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A federal judge on Wednesday rejected the Trump administration’s request to unseal grand jury transcripts from the criminal case against sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.District Judge Richard Berman said the government had failed to prove there were any special circumstances that would justify releasing what are normally secret records.The Justice Department has been seeking the release of the grand jury transcripts to help defuse spiraling anger among President Donald Trump’s own supporters over what they have long seen as a cover-up of Epstein’s crimes.Epstein, a wealthy financier with high-level connections, died in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking of underage girls.Berman noted that the government holds a trove of Epstein investigation materials that it promised in February it would release to the public before abruptly announcing in July that it would not do so.Trump’s supporters have been obsessed with the Epstein case for years and have been up in arms since the FBI and Justice Department said in July that Epstein committed suicide while in jail, did not blackmail any prominent figures, and did not keep a “client list.””The Government’s 100,000 pages of Epstein files and materials dwarf the 70 odd pages of Epstein grand jury materials,” the judge said.”The Government is the logical party to make comprehensive disclosure to the public of the Epstein Files,” the judge said, and its bid to unseal the Epstein grand jury transcripts “appears to be a ‘diversion.'”The judge also said unsealing the grand jury proceedings could pose “possible threats” to the safety and privacy of Epstein’s more than 1,000 victims.- Maxwell -Berman’s ruling comes a little over a week after another federal judge declined to release the grand jury transcripts in the case against Ghislaine Maxwell, the only former Epstein associate to have been convicted of criminal charges in connection with his activities.Maxwell, 63, is serving a 20-year sentence after being convicted in 2021 of recruiting underage girls for Epstein.Her lawyers had opposed releasing the transcripts, saying it could potentially impact her ongoing legal appeals of her conviction.US Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche — who is also Trump’s former personal lawyer — met recently with Maxwell but has not revealed what was discussed.She was later moved to a minimum security prison.Trump, 79, was once a friend of Epstein and, according to The Wall Street Journal, the president’s name was among hundreds found during a Justice Department review of the Epstein files, though there has not been evidence of wrongdoing.A House of Representatives committee has subpoenaed the Epstein files and is to receive a first batch of records on Friday from the Justice Department.A committee spokesperson said the panel would begin publicly releasing some of the records after victim identification and child sexual abuse material has been redacted.

Russia said on Wednesday it had to be part of any discussion on security guarantees for Ukraine and downplayed the likelihood of an imminent summit with President Volodymyr Zelensky, tempering hopes for a quick peace deal.NATO military chiefs meanwhile held a virtual summit on security guarantees for Ukraine, the latest in a flurry of global diplomacy aimed at brokering an end to the nearly three-and-a-half year conflict.”On #Ukraine, we confirmed our support. Priority continues to be a just, credible and durable peace,” the chair of the alliance’s military committee, Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, wrote on X after the meeting.Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier warned that “seriously discussing security guarantees without the Russian Federation is a utopia, a road to nowhere”.Moscow signed the Budapest Memorandum in 1994, which was aimed at ensuring security for Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan in exchange for them giving up numerous nuclear weapons left from the Soviet era.But Russia violated that first by taking Crimea in 2014, and then by starting a full-scale offensive in 2022, which has killed tens of thousands of people and forced millions to flee their homes.On Tuesday, top US officer Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, held talks with European military chiefs on the “best options for a potential Ukraine peace deal”, a US defence official told AFP.In eastern Ukraine, far from the diplomatic deliberations, Russian forces claimed fresh advances on the ground and Ukrainian officials reported more deaths from Russian attacks.