Epstein associate and convicted sex trafficker’s lawyer responds to subpoena from House panel with conditions
Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted sex trafficker and associate of Jeffrey Epstein, says that she is willing to testify before Congress but only if certain conditions are met, including being granted immunity, according to a new letter sent to the House oversight committee by her lawyer on Tuesday.
Last week, the House committee on oversight and government subpoenaed Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence, to testify via deposition next month at a federal prison in Tallahassee, Florida, where she is currently in custody.
End of Old Trafford Test hopefully means England have more respect for other teams’ cultures and other players’ ambitions
Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum have brought a clear, aggressive mindset to England over the past three years, an approach that has been hugely positive, freeing up the players and bringing a lot of excitement. But if they have decided to focus on winning games and entertaining the public, and chosen not to play for draws or focus on individual milestones, it does not mean everyone else has. Centuries are still important to players. Sometimes a draw is a positive result.
What we saw from England when India initially refused to accept the draw on Sunday was a combination of natural disappointment – they had dominated the game, played so much good cricket, wanted to force home the advantageand make the final Test a dead rubber – genuine tiredness and a bit of cultural insensitivity. Certain situations are viewed differently around the world.
Actor and book prize judge’s production company in process of developing novel by Claire Adam
An apparent conflict of interest has emerged over the Sex and the City star Sarah Jessica Parker’s judging of this year’s Booker prize.
A production company run by the actor is reportedly in the process of developing a book written by Claire Adam, whose second novel, Love Forms, appears on this year’s longlist, announced on Tuesday.
Trump will need to approve pause, say US representatives after negotiations end with sides failing to break deadlock on trade terms
US and Chinese negotiators have agreed in principle to push back the deadline for escalating tariffs, although America’s representatives said any extension would need Donald Trump’s approval.
Officials from both sides said after two days of talks in Stockholm that while had failed to find a resolution across the many areas of dispute they had agreed to extend a pause due to run out on 12 August.
Announcement marks significant shift in UK’s position – but why has it happened now and what effect will it have?
Keir Starmer is preparing to recognise Palestinian statehood as soon as September unless Israel meets key conditions, including reaching a ceasefire and committing to a long-term peace process.
The prime minister’s announcement on Tuesday marked a significant shift in the UK’s longstanding position that it would recognise Palestine as part of a peace process at the point of maximum impact.
James Trafford has returned “home” to Manchester City from Burnley in a £27m deal after two seasons at Turf Moor. The goalkeeper has signed a five-year deal, with the option of a sixth, at the Etihad Stadium where he will battle with Ederson and Stefan Ortega to be first choice.
It was anticipated that Trafford would move to Newcastle, who have been tracking him over the past 12 months. City, however, used their matching rights clause, inserted when the goalkeeper left the club in 2023, to secure his services.
Captain cites ‘strong sense of history and tradition’
Lions are preparing for final Test against Australia
If Maro Itoje did not already know that leading the British & Irish Lions was a big deal, he does now. Since his side took an unbeatable 2-0 series lead against the Wallabies he has even had a congratulatory message from the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, who was in Melbourne for the game last Saturday. Was he asking Itoje to consider dipping his toes into politics? “No, no … he has some world issues to try and sort out before that.”
Ask Itoje about his future vision for the Lions, however, and his manifesto is crystal clear. This tour has been the England captain’s third in a red jersey and with every passing year his personal appreciation of the Lions continues to grow. “It’s been without a shadow of a doubt one of the highlights of my career. When I am old and grey these occasions and these tours are going to be one of the experiences I look back on with extreme fondness.”
Detectives are still trying to determine the motive behind 27-year-old Shane Devon Tamura’s shooting spree in 345 Park Avenue in Manhattan on Monday. It ranks as the deadliest firearms attack in New York City in a quarter of a century.
Lorena Wiebes secured her second stage win in the 2025 Tour de France Femmes on the Avenue John Kennedy in Poitiers, after again fending off her Dutch compatriot Marianne Vos in an uphill sprint.
Wiebes, who also won the Italian classic Milan-San Remo and the the points classification in the Giro d’Italia, described 2025 as her “best season to date”. She has also won five Giro stages between from 2021-2025.
Lawsuit alleges protesters made antisemitic threats with the ‘knowledge and acquiescence’ of university officials
The University of California, Los Angeles, will pay nearly $6.5m to settle a lawsuit by Jewish students and a professor who said the university allowed antisemitic discrimination to take place on campus during last year’s pro-Palestinian protests.
