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Donald Trump’s past ties with Jeffrey Epstein are under scrutiny after the US president slammed a Wall Street Journal report that he sent a lewd letter to the infamous sex offender as “fake news.”AFP looks at the pair’s relationship as the Trump administration also faces demands to release all government files on Epstein’s alleged crimes and his death.- Parties and private jets -Trump, then a property mogul and self-styled playboy, appears to have known Epstein, a wealthy money manager, since the 1990s.They partied together in 1992 with NFL cheerleaders at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, according to footage from NBC News, which shows the pair talking and laughing.The same year, Epstein was Trump’s only guest at a “calendar girl” competition he hosted involving more than two dozen young women, The New York Times reported. In a display of their close ties, Trump flew on Epstein’s private jet at least seven times during the 1990s, according to flight logs presented in court and cited by US media. He has denied this, and in 2024 said he was “never on Epstein’s plane.”In 1993, according to The New York Times, Trump allegedly groped swimsuit model Stacey Williams after Epstein introduced them at Trump Tower — a claim the president has refuted.Separate from his links to Epstein, Trump has been accused of sexual misconduct by around 20 women. In 2023, he was found liable of sexually abusing and defaming American journalist E. Jean Carroll in a civil trial. – ‘Terrific guy’ -Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s main accusers who died by suicide this year, said she was recruited into his alleged sex-trafficking network aged 17 while working at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in 2000. Giuffre claimed she was approached there by Ghislaine Maxwell, who was jailed in 2022 for helping Epstein sexually abuse girls.Trump seemed to be on good terms with Epstein during this time, praising him as a “terrific guy” in a 2002 New York Magazine profile.”He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side,” Trump said.In 2003, according to a Wall Street Journal report, Trump penned a letter for Epstein’s 50th birthday featuring a drawing of a naked woman, with his signature “Donald” mimicking pubic hair.His apparent message — Trump dismissed the letter as a “fake thing” — read: “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.”- ‘I wasn’t a fan’ -The pair reportedly had a rupture in 2004 as they competed to buy a waterfront property in Florida, which Trump eventually snagged.The two men were hardly seen together in public from that point. Trump would later say in 2019 that they had a “falling out” and hadn’t spoken in 15 years.Shortly after the property auction, police launched a probe that saw Epstein jailed in 2008 for 13 months for soliciting an underage prostitute.He was arrested again in 2019 after he was accused of trafficking girls as young as 14 and engaging in sexual acts with them.Trump, then serving his first term as president, sought to distance himself from his old friend. “I wasn’t a fan,” he told reporters when the charges were revealed.In 2019, Epstein was found hanging dead in his prison cell awaiting trial. Authorities said he died by suicide.Since then, Trump has latched onto and fueled conspiracy theories that global elites including former president Bill Clinton were involved in Epstein’s crimes or death.Those same theories now threaten to destabilize Trump’s administration, despite his attempts to dismiss the saga as a “hoax” created by political adversaries.

