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      The end of Stephen Colbert’s Late Show is a concerning nail in the coffin for comedy | Jesse Hassenger

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      The idea that the political career of Donald Trump would be a goldmine for comedy died a long time ago, with the coffin accepting stray nails for the past five years. The latest and possibly last such nail is the cancellation of The Late Show, the CBS late-night talkshow hosted by Stephen Colbert since the fall of 2015, and originated by David Letterman when the network poached him from NBC in 1993. At this point, Trump hasn’t just made topical late-night comedy look outdated, hackneyed and an insufficient response to his reign of terror; he’s also made a chunk of it flat-out go away.There will be time to eulogize Colbert’s particular talkshow style later; the Late Show isn’t leaving the air for another 10 months, when his contract is up. Surely that leaves plenty more time to savage the president – and Colbert has been in this slot since right around the time Trump became a real contender in the presidential race, so why has this only now come to a head? Seemingly because the axing of the Late Show franchise follows the $16m settlement of a frivolous Trump lawsuit against CBS and their newsmagazine show 60 Minutes over the show’s editing of a 2024 interview with presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Colbert made great fun of his bosses’ payout as a cowardly “bribe” designed to appease the Trump administration, who are in the position to approve or deny the sale of Paramount, the corporate owners of CBS, to the company Skydance. In other words, the pre-merger nixing a comedian who regularly goofs on Trump on network TV seems like a convenient bit of timing – maybe even an unspoken bonus to go along with those millions of dollars.The network, of course, has characterized the decision as “purely financial” amid a period when most traditional late-night shows have struggled. As excuses go, it’s not entirely unconvincing. After all, Colbert isn’t being replaced with another host; The Late Show is simply going the same route as its short-lived companion series After Midnight (and The Late Late Show before it). CBS is surrendering the late-night block entirely. This represents a major retreat after the Letterman deal made the network a genuine player for the first time in ages. Presumably it’s back to reruns and old movies going forward.In that sense, this decision does transcend politics. CBS has ripped off a bandage that the big three networks have been applying to similar wounds for years. Late-night programming simply doesn’t mean as much as it used to, with smaller network lead-ins from primetime lineups and more audience choices for comedy, talk, music or even the dopey celeb games that Jimmy Fallon throws together. Saturday Night Live has retained some cultural cachet, thanks to a combination of lower commitment (20 episodes a year, on a night where many people don’t have work the next day, versus eight times as many, all airing on weeknights), legacy branding (it’s still known as a star showcase and political comedy go-to, no matter how wan those cold-open sketches get), and sketch comedy that travels well online. These days, it’s routinely one of the highest-rated network shows of the week when it airs a new episode, offering an encouraging sign that old time-slot rules about viewership no longer apply. It’s also extremely expensive to produce and difficult to replicate, which nonetheless looks more viable than the tired talkshow format.View image in fullscreenBroadly, this could be a good thing for comic minds including Colbert or Conan O’Brien. Some comedians seem unable to resist the siren call of late-night talkshows, chasing the Tonight Show dream even when that actual job remained out of reach. O’Brien is a singularly brilliant comedy writer and performer; as great as his late-night shows could be, in retrospect should he have spent three decades primarily in that waning medium? Colbert, meanwhile, did his strongest political satire playing a parody of a conservative commentator on The Daily Show and its later spinoff The Colbert Report. His warmth and sometimes-sharp humor made him a good “real” talkshow host – and by most standards, a successful one. In recent matchups, his Late Show has been the most-watched such program across the major networks. That he can face cancellation anyway should (alongside O’Brien losing his Tonight Show gig years ago) signal to newcomers that the rarified air of the national late-night talkshow host is also getting pretty thin, maybe unbreathable.Yet Trump has sucked up some of that oxygen, too. Even with the “challenges” cited by CBS, it’s difficult to believe that vanquishing a longtime issuer of Trump mockery wasn’t at least considered a side benefit of canceling The Late Show. Even if the decision was, as claimed, a financial one, it accompanies another financial decision: that Paramount could afford to pay Trump $16m rather than proceed with litigation that many seemed to think they could win. That’s precisely the kind of expense that could diminish how, say, your late-night talkshow attracts more eyeballs than The Tonight Show.Beyond Trump personally smudging up the balance sheets, he’s helped to hasten the demise of late-night comedy simply by being himself, seeming to provide the perfect target: a venal, dimwitted perma-celebrity with an army of devoted sycophants. But after two non-consecutive administrations have flooded the zone with grotesqueries, performing a lightly zinging monologue or sketches as a warmup act for good-natured interviews seems unlikely to entice either those craving anti-Trump catharsis, or those desperate to believe in his strongman powers.That Colbert took a somewhat less cutesy approach than his competitor Fallon seemed to be all that was necessary to mark him as a troublemaker. The thing is, Trump might have ultimately consumed him either way. By providing a ready-made caricature of himself, intentionally or not, the president has beaten the system again. It may not be worth mourning the hacky, presidential-themed jokes we might miss in a future with fewer talkshows than ever. But it does feel like the enforcement of one of Trump’s more minor cruelties: the ability to see himself as the only real star in the world. More

