Partial shutdown of government still expected to begin after midnight Friday, lasting at least through weekend
The US Senate approved a major government funding package on Friday, after the killings of two US citizens by federal agents in Minneapolis upended spending talks and gave the out-of-power party rare leverage over Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign.
In a 71-29 tally, the Senate overcame opposition from a handful of Republicans to rally behind a deal the president struck with Democrats, an unusual display of bipartisanship as tensions rise nationally over the presence of Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) agents in US cities.
New York Giants chairman and co-owner Steve Tisch appeared throughout a newly released trove of emails related to Jeffrey Epstein, including communications in which Epstein arranged for Tisch to meet specific women.
The emails, which were sent in 2013, were released Friday by the Department of Justice among 3.5 million documents related to Epstein’s sex trafficking case and were first reported on by the Athletic.
World No 1 is on the verge of a fifth grand slam title, but former Wimbledon champion has proved she can cause problems
At the end of yet another semi-final in Melbourne on Thursday night, Aryna Sabalenka slammed the door shut on Elina Svitolina with a searing forehand winner, her 29th of the night. It was another near flawless performance from the Belarusian, another match she dominated from start to finish without any response, reinforcing her status as the leading hard court player of her generation.
Six matches in, Sabalenka’s fourth consecutive run to the Australian Open final has proved one of her most impressive. She is yet to drop a set and has shown how much her game has evolved by also dominating the net and peppering opponents with an array of drop shots. The few times she has been pushed, such as in her third round match against Anastasia Potapova, the world No 1 has produced her best tennis in the decisive moments and been in control of the baseline throughout.
Among the files released by the US justice department today is a copy of Ghislaine Maxwell’s police booking intake form from July 2020.
It includes a picture of Maxwell in what looks like a prison orange jumpsuit, along with personal details including her full name and a redacted address in Bradford, New Hampshire.
files that contain personally identifiable information of victims or victims’ personal and medical files, and any similar files that, if disclosed, would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy
any depiction of child sexual abuse material or child abuse images
anything that would jeopardize an active federal investigation
anything that depicts or contains images of death, physical abuse or injury
files covered by various privileges, including deliberative process privilege, work product privilege, and attorney client privilege
Paul W Brown reportedly voiced concerns about the FBI’s unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud in Fulton county
The special agent in charge of the FBI’s Atlanta field office was reportedlyremoved from his post after questioning the Trump administration’s renewed interest in investigating the role of Fulton county, Georgia, in the 2020 election.
The agent, Paul W Brown, had expressed concerns around the unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud in Fulton county, which have been perpetuated by Donald Trump since he was defeated by Joe Biden in the 2020 election, according to an MS NOW report on Friday. Citing sources, MS NOW also reported that Brown refused to carry out searches and seizures of records connected to the election that Trump lost four years before winning a second presidency in 2024.
Rubaya mine produces about 15% of the world’s coltan, which is processed into tantalum, used in mobile phones
More than 200 people were killed this week in a collapse at the Rubaya coltan mine in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Lumumba Kambere Muyisa, a spokesperson for the rebel-appointed governor of the province where the mine is located, told Reuters on Friday.
Rubaya produces about 15% of the world’s coltan, which is processed into tantalum – a heat-resistant metal that is in high demand by makers of mobile phones, computers, aerospace components and gas turbines. The site, where local people dig manually for a few dollars a day, has been under the control of the M23 rebel group since 2024.
George Zinn, 71, further admitted to possessing child sexual abuse material and pleaded no contest to allegations
A man accused of trying to thwart authorities investigating Charlie Kirk’s killing by falsely confessing to the deadly shooting faces up to 15 years in prison after pleading no contest to the allegation – and separately admitting to possessing child sexual abuse material.
The case centering on George Zinn, 71, all but concluded at a court hearing on Thursday in Provo, Utah, about 5 miles away from the college campus where the Turning Point USA executive director was fatally shot on 10 September 2025.
Sundance film festival: a once-in-a-lifetime dinner party from 1972 is transformed into a thrilling and inspiring hang-out movie
In August 1972, the experimental film-maker William Greaves convened a once-in-a-lifetime dinner party at Duke Ellington’s townhouse in Harlem. The occasion was a celebration and reconsideration of the Harlem Renaissance, the watershed African American cultural movement of the 1920s. The guest list included its still-living luminaries, some of the 20th century’s most influential – and still underappreciated – musicians, performers, artists, writers, historians and political leaders, all in their sunset years. Over four hours and untold glasses of wine, talk wheeled freely from vivid recollections to consternation, lively anecdotes to contemplations of ongoing struggle. Greaves, by then niche renowned for his innovatively meta documentary Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One, lightly directed the conversation but otherwise let the energy flow. He considered it the most important footage he ever recorded.
