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Victims of notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein said Wednesday they were compiling a confidential list of his associates who abused underage girls.President Donald Trump, a one-time close friend of the deceased financier, sought meanwhile to dampen the enduring political furor over the Epstein case.”This is a Democrat hoax that never ends,” Trump told reporters at the White House.”They’re trying to get people to talk about something that’s totally irrelevant to the success that we’ve had as a nation since I’ve been president,” he said.Trump’s comments came as eight of Epstein’s victims held an emotional news conference at the US Capitol, where some of them spoke publicly for the first time about the sexual abuse they suffered.Some of the women were as young as 14 when introduced to Epstein.”We were just kids,” said Marina Lacerda, who said she was paid $300 to give “an older guy” a massage at his New York mansion.”It went from a dream job to the worst nightmare,” said Lacerda, who was “Minor Victim 1″ in Epstein’s federal indictment.The women urged the Justice Department to release all of the Epstein investigation files and for Congress to pass a bill compelling their publication.”There is no hoax. The abuse was real,” said Haley Robson, who was recruited to give a massage to Epstein when she was 16 years old.”If I disobeyed him I knew something bad would happen,” Robson said.Epstein died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking of underage girls.Many of Trump’s supporters have been obsessed with the Epstein case for years and have held as an article of faith that “deep state” elites were protecting Epstein associates in the Democratic Party and Hollywood.They were further incensed in July when the FBI and Justice Department said that Epstein had committed suicide, did not blackmail any prominent figures, and did not keep a “client list.”Lisa Phillips, another Epstein victim, said she and other women were putting together a list of their own of Epstein associates.”We know the names. Many of us were abused by them,” Phillips said. “We will confidentially compile the names we all know were regularly in the Epstein world.”We are not asking for pity. We are demanding accountability.”- ‘Your time is up’ -Robson said she and other Epstein victims “know who was involved” and condemned law enforcement for failing to act.”We know the players and we are sitting here for 20 years waiting for you to get up and do something,” she said. “Well guess what? Your time is up, and now we’re doing it.”Republican lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene attended the press conference and said if given a list “I will walk in the Capitol on the House floor and I’ll say every damn name that abused these women.””I’d be proud to do it,” she said.Attorney Brad Edwards, who has represented scores of Epstein’s victims, said he did not believe the well-connected hedge fund manager kept a list of “clients” he provided with girls.”I don’t think he wrote the names of those people down,” Edwards said. “There’s not a list of, ‘Hey, here’s all of the people that I sent females to.’ That’s just not how that organization worked.”Trump was once a friend of Epstein’s and, according to The Wall Street Journal, the president’s name was among hundreds found during a Justice Department review of the Epstein files, though there has been no evidence of wrongdoing.The news conference was held a day after a House of Representatives committee released 33,000 documents from the investigation into Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking.Thousands of documents related to the Epstein probe have been circulated previously and Robert Garcia, the ranking Democrat on the House committee, said most of the records released on Tuesday had already been made public.