- Diplomatic flurry -US President Donald Trump brought Zelensky and European leaders to the White House on Monday, three days after his landmark encounter with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska.Russia’s long-serving foreign minister downplayed the meeting in Washington, describing it as a “clumsy” attempt to change the US president’s position on Ukraine. Trump, long a fierce critic of the billions of dollars in US support to Ukraine, earlier said European nations were “willing to put people on the ground” to secure any settlement. He ruled out sending US troops but suggested the country might provide air support.Russia has long said it will never tolerate the presence of any Western troops in Ukraine.While Trump said Putin had agreed to meet Zelensky and accept some Western security guarantees for Ukraine, Russia has not confirmed this.Lavrov also cast doubt on an imminent meeting between the sworn enemies, saying that any summit between Putin and Zelensky “must be prepared in the most meticulous way” so it does not lead to a “deterioration” of the situation surrounding the conflict.- Fresh Russian strikes -Russia’s defence ministry said on Telegram Wednesday that its troops had captured the villages of Sukhetske and Pankivka in the embattled Donetsk region.They are near a section of the front where the Russian army broke through Ukrainian defences last week, between the logistics hub of Pokrovsk and Kostiantynivka.”Our units are engaged in heavy defensive battles against superior Russian forces,” said Ukraine’s commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrsky.  Six civilians were killed by Russian attacks across eastern and southern Ukraine Wednesday, local authorities said.One person died in Russia’s western Bryansk region as a result of a Ukrainian drone strike, the local governor said.Russia’s aerial attacks on the northeastern town of Okhtyrka in the Sumy region wounded at least 14 people, including three children, according to regional governor Oleg Grygorov.Zelensky said these latest strikes showed “the need to put pressure on Moscow”, including through sanctions.

President Donald Trump ramped up pressure on the US central bank Wednesday, calling for Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook to step down — after his recent criticism of Fed Chair Jerome Powell for not lowering interest rates sooner.”Cook must resign, now!!!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, while sharing a Bloomberg news report on how the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s director has called for greater scrutiny of Cook over a pair of mortgages.FHFA director Bill Pulte — a staunch ally of Trump — had reportedly written a letter to the US attorney general calling for an investigation of Cook while suggesting that she might have committed a criminal offense.The Trump administration has pursued allegations of mortgage fraud against high-profile Democrats who are seen as political adversaries of the president.It was not immediately clear if such a probe will take place targeting Cook, the first Black woman to serve on the central bank’s board.The president is also limited in his ability to remove officials from the central bank.A Supreme Court order recently suggested that Fed officials cannot be taken out of their jobs over policy disagreements, meaning they have to be removed for “cause,” which could be interpreted to mean wrongdoing.- ‘A disaster’ -The US leader’s targeting of Cook, who sits on the Fed’s rate-setting committee, comes after his repeated broadsides against Powell while the central bank kept the benchmark lending rate unchanged this year.On Tuesday night, Trump again called for a “major rate cut,” saying there was “no inflation” and claiming that the Fed’s policymaking was harming the housing industry due to elevated mortgage rates.He called Powell “a disaster” in a social media post.Although the US consumer price index, a key inflation gauge, was steady at 2.7 percent in July, it remains higher than it was a few months earlier.Fed officials have been trying to ensure inflation is kept in check — despite the effects of Trump’s sweeping tariffs — while balancing risks to the labor market as they mull the right time for further rate cuts.Cook took office as a Fed governor in May 2022 and was reappointed to the board in September 2023. She was sworn in later that same month for a term ending in 2038.She has previously served on the Council of Economic Advisers under former president Barack Obama.Earlier this year, Trump suggested that what he called an overly costly renovation of the Fed’s headquarters could be a reason to oust Powell, before backing off the threat.Powell’s term as Fed chair ends in May 2026.