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      ‘He’s a lot of fun to be with’: Trump and Epstein were close friends for 15 years

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      It was a friendship that spanned three different decades. To Donald Trump, Jeffrey Epstein was a “terrific guy”. Epstein believed himself to be Trump’s “closest friend”, and praised the future president as “charming”.The relationship would eventually break down, the men falling out over a bidding war on a property in Florida. And after Epstein was convicted of child sex offences in 2008, Trump distanced himself from the financier, claiming he was “not a fan” and wondering, in recent days, why his supporters would “waste time and energy” on demanding that FBI and Department of Justice files on Epstein be released.But photos, videos and anecdotes paint a picture of a close friendship, of two middle-aged men who repeatedly partied together both alone and with their partners, including with Melania Knauss, who would go on to become Trump’s third wife.“I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,” Trump told New York magazine in 2002. “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’s insight into Epstein’s predilections would be proved true in macabre fashion, when Epstein was found guilty in 2008 of sexually abusing girls aged between 14 and 17 years old. When Epstein was charged with sex trafficking of minors, in 2019, Trump attempted to play down their relationship, insisting: “I knew him like everybody in Palm Beach knew him.” Trump said the pair had fallen out years earlier, and claimed: “I was not a fan of his.”But during the 15 years that the men were friends, there were plenty of incidents that displayed Trump and Epstein’s closeness.The New York Times reported that in 1992, George Houraney, a Florida-based businessman, had organized a “calendar girl” competition at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s private members’ club where he would later live full-time.Houraney flew more than two dozen women to Mar-a-Lago, but he had a surprise when they arrived.“I arranged to have some contestants fly in,” Houraney told the Times. “At the very first party, I said, ‘Who’s coming tonight? I have 28 girls coming.’ It was him and Epstein.”Houraney said he was surprised. “I said: ‘Donald, this is supposed to be a party with VIPs. You’re telling me it’s you and Epstein?’”It ended up being just Trump and Epstein.Back then, Trump made no secret of the friendship. He was pictured with Epstein at events and parties from New York to Florida.Video from a party at Mar-a-Lago in 1992 shows the pair in conversation as a dance track booms through the speakers. Trump whispers something into Epstein’s ear, prompting Epstein to bend over laughing. The tape was aired by NBC News during Trump’s first term as president, and the news channel reported that it showed both Trump and Epstein pointing out women, while at one point Trump gestures to a woman and says: “Look at her, back there … she’s hot.”In 1993 Stacey Williams, then a professional model, visited Trump at Trump Tower with Epstein. On arrival, she would later tell the Guardian, Trump put his hands “all over my breasts”, waist and buttocks while Trump and Epstein smiled at each other, in what she believed was a “twisted game” between the two men.“It became very clear then that he and Donald were really, really good friends and spent a lot of time together,” Williams said in 2024. Karoline Leavitt, then a spokesperson for Trump’s election campaign, described Williams’s accusations as “unequivocally false. It’s obvious this fake story was contrived by the Harris campaign.”What is undeniable is that the men maintained their relationship through the 1990s. They were photographed at Mar-a-Lago, and the same year were pictured together at a Victoria’s Secret Angels event in New York. The relationship endured. Photos show Trump and Epstein with Melania Trump and Ghislaine Maxwell at an event in 2000. Maxwell would be sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2022 for procuring teen girls for Jeffrey Epstein for him to abuse – when she was charged with the crimes Trump responded: “I just wish her well, frankly.”The Wall Street Journal also reported on Thursday that Trump allegedly wrote Epstein a birthday card as part of a 50th birthday album organized by Ghislaine Maxwell in 2003. The letter was fashioned in the shape of a woman’s body, and consisted of an imaginary dialogue between the two, the Journal said.