US President Donald Trump’s deadly strike on an alleged drug-smuggling boat from Venezuela marks a significant escalation from law enforcement to military action against cartels that his administration has branded as terror groups.Video footage posted by Trump on social media Tuesday showed a multi-engine speedboat with several people aboard bouncing across the waves — but rather than being stopped and boarded, the vessel is suddenly engulfed in an inferno.The US president said 11 members of the Tren de Aragua gang were killed in the strike, which should “serve as notice to anybody even thinking about bringing drugs into the United States of America.”Ryan Berg, director of the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the strike “demonstrates a change in the rules of engagement.””There is no longer US Coast Guard boarding of vessels; there is an approach far more similar to how the United States deals with pirates in the Gulf region, or terrorists in the Sahel,” he said.The United States — which has a long history of carrying out strikes against suspected militants without due process — designated Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua, Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel and several other drug trafficking organizations as terror groups earlier this year.The strike on the boat comes at a time of soaring tensions between the United States and Venezuela over the deployment of American warships in the region that the Washington says are to combat trafficking but which Caracas views as a threat.- ‘Highly dissuasive effect’ -The United States alleges that leftist Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro heads a cocaine trafficking cartel and recently doubled its bounty to $50 million in exchange for his capture to face drug charges.Maduro has meanwhile accused Trump of attempting to effect regime change and launched a drive to sign up thousands of militia members.Asked about the potential for escalation with Venezuela as a result of the strike, Berg said that “Maduro is unlikely to say much, given that doing so would essentially confirm the administration’s assertion that he is a narcotrafficker and the head of a cartel.”Gustavo Flores-Macias, dean of the University of Maryland School of Public Policy, noted that the United States has a history of military interventions in Latin America, but said this one was the first under Trump’s policy of designating cartels as terror groups.”With the turn toward military strikes instead of traditional law enforcement in addressing drug trafficking in the region, the White House is looking to send a strong message,” Flores-Macias said.That message is aimed “not only to deter drug traffickers but also as a show of force to put the government of Nicolas Maduro on notice that the US is considering military action in Venezuela,” he said.It remains to be seen how effective Trump’s policy will be at curbing trafficking in the Caribbean, but Berg said the US Navy’s multi-ship deployment “could disrupt Southern Caribbean trafficking routes for some time, with its generational scale and size.””In the short term, (the strike) is likely to have a highly dissuasive effect,” he said. “Few will risk being in a ‘go fast’ boat anytime soon.”

US President Donald Trump offered Friday to send more troops to Poland as he welcomed the country’s new nationalist president Karol Nawrocki to the White House with a military flyover.Trump also hinted at taking stronger action against Russia if it fails to end its war with Ukraine, which has put NATO ally Poland on edge since Moscow’s invasion in 2022.Nawrocki, a conservative historian and fervent Trump supporter, visited the White House during Poland’s election campaign and is now making his first foreign trip as president.Trump gave him a warm welcome — including an offer to boost the US military footprint in Poland, where around 8,000 US troops are currently reinforcing NATO’s eastern flank, according to US media.”We’ll put more there if they want,” Trump, 79, said after shaking hands with Nawrocki, 42, in the Oval Office. “We’re with Poland all the way and we’ll help Poland protect itself.”Trump added that the flyover by F-16 and F-35 jets during Nawrocki’s arrival was “very much in honor” of a Polish F-16 jet pilot killed last week while preparing for an air show.”He was a legend in Poland,” Trump said of the pilot, Major Maciej “Slab” Krakowian, 37.- ‘Very proud’ -Nawrocki then praised the US troop presence and said it was “the first time in history” that Poland had been happy to host foreign troops.He also stressed that Warsaw aims to keep increasing its own military spending within the NATO alliance to meet Trump’s demands — despite already being the top spender based on the proportion of GDP.Trump meanwhile prided himself on having backed political novice Nawrocki in Polish elections, the latest in a series of right-wing leaders in Europe supported by Trump.Trump welcomed Nawrocki to the Oval Office in June before the Polish election, with the White House posting a picture of the pair grinning and giving the thumbs-up sign.”I don’t endorse too many people, but I endorsed him, and I was very proud of the job he’s done,” Trump said on Wednesday.The eastern European nation is deeply polarized, with the nationalist Nawrocki clashing with the pro-EU government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, a former European Council chief. During the election campaign, Nawrocki highlighted the importance of ties with the United States and his close relationship with Trump. His “Poland First, Poles First” echoed Trump’s “America First” slogan.- Strong Ukraine support -The talks were set to be dominated by the war in Poland’s neighbor Ukraine.While Trump and Nawrocki see eye-to-eye politically, Poland is closely watching the US leader’s peace efforts in Ukraine, which Warsaw has largely been frozen out of.Poland has been a strong supporter of Ukraine since Russia’s 2022 invasion and is a vital transit country for military and humanitarian supplies.Trump said that “you’ll see things happen” if he’s dissatisfied with President Vladimir Putin’s response, hinting at fresh sanctions or tariffs against Moscow.”I have no message to President Putin, he knows where I stand, and he’ll make a decision one way or the other,” Trump told reporters.Trump will speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday, a White House official told AFP. He is also set to speak to European leaders, the French presidency said.Ukraine is proving divisive in Poland too.Nawrocki recently blocked a law extending Ukrainian refugees’ rights proposed by Tusk’s government. Nawrocki has also, like Trump, opposed Ukraine’s desire for NATO membership.

