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A German woman engineer on Saturday became the first wheelchair user to blast into space, taking a brief ride on a Blue Origin flight.The space company owned by American multi-billionaire Jeff Bezos launched its New Shepard suborbital mission at 8:15 am (1415 GMT) from its site in Texas.Michaela Benthaus, an aerospace and mechatronics engineer at the European Space Agency, was among the passengers to cross the Karman line, the internationally recognized boundary of space, during the approximately 10-minute flight.Benthaus suffered a spinal cord injury after a mountain biking accident and now uses a wheelchair.”After my accident, I really, really figured out how inaccessible our world still is” for people with disabilities, she said in a video released by the company.”If we want to be an inclusive society, we should be inclusive in every part, and not only in the parts we like to be,” Benthaus added.The small, fully automated rocket took off vertically, and the capsule carrying the tourists then detached in flight before gently descending back to the Texas desert, slowed by parachutes.It was the 16th crewed flight for Blue Origin, which has for years offered space tourism flights — the price isn’t public — using its New Shepard rocket.”Congratulations, Michi! You just inspired millions to look up and imagine what is possible,” new NASA chief Jared Isaacman said on X.Dozens of people have traveled to space with Blue Origin, including the pop singer Katy Perry and William Shatner, who played the legendary Captain Kirk on “Star Trek.”These high-profile guests are aimed at maintaining public interest in the flights at a time when private space companies are vying for pre-eminence.Virgin Galactic offers a similar suborbital flight experience.But Blue Origin also has ambitions to compete with Elon Musk’s SpaceX in the orbital flight market.This year, the Bezos company successfully carried out two uncrewed orbital flights using its massive New Glenn rocket, which is significantly more powerful than New Shepard.

The release of documents related to late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein follows months of pressure on the Trump administration for transparency about the politically explosive case.Friday’s release, to meet a deadline set by Congress, was just the first tranche of what the administration is saying will be a massive volume of information. But it is already drawing criticism as the documents are heavily redacted.They include photos of high-profile figures, including former president Bill Clinton, and quickly provoked strong reactions from across the political divide.- What has been released? -Mid-afternoon on Friday the US Department of Justice provided a link to what it calls the “Epstein Library.” It includes four groups of documents: court records, disclosures from the DOJ -– the bulk of the new documents — freedom of information requests and disclosures from a US House oversight committee.Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said Friday there would be several hundred thousand documents released and several hundred thousand more in coming weeks.But it appeared many of the documents had been revealed previously. DOJ posted new documents on Friday totaling about 3,900 files.The release features numerous photographs not previously made public, and politicians and celebrities among those pictured. There are also video clips from inside the correctional center in New York from the day Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.- What do the files show? -In many cases, the files show little because of heavy redactions. For example, a list of 254 masseuses is entirely blacked out.In other cases there is little context provided, making it hard to interpret the significance of the information.One file contains dozens of censored images showing naked or scantily clad figures. Others show Epstein and companions, their faces obscured, with firearms.The expectation is that the files will shed light on Epstein’s network of associates — business executives, academics, celebrities and politicians, including President Donald Trump.However, it’s unclear how much the Justice Department, which controls the release, will allow to be made public and how it is selecting documents.Trump was a friend of Epstein, although he severed ties years before the financier’s 2019 arrest.- Celebrity sightings -The documents include several of Bill Clinton, taken some years ago. In one, he is pictured reclining in a hot tub with another person whose face is blacked out.Among celebrities featured are pop stars Michael Jackson, Diana Ross and Mick Jagger — all pictured with Clinton.Others featured include the former prince Andrew, his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, actor Kevin Spacey and British tycoon Richard Branson.- Reactions -In deeply polarized Washington, the reaction was partisan in large part.The White House jumped on the Clinton appearances.”Slick Willy! @BillClinton just chillin, without a care in the world. Little did he know…” Communications Director Steven Cheung posted on X.The White House also touted the release as a show of transparency.But the top senator from the opposition Democrats, Chuck Schumer, complained that the heavily redacted documents release on Friday was just a fraction of the whole body of evidence.”Simply releasing a mountain of blacked out pages violates the spirit of transparency and the letter of the law,” Schumer said, adding that 119 pages of one document were completely blacked out.On the Republican side, some dissent emerged. Lawmaker Thomas Massie, who co-sponsored the law forcing the release of the files with Democrat Ro Khanna, accused Attorney General Pam Bondi of “withholding specific documents.”And Marjorie Taylor Greene, a onetime Trump ally who has shifted sides and resigned from Congress, said: “The whole point was NOT to protect the ‘politically exposed individuals and government officials’.”