“Donald: We have certain things in common, Jeffrey.Jeffrey: Yes, we do, come to think of it.Donald: Enigmas never age, have you noticed that?” it read, with Trump’s signature squiggled as it were pubic hair on the outline of the body.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionTrump once believed Epstein to be a terrific guy, but he wasn’t the only one who talked up the friendship. Years later Epstein would tell the journalist Michael Wolff that he had been Trump’s “closest friend for 10 years”, in audio tapes published on Wolff’s Fire and Fury podcast last year. Epstein also told Wolff that Trump liked to “fuck the wives of his best friends”, and said the first time he slept with Melania Trump was on Epstein’s plane. Trump’s camp claimed that Wolff was engaging in “false smears” and “election interference”.The close friendship wouldn’t last. The relationship soured in 2004, according to reports, after the pair became embroiled in a bidding war over a property in Palm Beach. In 2019, after Epstein was arrested, he said he had not spoken to Trump for 15 years. And despite his own close relationship with Epstein, Trump would go on to criticize others for the same thing, with Bill Clinton a particular source of deflection. Trump even shared a conspiracy theory that the former president was involved in Epstein’s death – ironically sparking more intrigue in the case. Trump told reporters days after Epstein died:“The question you have to ask is, did Bill Clinton go to the island? Because Epstein had an island. That was not a good place, as I understand it, and I was never there.” Trump adds: “So you have to ask, did Bill Clinton go to the island? That’s the question. If you find that out, you’re going to know a lot.”Clinton has denied going to Little St James island, which Epstein owned and later became synonymous with his crimes.Trump now finds himself in a mess that is partly of his own making. The “Epstein didn’t commit suicide” conspiracy theory in which he dabbled quickly spread among rightwing commentators and media figures – many of whom demanded that documents related to Epstein’s associates be released. When the Department of Justice failed to do so last week, it caused a rarely seen rift between Trump and his supporters, with Trump trying to brush off the saga, and his supporters angry at a perceived lack of transparency.When Trump was elected in 2024, his supporters believed they were getting an administration that was anti-swamp and pro-open government, the kind of government that holds back no secrets. But looking back at Trump’s statements on the Epstein files during the campaign, the president appeared to be leaving himself wriggle room.Asked in an interview in September if he would declassify “the 9/11 files” and “the JFK files”, Trump said yes. He is then asked if he would declassify “the Epstein files”, and initially said yes, but added:“I think that [declassifying the Epstein files], less so, because you don’t know – you don’t want to affect people’s lives if there’s phoney stuff in there, because there’s a lot of phoney stuff with that whole world.”That wavering hasn’t helped Trump, however, as he has attempted to quash his supporters’ rebellion. In a cabinet meeting last week the president expressed surprise that people were “still talking” about Epstein, later pleading with his base to “not waste time and energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about”.How wrong he was. It turns out loads of people care about Jeffrey Epstein – particularly the people who support Trump. It was something Trump addressed on Wednesday, when he explicitly attacked his supporters in a post on Truth Social. “​​My PAST supporters have bought into this ‘bullshit,’ hook, line, and sinker,” Trump wrote.He added: “I have had more success in 6 months than perhaps any president in our country’s history, and all these people want to talk about, with strong prodding by the fake news and the success starved Dems, is the Jeffrey Epstein hoax. Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, don’t even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don’t want their support anymore!”Trump revels in his relationship with rank-and-file rightwing Americans, a relationship that has benefited him to the tune of two presidential terms and hundreds of millions of dollars. For the past decade it has seemed as if that relationship could endure any scandal, any broken promise.But now, for the first time, Trump is finding cracks in his support. That past friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, the “terrific guy” turned “creep”, could prove to be the president’s undoing. More

