ministry of Security is required to visit them.”Equatorial Guinean authorities have told the East Africans that “we can’t seek asylum here,” Khalid said.According to the UN refugee agency, “there are no formal procedures for asylum seekers to apply for refugee status” in the country.The deportees told AFP they are being pressured to return home — or, once they’re given passports, to go somewhere with visa-free access.”We came to America,” Khalid said. “But America has abandoned us.”

Former US Treasury secretary Larry Summers resigned from his teaching post at Harvard University over his links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the Ivy League institution said on Wednesday.Summers, who ran the US Treasury under former president Bill Clinton, was revealed in the Epstein files released by the Department of Justice to have had extensive exchanges with the now deceased financier.Clinton will testify before a congressional committee on Epstein on Friday while his wife, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, will appear Thursday.”Harvard Kennedy School Dean Jeremy Weinstein has accepted Professor Lawrence H. Summers’ resignation from his leadership position as co-director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government,” the university said in a statement, noting the move was linked to the Epstein case.”Professor Summers has announced that he will retire from his academic and faculty appointments at Harvard at the end of this academic year and will remain on leave until that time.”In a previous video clip that went viral, Summers, who taught government at the prestigious university’s Kennedy School, expressed regret to his students over his ties to Epstein. – ‘Statement of regret’ -“You will have seen my statement of regret expressing my shame with respect to what I did in communication with Mr Epstein,” he said.In November 2025, Summers said he was “stepping back” from public commitments after Congress released emails showing close communication between him and Epstein.”I take full responsibility for my misguided decision to continue communicating with Mr Epstein,” Summers said at the time in a statement to US media.Summers also previously resigned from the board of the OpenAI foundation over the disclosures.The mere mention of someone’s name in the Epstein files does not, in itself, imply any wrongdoing by that person. However, the documents made public show at the very least connections between Epstein or his circle and certain public figures who have often downplayed — or even denied — the existence of such ties.Epstein cultivated a global network of powerful politicians, business executives, academics and celebrities — many of whom have been tainted by their association with him.He had made $9.1 million in donations to Harvard University between 1998 and 2008, the institution said.A number of prominent Americans — from the Clintons to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates — have had their reputations damaged by their friendships with Epstein, but no one other than Epstein’s ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell has faced legal consequences in the United States.

The IMF on Wednesday called on the United States to work with trading partners and find ways to mutually ease trade curbs, as it issued a review of the world’s biggest economy.The International Monetary Fund’s findings covered the first year of Donald Trump’s second presidency, in which he unleashed wide-ranging tariffs on allies and competitors alike as he sought to shrink the US trade deficit and boost domestic manufacturing.But his on-again, off-again tariffs have roiled supply chains and financial markets.During the year, the Trump administration also sought to lower reliance on unauthorized immigrant workers and reduce the federal government’s role in the economy, the IMF noted.But the fund said Wednesday that Washington should work constructively with partners “to address concerns over unfair trade practices and agree on a coordinated reduction in trade restrictions and industrial policy distortions that have negative cross-border effects.””Where trade and investment measures (including tariffs and export controls) are put in place for national security reasons, such policies should be applied narrowly,” it urged.IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva told journalists that the report was prepared before the Supreme Court struck down many of Trump’s tariffs last Friday, adding that it would digest this development.Since the ruling, Trump has tapped a different law to impose a new 10-percent global tariff, which he also threatened to hike to 15 percent.Georgieva met with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell before the report’s release.She noted that the fund shares the Trump administration’s concern about the size of the US trade and current account deficit. She added that the country’s current account gap is “too big.”- ‘Stability risk’ -The continuing rise in public debt also “remains a major issue” to keep in mind, Georgieva said.The IMF said that “while the risk of sovereign stress in the US is low, the upward path for the public debt-GDP ratio and increasing levels of short-term debt-GDP represent a growing stability risk to the US and global economy.”Overall, the fund projects US GDP growth to come in at 2.6 percent in 2026, picking up from 2.2 percent last year.While the economy is “buoyant,” the IMF warned that “uncertainty around trade policies could represent a larger-than- expected drag on activity.”It noted in the concluding statement of its “Article IV” consultation that the country saw “continued strong productivity growth even though the government shutdown took a bite out of activity in the fourth quarter.”The IMF last issued US-related policy suggestions in 2024.At that time, it raised concern over growing trade restrictions under then-president Joe Biden’s administration, urging officials to unwind obstacles to free trade.The fund in 2024 also pushed for a reversal in the rise in public debt, noting that officials could raise taxes among other reforms.