The Man of Steel has staying power: “Superman” topped the North American box office for a second week running and surpassed the $400 million mark worldwide, industry estimates showed Sunday.Riding largely positive reviews, the latest big-budget action film featuring the iconic superhero from Warner Bros. and DC Studios earned $57.3 million in the United States and Canada, Exhibitor Relations said.That puts its North American take at $235 million and its international sales at $171 million — or $406 million globally.”Jurassic World: Rebirth” — the latest installment in the blockbuster dinosaur saga — also held its ground in second place at $23.4 million. Its worldwide total stands at $647.2 million.The Universal film, starring Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey and Mahershala Ali, takes viewers to an abandoned island research facility, where secrets — and genetically mutated dinosaurs — are lurking. “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” a sequel to two 1990s slasher hits that bring back the franchise’s original stars Freddie Prinze Jr and Jennifer Love Hewitt, opened in third place at a disappointing $13 million.”This is another horror series returning after a long layoff, in this case after 27 years,” said industry analyst David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research.”Generally, the layoffs don’t bother these films; in fact, they get stronger… that’s not happening here.””Smurfs,” the latest film featuring the adorable blue creatures and starring Rihanna as Smurfette, opened in a lackluster fourth place with $11 million in North American ticket sales.”F1: The Movie,” the Apple and Warner Bros. flick starring Brad Pitt as a washed-up Formula One driver who gets one last shot at redemption, finished in fifth place at $9.6 million.”The current lineup in theaters is strong, with a broad selection of big titles including superheroes, action, monsters, horror and animation,” said Gross.”Superman” will soon get a new superhero rival when Marvel’s hotly anticipated “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” starring Pedro Pascal hits theaters in the coming days.Rounding out the top 10 were:”How to Train Your Dragon” ($5.4 million)”Eddington” ($4.3 million)”Elio” ($2.0 million)”Lilo & Stitch” ($1.5 million)”28 Years Later” ($1.3 million)

Polls released Sunday showed falling support among Americans for Donald Trump’s hardline measures against illegal immigration, as the Republican president celebrated six months back in power.Trump won last year’s election in part with promises to launch a historic deportation drive, riling up his base with exaggerated claims of mass violence committed by undocumented migrants, whom he referred to as “savages” and “animals.”Polls from both CNN and CBS show that Trump has lost majority support for his deportation approach.Fifty five percent of respondents feel the raids — frequently seen online in viral videos of masked, unidentified agents seizing people off the street — have gone too far, CNN said.This was up 10 percent from a similar poll in February, shortly after Trump took office.A majority — 57 percent — said they oppose plans for construction of mass detention facilities, with only 26 percent supporting the idea, CNN said.A CBS News poll found that 56 percent of Americans believe Trump’s administration is targeting migrants who do not represent a threat to public safety, up from 47 percent last month.According to the poll, only 49 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s immigration policies, down from 54 percent last month and 59 percent in February.Support remains nearly universal among Republicans, however, with 91 percent in favor of the deportations.Opposition among independents is nonetheless at 59 percent and among Democrats at 86 percent.Trump marked the six-month mark of his second presidency by heading out to his golf club in Virginia, near Washington, and posting on social media that the period was “being hailed as one of the most consequential periods of any President.””Six months is not a long time to have totally revived a major Country,” he wrote on Truth Social.”One year ago our Country was DEAD, with almost no hope of revival,” he said, adding that now the United States was the “most respected Country anywhere in the World.”In keeping with other surveys, the CBS News poll found Trump’s overall approval rating is underwater. Currently only 42 percent of Americans approve of his job, compared to 53 percent in February.

Authorities in Texas have sharply lowered the number of people still believed missing after catastrophic flooding earlier this month, saying the search continued for three individuals in the worst-hit area of the US state.At least 135 people died in central Texas, including more than three dozen children, after strong downpours sparked flash flooding at the beginning of the July 4 holiday weekend.Recovery teams have been combing the banks of the Guadalupe River in Kerr County, the epicenter of the deadly flooding, hoping to find the bodies of those still missing, which last week was estimated to be near 100.”The Kerr County Flood Disaster Joint Information Center can confirm that three individuals remain missing at this time from the July 4 flood disaster,” the county said in a statement late Saturday.”Extensive follow-up work” had determined that many individuals originally listed as missing had been verified as safe, it said.”We are profoundly grateful to the more than 1,000 local, state and federal authorities who have worked tirelessly in the wake of the devastating flood that struck our community,” said Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice.”Thanks to their extraordinary efforts, the number of individuals previously listed as missing has dropped from over 160 to three.”Dozens of deaths were reported in other counties, with the body of at least one person in Burnet County, a local fire chief, yet to be found.The flooding of the Guadalupe River was particularly devastating for summer camps on its banks, including Camp Mystic, where 27 girls and counselors died.US President Donald Trump toured the devastation on July 11 with his wife Melania, as his administration faced questions over its response in the immediate aftermath and plans to devolve federal emergency management to states.