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      Listen up, weaklings: there’s no Epstein client list. Why are you so obsessed? Yours, Donald J Trump | Marina Hyde

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      You have to feel for Donald Trump’s Maga base. The one huge secret they didn’t want disclosed was that he actually really hates them. All populists despise their people, obviously – but please, Mr President, respect the playbook! You’re supposed to do it quietly. Regrettably, no one could accuse Trump of hiding his spite under a bushel after a week in which he described those of his supporters who want him to simply do what he repeatedly promised, and release the so-called Epstein files, as “weaklings” and “stupid people”. This is quite the (public) volte face from the guy who originally swept to office declaring “I love the poorly educated”.Most of you are unlikely to need a recap at this stage, but Jeffrey Epstein is the sex-trafficking financier and socialite, who conveniently died in jail while awaiting trial, apparently by suicide. A woman, Ghislaine Maxwell, was convicted of conspiring with him to sexually abuse minors, and is currently serving 20 years in a low-security Florida prison. But no big-hitting or even small-hitting male associate in the US has so much as been arrested for participating in what I believe the dead paedophile would have encouraged us to call his “lifestyle”. This second Trump administration didn’t just sweep to power while repeatedly screaming about the “cover-up” of this story, but it spent a good portion of its early months assuring its ravenous base that Epstein’s supposed “client list” was on a desk waiting for release approval. Yet now, Trump and his associates say there is no list. Nope. Never even was a list. Where did these weakling idiots get that idea? To summarise his administration’s position: “We took a look at the deep state and it turns out to be very shallow. Seriously, I’m standing in it right now and it doesn’t even come up to my knees.”Understandably, a significant proportion of the Maga crowd are not taking this well at all. One of the key takeouts of Trump’s rise has been that as long as you tell people that up is down or black is white in an engaging or sufficiently discombobulating fashion, truth is an extremely low-status commodity in contemporary politics. But, contrary to perceived trends, it seems that there do still exist some subjects on which you can only push even your own people so far. Maybe the ancient political adage still holds true: live by the paedo conspiracy, die by the paedo conspiracy.Late on Thursday, as footage of people burning Maga hats spread online, a palpably frustrated Trump announced that he was instructing the attorney general, Pam Bondi, to seek release of the Epstein grand jury testimony, “based on the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein”. Though you’ll note the president failed to add the two key words: “by me”. Still, it’s good to hear Trump characterising what’s currently happening as “publicity”, confirming that he sees even the desire to see justice served on a suspected paedophile sex-trafficker and his associates as a form of limelight – which, like all limelight, should by rights be his.It feels harder to sustain the idea that there is nothing to see here, especially when leading wingnuts such as the Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, far-right activist Laura Loomer, Fox host Laura Ingraham, talkshow queen Megyn Kelly, Maga whisperer Steve Bannon and even the US House speaker, Mike Johnson, are out there pushing the base conviction that, actually, there might well be something to see here. “It’s definitely a full reversal on what was all said beforehand,” observed Marjorie in a once-in-a-career alignment with fact, “and people are just not willing to accept it.”We have to take our laughs where we can, meanwhile, so do please consider the cavalcade of podcasters and Maga influencers who got jobs like “director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation” and “deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation” and are now discovering that life comes at you fast. FBI chief Kash Patel spent the election campaign pushing Epstein conspiracies, and is now believed to be hiding under his big important desk wetting his pants. “Listen,” his deputy, Dan Bongino, used to instruct his podcast listeners. “That Jeffrey Epstein story is a big deal, please do not let that story go. Keep your eye on this.” Will do, Dan. Incidentally, a lot of people spent the weekend speculating feverishly that Bongino would sensationally quit his job – but in the end, he just came into work a bit late on Monday. What a tough guy. Make America Deep State Again!Other developments? That are perhaps not unrelated? The Wall Street Journal reports that Trump had served as a contributor to some kind of cursed 50th birthday scrapbook for Epstein, compiled by Maxwell, for which he’d sent a “bawdy” letter. This missive was reportedly typed inside a drawing of a naked woman’s silhouette, in which the famous Trump signature served as a kind of scribble of pubic hair. So far, so FDR. Unfortunately, particularly in the circumstances, the letter itself is said to conclude: “Happy birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret.”Alas, the current president is not thrilled by this report, denying it completely, adding that he has never in his life “wrote a picture”. (It goes without saying that all Donald Trump statements, always, are very much [sic].) Much more promisingly, Trump is furious with the WSJ owner, Rupert Murdoch, and threatening to “sue his ass off”. Oh please don’t, Mr President! His ass is 94 years old and incredibly wrinkled. Also, half of Britain’s political class still lives up it. Then again, perhaps Trump v Murdoch is very much the desiccated-dick-waving contest the world … wants? Needs? Will have to endure? Unclear which of those applies at this stage, but let’s hold out for the possibility that both men are wholly – and indeed literally – consumed by it.Angles-wise, however, there are already signs that the Wall Street Journal might just be the common enemy the Magas need as an off-ramp for their civil war, allowing people who are obsessed with paedophiles to find common cause both with people who don’t care about paedophiles, and also with people who may actually have been close personal friends with paedophiles. There’ll probably only be one casualty, and it’ll probably be Pam Bondi. Women are great at taking these falls. Furthermore, the whole conflagration would once more pit a billionaire president against one of his billionaire buddies – exactly the kind of better world his supporters voted for, and a true testament to how truly, truly deeply he values them.

      Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist

      Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. More

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      US House passes Trump plan to cut $9bn from foreign aid, public broadcasting

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      The US’s Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed president Donald Trump’s $9bn funding cut to public media and foreign aid early on Friday, sending it to the White House to be signed into law.The chamber voted 216 to 213 in favor of the funding cut package, altered by the Senate this week to exclude cuts of about $400m in funds for the global PEPFAR HIV/Aids prevention program.Only two House Republicans voted against the cut – representatives Brian Fitzpatrick from Pennsylvania and Mike Turner from Ohio – along with Democrats.“We are taking one small step to cut wasteful spending, but one giant leap towards fiscal sanity,” said representative Aaron Bean, a Florida Republican.House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries countered that the funding cut “undermines our ability to keep our people safe here and to project America’s soft power all over the globe”, and argued rural Americans’ access to emergency information on public radio will be diminished.The funding vote was delayed for hours amid Republican disagreements about other legislation, and calls from some members of the party for more government transparency about the deceased convicted sex offender and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.To satisfy the Epstein-related concerns without holding up the funding cut bill any longer, Republicans on the House rules committee introduced a resolution that calls for the release of Epstein documents by the US attorney general within 30 days.“It’s a sound, good-faith resolution that ensures protections for victims and innocent witnesses,” said representative Virginia Foxx from North Carolina, the Republican leader of the rules committee.But the top Democrat on the rules panel, representative Jim McGovern from Massachusetts, blasted the resolution as a “glorified press release” because it lacks an enforcement mechanism to make the Justice Department comply.When the chamber finally voted on the funding cut, it was the second close House vote on Trump’s request to claw back the funds previously approved by Democrats and his fellow Republicans in Congress.In June, four Republicans joined Democrats to vote against an earlier version of the rescissions package, which passed 214-212.House Republicans felt extra pressure to pass the Senate version as Trump’s administration would have been forced to spend the money if Congress did not approve the cuts by Friday.The $9bn cut is a small fraction of the country’s $6.8tn federal budget.Republicans say the foreign aid funds previously went to programs they deem wasteful, and they say the $1bn in public media funding supports radio stations and PBS television, which they claim are biased against conservative viewpoints.Prior to the vote in the House, the legislation, known as a rescissions package, was approved by a narrow margin of 51 votes to 48 in the Senate. All Democrats opposed the bill.This week’s funding clawback represents only a tiny portion of all the funds approved by Congress that the Trump administration has held up while it has pursued sweeping cuts.Democratic lawmakers say the administration has blocked more than $425bn of spending approved by Congress since Trump’s second term began in January. More

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      Trump news at a glance: Fallout from Epstein case widens as Trump threatens to sue WSJ

