Ex-attorney general was subpoenaed in March but had refused to show after her removal from justice department
The former attorney general Pam Bondi is testifying before the US House oversight and reform committee this morning to answer questions about the Department of Justice’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation and its release of the Epstein files under her leadership.
In Bondi’s prepared opening statement, which the Guardian has obtained, she defends the department’s record under her leadership, saying: “We demonstrated an unprecedented commitment to transparency in the department’s search for, collection and review of the Epstein files.”
Continue reading...Group was unharmed after dangling for almost four hours on ride that malfunctioned at Pleasure Pier in Galveston
Eight students were rescued unharmed after dangling for hours at the top of a rollercoaster ride that became stuck in Texas.
Pictures and news footage of the incident showed a rollercoaster car stalled at the peak of a huge almost vertical drop on the Iron Shark rollercoaster overlooking the Gulf of Mexico at the Pleasure Pier in Galveston.
Continue reading...Order blocks White House from ‘taking any further action’ on settlement fund until further legal arguments heard
A US federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked any payouts from Donald Trump’s controversial new $1.8bn so-called anti-weaponization settlement fund that emerged from a settlement the US president came to with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
The order by US district judge Leonie Brinkema of the eastern district of Virginia blocks the Trump administration from “taking any further action” to set up or operate the fund while the judge hears additional legal arguments.
Continue reading...Upper East Side residents fighting Maison Estelle’s plan for venue with roof terrace next to ‘nice townhouses’
The New York City elite are growing irritated by a proliferation of private members’ clubs from London’s Mayfair opening stateside branches on their doorsteps.
Over the last year, London clubs have started popping up like unexpected guests in the US city. The entrepreneur Robin Birley, who owns 5 Hertford Street – where Prince Harry and Meghan Markle reportedly had their first date – and Oswald’s in Mayfair, has opened Maxime’s on New York’s Upper East Side. Grosvenor Square newcomer the Twenty Two has now opened its NYC outpost and others are swiftly following suit, including Mayfair stalwart Annabel’s, which plans to open a site in the downtown meatpacking district.
Continue reading...Speaking at Amazon’s AI on the Lot event, the Rogue One film-maker Gareth Edwards said ‘it’ll do anything you ask’ and ‘it’s going to be better than CGI’
Jurassic World Rebirth and Rogue One director Gareth Edwards has enthusiastically endorsed the use of generative AI in film-making, saying “it is a fucking genius at helping you” and “it’s going to be better than CGI”.
Edwards was speaking at AI on the Lot, an event in Culver City, California, organised by Amazon, and in remarks reported by the Hollywood Reporter said: “I can’t see a reason why you wouldn’t become interested in this stuff as a film-maker. It’s so clearly a tool that might be up there with the camera. It’s going to be better than CGI.”
Continue reading...At least seven of nine musical acts set to play in a concert series to mark 250th anniversary of US dropped out within 48 hours of the lineup being announced
At least seven of the nine featured musical acts set to play in a concert series organized by the Trump administration to mark the United States’ 250th anniversary have dropped out, within 48 hours of the lineup being announced.
Bret Michaels on Friday had become the latest name to withdraw, citing a deteriorating atmosphere around the event and threats being made.
She said that she thought he was having a “stroke,” and various other really bad things, and yet never rushed onto the stage to help her troubled husband, as any good wife would do. The only thing she failed to mention was how well I was doing prior to his near total collapse. In other words, as many have asked, did my strong performance in that debate cause him to plain and simple “choke,” leading to his ignominious defeat.
I was frightened, because I had never, ever seen Joe like that before or since. Never … As I watched it, I thought: ‘Oh, my God, he’s having a stroke … And it scared me to death.
Continue reading...Model created by researchers shows better outcomes are often more likely when people are not too ambitious
It is the end of an idiom for motivational speakers. Instead of shooting for the moon when pursuing life’s goals, researchers say people should be advised to aim a little lower if they want the best outcome.
The tip may lack the punch of uncompromising drive, but aiming for merely above average tends to work out better, according to a mathematical model the team created to explore how ambition pans out.
Continue reading...The detonation of the New Glenn rocket resulted in a huge fireball in Florida, and may have long-term implications for the company's ambitions.
The answers to today’s problems.
Earlier today I set these four chess puzzles. Here they are again with solutions.
1. Oddities
Continue reading...Americans spend 18% of our economy on healthcare, nearly twice the average of comparable nations, for worse results
The Commonwealth Fund published its 2026 report card on US healthcare this week, measuring the United States against 19 other wealthy countries. It runs the most expensive system on earth, and it buys some of the worst results in the developed world. I have spent more than four decades in the medical intensive care unit at UCLA, and I do not read those numbers as statistics. I read them as the people I admit.
We spend 18% of our economy on healthcare, nearly twice the average of comparable nations, and $12,649 a person, roughly 10 times what Mexico spends. For that fortune, American life expectancy peaked at 79 years, more than two years below our peers and third from the bottom of the group, above only Mexico and Turkey. Our rate of deaths that good care should have prevented is the second worst in the developed world. Only Mexico does worse.
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