The US Justice Department has begun releasing a long-awaited cache of records from its investigations into the politically explosive case of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein — though much of the material remained heavily redacted.Among the trove released Friday are numerous photographs depicting former Democratic president Bill Clinton and other luminaries, including Mick Jagger and Michael Jackson, in Epstein’s social circle.The sweeping blackouts across many of the documents — combined with tight control over the release by officials in President Donald Trump’s administration — stoked skepticism over whether this disclosure will silence conspiracy theories of a high-level cover-up.In one example, a 119-page document labeled “Grand Jury-NY” is entirely redacted. Also, seven pages listing 254 masseuses have every name buried beneath thick black bars alongside the note, “redacted to protect potential victim information.” Even so, the files shed some light on the disgraced financier’s intimate ties to the rich, famous and powerful — Trump, once a close friend, among them.At least one file contains dozens of censored images of naked or scantily clad figures. Others show Epstein and companions, their faces obscured, posing with firearms.Previously unseen photographs include Maxwell with disgraced former prince Andrew, pictured lying across the legs of five people.Another photo shows a youthful-looking Clinton lounging in a hot tub, part of the image blacked out. In another, Clinton swims alongside a dark-haired woman who appears to be Epstein’s accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell. – A ‘fraction’ of the evidence -The White House wasted no time seizing on Clinton’s appearances.”Slick Willy! @BillClinton just chillin, without a care in the world. Little did he know…” Communications Director Steven Cheung posted on X.Clinton’s spokesman Angel Urena responded to the newly released files by saying the country “expects answers, not scapegoats.””The White House hasn’t been hiding these files for months only to dump them late on a Friday to protect Bill Clinton. This is about shielding themselves,” Urena wrote on X.Democrats — and a handful of Republicans — voiced frustration that the release fell far short of what was mandated by the Epstein Files Transparency Act.Republican congressman Thomas Massie, who has long pushed for the release, said it “grossly fails to comply with both the spirit and the letter of the law.”That law required the government’s entire case file to be posted publicly by Friday, constrained only by legal and victim privacy concerns.Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats would “pursue every option to make sure the truth comes out.”Trump spent months trying to block the disclosure of the files linked to Epstein, who died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.The Republican president ultimately bowed to mounting pressure from Congress — including members of his own party — and last month signed the law compelling publication of the materials by Friday.Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche acknowledged in a letter to Congress that the Friday release was incomplete, and that the Justice Department would complete production of files in the coming weeks.Prosecutors retain discretion to withhold material tied to active investigations, and Blanche said files had also been redacted to protect the identities of Epstein’s hundreds of victims.- ‘Democrat hoax’ -Trump once moved in the same Palm Beach and New York party scene as Epstein, appearing with him at events throughout the 1990s. He severed ties years before Epstein’s 2019 arrest and faces no accusations of wrongdoing in the case.But his right-wing base has long fixated on the Epstein saga and conspiracy theories alleging the financier ran a sex trafficking ring for the global elite.On the campaign trail, Trump vowed to release all the files. Yet after returning to office, he dismissed the transparency push as a “Democrat hoax.”Trump’s Justice Department ignited a political firestorm in July with a memo declaring there would be no further disclosures from the Epstein probe and his fabled “client list” did not exist before the president bowed to pressure.Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend, remains the only person convicted in connection with his crimes, and is serving a 20-year sentence for recruiting underage girls for the former teacher and banker, whose death was ruled a suicide.