A historic California Gold Rush-era town lay in ruins Wednesday after lightning storms sparked almost two dozen wildfires.The storied settlement of Chinese Camp was badly hit when flames roared through on Tuesday, with photographs showing the smoldering shells of 19th century buildings.Other structures appear to have been reduced to ashes.Around 12,000 acres (5,000 hectares) have been charred by 22 separate blazes raging around 100 miles (160 kilometers) east of San Francisco, officials said.The series of fires — dubbed the TCU September Lightning Complex — erupted after a storm passed through the area, with lightning strikes igniting the dry vegetation.Hundreds of firefighters were tackling the blazes, some of which were in remote and inaccessible areas and involved crews hiking deep into isolated countryside, said Cal Fire, the state’s firefighting agency.”A number of structures have been damaged or destroyed, and a Damage Inspection Team is on order,” a Cal Fire statement said.”Weather conditions continue to be a challenge to crews as gusty winds remain in the area from nearby thunderstorm cells.”Multiple communities continue to be at risk, including ancestral tribal lands, and evacuation orders and warnings remain in place.”Starting in 1849, a gold rush brought tens of thousands of prospectors to California to seek their fortune, including from China.Chinese Camp is described by county tourism managers as an “abandoned ghost town” but remains home to dozens of people, according to census data.It is also the site of a number of historic buildings, including a post office built 170 years ago and one of the oldest Catholic churches in that part of California.Wildfires are a natural part of the life cycle of the countryside in the Western United States.But human activity — specifically the unchecked use of fossil fuels — is changing the climate, often making blazes more likely and more destructive.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio vowed Wednesday the United States would ramp up strikes on cartels after blowing up an alleged drug boat off Venezuela, but assured Mexico of respect to its sovereignty.In the highest-level meeting between the two neighbors since Donald Trump returned to the White House, Rubio met for an hour and a half in Mexico City with President Claudia Sheinbaum, who has sought cooperation in the complicated relationship with Washington.The visit came a day after Trump said US forces blew up an alleged drug boat off the coast of Venezuela, whose leftist leader Nicolas Maduro is a nemesis of the United States.Rubio pledged to ramp up the stakes for drug traffickers, saying that years of peaceful interdiction has not worked and not affected cartels’ bottom line.The United States “blew it up and it’ll happen again. Maybe it’s happening right now,” Rubio told a news conference.”These are not stockbrokers. These are not real estate agents who on the side deal with drugs.””If you’re on a boat full of cocaine or fentanyl, whatever, headed to the United States, you’re an immediate threat to the United States,” he said.But Rubio made clear that he did not have similar qualms about Mexico and hailed the efforts by Sheinbaum.”It is the closest security cooperation we have ever had maybe with any country but certainly in the history of US-Mexico relations,” he said.In a joint statement, the two countries said they “reaffirm our security cooperation, which is based on the principles of reciprocity, respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, shared and differentiated responsibility, as well as mutual trust.”Sheinbaum, addressing reporters on Tuesday before the strike, said that any US military “intervention” in Mexico was a red line.- Sign to Venezuela -AFP has not been able to verify the number of people in the boat and their identities.The attack marked a major escalation of US action after Trump signed an executive order authorizing military action against drug cartels.But Venezuela is a unique case, as the United States does not recognize the legitimacy of President Nicolas Maduro, a leftist firebrand whose last election in 2024 was widely seen internationally and by the opposition as riddled with irregularities.Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado hailed what she called a tightening of the “siege imposed by Western democracies” on Maduro’s “narco-terrorist cartel.””Venezuela is almost free,” Machado said in a video. “Nothing can stop a people who have already decided to be free and live in democracy.”- Pragmatic approach by Sheinbaum -Sheinbaum, who also comes from the political left, has sought a pragmatic relationship with Trump, who has voiced respect for her despite his past harsh comments about Mexicans.Like her predecessor and fellow leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Sheinbaum has largely cooperated with Trump in his key priority of curbing migration to the United States.Mexico has stepped up enforcement on its borders in recent years — including its own southern border, a gateway for Central American migrants to the United States.Sheinbaum has also taken steps to curb imports from China, whose manufacturers have eyed Mexico as a way into the US market.The Trump administration has already imposed a slew of new sanctions in hopes of weakening major cartels in Mexico.Trump blames the cartels for the flow of fentanyl, the powerful painkiller behind an overdose epidemic in the United States.