A US federal judge on Wednesday blocked a Texas law that would require public schools to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom.District Judge Fred Biery issued a preliminary injunction barring implementation of the law, which was to take effect on September 1 and was challenged by families of diverse faiths with children in public schools.The Texas state law, known as Senate Bill 10, is unconstitutional and “impermissibly takes sides on theological questions and officially favors Christian denominations over others,” Biery wrote in his 55-page ruling.”The displays are likely to send an exclusionary and spiritually burdensome message to the child-Plaintiffs — who do not subscribe to the approved version of the Ten Commandments –that they ‘are outsiders who do not belong in their own school community,'” he said.Rabbi Mara Nathan, one of the plaintiffs in the case, welcomed the ruling.”Children’s religious beliefs should be instilled by parents and faith communities, not politicians and public schools,” Nathan said in a statement.Rachel Laser, president of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, also welcomed the decision, saying it sends a “strong and resounding message across the country that the government respects the religious freedom of every student in our public schools.”Another federal judge blocked a Louisiana law in November that would require the display of the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom in the conservative southern state.District Judge John deGravelles said the law is unconstitutional and a violation of the First Amendment of the US Constitution.The separation of church and state is a founding US principle and the First Amendment forbids the establishment of a national religion or the preference of one religion over another.In a similar case in 1980, the US Supreme Court ruled that the display of the Ten Commandments in schools in Kentucky was unconstitutional.In Oklahoma, the highest education official in the conservative state recently ordered public schools to teach the Bible, a move that is also facing legal challenges.

Google on Wednesday unveiled new Pixel 10 smartphones, showcasing artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities woven into its Android mobile operating system.The line-up of new products included a foldable phone, improved Pixel smartwatch, and ear buds all synced to work with AI and each other.”Pixel continues to be the best way for people to try out the latest bleeding-edge AI from Google,” product manager Tyler Kugler said during a briefing with journalists.Pixel phones claim a scant portion of a high-end smartphone market ruled by Apple, Samsung and Xiaomi, but custom Google hardware is an opportunity for the internet giant to highlight what is possible with its Android mobile operating system.And while Samsung routinely ranks as the world’s top smartphone seller, it powers handsets with Android software from Google.”Initially, Google Pixel devices were designed as a technological showcase to limit Android fragmentation and accelerate innovation,” said Forrester principal analyst Thomas Husson.”Ten years later, the strategic challenge is still not to become the market leader, but to demonstrate the value of Google’s integrated ecosystem.”The tactic promises to promote use of Google’s platform by handset makers and is a spin on the way Apple ties together its iPhones and other devices with its software.Meanwhile, with Apple seen as lagging in the fierce AI race, Google has touted all-out efforts to integrate advanced AI throughout its offerings as it competes with powerhouses such as Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft.”Its positioning remains premium and its market share is less than 5 percent, but in the age of AI, it is a true laboratory of innovation,” Husson said of the Pixel smartphone line.It is also “a means of countering Apple’s integrated hardware-software-services strategy while remaining a strategic partner for Samsung and the Android ecosystem,” Husson added.AI built into new Pixel phones lets Gemini AI assistant look through the cameras to “see” what users see, answering questions or providing tips about locations, objects or situations, according to Kugler.Google is not the only one putting AI in phones. South Korean consumer electronics giant Samsung has made AI a centerpiece of its Galaxy smartphone line and recently released a new Galaxy Z Fold7.Google’s product team described the new Pixel Watch 4 as a redesigned experience that marks the biggest update to the line.Features include smartwatch fitness tracking fine-tuned to distinguish between activities such as walking, bicycling, or tennis. The Pixel Watch also enables users to command Gemini AI assistant from one’s wrist.Gemini detects the mood of whoever is speaking to it and adjusts its responses accordingly, and can even “look” through the phone camera to offer photo suggestions, according to the Google team.