Claudio Neves Valente came to the United States as an ambitious physics student at Brown University, but ended his life while hiding from police after killing two students at the Ivy League institution as well as an MIT professor.Authorities say Valente, a 48-year-old Portuguese national, shot dead Brown students Ella Cook and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, and wounded several others, on December 13 before heading to the home of renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Nuno Loureiro and killing him two days later.The Chief Medical Examiner’s office released autopsy results Friday, saying Neves Valente “died as a result of a gunshot would to the head, and that his manner of death was a suicide.” He is “estimated to have died December 16,” the medical examiner said.Federal officials also released results of early ballistic and DNA testing Friday.”Two 9mm pistols were recovered in New Hampshire with the body,” according to a joint statement from the FBI and federal Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearm (ATF) agency officials. One of the two firearms recovered “is positively correlated with the firearm used in the Brown University mass shooting. The other of the two firearms is positively correlated with the murder of” Loureiro, the statement said.The FBI-ATF statement also said a rapid DNA test “has preliminarily matched Neves Valente with DNA recovered from evidence at Brown University,” without mentioning any testing at the MIT professor’s home.  The FBI-ATF statement did not say whether either of the recovered guns were used in the shooter’s suicide, one of many questions that still loom about the incidents.No motive has been made public for any of the killings, which cast a long shadow on two of New England’s normally genteel elite universities. It has been suggested he did not know the students.Portuguese media outlet Expresso reported that Valente, from Torres Novas in central Portugal, attended Lisbon’s IST institution at the same time as Loureiro.They were classmates, and Valente was the top student that year. “Most classmates have no memory of the student Claudio Valente, other than the fact that he was the best in the class that year,” IST president Rogerio Colaco told the outlet.By contrast, Loureiro — who taught nuclear science and engineering as well as physics — maintained links with IST professors, he added.Investigators struggled to produce viable leads in the days after the incidents, with President Donald Trump criticizing Brown University for failing to link its security cameras to police systems.During the protracted manhunt, dozens of names surfaced on social media and elsewhere in connection with the shooting — almost all false and unlinked to the bloodshed.Rhode Island officials denounced the misinformation, saying it complicated their investigation.- Reddit tip-off -As media reported the name of a military veteran initially detained and released, social media filled with his image — and a torrent of erroneous posts sharing photos of another man with the same name.Colonel Darnell Weaver, superintendent of the Rhode Island State Police, said “the endless barrage of misinformation, disinformation, rumors, leaks and clickbait were not helpful in this investigation.”But it was a tip from an often murky, irreverent corner of the internet  — Reddit — that was the breakthrough for detectives.Officers were directed to a post on the social media forum site that told investigators to probe a grey Nissan SUV. A tipster called “John” by investigators then came forward and described to officers an encounter with a suspicious man at Brown prior to the slayings.The information was crucial for the investigation and allowed officers to link the Brown campus shootings and the MIT professor’s murder.In their briefing announcing the conclusion of the case, officials revealed that Valente had taken elaborate steps to conceal his identity including using false license plates and a cell phone investigators struggled to trace.The hunt for the Brown gunman dragged into a sixth day until officers found Valente’s body in a self-storage facility in Salem, Massachusetts. Questions continued to swirl around the episode.Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha told the Thursday briefing “in terms of why Brown? I think that’s a mystery.”

A Delaware appeals court cleared the way Friday for Elon Musk to receive a long-contested $56 billion Tesla pay package, reversing an earlier judgment in the protracted case.The decision by the Delaware Supreme Court rejects a pair of judgments by Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick of the state’s Court of Chancery and sets the stage for the world’s richest person to get another windfall.In a pair of 2024 rulings, McCormick invalidated the 2018 package, which once loomed as historically large but have since been eclipsed by the tech tycoon’s most recent Tesla package.The five-judge appeals panel determined that McCormick ruled improperly in ordering a rescission, the tossing out of Musk’s package in its entirety.”It is undisputed that Musk fully performed under the 2018 grant, and Tesla and its stockholders were rewarded for his work,” the ruling said as it reversed the rescission.Though approved by a majority of Tesla shareholders, the 2018 package ended up in court when Tesla shareholder Richard Tornetta challenged the award as excessive.In a statement posted online Friday, attorneys representing Tesla shareholders said they were considering next steps.The court struck down the award in January 2024 following a five-day trial, calling the process “deeply flawed.” The board proved vulnerable to manipulation by Musk, “the paradigmatic ‘Superstar CEO,'” wrote McCormick, who upheld her determination in December 2024 following an appeal.But Tesla’s board has staunchly supported Musk throughout the legal saga, approving an “interim” compensation award in August worth about $29 billion for him and then unveiling a pay package worth as much as $1 trillion.Tesla shareholders on November 6 easily approved the latest package, which is tied to a number of performance and valuation targets.