A driver was charged with assault after plowing into a crowd outside a Hollywood nightclub early Saturday, police said, injuring 30 people, with bystanders attacking and shooting the driver before he was detained by authorities.The suspect, identified as 29-year-old Fernando Ramirez, was charged on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) spokeswoman Rosario Cervantes told AFP.Ramirez had been “undergoing surgery” at a local hospital after suffering a gunshot wound from the incident.”He is not free to leave, he is in the custody of Los Angeles Police Department,” LAPD Commander Lillian Carranza told local news station KCAL.Ramirez had been kicked out of The Vermont Hollywood nightclub in East Hollywood before he deliberately rammed his vehicle into the crowd, US media reported.Based on reviewing a video of the incident, “when he hit bystanders, it was an intentional act,” the Los Angeles Times quoted LAPD Captain Ben Fernandes as saying.The crowd pulled Ramirez out of the car, reportedly a Nissan Versa sedan, and attacked him in the chaos that followed the car ramming, which took place around 2:00 am (0900 GMT), police detailed.Authorities were still searching for a gunman who shot and wounded the driver before fleeing on foot, Cervantes said.Footage posted on social media showed panicked people running outside the club and victims sprawled on a blood-stained sidewalk, while others sobbed nearby.”When officers arrived, they found the driver being assaulted by bystanders and determined he had sustained a gunshot wound,” a police statement said.More than 100 firefighters responded to the scene in East Hollywood.”We have 30 victims, 18 females and 12 males between the ages of the mid-twenties to early thirties,” Carranza said.Seven were in critical condition and six were in serious condition, authorities said. Ten suffered minor injuries while seven left the hospital against medical advice.- ‘Heartbreaking tragedy’ -Many clubgoers were outside when the car plowed into the crowd, a taco truck and a valet stand. “They were all standing in line going into a nightclub. There was a taco cart out there, so they were … getting some food, waiting to go in. And there’s also a valet line there,” Los Angeles Fire Department Captain Adam Van Gerpen told ABC News.”The valet podium was taken out, the taco truck was taken out, and then a large number of people were impacted by the vehicle.”At dawn Saturday, a tow truck hauled away the car, its bumper torn off. Club employees power washed the sidewalk outside The Vermont Hollywood, which had been hosting a reggae and hip-hop event.Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass called the incident “a heartbreaking tragedy.””The hearts of Angelenos are with all of the victims impacted this morning — a full investigation into what happened is underway,” she said in a statement.The Vermont Hollywood club said on social media it was “deeply saddened by the tragic incident.”The area of the car ramming is near Hollywood landmarks including Sunset Boulevard and the Walk of Fame — a sidewalk emblazoned with stars commemorating movie industry figures.