A careful selection of cast and roles and a clear strategy to avoid deadlocks. European leaders’ charm offensive on Donald Trump to foster Ukraine’s cause this week was hastily arranged but followed a scripted plan, say European sources.France’s Emmanuel Macron and Britain’s Keir Starmer were among seven European leaders who accompanied Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky to the White House on Monday for high-stakes talks with the US President.”There’s truly never been anything like it,” Trump enthused in an interview Tuesday. “There’s never been such a group,” he told Fox News.The summit came on the heels of a meeting between Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin in Alaska, which raised concerns in Europe that Kyiv would be pressured into making painful political and territorial concessions to Moscow.With nine leaders sitting around a long wooden table at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, the dynamics changed.Trump began the discussions by greeting his guests with a few words before the cameras. “You look great with your tan,” he told German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, while Starmer was introduced as “my friend, doing really well”.EU chief Ursula von der Leyen was told she was “probably more powerful than anyone else around this table”.- ‘Well prepared, well coordinated’ -Often criticised for their difficulties in communicating with Trump, the Europeans were hoping to steer the famously volatile US president closer to their position on the conflict, ahead of possible peace talks with Putin. “We were well prepared and well coordinated,” Merz said after the meeting. “I think that really appealed to the American president, in the sense that he noticed that we Europeans were speaking with one voice here.”Preparations for the meeting began Saturday when Trump debriefed Zelensky on his Alaska talks.The US president invited his Ukrainian counterpart to the White House and opened the door for a few European leaders to tag along, according to a European official. The proposal was discussed in a series of calls between European capitals. Some were wary of exposing themselves to an ambush in the Oval Office, the kind Zelensky suffered in February during his prior, explosive visit to the White House, according to the source.A team bringing together the leaders of major European powers France, Germany, Italy and Britain was nevertheless put together and announced on Sunday morning. Finland’s Alexander Stubb, who has befriended Trump playing golf and leading a country that shares a long border with Russia, was also included.A few hours later, Zelensky made a detour to Brussels and appeared alongside von der Leyen, who completed the line-up with NATO’s head Mark Rutte.- ‘Clumsy attempts’ -Each had a pre-scripted role, according to one participant at the summit.Rutte, who has long cultivated his relationship with Donald Trump, was responsible for starting discussions with Trump, the source said. Each leader then addressed a different aspect of the conflict. Von der Leyen, a mother and grandmother, for example emphasised the plight of Ukrainian children abducted by Russian forces.Whenever Trump seemed to get stuck on an issue, someone would chime in trying to present the matter from a different perspective and refocus the discussion, the source said.In a semantic shift, some avoided using the word “ceasefire” — disliked by Trump who after meeting Putin has pivoted to seeking a full peace deal — calling for Russia to “stop the killing” instead.Talk of security guarantees for Ukraine similarly deliberately saw the use of the vague term “presence”, the source said. Whether such adjustments will help successfully resolve what promises to be an extremely difficult negotiation process on the future of Ukraine remains to be seen.On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov criticised Europe’s “clumsy attempts to change the position of the US president” — a possible sign that Moscow is concerned about their impact. 

It is the highest-grossing movie of the year, and the biggest animated film ever made — but if you live outside China, you’ve likely never heard of “Ne Zha II.” That may be about to change.A24, the trendy indie studio behind “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” is releasing a redubbed English-language version in US theaters this Friday, featuring a voice cast including Michelle Yeoh.The hope is that a fantastical tale of warring dragons, demons and immortals — rooted in Chinese mythology, but reimagined with flashy battle scenes worthy of a Marvel movie — can translate to Western audiences.Speaking on the red carpet of a Los Angeles premiere this month, Yeoh described the movie as a “cultural exchange.””I had seen ‘Ne Zha II’ in Chinese, and even at that time I thought, ‘I hope they do an English version, because you want little kids to be able to see it and understand,'” she told People magazine.The sprawling fantasy film centers on Ne Zha, a tiny child with fearsome magical powers, who sets off on a quest to save his best friend after his hometown is attacked by dragons.The movie is already an astonishing box office success. “Ne Zha 2” has grossed around $2.2 billion worldwide — a source of great patriotic pride in China, even if the vast majority of those receipts came from domestic audiences.For context, since the Covid-19 pandemic, only one other film has passed $2 billion worldwide: “Avatar: The Way of Water.””This is probably the most talked-about non-US film of the year,” said Comscore box office analyst Paul Dergarabedian. “$2.2 billion puts it in the pantheon.”Chinese audiences have also pointed to the movie’s special effects as evidence of the country’s film industry catching up with, or even surpassing, Hollywood’s offerings. Some 4,000 Chinese animators worked on the 3D fantasy epic.- ‘Globalization of content’ -Still, the movie’s initial, subtitled launch overseas failed to set box offices alight. It took $20 million in the US, and generated similarly solid but not spectacular figures in other markets like the United Kingdom and Australia.The movie is based on the 16th-century Chinese novel “Investiture of the Gods” which itself draws heavily on millennia-old folklore and characters.It features an at-times bewildering array of shape-shifting heroes and villains who will be unfamiliar to viewers with no knowledge of traditional Chinese stories or the film’s 2019 predecessor, “Ne Zha.”That said, A24 is hoping that an international voice cast, delivering the film’s irreverent humor in a style reminiscent of Hollywood superhero fare, can help bridge the cultural gap.It comes at a time when Western audiences are increasingly flocking to works rooted in Asian cultures, such as last weekend’s US box office top 12 featuring two Indian films (“Coolie,” “War 2”) and one Japanese movie (“Shin Godzilla 4K.”)And the shift has been even more pronounced on streaming platforms. Summer smash-hit “KPop Demon Hunters” is rapidly on course to become Netflix’s most-watched original film ever, and the debut season of “Squid Game” remains its most-watched TV show of all time.”There’s definitely been a globalization of content, in terms of people all around the world enjoying cinema from different countries,” said Dergarabedian.