The first major gathering of Turning Point USA since the murder of its influential founder was supposed to bring America’s right-wing activists together to celebrate the life of Charlie Kirk. Instead, it is laying bare the divisions of a fractious conservative coalition, increasingly worried about its electoral prospects and about President Donald Trump’s fraying popularity.Key figures in the Make America Great Again movement took to the stage in Phoenix on Thursday to tear into each other, blasting opponents for cozying up to fascists or accusing them of besmirching the memory of a man who acted as a unifying force.Influential podcaster Ben Shapiro came straight out of the gate, attacking former Fox News host Tucker Carlson for an uncritical interview with self-described white nationalist Nick Fuentes.”The conservative movement is… in danger from charlatans who claim to speak in the name of principle, but actually traffic in conspiracism and dishonesty,” he said.Shapiro said Carlson should never have given oxygen to Fuentes, whose views are described as antisemitic, misogynistic and racist. Kirk had “despised” Fuentes, Shapiro added.”He knew that Nick Fuentes is an evil troll and that building him up is an act of moral imbecility, and that is precisely what Tucker Carlson did.”Carlson shot back, mocking Shapiro for suggesting censorship, which he claimed was anathema to the Turning Point founder.”Deplatforming and denouncing people at a Charlie Kirk event. I’m like, what? It’s hilarious,” he told the audience a few hours later.The brewing MAGA civil war is over who will take the reins when Trump — who cannot run for the White House again — steps back.- JD Vance -No one has formally declared their candidacy for the 2028 Republican presidential nomination, but a number of names are being bandied around as pretenders to the throne.They include Fuentes and firebrand congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who last month broke with Trump, saying his second term agenda was a betrayal of his voters.Vice President JD Vance, who is due to speak at the gathering on Sunday, got a significant boost Thursday when Erika Kirk endorsed him for a 2028 White House run.”We are going to get my husband’s friend JD Vance elected for 48 in the most resounding way possible,” she said to cheers from the thousands-strong crowd. The next US president will be the country’s 48th leader.Former presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy, who ran for the Republican nomination in 2024, did not comment directly on Kirk’s endorsement.”We’re at a fork in the road, and I think that there are competing visions for the future of the right,” Ramaswamy told AFP. “I think it’s great for us to have that conversation.”The Vance endorsement from Turning Point’s new CEO is why Shapiro is annoyed, hinted Carlson, whose newsletter on Friday gloated “Sorry, Ben Shapiro, JD is America First.””Trump created this amazing coalition, bringing in people who had never voted Republican before…and that coalition took over the most powerful government in the history of the world,” Carlson told the audience on Thursday.”So there’s a lot of blood at stake here, as the question becomes, who gets to run it after, who gets the machinery when the President exits the scene.”There are a lot of people in Washington, maybe even in this room, who aren’t quite sure what they want, but they know they don’t want — JD Vance.”The spat between two of the loudest voices in the conservative mediasphere comes as former Daily Wire host Candace Owens continues to cause waves with a series of provocative claims.Owens, whose YouTube channel has 5.7 million subscribers, is involved in a bizarre fight with French President Emmanuel Macron over wild claims his wife Brigitte is actually a man.She is also in a quarrel with Erika Kirk over unsubstantiated claims of a conspiracy involving the US and Israeli governments in the killing of her husband.Kirk on Thursday sought to tamp down the divisions on the right, which she said had appeared after Charlie’s death.”When he was assassinated, we saw infighting. We’ve seen fractures,” she said.”We’ve seen bridges being burned, that shouldn’t be burned.”