Unknown to the general public just three years ago, Jensen Huang is now one of the most powerful entrepreneurs in the world as head of chip giant Nvidia.The unassuming 62-year-old draws stadium crowds of more than 10,000 people as his company’s products push the boundaries of artificial intelligence.Chips designed by Nvidia, known as graphics cards or GPUs (Graphics Processing Units), are essential in developing the generative artificial intelligence powering technology like ChatGPT.Big tech’s insatiable appetite for Nvidia’s GPUs, which sell for tens of thousands of dollars each, has catapulted the California chipmaker beyond $4 trillion in market valuation, the first company ever to surpass that mark.Nvidia’s meteoric rise has boosted Huang’s personal fortune to $150 billion — making him one of the world’s richest people — thanks to the roughly 3.5 percent stake he holds in the company he founded three decades ago with two friends in a Silicon Valley diner.In a clear demonstration of his clout, he recently convinced President Donald Trump to lift restrictions on certain GPU exports to China, despite the fact that China is locked in a battle with the United States for AI supremacy.”That was brilliantly done,” said Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a governance professor at Yale University.Huang was able to explain to Trump that “having the world using a US tech platform as the core protocol is definitely in the interest of this country” and won’t help the Chinese military, Sonnenfeld said.- Early life -Born in Taipei in 1963, Jensen Huang (originally named Jen-Hsun) embodies the American success story. At nine years old, he was sent away with his brother to boarding school in small-town Kentucky.His uncle recommended the school to his Taiwanese parents believing it to be a prestigious institution, when it was actually a school for troubled youth.Too young to be a student, Huang boarded there but attended a nearby public school alongside the children of tobacco farmers. With his poor English, he was bullied and forced to clean toilets — a two-year ordeal that transformed him.”We worked really hard, we studied really hard, and the kids were really tough,” he recounted in an interview with US broadcaster NPR.But “the ending of the story is I loved the time I was there,” Huang said.- Leather jacket and tattoo -Brought home by his parents, who had by then settled in the northwestern US state of Oregon, he graduated from university at just 20 and joined AMD, then LSI Logic, to design chips — his passion.But he wanted to go further and founded Nvidia in 1993 to “solve problems that normal computers can’t,” using semiconductors powerful enough to handle 3D graphics, as he explained on the “No Priors” podcast.Nvidia created the first GPU in 1999, riding the intersection of video games, data centers, cloud computing, and now, generative AI.Always dressed in a black T-shirt and leather jacket, Huang sports a Nvidia logo tattoo and has a taste for sports cars.But it’s his relentless optimism, low-key personality and lack of political alignment that sets him apart from the likes of Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. Unlike them, Huang was notably absent from Trump’s inauguration ceremony.”He backpedals his own aura and has the star be the technology rather than himself,” observed Sonnenfeld, who believes Huang may be “the most respected of all today’s tech titans.”One former high-ranking Nvidia employee described him to AFP as “the most driven person” he’d ever met. – Street food -On visits to his native Taiwan, Huang is treated like a megastar, with fans crowding him for autographs and selfies as journalists follow him to the barber shop and his favorite night market.”He has created the phenomena because of his personal charm,” noted Wayne Lin of Witology Market Trend Research Institute.”A person like him must be very busy and his schedule should be full every day meeting big bosses. But he remembers to eat street food when he comes to Taiwan,” he said, calling Huang “unusually friendly.”Nvidia is a tight ship and takes great care to project a drama-free image of Huang. But the former high-ranking employee painted a more nuanced picture, describing a “very paradoxical” individual who is fiercely protective of his employees but also capable, within Nvidia’s executive circle, of “ripping people to shreds” over major mistakes or poor choices.

Fed up with rising gas prices, Nita Mexican voted last November for Donald Trump, who is increasingly popular among Native American communities which have long supported the political left.”A lot of the younger ones are for him now, including friends of our grandkids,” the 77-year-old member of the Navajo Nation reservation told AFP.As a Republican voter, Mexican was used to being in the minority in Tuba City, a small, remote hamlet in the Arizona desert, located on a plateau part of the vast Native American reservation.But in recent years, she has witnessed a change in attitudes towards the divisive US president. Like her, some neighbors have begun to blame immigration from Latin America for the unemployment and drug trade plaguing the impoverished reservation.”Trump is cleaning up America, it’s a good thing,” said Mexican, a former power plant employee who praised Trump’s hardline deportation policy.”America has to come first,” she said. “Us Natives, we are Americans and we should have the jobs first.”Rising inflation is an enduring concern in this isolated region, where cars are essential for getting around. Mexican and her husband Joe spend $40 a day on gasoline to tend to their sheep, which are kept in a pen some 25 miles (40 kilometers) away. The couple also provide financial support for some of their unemployed grandchildren.”Sometimes we don’t have enough to get groceries for the both of us,” Mexican said, adding that she would like Trump to “slow down” on his tariffs targeting multiple imported products.