Tim Mulligan moved to central Manhattan so he could be closer to work and avoid a daily ordeal on the rattling, screeching subway, just one part of the urban noisescape that tests New Yorkers every day.”Even with your earbuds in, turned all the way up, you can’t hear anything for the whole commute, and you’re ruining your ears at that level,” said Mulligan, a US Marines veteran who lives with PTSD.At his home close to New York’s tourist hub Times Square, Mulligan has sealed his windows with high-density soundproof foam, draped them with double thick curtains and invested in earplugs to sleep.On the street he has resorted to noise-cancelling headphones, and he prefers bikes to the subway for getting around.New Yorkers and visitors to the megacity of 8.5 million people are bombarded with blaring sirens, loud locals, raucous bars and car horns almost constantly.A city-wide hotline received 750,000 noise complaints in 2024, the most commonly complained about quality of life issue.The city that never sleeps, perhaps because it can’t, is one of the few built up US areas with a noise code regulating sound from vehicles, construction, businesses, and recreation.It has even installed cameras with sensors to detect and penalize violators.Nine-in-ten New Yorkers are at risk of hearing loss from daily exposure to noise levels exceeding 70 decibels, the healthy average, a Columbia University study conducted between 2010 and 2012 found.The report’s author, professor Richard Neitzel, is now leading the first national study on noise in which 200,000 volunteers wear smart watches to track sound levels.”It looks like somewhere around one-in-four Americans are exposed to noise levels that could hurt their hearing over the long term,” said Neitzel, a professor at the University of Michigan.- ‘You can’t undo it’ -Among young people aged 18 to 25, the primary source of excess noise exposure comes from headphones.Overall, more people are exposed to high levels of environmental noise than to noise from their headphones, Neitzel added. Although the percentage of the population exposed to noise is similar to those exposed to air pollution, acoustic issues are not prioritized by residents and officials like air quality is, Neitzel said.There is clear evidence that excess noise is linked to poor sleep, cardiovascular issues, depression, cognitive decline, premature births and poor academic performance.Tinnitus, a permanent ringing in the ear affecting three out of 20 study participants, is increasingly prevalent.Loud music is even used to promote increased consumption, said Shane Newman, who manages a popular Mexican restaurant in Manhattan’s trendy Hudson Yards development. “You have a drink in the music, it feels like a nice vibe and… they end up staying longer,” he told AFP.Audiologist Michele DiStefano said the effects of noise on well-being have “not really been studied well enough.””The longer you have the exposure, and the higher the level, the (greater) degree of hearing loss you’ll have” — particularly for young people, she warned.”Once it does affect your hearing, you can’t undo it, but you can actually prevent it,” she said.”There’s really a push to educate the younger generations on how you don’t have to just have really loud noise at a concert — it can be cumulative.”