Afghans who worked alongside US troops during almost two decades of war were once promised a home in the United States to shelter them from the extremist intolerance of the Taliban.But after two National Guard soldiers were shot — one of them fatally — in Washington last month, allegedly by an Afghan national, their fates have been put on hold, and many are now terrified about what the future might bring.”Everybody is scared,” a 31-year-old Afghan green card holder told AFP.”We are scared that we will be judged by people for the crimes committed by one individual from Afghanistan.”West Virginia National Guard Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died from her wounds after what officials described as an “ambush-style” attack that also left fellow Guardsman Andrew Wolfe, 24, fighting for his life.The following day President Donald Trump announced he was halting all migration from what he called “third world countries,” including Afghanistan, as his administration announced a review of all residency grants for people from 19 countries — around 1.6 million people, according to an AFP tally.Now Afghans fear they might be sent back to a nation run by the Islamist extremists who they once worked to defeat.”I made my home in America, now this is my home. If I leave here where I have to go then?” sobbed Maryam.Like all Afghan nationals AFP spoke to for this story, Maryam did not want to be identified for fear of angering US immigration authorities.”When I sleep my chest feels very painful, empty,” she said. “I feel like I belong to nowhere.”- Collapse -The 27-year-old worked on projects for the US embassy in Kabul, where she helped produce education materials that she says cast the Taliban in a bad light.When the American-led international force was there, her country began to modernise, giving rights to women that their mothers did not have.”I did education, I had a big dreams for my country, for myself,” she said from her home outside Los Angeles.But in August 2021, the last US troops hurriedly withdrew from Afghanistan as the Taliban ran riot, taking over the institutions that American taxpayers had spent billions of dollars to prop up.Hundreds of thousands of Afghans scrambled to leave the country, terrified that the Islamists would exact revenge on anyone who had helped the West.”It was so difficult to get into the airport,” said Khan, who describes printing out dozens of documents, including proof that his wife was a US citizen living in California.”There was no water, no food, nothing. And we spent four days in there,” he said. “It was too cold during the night.”Khan, who worked in a university and at a government bank, finally got a plane to Qatar, then on to Germany before being flown to New Jersey, where he underwent two months of background checks and processing.”We truly thank United States. They helped us a lot to come… and rebuild our life here.”- Scared -Khan says he worked day and night in Anaheim, California to save money, often doing two jobs, and now has his own used car dealership.He has also bought a triplex, part of which he rents out to provide a source of income, and secured his green card for permanent US residency.”I was about to apply to my citizenship by the end of December, but unfortunately, after the incident in Washington DC, everything is paused,” he said.”Everybody is scared, whoever is having like a green card, a parole status, or they have applied for asylum or whatever status they have, all of them are scared.”We had a lot of dreams,and now every day everything becomes more difficult, and our dreams are, like, going the other way.”For Maryam, who works for an NGO in California’s Orange County, all she wants is to be able to get her green card application back on track, and for her community to be treated fairly.”What the person did does not represent us,” she said of the shooter in Washington.”We are all committed to America; we are not the traitor, we are the survivor.”

US President Donald Trump’s name was affixed to the Kennedy Center in Washington on Friday, one day after his hand-picked board members voted to rename the arts venue in spite of legal questions.Workmen on scissor lifts added metal lettering to the building’s facade, before dropping a blue tarpaulin to reveal the sign saying “The Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center For the Performing Arts.”But family members of president Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963, have criticized the move as “beyond wild” and said an act of Congress is needed to alter the name of the US national cultural center.Trump said Thursday that he was “surprised” by the rebranding — even though he personally purged the board of the center after calling it too woke, and had already talked about having his name added to it.The 79-year-old Republican even appointed himself as its chairman of the board earlier this year.”Today, we proudly unveil the updated exterior designation — honoring the leadership of President Donald J. Trump and the enduring legacy of John F. Kennedy,” the center said on its newly rebranded X account, along with photos of the lettering.Naming a national institution after a sitting president is unprecedented in US history. Landmarks like the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial and indeed the Kennedy Center were all named after their deaths.But Trump, who long emblazoned his name on his skyscrapers and casinos during his career as a property magnate, has shown little hesitation about doing the same thing as president.He has stamped his mark on the Kennedy Center since the start of his second term as part of an assault on cultural institutions that his administration has accused of being too left-wing.During his second term he has given his name to a Washington peace institute, trust funds for children he has branded “Trump accounts” and a “Trump Gold Card” for high-paying immigrants that he showed off on Friday.Trump has also embarked on a huge overhaul of the White House, knocking down the East Wing to build a $400 million ballroom and this week putting up plaques rewriting the history of his presidential predecessors.