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      Growing pressure on the Trump administration has prompted the US president to direct his attorney general, Pam Bondi, to seek the release of grand jury testimony related to Jeffrey Epstein’s sex-trafficking case.The announcement came as Trump seeks to tamp down controversy over a story published in the Wall Street Journal that alleges the US president contributed a sketch of a naked woman to Epstein’s 50th birthday album. The president has said the letter is a fake, and that he will sue the publication over the story.The fallout over the Epstein case has also complicated House Republicans’ plans to vote on Thursday on legislation demanded by Trump to slash government spending.Here are the key stories at a glance:Trump denies the Epstein birthday message was hisThe president said on Truth Social he had authorized the justice department to seek the public release of the materials, which are under seal, citing “the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein”.Bondi, who has weathered days of accusations by Trump’s far-right supporters that she had mismanaged and failed to deliver on promises to release previously secret documents about the Epstein case, responded to Trump’s post with a post of her own that vowed to comply with the directive.The flurry of activity followed the Wall Street Journal report alleging that Trump had contributed the letter – described as “bawdy” and featuring a drawing of a naked woman’s silhouette around a typewritten personal message to Epstein – to an album compiled by Ghislane Maxwell for Epstein’s 50th birthday. Trump denied to the Journal that he was the author of the tribute and, hours after the story was published, announced he intended to file a lawsuit against the publication.Read the full storyEpstein tensions thwart House plan to vote on cuts billThe House of Representatives faces a Friday deadline to pass the rescissions package demanded by Trump and approved by the Senate.But before the House can vote on the package, it must be approved by the rules committee, where the Democratic minority has sought to capitalize on a growing furor among Republicans and their supporters over the Trump administration’s handling of documents related to the Epstein case. The committee announced it would hold a hearing into the package on Thursday evening.Read the full storyTrump supporters burn Maga hats over Epstein caseDonald Trump’s efforts to dismiss the criticism over his administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files as a “hoax” showed no sign of working on Thursday as more prominent figures from across the political spectrum emerged to attack the US president and some of his supporters recorded videos burning their signature Make America Great Again hats.Read the full storyIce given access to sensitive Medicaid dataMedicaid officials have reportedly made an agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) to allow agents to examine a database of Americans’ personal information – including home addresses, social security numbers and ethnicities.The data sharing agreement will allow Ice to find “the location of aliens”, according to an agreement obtained by the Associated Press.Read the full storyWhat is chronic venous insufficiency, the condition Trump was diagnosed with?Donald Trump was diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency, the White House said on Thursday, after he noticed swelling in his legs. It is a fairly common condition among older adults, but requires a thorough checkup to rule out more serious causes of swelling in the legs.Read the full storyDeSantis under fire over ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ fundingOfficials in Florida diverted crucial disaster preparedness and response resources to support the hasty construction of the so-called Alligator Alcatraz migrant detention jail by the Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, a newly published report has claimed.Read the full storyTrump officials tour Alcatraz in bid to reopen prisonA delegation of US officials toured Alcatraz on Thursday as part of Donald Trump’s pledge to reopen the shuttered federal prison and tourist attraction in the San Francisco Bay, amid an outcry from California leaders who have called the plan “lunacy”.Read the full storyTens of thousands join ‘Good Trouble’ protestsTens of thousands of people joined marches and rallies at more than 1,500 sites across all 50 US states on Thursday to protest against the Trump administration and honor the legacy of the late congressman John Lewis, an advocate for voting rights and civil disobedience.Read the full storyTrump’s $1tn for Pentagon adds huge planet-heating emissionsExclusive: Donald Trump’s huge spending boost for the Pentagon will produce an additional 26 megatons (Mt) of planet-heating gases – on a par with the annual carbon equivalent emissions generated by 68 gas power plants or the entire country of Croatia, new research reveals.Read the full storyMigrants deported by US to Eswatini being held in solitary confinementFive migrants deported by the US to the small southern African country of Eswatini, under the Trump administration’s third-country program, will be held in solitary confinement for an undetermined time, an Eswatini government spokesperson says.Thabile Mdluli, the spokesperson, told the Associated Press that Eswatini planned to ultimately repatriate the five to their home countries with the help of a UN agency.Read the full storyWhat else happened today:

      Republican senators advanced Emil Bove’s nomination to serve as a judge on a federal appeals court even as Democrats walked out in protest.

      The Coca-Cola company defended its use of corn syrup after Trump’s claim that he had apparently convinced the brand to switch to using sugar cane in its US drinks.

      An Oregon father was arrested by Ice and taken into custody while dropping off his child at a preschool in the Portland-area, the agency confirmed.

      California governor Gavin Newsom threatens to redraw California House maps in protest over a Republican plan to pick up congressional seats in Texas.
      Catching up? Here’s what happened on 16 July 2025. More

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      Trump requests release of Epstein grand jury transcripts amid report of ‘bawdy’ birthday note