- Surprising inroads -Spanning the southwestern states of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, the Navajo Nation is the largest Native American reservation in the United States.Trump made surprising inroads in last year’s presidential election in the region that has been a Democratic stronghold since the 1980s.The Republican leader notably won by 17.1 points in Navajo County, double his margin of victory from four years earlier, and lost by just 19 points in Apache County, down from 33.6 in 2020.A similar trend was observed nationwide, from North Carolina to Montana, with Native American voters overall backing Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, but with much less enthusiasm than in the past.Like with Latino voters, more men than women from the minority group voted for Trump, according to polls.At her home, which does not get electricity, Gilberta Cortes said she “butts heads… all the time” with her 21-year-old son, who voted for Trump.”He talks about inflation, he says that cartels are ruining everything for Native Americans,” Cortes said.The 42-year-old mother is not as impressed by the billionaire president.She resents his mockery of the Native American origins of Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, whom he regularly refers to as “Pocahontas.”- ‘Favoritism’ -Laws enacted by Trump during his first term to probe the disappearance of thousands of Native American women did not persuade her either. “It was just favoritism so that he would get our votes,” said the left-wing voter.And the president’s anti-immigration rhetoric and policies have unsettled her further.Several Navajos have been stopped in recent months by immigration agents because of their skin color, according to some reservation officials.”You see a lot of racism… When I go out, I feel like I’m just walking on eggshells,” said Cortes.Trump’s climate change skepticism is also a concern, with many Native Americans claiming a spiritual connection to the environment.Cortes has had to forbid her children from playing outside in the summer because of heat waves, which are growing more intense in the Arizona desert.”If he drills oil like crazy and he makes cuts to environmental agencies, it’s gonna make things worse in the long run,” Cortes said.Elbert Yazzie thinks some of his friends will soon regret their decision.Trump’s recently passed signature spending bill is expected to shrink the federal food assistance program, among other cuts that could hit out at low-income Americans.”They voted for him because they thought there would be more jobs for us American citizens. But instead, he’s cutting off food stamps,” Yazzie told AFP from his caravan.”That’s going to affect a lot of people around here.”

The CEO of an American tech company resigned Saturday after a video of him embracing an alleged colleague at a Coldplay concert went viral and fueled relentless memes.”Our leaders are expected to set the standard in both conduct and accountability, and recently, that standard was not met,” New York-based Astronomer said in a statement shared on LinkedIn.”Andy Byron has tendered his resignation,” the firm said, after previously launching an investigation.During a Coldplay concert in Foxborough, Massachusetts on Wednesday, the jumbotron zoomed in on a man and a woman embracing in the stands.But the canoodling pair appeared shocked and horrified when they spotted themselves on the big screen, with the man ducking out of frame and the woman hiding her face.”Uh-oh, what? Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy,” joked Coldplay frontman Chris Martin.Within hours, internet sleuths tracked down the man as Astronomer CEO Andy Byron and said the woman was the company’s chief people officer, Kristin Cabot, alleging that the two were having a not-so-discreet affair.The video has garnered millions of views on TikTok and other social media, giving rise to memes discussing everything from the folly of having an affair at a Coldplay concert, to the hypocrisy of an HR representative seemingly caught in a workplace relationship.”The craziest thing is about the Astronomer CEO cheating scandal is it was the HR lady,” said one X user. “The person who would warn you against fraternizing with coworkers.”Furry mascots of the Philadelphia Phillies Major League Baseball team jumped on the trend and recreated the scene for the jumbotron at a game after the video went viral.However an apology statement attributed to Byron which spread rapidly online was fake and appeared to have originated from a parody account.