You could probably release that remarkable footage in full, completely unedited and unstructured, and still have a good documentary; every piece is now, 50 years later – the same distance to us as the Harlem Renaissance was to them – a bridge to a time no living person can remember, each face and gesture informed by decades of aftermath no straightforward nonfiction film on the period could capture. But Once Upon a Time in Harlem, directed by Greaves’s son David, who was one of four cameramen that day, manages to seamlessly clip and contextualize the party into 100 mesmerizing minutes. It’s both a sublime hang-out of a film and a celebration of individual achievements, a fascinating map of a long-ago scene and a referendum on legacy.
Once Upon a Time in Harlem is screening at the Sundance film festival and is seeking distribution
Thursday’s arrests of Lemon and independent journalist Georgia Fort demonstrate the administration’s lawless crusade against routine journalism
Two federal courts reviewed the government’s evidence against journalist Don Lemon and declined to approve his arrest last week. But nevertheless, the attorney general, Pam Bondi, persisted, desperate to please her authoritarian boss no matter what the constitution and law say or what her ethical obligations as an attorney require.
Thursday’s arrests of Lemon and Georgia Fort, an independent journalist – like the recent raid on Hannah Natanson, the Washington Post reporter – demonstrate the administration’s lawless crusade against routine journalism. In normal times the expectation is that even when a journalist’s conduct might technically fit the legal elements of a crime – jaywalking to get footage of a protest, for example – prosecutors will exercise their discretion and judgment to not apply the law in a manner that chills the free press.
Seth Stern is the director of advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation and a first amendment lawyer
Retired Nascar driver Greg Biffle was not flying his own jet when it crashed last month, killing him and six others, according to a Friday report from federal safety officials who also concluded that while an experienced pilot was at the controls, no one else on board was qualified to be the required copilot.
The preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board said that Biffle and the retired airline pilot at the controls, Dennis Dutton, and his son Jack, who were all licensed pilots, noticed problems with gauges malfunctioning on the Cessna C550 before it crashed while trying to return to the Statesville Regional Airport in North Carolina.
Newly released files from DoJ show the pair making plans in 2012 and 2013 for the Tesla CEO to visit Epstein’s island
Elon Musk had more extensive – and more friendly – communications with the financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein than previously publicly known, according to documents released on Friday by the Department of Justice. Emails in the files appear to show the two cordially messaging each other on two separate occasions to make plans for Musk to visit Epstein’s island.
The documents include Musk and Epstein emailing in both 2012 and 2013 to determine when Musk should make the trip to Little St James. Neither exchanges appear to have resulted in Musk visiting the island, due to logistical issues.
A robotic team fuelled by data and scrutinised relentlessly in a climate of angst and rage feels like a digital-age metaphor
Like most people who have no talent for business ideas, I have a huge number of highly promising business ideas always on the go, ideas that are available for investment from any passing billionaire or Dragons’ Den rainmaker type.
Not one of the A-listers, obviously. I’m not insane. Not a Meaden or a Paphitis. But perhaps one of the minor ones, some strangely groomed South African retail magnate called Dork van Frotwangle who looks as if he keeps a bag of human fingers in his freezer and will mysteriously disappear mid-series and never be mentioned again.
The death of the 71-year-old actor and comedian leaves behind a long line of unforgettably original comic creations, from Beetlejuice to Schitt’s Creek
One of the later and less beloved Christopher Guest comedies featuring his troupe of peerless, often SCTV-related improvisers is For Your Consideration, a medium-funny savaging of Hollywood’s feverish awards-season prestige campaigning.
The film’s unquestionable highlight is Catherine O’Hara, playing an actor who gets a whisper of awards buzz for a schlocky, still-filming drama called Home for Purim, and slowly loses her mind with the knowledge that she could maybe, possibly be recognized by her peers. O’Hara, known for her distinctively brassy yet malleable trill of her voice and her frequently red hair, peels back her performer’s bravado to expose the frenzied need beneath it. She somehow plays the outsized beneath the regular-sized, as her Marilyn Hack goes from plugging-away workhorse to desperate striver. Unsurprisingly, O’Hara briefly generated awards buzz of her own for playing this part; even less surprisingly, an Oscar nomination was not forthcoming. It couldn’t be; otherwise, it might have marred O’Hara’s masterclass in how certain actors, especially those specializing in comedy, are destined to go under-recognized in their lifetimes.