The lawsuit alleged that with the “knowledge and acquiescence” of university officials, protesters prevented Jewish students from accessing parts of campus, and made antisemitic threats. Under the settlement agreement announced on Tuesday, the university admitted it had “fallen short” and agreed to pay $2.33m to eight groups that support UCLA’s Jewish community, $320,000 to a campus initiative to fight antisemitism, and $50,000 to each plaintiff.
The multidisiplinary American artist has put together an ambitious new live performance, the latest stage in a provocative and unusual career
Matthew Barney might be The Most Interesting Man in the World. He played on the football and wrestling teams in high school, nursed ambitions to be a plastic surgeon, modelled for J Crew, became a leading avant-garde artist, spent more than a decade in a relationship with the Icelandic singer-songwriter Björk and set up a giant clock outside his studio to count down the first Donald Trump US presidency.
No one explores the violence in America’s source code quite like Barney, who since the 1990s has mounted a series of epic projects exploring the subject via references to classical mythology, modern history, sport, human anatomy and popular culture.
The Reform leader’s summer campaign is a cynical exercise that will exacerbate social tensions and fuel insecurity
During last year’s general election campaign, Reform UK settled on “Britain is broken” as a slogan. This summer, intending to dominate the news agenda during the long Westminster recess, Nigel Farage has decided to ramp up the dystopian rhetoric. “Broken” has morphed into “lawless”, as Mr Farage tours the country deploying language reminiscent of the “American carnage” speech delivered by Donald Trump at his first inauguration in 2017.
Unfounded claims of a huge rise in crime have been breezily tossed out to bolster the assertion that Britain is “facing nothing short of societal collapse”. The crisis of lawlessness on the streets, wrote Mr Farage in a recent article for the Daily Mail, was being compounded by the government-sponsored arrival of “droves of unvetted men into our towns and cities”. Commenting on recent protests outside an Epping hotel accommodating asylum seekers, after a resident was charged with sexually assaulting a local teenage girl, he remarked that the country was close to “civil disobedience on a vast scale”.
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As the US president’s family profits from private money, the Bank of England is showing necessary leadership by rejecting the hype
Hype too often influences policymakers when it comes to regulating markets. So it was reassuring to hear Sir Andrew Bailey, the governor of the Bank of England, resist the momentum behind cryptocurrencies. In his July Mansion House speech, he reiterated his scepticism over the need for a “Britcoin” central bank digital currency or a UK stablecoin, with tokens issued by finance houses and backed by their sterling reserves. As Donald Trump signs stablecoins into US law and rebrands private dollars with political colours, Sir Andrew’s caution isn’t just prudent, it’s essential.
The governor’s view is that UK banks should not be allowed to issue their own stablecoins. Nor should the Bank effectively run Britcoin bank accounts without clear public benefit. These are not the views of a luddite, but of a regulator worried, correctly, about creating a new class of imprudent assets. The key question is not whether new technologies can be adopted in finance, but whether they should be – especially when the consequences of failure could affect the wider economy.
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Lionesses captain visibly moved during Mall address
65,000 supporters attend central London celebrations
Leah Williamson promised England supporters the “story is not done yet” as 65,000 fans packed on to the Mall to celebrate the Lionesses’ successful defence of their European crown.
The captain and her teammates partied with stars including the soul singer Heather Small and Burna Boy – who danced on stage with the head coach, Sarina Wiegman – two days after they defeated Spain in Basel to become the first senior England football team to win a major trophy on foreign soil.
Tool gives guidance rather than serving up complete essays or answers, amid rising AI misuse at universities
ChatGPT is launching a “study mode” to encourage responsible academic use of the chatbot, amid rising cases of misuse of artificial intelligence tools at universities.
The feature, which can be accessed via the chatbot’s tools button, can walk users through complex subjects in a step-by-step format akin to an unfolding academic lesson.
Longstanding ties between US conservatives and Israel face strain as war’s toll and internal rifts reshape the right
As the Israel-Gaza war nears its two-year mark, and as images of starving people and utter devastation flood social media, cracks seem to be emerging in the American right’s typically iron-clad support for Israel.
The US continues to support Israel diplomatically and militarily, and last Thursday pulled out of peace negotiations that it accused Hamas of sabotaging. And in the US Congress, only two Republicans voted for a recent amendment that would have pulled funding for missile defense systems for Israel.