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      Donald Trump said on Thursday he had directed his attorney general, Pam Bondi, to seek the release of grand jury testimony related to Jeffrey Epstein’s sex-trafficking case as he sought to tamp down controversy over a story that he allegedly contributed a sketch of a naked woman to Epstein’s 50th birthday album.The president said on Truth Social he had authorized the justice department to seek the public release of the materials, which are under seal, citing “the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein”.Bondi, who has weathered days of accusations by Trump’s far-right supporters that she had mismanaged and failed to deliver on promises to release previously secret documents about the Epstein case, responded to Trump’s post with a post of her own that vowed to comply with the directive.The flurry of activity followed a story in the Wall Street Journal that reported Trump had contributed a letter, described as “bawdy” and featuring a drawing of a naked woman’s silhouette around a typewritten personal message to Epstein, to the birthday album compiled by Ghislane Maxwell.“A pair of small arcs denotes the woman’s breasts, and the future president’s signature is a squiggly ‘Donald’ below her waist, mimicking pubic hair,” the Journal said of the alleged drawing. It added the letter concluded: “Happy Birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret.”Trump denied to the Journal that he was the author of the birthday tribute and, hours after the story was published, announced he intended to file a lawsuit in a lengthy post on Truth Social, decrying the reporting as fake and condemning it as what he called “the Epstein Hoax”.The president said in the post that he had personally told Rupert Murdoch and the Journal’s editor-in-chief Emma Tucker that the letter was fake and that he would sue if a story about the letter was published.“Mr Murdoch stated that he would take care of it but obviously did not have the power to do so,” Trump wrote. “Instead they are going with a false, malicious, defamatory story anyway. President Trump will be suing the Wall Street Journal, News Corp and Mr Murdoch shortly.”The statement from Trump followed attempts by the president and White House officials to try to undercut the story, including by pressing the Journal to furnish a copy of the letter, which it did not provide, according to people familiar with the matter.View image in fullscreenAs the existence of the story became increasingly known in Washington, whether the story would run and whether Trump would actually draw a figure of a woman became something of a parlor game between administration officials and Trump allies and reporters alike.The outlet conceded it was not clear how the letter with Trump’s signature was prepared, but said it contained a typewritten note said to be styled as an imaginary conversation between Trump and Epstein.The note reportedly began: “Voice Over: There must be more to life than having everything,” the note began.Donald: Yes, there is, but I won’t tell you what it is.Jeffrey: Nor will I, since I also know what it is.Donald: We have certain things in common, Jeffrey.Jeffrey: Yes, we do, come to think of it.Donald: Enigmas never age, have you noticed that?Jeffrey: As a matter of fact, it was clear to me the last time I saw you.Donald: A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret.The Journal reported that Maxwell collected letters from Trump and dozens of Epstein’s other associates, including L Brands owner Les Wexner, for the 2003 birthday album, three years before Epstein was ever investigated for sexual misconduct.The Journal also reported that the leather-bound album was among the documents examined by officials with the justice department who investigated Epstein and Maxwell at that time.Among others who appear to have submitted birthday greetings to the compilation was Epstein attorney Alan Dershowitz and Wexner, who allegedly contributed a message “I wanted to get you what you want … so here it is … ” along with a line drawing that the Journal said was “of what appeared to be a woman’s breasts”. Wexner declined to comment through a spokesman.Dershowitz told the Journal: “It’s been a long time and I don’t recall the content of what I may have written.”The 2003 birthday album with Trump’s birthday wishes comes a year before Trump offered his commendation of Epstein in a 2002 New York magazine profile. “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,” Trump told the publication. “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. No doubt about it – Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”But in recent days, as the Epstein controversy had heated up after years of laying dormant, Trump has sought to steer Maga Republicans away from the subject, calling it a “hoax”.JD Vance sprang to Trump’s defense on Thursday night.“Forgive my language but this story is complete and utter bullshit. The WSJ should be ashamed for publishing it,” Vance wrote on X. “Where is this letter? Would you be shocked to learn they never showed it to us before publishing it? Does anyone honestly believe this sounds like Donald Trump?” More

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      Newsom threatens to redraw California House maps in protest at Texas plan