The Metropolitan Opera in New York announced Wednesday an agreement to perform in Saudi Arabia and provide artistic training in the oil-rich kingdom as it works to shore up a creaky financial outlook.The prestigious cultural institution, which received a Moody’s credit downgrade just days ago, will travel to Riyadh for five years to perform during the opera house’s winter break under an agreement with the Saudi Music Commission.The performances will be at the Royal Diriyah Opera House, which is expected to open in 2028.The agreement commits Met creative staff to provide training to Saudi opera singers, composers, directors and other artisans. The collaboration also envisions the commissioning of a new opera, according to a joint press release by the Met and Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Culture.”Music is a universal language that transcends borders, uniting people through creativity,” said a statement from Paul Pacifico, the CEO of the Saudi Music Commission.”This collaboration is more than a cultural exchange; it is an opportunity to forge new connections, share our stories through music, and contribute to a vibrant global arts community.” The venture reflects the “increasingly challenging” economics of producing Grand Opera, Met General Manager Peter Gelb told AFP.”The Met cannot survive based on the earned revenue sources and the annual fundraising,” said Gelb, who declined to provide financial details about the venture. “This agreement with the Saudi government helps us meet our financial needs.”On August 27, Moody’s Ratings downgraded the Met two notches to “B3,” placing the institution more deeply into the non-investment grade category, reflecting “persistent and increasing deterioration in the operating performance.”A note from Moody’s emphasized Met moves to tap its endowment to cover deficits, noting a $70 million draw in 2023 and 2024 and another $50 million authorized in 2025.”These draws will reduce future support to budgetary operations as regular draws decline in line with lower reserves,” Moody’s said.Gelb said the Met is actively exploring other sources of raising funds. These include licensing agreements of its intellectual property, as well as naming rights to the Met building at Lincoln Center. 

A dealer dubbed the “Ketamine Queen” pleaded guilty to supplying the drugs that killed “Friends” actor Matthew Perry, when she appeared in a California court on Wednesday.Jasveen Sangha could face over six decades in prison after admitting to a bevy of charges, including one count of distributing ketamine resulting in death or serious bodily injury.Sangha, who is a dual citizen of the United States and Britain, has been in federal custody since August 2024, and is expected to be sentenced on December 10.The 42-year-old is the fifth person to admit playing a part in the death of the beloved actor, who had openly struggled for decades with substance addiction.Perry, 54, was found dead in the hot tub of his Los Angeles home in October 2023.A criminal investigation was launched soon after an autopsy discovered he had high levels of ketamine — an anesthetic — in his system.Dr Salvador Plasencia pleaded guilty to four counts of distribution of ketamine relating to the the weeks before Perry’s death.Another doctor, Mark Chavez, admitted last year to conspiring to distribute ketamine to Perry.Plasencia allegedly bought ketamine off Chavez and sold it to the American-Canadian actor at hugely inflated prices.”I wonder how much this moron will pay,” Plasencia wrote in one text message.Prosecutors said addict Perry was paying $2,000 per vial of ketamine; his dealers paid just $12.Sangha worked with a middleman, Erik Fleming, to sell 51 vials of ketamine to Perry’s live-in personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa.Iwamasa repeatedly injected Perry with the ketamine that she had supplied, including on October 28, 2023, when he administered at least three shots of Sangha’s drugs, which killed the actor.When Sangha heard news reports about Perry’s sudden death, she tried to cover her tracks.”Delete all our messages,” she instructed Fleming.When investigators raided Sangha’s home in North Hollywood they found methamphetamine, ketamine, ecstasy, cocaine, and counterfeit Xanax pills, as well as a money counting machine, a scale, and devices to detect wireless signals and hidden cameras.