US president has championed his course Turnberry to stage world’s oldest major but hosting Scottish Open is more realistic
Even a cursory glance towards the scale of this year’s Open Championship at Royal Portrush emphasised why ongoing and occasionally fevered chatter about Turnberry staging the world’s oldest major is futile. Whether the Turnberry owner was Donald Trump or Donald Duck, its lack of adjacent infrastructure makes it unfit for the Open. The Ayrshire venue, lauded again by its owner, Trump, during a visit in recent days, is simply incapable of hosting the Open in its present form.
This need not be an uncomfortable reality for the US president, who can secure at least a portion of the profile and kudos he desires for Turnberry – one of the world’s most outstanding golf courses – from an alternative source. It would, in fact, now be a surprise if Turnberry does not appear on the Scottish Open’s rota at some point soon. Mutual convenience is staring us all in the face if Trump can even temporarily accept a prize which sits in the shadow of the championship he has craved since buying Turnberry in 2014.
Some critics allege phrase is coded promotion of eugenics and accuse campaign of being ‘tone deaf’
A new ad campaign from American Eagle starring the US actor Sydney Sweeney is meeting backlash, with some critics alleging online that the advertisement’s punny use of the phrase “great jeans” is a coded promotion of eugenics.
In the campaign, the 27-year-old Euphoria and White Lotus star is dressed in American Eagle denim outfits, accompanied by the tagline “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans”.
EPA administrator Lee Zeldin announced plans to revoke key scientific finding that allows for US climate regulation
Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday proposed revoking a scientific finding that has long been the central basis for US action to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change.
The proposed Environmental Protection Agency rule rescinds a 2009 declaration that determined that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare.
Victorious players greeted by chants, cheers and tears as they ride open-top bus and then lift the trophy on stage
They came in their tens of thousands, a sea of red and white pouring through Green Park to the Mall. Teenage boys with England flags painted on their faces, little girls in their Saturday morning club kits, veteran fans of the women’s game, new fans who just wanted to savour the moment.
A total of 65,000 jubilant England fans lined the Mall in central London on Tuesday to welcome home the victorious Lionesses after their Euro 2025 victory on Sunday.
Experts weigh in on how to best protect your gut – and yourself – when you hit the road
Summer is in full swing, and for many, that means it’s time to hit the road. Whether you’re on a quick weekend jaunt or a multi-week tour of Europe, there are some things to consider: did you pack sunscreen? A phone charger? And how are you going to take care of your stomach?
“Patients have troubles with stomach issues when they travel because they are exposed to unfamiliar food and water sources, differences in local hygiene and sanitation and changes in routine,” says Dr Franjo Vladic, a gastroenterologist at the Cleveland Clinic.
‘Devastating for him,’ assistant coach Goodman says
McCarthy, Hansen and Tuipulotu back in training
Garry Ringrose will miss the third British & Irish Lions Test against Australia on Saturday because of concussion, but the coaching staff have vowed to pick “the best team available” as they seek a first unbeaten series since 1974.
Ringrose reported concussion symptoms just before Andy Farrell, the head coach, was due to name his side for the second Test and that triggered a 12‑day stand-down period for the Ireland centre, ruling him out of the final game in Sydney. In better news for Farrell, Joe McCarthy, Mack Hansen and Sione Tuipulotu all took a full part in training on Tuesday and are in contention.
There’s glamour, Goop and ghosting in this an unsparing account of Paltrow’s world
Gwyneth: The Biography opens, where else, with the vaginal egg, an episode that has come to stand for Paltrow’s general ability to sell dumb ideas to credulous rich women using widespread mockery as her marketing rocket fuel. (In case you need a reminder: this was the $66 jade egg Paltrow sold via her lifestyle brand Goop that promised various health benefits upon insertion.) Amy Odell’s book, billed as delivering “insight and behind-the-scenes details of Paltrow’s relationships, family, friendships, iconic films”, as well as her creation of Goop, takes no particular stand on this, nor on many of Paltrow’s more divisive episodes, instead offering us what feels like an earnest jog back through the actor and wellness guru’s years of fame. The author writes in the acknowledgments that she spoke to 220 people for the book, in which case we have to assume that a great many of them had little to say.
To be fair to Odell, whose previous biography was of Anna Wintour, another difficult and controlling subject – although Wintour did give Odell some access – Paltrow’s world is notoriously hard to break into if she’s not on board with a project; the author quotes numerous hacks tasked with profiling Paltrow for magazines who found themselves iced out of her networks, and the same happens to her in the early stages of research. Odell’s task only gets harder in the second half of the book, which tackles the Goop years. Since, she claims, many of its staff signed NDAs, those sections lack even the modest stream of gossip that enlivens the first half.
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