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      Seeking to offset a Republican plan to pick up congressional seats in Texas, California Democrats say they are prepared to redraw the state’s 52 congressional districts in a longshot and controversial effort to pick up Democratic seats.Governor Gavin Newsom, seen as a likely presidential candidate in 2028, has been leading the threat in recent days. And Democratic members of California’s delegation in the US House appear to be on board.“We want our gavels back,” Representative Mark Takano, a California Democrat, told Punchbowl News. “That’s what this is about.” Democrats hold 43 of California’s 52 seats and reportedly believe they can pick up an additional five to seven seats by drawing new maps.Newsom is pushing the plan as Texas Republicans are poised to redraw its 38 congressional districts in a special session that begins next week. Texas’s governor, Greg Abbott, put redistricting on the agenda at the request of Donald Trump, who wants Republicans to add five seats in Texas as he seeks to stave off a loss in congressional seats next year. The effort has been widely criticized by Democrats as an anti-democratic ploy to make Republicans unaccountable to their voters.Newsom’s plan in California is unlikely to succeed. More than a decade ago, California voters approved a constitutional amendment that stripped lawmakers of their ability to draw congressional districts and gave it to an independent redistricting commission. Newsom has only offered vague ideas for how to get around that requirement. He has suggested the legislature could call a quick voter referendum to potentially strip the commission of its power. He also said on Wednesday there was a possibility of the legislature trying to enact new maps on its own – a novel legal theory.“It’s not lawful in any way,” said Dan Vicuña, a redistricting expert at the watchdog group Common Cause. “It was clear that this was meant to be done one time after the census, through a public and transparent process that centers community feedback, and then to be not touched again until the next decade.”He added: “It’s not an invitation to them to circumvent the independent process and gerrymander maps in the middle of a decade. That would completely undermine the purpose of the independent process voters approved.”California’s independent commission has long been considered a model for making the process of drawing district lines fairer. There has been a bipartisan push in recent years to get more states to adopt commissions such as California’s, where ordinary citizens – Democrats, Republicans and unaffiliated – have the power to draw district lines. After the 2020 census, four states – California, Arizona, Michigan and Colorado – used independent commissions. Democrats sought to require all states to use independent redistricting commissions in federal legislation that stalled in the US Senate during Joe Biden’s presidency.Russell Yee, a Republican who served on California’s commission, said that while he understood Newsom’s frustration, the only solution is redistricting reform at the federal level.“To abandon a commitment to fair and equitable election districts for partisan advantage is to sell family treasures at a pawn shop for a wad of quickly spent cash,” he said.Newsom has noted he supported creating the commission, but frames his willingness to redraw maps as the type of hardball Democrats should be more willing to play as Trump and Republicans have openly defied the law.“They’re playing by a different set of rules. They can’t win by the traditional game so they want to change the game,” Newsom said on Wednesday. “We can act holier than thou. We can sit on the sidelines, talk about the way the world should be. Or we can recognize the existential nature that is this moment.”Alex Lee, a state assemblyman who chairs his chamber’s progressive caucus, rejected that argument. “CA independent citizen redistricting (imperfect) is model for the nation,” he wrote in a post on X. “[Republicans] resort to cheating to win. We win by running clear platform for the working class and delivering.”Trying to push through a redrawing of California’s map could also undermine efforts by Democrats to convince voters of the grave dangers of Trump’s attacks on the rule of law. More

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      Trump officials tour Alcatraz in bid to reopen prison amid outcry from California leaders

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      A delegation of US officials toured Alcatraz on Thursday as part of Donald Trump’s pledge to reopen the shuttered federal prison and tourist attraction in the San Francisco Bay, amid an outcry from California leaders who have called the plan “lunacy”.Doug Burgum, the interior secretary, who visited the island prison with attorney general Pam Bondi, said the federal government was beginning “the work to renovate and reopen the site to house the most dangerous criminals and illegals”.The president’s proposal to reopen Alcatraz, which closed in 1963 due to steep operating costs and is now a National Park Service museum with 1.4 million visitors a year, has attracted fierce criticism from local leaders, California Democrats and the state governor.“With stiff competition, the planned announcement to reopen Alcatraz as a federal penitentiary is the Trump administration’s stupidest initiative yet,” said Nancy Pelosi, the former House Speaker and San Francisco congresswoman, ahead of the delegation’s visit. She described it as a “diversionary tactic” from the recently passed budget and “lunacy”.“It remains to be seen how this administration could possibly afford to spend billions to convert and maintain Alcatraz as a prison when they are already adding trillions of dollars to the national debt with their sinful law.”In May, Trump said his administration would reopen and expand Alcatraz to “house America’s most ruthless and violent offenders”. This week, as the administration continued to deal with the outcry over the decision not to release additional files related to Jeffrey Epstein, Bondi and Burgum traveled to the site.“Alcatraz is the brand known around the world for being effective at housing people that are in incarceration, so this is something we’re here to take a look at,” Burgum told Fox News on Thursday. “It’s a federal property – its original use was a prison. So part of this would be to test the feasibility of returning it back to its original use.”But reopening the prison would be an enormous logistical and financial undertaking. The facility, known for its brutal conditions and escape attempts, closed because its operating costs were three times more than any other federal prison due to its physical isolation – and million of dollars were needed for restoration. While in operation, nearly 1m gallons of water were transported to the island each week, according to the Bureau of Prisons.The site later became a symbol of Indigenous resistance when Indigenous American activists began a 19-month occupation of Alcatraz in 1969, and opened to the public for tours in 1973. Officials have said it is in no condition to serve as a detention center.“There is no realistic plan for Alcatraz to host anyone other than visitors,” Daniel Lurie, San Francisco’s mayor, said on Thursday. “If the federal government has billions of dollars to spend in San Francisco, we could use that funding to keep our streets safe and clean and help our economy recover.”In response to news of tour, Gavin Newsom’s press office said: “Pam Bondi will reopen Alcatraz the same day Trump lets her release the Epstein files. So … never.” More