- ‘Mostly sober’ -Sangha on Wednesday pleaded guilty to one count of maintaining a drug-involved premises, three counts of distribution of ketamine and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death or serious bodily injury.Her plea acknowledges that she also sold four vials of ketamine to another man, 33-year-old Cody McLaury, in August 2019. McLaury died hours later from an overdose.”She’s taking responsibility for her actions,” her lawyer Mark Geragos told AFP earlier.The other people involved in the supply of drugs to Perry are expected to appear in court over the coming months to learn their fates.Perry had been taking ketamine as part of supervised therapy for depression.But prosecutors say that before his death he became addicted to the substance, which also has psychedelic properties and is a popular party drug.”Friends,” which followed the lives of six New Yorkers navigating adulthood, dating and careers, drew a massive following and made megastars of previously unknown actors.Perry’s role as the sarcastic man-child Chandler brought him fabulous wealth, but hid a dark struggle with addiction to painkillers and alcohol.In 2018, he suffered a drug-related burst colon and underwent multiple surgeries.In his 2022 memoir “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing,” Perry described going through detox dozens of times.”I have mostly been sober since 2001,” he wrote, “save for about sixty or seventy little mishaps.”

President Donald Trump hosted new Polish President Karol Nawrocki on Wednesday at the White House with a military flyover and an offer to send more US troops to the eastern European ally.Talks were expected to focus on efforts to end the war in Ukraine, where Trump’s peacemaking efforts have been struggling to get traction.Trump called it a “stupid war” and said he thought ending it would have been “much easier” for him.”It’s going to get done,” he vowed to reporters in the Oval Office, with Nawrocki at his side.Nawrocki, a nationalist historian and fervent Trump supporter, was in Washington for his first foreign visit as president after having visited the US leader to seek his backing during the Polish election campaign.Trump gave him a warm welcome, including an offer to boost the US military footprint in Poland.”We’ll put more there if they want,” he said in the Oval Office. “We’re with Poland all the way and we’ll help Poland protect itself.”Nawrocki praised the US troop presence and said it was “the first time in history” that Poland had been happy to host foreign troops, while stressing that Warsaw aims to keep increasing its own military spending within the NATO alliance.The White House said a flyover by F-16 and F-35 jets during Nawrocki’s arrival commemorated the death of a Polish F-16 jet pilot killed last week while preparing for an air show.Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly said in a statement to AFP that the flyover, which featured a so-called “missing-man formation,” was staged to “honor the memory of a brave Polish fighter pilot, whose life was tragically taken too soon, and capture the special relationship between our two countries.”While Trump and Nawrocki see eye-to-eye politically, Poland is closely watching the US leader’s peace efforts in neighboring Ukraine, which Warsaw has largely been frozen out of.- Ukraine war rages on -Key NATO and EU member Poland has been a strong supporter of Ukraine since Russia’s 2022 invasion and is a vital transit country for military and humanitarian supplies, as well as host to thousands of US troops.Trump’s efforts to get Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the negotiating table have so far stalled. Putin vowed during a visit to Beijing on Wednesday to keep fighting in Ukraine if a peace deal cannot be reached, while Zelensky said he hoped to talk to Trump on Thursday about possible additional sanctions against Russia.Nawrocki will also be seeking fresh support from Trump amid deep political polarization in Poland between himself and his country’s pro-EU government, led by former European Council chief Donald Tusk.The novice Polish president recently blocked a law extending Ukrainian refugees’ rights proposed by Tusk’s government. Nawrocki has also, like Trump, opposed Ukraine’s desire for NATO membership.The visit is nevertheless a chance for Trump to celebrate the election of yet another right-wing ally in Europe.Trump welcomed Nawrocki to the Oval Office in June before the Polish election, with the White House posting a picture of the pair grinning and giving the thumbs-up sign.During the election campaign, Nawrocki highlighted the importance of ties with the United States and his close ties with Trump. His “Poland First, Poles First” echoed Trump’s “America First” slogan.