From a fake image of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin dancing in the snow with a polar bear to a fabricated photo of European leaders waiting somberly outside the Oval Office, AI-enabled disinformation has clouded the diplomatic push to end the war in Ukraine.The online fakery — dubbed widely as AI slop — underscores how easily artificial intelligence tools can flood the internet with false and satirical content around major global events.These creations also highlight the challenge of policing bogus content as tech platforms offer creators monetization incentives for viral posts.In hundreds of online posts mocking European leaders as powerless mediators snubbed by Trump, one such image purported to show French President Emmanuel Macron and other top officials waiting somberly in a White House corridor with their heads bowed.”This is utter humiliation of these corrupt scumbags. Absolutely beautiful,” said one post on X from a conservative political commentator that AFP has previously fact-checked for spreading misinformation about Ukraine.Such posts — in multiple languages including Greek, German and French — gained traction as European leaders joined Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House Monday for talks with Trump following the US president’s summit with Putin in Alaska. – Red carpet brawl -AFP fact-checkers identified visual inconsistencies that indicate the image including Macron was AI-generated. Some of the individuals depicted in the image also do not match those seen in official photographs from the high-stakes meeting.Macron and other European leaders represented a group of Ukraine’s allies known as the “Coalition of the Willing” for White House consultations.But multiple pro-Kremlin sources sharing the AI-generated image ridiculed them as the “coalition of those in waiting.”The image was also amplified by sites operated by the Pravda network, a well-resourced Moscow-based operation known to circulate pro-Russian narratives globally, the disinformation watchdog NewsGuard said in a report.The falsehood was an illustration of how “pro-Kremlin sources often seize on high-profile meetings involving European leaders to spread false claims,” NewsGuard said.In other viral posts, an AI-generated clip purported to show Trump and Putin skidding down snow-covered slopes, eating ice-cream beside a snowman, and waltzing with a polar bear to country music.And in another AI video, Trump and Putin were depicted brawling on a red carpet leading from an airplane staircase, trading punches and kicks as secret service agents idle in the background.The tongue-in-cheek posts offer a window into a social media landscape increasingly filled with AI-generated memes, videos and images competing for attention with — and sometimes drowning out — authentic content.As tech platforms scale back content moderation, AI videos spread rapidly, muddying the waters around serious diplomatic efforts to end the three-year war in Ukraine.Trump on Tuesday ruled out sending American troops to back up any Ukraine peace deal but suggested air support instead, as European nations began hashing out security guarantees ahead of a potential Russia summit.

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized top museums for their “woke” focus on subjects including “how bad Slavery was,” his latest attack on the cultural institutions in a country that fought a civil war over the issue.”The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been — Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future,” Trump wrote.He was referring to the Smithsonian Institution, an independent organization that operates 17 museums, galleries and a zoo located across the country, which receives public funding, and which he has previously accused of espousing a “corrosive ideology.”The translatlantic slave trade from Africa to the Americas spanned three centuries, and has been referred to as the United States’ “original sin.”The country’s South fought to maintain slavery in the 1861-1865 Civil War, but lost. Since then African Americans have fought for their civil rights, including in the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, which forced a new national reckoning on the darker parts of US history.”The Museums throughout Washington, but all over the Country are, essentially, the last remaining segment of ‘WOKE’,” Trump wrote in the Truth Social post, using his shorthand for leftist social justice movements.For months now, Trump has disparaged cultural institutions, which have worked to bring more diversity to exhibits and programming in recent years, highlighting women, people of color and queer culture.Last week, the White House posted a letter to its website saying the administration plans to target eight major museums for “comprehensive internal review” in an effort to “celebrate American exceptionalism” and “remove divisive or partisan narratives.”The targeted institutions include the National Museum of American History, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the National Museum of the American Indian, the letter said.”Now museums are being targeted because they speak too openly about the horrors of slavery,” wrote prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump on X in response to Trump’s post.”If telling the truth about slavery makes a museum ‘too woke,’ then the problem isn’t the history, it’s the people who want to erase it,” he continued.In 2017, during his first term, Trump visited the National Museum of African American History — which opened the year before and which depicts the slave trade, among other historic subjects.”This museum is a beautiful tribute to so many American heroes,” Trump said after his tour, according to US media reports from the time. “It’s amazing to see.”