ICE in Minneapolis, Russian airstrikes in Kyiv, Alex Honnold climbing a Taipei skyscraper and Sabalenka at the Australian Open – the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists
White-ball captain claims he was protecting teammates
Bethell and Tongue investigated over drinking session
Harry Brook, the England white-ball captain, has admitted teammates were present on the night he clashed with a nightclub bouncer in New Zealand last year.
Speaking at the start of England’s tour of Sri Lanka, Brook said that he was on his own when he was punched by a bouncer on the eve of the third one-day international against New Zealand in Wellington.
Deputy attorney general makes announcement over fatal shooting in Minneapolis as fierce protests there continue
The US deputy attorney general announced on Friday that the justice department has opened a federal civil rights investigation into the fatal shooting of the Minneapolis nurse Alex Pretti last Saturday by immigration officers, as fierce protests continued on the streets there.
“We’re looking at everything that would shed light on that day,” Todd Blanche, deputy to the attorney general, Pam Bondi, said at a press conference on Friday morning in Washington DC.
Groups say arrests of ex-CNN anchor and Georgia Fort are ‘extremely alarming’ and an ‘attack on the first amendment’
Press freedom groups are warning that the arrests of two independent journalists, including the veteran former CNN anchor Don Lemon, signal a chilling new crackdown on US media by the Trump administration.
Lemon was taken into custody on Thursday night by federal agents in Los Angeles, despite a magistrate judge declining to sign off on charges against him a week ago in connection with a protest at a Minnesota church against violent government immigration enforcement actions.
Madonna labelled it ‘heaven’ on a recent visit, but the cost of living in the seaside resort is hitting many residents hard
Not many chefs working in small, family-run restaurants expect global megastars to turn up for dinner and to design them a menu from scratch.
But that’s what happened to Simona Di Dio last weekend, when she cooked dishes inspired by her Italian grandmother’s recipes for Madonna, who sat on the single wooden dining table in Di Dio’s cosy, candlelit Italian restaurant in Margate’s old town.
Famous figures including Woody Allen were invited to party with disgraced financier and Mountbatten-Windsor, documents indicate
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor attended an intimate party with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein months after he was released from prison, files suggest.
The US justice department released another cache of documents relating to the disgraced financier on Friday.
Child sex offender sent thousands of pounds to Reinaldo Avila da Silva, according to documents published by US justice department
Jeffrey Epstein sent thousands of pounds in bank transfers after his release from prison in 2009 to Peter Mandelson’s husband, according to emails published by the US Department of Justice on Friday.
The latest documents raise fresh questions about Epstein’s relationship with Mandelson, who was sacked as the UK’s ambassador to Washington when details of his support for the disgraced financier emerged in September.
‘There is a lot of experts that wanted to retire me’
Serb won five-set epic to reach Australian Open final
Novak Djokovic thanked his doubters for helping to give him strength after he produced an incredible performance to defeat Jannik Sinner, the No 2 and two-time defending champion, 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 to reach the Australian Open final.
Djokovic, the fourth seed, will contest his 11th Australian Open final and 38th grand slam final overall on Sunday, his first losing the Wimbledon final in July 2024. At 38 years old, he is the oldest Australian Open men’s finalist in history.
Island country only has oil enough to last 15-20 days, and 12-hour blackouts have become commonplace
Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has warned that Donald Trump’s move to slap new tariffs on countries sending oil to Cuba could trigger a humanitarian crisis on the island, which is already suffering from chronic fuel shortages and regular blackouts.
The US president signed an executive order on Thursday declaring a national emergency and laying the groundwork for such tariffs, ratcheting up the pressure to topple the communist government in Havana.
We spoke with five people from Atlanta to rural Germany and the UK whose households range from grandparents to three couples who own a farmhouse
In Atlanta, Carolyn Martinez, 65, lives in a household spanning four generations – and a lifelong friendship. Her 90-year-old mother, who has lived with her for more than 40 years due to various disabilities, shares the house with Martinez, 65, her adult daughter, aged 25, and her granddaughter, aged three months. “My mum has lived with me literally all my adult life,” she says. “She just wasn’t able to live by herself.”
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