California, Washington and Oregon announced Wednesday they will form a new public health body to issue vaccine guidelines, saying the move is needed to counter the Trump administration’s growing “politicization” of science.The planned “West Coast Health Alliance” comes amid turmoil at the federal level following the ouster of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director Sue Monarez, who had clashed with Health Secretary and vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over immunization policy.The alliance’s formation comes after mass layoffs at the CDC, and a shooting outside the agency’s headquarters in Atlanta by an anti-vaccine gunman that left a police officer dead.”President (Donald) Trump’s mass firing of CDC doctors and scientists — and his blatant politicization of the agency — is a direct assault on the health and safety of the American people,” California Governor Gavin Newsom said in a joint statement with officials from the other two states.”The CDC has become a political tool that increasingly peddles ideology instead of science — ideology that will lead to severe health consequences. California, Oregon and Washington will not allow the people of our states to be put at risk,” added Newsom, one of the country’s most prominent anti-Trump politicians.The statement said the alliance will work with scientists and medical associations to finalize shared principles “in the coming weeks.”Under Kennedy’s leadership, the federal health department has restricted access to Covid-19 vaccines, cut off funding for the mRNA technology credited with saving millions of lives during the pandemic, and dismissed a panel of independent experts that advises the CDC on immunization policy.A new panel of handpicked experts promptly voted to remove a vaccine preservative long at the center of conspiracy theories linking it to autism, despite decades of research showing it is safe.Kennedy, who has made promoting the debunked link between vaccines and autism a personal crusade, has vowed to unveil new information on the causes of the neurodevelopmental disorder this month.

The Trump administration is attacking higher education institutions in the United States as authoritarian governments seek to quash independent thought, the former president of Harvard University said Wednesday.The prestigious university is at loggerheads with Trump, who believes Ivy League schools are unaccountable bastions of liberal, anti-conservative bias and anti-Semitism, particularly around the protests against Israel’s campaign in Gaza. Trump has sought to cut more than $2.6 billion of funding to Harvard, and has moved to block entry of international students — a quarter of its student body.”The truth here is that our government, the American government, is attacking higher ed and universities,” Claudine Gay told the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences in Amsterdam.”The agenda here is about destroying knowledge institutions because they are centres of independent thought and information,” she added. “That is the story. Nothing justifies that. Nothing explains that. Other than authoritarians don’t like independent centres of thought and information,” said Gay in rare public comments.- ‘Distressing’ compliance policy -Gay, the first black woman to lead Harvard in its 368-year history, stepped down in January 2024 amid a row over alleged anti-Semitism on campus following protests about the Gaza war.Her resignation followed a heated appearance at a Capitol Hill hearing.Republican lawmaker Elise Stefanik likened student calls for a new intifada — an Arabic word for uprising that harks back to the first Palestinian revolt against Israel in 1987 — to inciting “genocide against the Jewish people in Israel and globally.”When Stefanik asked Gay whether such calls would violate Harvard’s code of conduct, Gay replied: “We embrace a commitment to free expression even of views that are objectionable, offensive, hateful.”When speech crosses into conduct that violates our policies, including policies against bullying, harassment or intimidation, we take action,” she said during the hearing.The blowback to the Congress hearing was rapid and intense.Former Harvard student and multi-million-dollar donor Bill Ackman claimed that the high-profile row had led to “billions of dollars of cancelled, paused, and withdrawn donations to the university”.Gay apologised but eventually resigned in January 2024 after allegations that she improperly cited scholarly sources in her academic work added to the pressure.In her comments in the Netherlands, she said Harvard appeared to be moving towards a policy of “compliance” with Trump’s demands.”This is distressing… Not only for those of us who are on campus and face the consequences directly, but also for all of those in higher ed who look to Harvard for leadership and guidance.”