A US judge overturned Friday the murder conviction of one man in the killing of hip-hop legend Jam Master Jay after a judge found prosecutors did not prove intent.Ronald Washington and Karl Jordan Jr., the alleged shooter, were found guilty on all counts in February 2024, convicted of murder while engaged in narcotics trafficking and firearms-related murder of the artist whose real name was Jason Mizell.But on Friday, judge LaShann DeArcy Hall wrote that “Defendant Jordan’s motion for a judgment of acquittal is GRANTED,” while denying Washington’s legal bid to overturn his conviction in the case.Jordan had not yet been sentenced for the murder and remained in prison on drug charges unrelated to the 2002 death of Mizell.”In the absence of sufficient proof of any motive — here, a drug-related motive — the charge cannot be sustained. Jordan argues that the Government failed to…adduce evidence sufficient to support the conclusion that Jordan had a drug-related motive to kill Mizell. The Court agrees,” DeArcy Hall wrote in a 29-page order.A spokesman for the prosecutors who brought the case said “the decision is being reviewed.”Prosecutors presented a case of a drug deal gone wrong, saying that Washington and Jordan, who both knew Mizell, killed the famous artist as revenge for cutting them out of a cocaine deal.Run-DMC’s Jam Master Jay, one of the founding members of the 1980s rap group, was shot and killed by two gunmen inside his studio in Queens, New York in 2002.The 37-year-old, record-scratching member of the platinum-selling rap group, was shot in the head, while another man was wounded by the gunmen. The murder followed a series of tragedies in the hip-hop community, including the violent deaths of rapper Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. in the 1990s.Run-DMC’s 1985 release “Raising Hell” became the first rap album to go platinum, and “Walk This Way,” a collaboration with Aerosmith’s Steve Tyler, made the top of the charts.Along with LL Cool J and Public Enemy, Run-DMC were trailblazers of new-school hip-hop — mixing rock elements, aggressive boasting and sociopolitical commentary — and its outgrowth, golden era hip-hop, which included eclectic sampling.The seminal group were the first rappers featured on MTV, and established a new rap aesthetic incorporating street culture — a departure from the flashy, disco-inflected attire of their predecessors.Prior to his death, Mizell was influential in New York as a cultivator of local talent, working with young rappers and co-founding a DJ academy.

The US Justice Department on Friday began publishing a long-awaited trove of records from investigations into the politically explosive case of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein — though many files were redacted.Among the material are multiple photographs showing former Democratic president Bill Clinton and other high-profile figures, including Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger, in Epstein’s company.The heavy blacking-out of large sections of the documents — combined with tight control by officials in President Donald Trump’s administration over the release — has fueled doubts over whether the disclosure will finally quiet long-running conspiracy theories of a high-level cover-up.The files are nevertheless expected to illuminate the disgraced financier’s close connections with the rich, famous and powerful, including Trump.The vast disclosure included seven pages listing 254 masseuses — every name obscured beneath thick black bars and the explanation “redacted to protect potential victim information.”Another file contains dozens of censored images showing naked or scantily clad figures. Others show Epstein and companions, their faces obscured, with firearms.Previously unseen photographs include one showing a younger-looking Clinton reclining in a hot tub, part of the image obscured by a stark black rectangle.In another, Clinton is pictured swimming alongside a dark-haired woman who appears to be Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.The White House jumped on the Clinton appearances.”Slick Willy! @BillClinton just chillin, without a care in the world. Little did he know…” Communications Director Steven Cheung posted on X.”Oh my!” added Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. Trump, once a close friend of Epstein, fought for months to prevent the release of the records related to the investigation of Epstein, who died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.The Republican president eventually caved to pressure from Congress, including from his own party, and signed a law last month compelling publication of the materials.Friday was the deadline set by Congress for release of the records.Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said several hundred thousand documents would be released on Friday and many more in the coming weeks.Prosecutors have the latitude to withhold material related to active investigations and Blanche said the files will also be redacted to protect the identities of Epstein’s hundreds of victims. He also said “no new charges” were due.Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer condemned the partial release as “a cover up to protect Donald Trump from his ugly past.”- ‘Democrat hoax’ -Trump was once a close friend of Epstein, moving in the same Palm Beach and New York social circles in the 1990s and appearing together at parties for years. Trump severed ties with Epstein years before the 2019 arrest and is not accused of wrongdoing in the case.But his right-wing base has long been obsessed by the Epstein saga and conspiracy theories that the financier oversaw a sex trafficking ring for the world’s elite.Running for the White House, Trump promised to release all the files.Yet after returning to office, Trump dismissed the push for transparency as a “Democrat hoax.”Trump’s FBI and Justice Department triggered a political furor in July with a memo stating that there would be no further disclosures of evidence from the Epstein probe.The memo said there was “no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions” or had a “client list.”Trump then fought Congress over its drive to get the records out in public, only relenting in the face of a populist revolt.- Ghislaine Maxwell -Epstein’s former girlfriend Maxwell is the only person convicted in connection with Epstein, a fact that fuels the belief among Trump’s base of a cover-up.Maxwell, 63, is serving a 20-year prison sentence for recruiting underage girls for Epstein, whose death was ruled a suicide.For the public and victims, the release of the files marks the clearest opportunity yet to shed light on the scandal.The newly released records could clarify how Epstein operated, who assisted him and why prosecutors stalled for years before bringing charges against him.