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Todd Blanche says review of Jeffrey Epstein sex-trafficking case ‘is over’

Deputy US attorney general says victims ‘want to be made whole’ but that doesn’t mean ‘we can just create evidence’

The deputy US attorney general, Todd Blanche, the point person on the Trump administration’s Epstein files release, told ABC News on Sunday that prosecutors’ review of the Jeffrey Epstein-Ghislaine Maxwell sex-trafficking case “is over”.

Separately, in comments to CNN about Epstein, Blanche said that “victims want to be made whole” after surviving the scheme attributed to the late convicted sex offender and which led to a 20-year prison sentence for Maxwell beginning in 2022.

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© Photograph: J Scott Applewhite/AP

© Photograph: J Scott Applewhite/AP

© Photograph: J Scott Applewhite/AP

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Propaganda in cinemas, newsrooms slashed: this is the US media under Trump and his tech barons | Nesrine Malik

The president and his supporters joining forces to decide what audiences read and see seems straight from a fascism playbook

Two events, juxtaposed, tell us a great deal about what is rapidly taking shape in the US. In one, Melania Trump releases a glossy documentary, Melania, an account of her return to the White House. Amazon outbid others to secure the rights to the documentary, spending $75m (£54m) in total, and ticket sales so far suggest that this was, shall we say, not a purely commercial venture.

In the other, the Washington Post is set to cut up to 200 jobs early this month, including the majority of its foreign staff and a sizeable chunk of its newsroom. Both Melania and the Washington Post are backed by Jeff Bezos. His two decisions, to invest in state propaganda and divest from the fourth estate that supposedly holds power to account, reveal much about how capital and authoritarianism join forces to decide what audiences read and see.

Nesrine Malik is a Guardian columnist

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© Illustration: Matt Kenyon/The Guardian

© Illustration: Matt Kenyon/The Guardian

© Illustration: Matt Kenyon/The Guardian

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Kennedy Center will halt entertainment operations for two years, Trump says

DC arts venue, which has seen wave of canceled events after Trump’s takeover, will start renovations in July

The John F Kennedy Center, a world-class venue for the performing arts in Washington DC, will halt entertainment events for two years starting on 4 July during renovations, Donald Trump posted on Sunday on Truth Social.

The Kennedy Center, which has seen a wave of performers cancel events in recent months as well as the lowest ticket sales in years, has been in turmoil since the president orchestrated a leadership overhaul in the beginning of his term.

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© Photograph: Tyrone Siu/Reuters

© Photograph: Tyrone Siu/Reuters

© Photograph: Tyrone Siu/Reuters

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US is in talks with Cuban leadership, says Trump, after blockade threats

US president announces efforts being made to strike a deal having earlier threatened to stop island importing oil

Washington is negotiating with Havana’s leadership to strike a deal, Donald Trump has said, days after threatening Cuba’s reeling economy with a virtual oil blockade.

“Cuba is a failing nation. It has been for a long time but now it doesn’t have Venezuela to prop it up. So we’re talking to the people from Cuba, the highest people in Cuba, to see what happens,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida on Sunday.

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© Photograph: Ramón Espinosa/AP

© Photograph: Ramón Espinosa/AP

© Photograph: Ramón Espinosa/AP

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How Trump Appears in the Epstein Files

The New York Times found more than 5,300 files with references to Mr. Trump and related terms. They include salacious and unverified claims, as well as documents that had already been made public.

© Eric Lee for The New York Times

President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Friday.
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U.A.E. Firm Quietly Took Stake in the Trump Family’s Crypto Company

The $500 million agreement raises new concerns about the propriety of the president negotiating foreign policy with his own business partners.

© Katarina Premfors for The New York Times

Zach Witkoff, left, and Eric Trump, speaking in Dubai in May. Eric Trump signed an agreement with an Emirati-backed investment firm days before his father’s inauguration in January 2025.
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Russia Strikes Ukraine’s Energy Sector, Killing 12 Miners

The attack comes during a winter freeze and despite efforts by President Trump and others to get the two countries to negotiate a truce.

© Lynsey Addario for The New York Times

A tent provided by the government to provide heat and electricity in Kyiv last month. Russia has devastated Ukraine’s power grid this winter, the coldest in more than a decade.
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Melania film earns $7m in US, strongest documentary debut in over a decade

Melania, however, cost quite more than a typical documentary, at $40m to make and $35m to promote.

Amazon’s Melania Trump documentary has reportedly beaten box office expectations and recorded the strongest start of any documentary in over a decade, taking $7m at the US box office during its lavishly-promoted opening weekend. But it also cost quite more than a typical documentary, at $40m to make and $35m to promote.

And Amazon – which recently cut 16,000 corporate jobs – has been hit with criticism that making the documentary about the first lady, and paying so highly for it, was little more than a ploy to curry favor with her husband, Donald Trump, during his second presidency.

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© Photograph: Samuel Corum/Getty Images

© Photograph: Samuel Corum/Getty Images

© Photograph: Samuel Corum/Getty Images

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