A car plowed into a crowd outside a Hollywood nightclub early Saturday, police said, injuring 30 people, with bystanders attacking and shooting the driver before he was detained by authorities.The suspect was “undergoing surgery” and in stable condition, Lillian Carranza from the Los Angeles Police Department said.”He is not free to leave, he is in the custody of Los Angeles Police Department,” Carranza told local news station KCAL, adding that police were looking into charges including attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon.The driver was pulled out of the car by the crowd and attacked in the chaos that followed the car ramming, which took place around 2 am (0900 GMT), according to police.Authorities were searching for a gunman who shot and wounded the driver before fleeing on foot.Footage posted on social media showed panicked people running outside the club and victims sprawled on a blood-stained sidewalk, while others sobbed nearby.  The driver of the car, reportedly a Nissan Versa sedan, was pulled from the vehicle by the crowd, handcuffed and brutally beaten, a video on social media showed. “When officers arrived, they found the driver being assaulted by bystanders and determined he had sustained a gunshot wound,” a police statement said.More than 100 firefighters responded to the scene in East Hollywood.”We have 30 victims, 18 females and 12 males between the ages of the mid-twenties to early thirties,” Carranza said.Seven were in critical condition and six were in serious condition, authorities said. Ten suffered minor injuries while seven left the hospital against medical advice.- ‘Heartbreaking tragedy’ -Many clubgoers were outside when the car plowed into the crowd, a taco truck and a valet stand. “They were all standing in line going into a nightclub. There was a taco cart out there, so they were … getting some food, waiting to go in. And there’s also a valet line there,” Los Angeles Fire Department Captain Adam Van Gerpen told ABC News.”The valet podium was taken out, the taco truck was taken out, and then a large number of people were impacted by the vehicle.”At dawn Saturday, a tow truck hauled away the car, its bumper torn off. Club employees power washed the sidewalk outside The Vermont Hollywood, which had been hosting a reggae and hip-hop event.Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass called the incident “a heartbreaking tragedy.””The hearts of Angelenos are with all of the victims impacted this morning — a full investigation into what happened is underway,” she said in a statement.The Vermont Hollywood club said on social media it was “deeply saddened by the tragic incident.”The area of the car ramming is near Hollywood landmarks including Sunset Boulevard and the Walk of Fame — a sidewalk emblazoned with stars commemorating movie industry figures.

A car drove into a crowd outside a nightclub in Hollywood early Saturday, injuring more than two dozen people, including the driver who was pulled out of the car and attacked, authorities said. The cause of the incident is still under investigation and authorities are searching for a gunman who non-fatally shot the driver in the chaos that followed, the Los Angeles Police Department said. More than 100 firefighters responded to the scene in East Hollywood, with 23 people taken to hospital — seven were in critical condition. Six others were in serious condition, ten in fair condition, and seven were treated at the scene, the Los Angeles Fire Department said. Footage apparently of the aftermath showed panicked people running outside the club and victims sprawled on a blood-stained sidewalk while others sobbed nearby.  The driver of the car, reportedly a Nissan Versa, was pulled from the vehicle, handcuffed and brutally beaten, a video on social media showed. “When officers arrived, they found the driver being assaulted by bystanders and determined he had sustained a gunshot wound. He was transported to a local hospital and his condition is unknown at this time,” the LAPD statement said.The suspected gunman fled on foot, it said. – ‘Heartbreaking tragedy’ -Many clubgoers were outside when the car plowed into the crowd, a taco truck and a valet stand, a firefighter said. “They were all standing in line going into a nightclub. There was a taco cart out there, so they were … getting some food, waiting to go in. And there’s also a valet line there,” Los Angeles Fire Department Captain Adam Van Gerpen told ABC News.”The valet podium was taken out, the taco truck was taken out, and then a large number of people were impacted by the vehicle.”At dawn Saturday, a tow truck hauled away the car, its bumper torn off. Club employees power washed the sidewalk outside The Vermont Hollywood, which was hosting a reggae and hip hop event when tragedy struck. “This is a heartbreaking tragedy. I want to thank the more than 100 LAFD and LAPD personnel who responded to the scene to help to save lives,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement.”The hearts of Angelenos are with all of the victims impacted this morning — a full investigation into what happened is underway.”The area where the incident occurred is near Hollywood landmarks including Sunset Boulevard and the Walk of Fame — a sidewalk emblazoned with stars commemorating movie industry figures.