Author: Elizabeth Jenrola Oso

Previously unreleased FBI memoranda contain explicit but unsubstantiated allegations that Donald Trump sexually abused a woman when she was a minor in the early 1980s, with the involvement of Jeffrey Epstein, according to a review by the Guardian. The documents relate to four interviews conducted by FBI agents in 2019. They were not included when the US Department of Justice (DoJ) began releasing millions of pages connected to Epstein in December. Their absence was first reported by the independent journalist Roger Sollenberger and later confirmed by NPR, prompting anger in Washington and an inquiry by congressional Democrats. The Guardian obtained…

Larry Summers, the former president of Harvard University, will step down from teaching at the end of the academic year, a university spokesperson has confirmed. A Harvard spokesperson, Jason Newton, said Summers’s formal resignation is linked to an ongoing university review of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein that were recently released by the US government. Summers has also resigned as co-director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School, a role he has held since 2011. He will remain on leave until the academic year concludes. The development was first reported by the Harvard Crimson,…

The United States will, for the first time, provide on-site consular services in two Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, a move that breaks with long-standing US policy and has drawn sharp criticism from Palestinian officials. In a post on X, the US embassy in Jerusalem said it would offer routine passport services to American citizens in the settlement of Efrat on Friday, describing the move as part of activities marking the 250th anniversary of US independence. The service will be available “for one day only”. Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, are…

Nick Reiner has pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of his parents, Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner. The plea was entered on Monday morning during an arraignment in a Los Angeles courtroom by his new attorney, public defender Kimberly Greene. Reiner appeared behind glass during the hearing. He stood in an enclosed custody area wearing brown jail clothing. Unlike a previous court appearance in December, he was not dressed in a suicide prevention smock, according to the Associated Press. Proceedings in the case had been delayed last month after Reiner’s former lawyer, Alan…

Donald Trump has urged Netflix to remove the Democratic foreign policy figure Susan Rice from its board, warning the streaming company to “face the consequences” as it battles to take control of Warner Bros Discovery (WBD). Posting on his Truth Social platform, the US president described Rice as a “political hack” and claimed she had “no talent or skills”. Rice previously served as national security adviser to Barack Obama and as UN ambassador and senior White House adviser under Joe Biden. Trump’s remarks mark a fresh intervention in the high-stakes takeover contest for WBD, which has pitted Netflix against a…

New York’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, has ordered a citywide ban on all non-essential travel as a powerful winter storm threatens to bring blizzard conditions across the north-eastern United States. The late-season storm is forecast to cause severe disruption along the east coast, with warnings stretching from Maryland to Massachusetts and affecting more than 35 million people. Forecasters expect more than a foot of snow in many areas, wind gusts of up to 70mph and the risk of coastal flooding from Cape Cod to Delaware. Mamdani declared a state of emergency on Sunday, unlocking additional funding to respond to the storm.…

The Trump administration is planning to build a military base in Gaza capable of housing up to 5,000 troops, according to contracting records reviewed by The Guardian. The documents describe a sprawling installation covering more than 350 acres. It is intended to serve as a military operating base for a future International Stabilisation Force (ISF), a multinational force made up of pledged foreign troops. The ISF falls under the authority of a newly created body known as the Board of Peace, which is meant to govern Gaza. The board is chaired by Donald Trump and led in part by his…

Philippine vice-president Sara Duterte has announced she will contest the country’s 2028 presidential election, positioning herself as a challenger to the administration she once helped bring to power. Speaking on Wednesday, the 47-year-old said she was offering her “life, strength and future” in service of the Philippines. In a pointed address, she accused President Ferdinand Marcos Jr of presiding over an era of widespread corruption. Duterte was formerly allied with Marcos, running alongside him on a joint ticket in the 2022 election that delivered a landslide victory. Their partnership later collapsed, and she resigned from his cabinet two years into…

Civilian casualties in Ukraine caused by bombing rose by 26% in 2025, as Russia intensified attacks on cities and key infrastructure, according to a global conflict monitoring group. Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) said 2,248 civilians were reported killed and 12,493 injured by explosive weapons in Ukraine last year, based on English-language media reports. The data also showed a sharp rise in the number of casualties per incident. On average, 4.8 civilians were killed or injured in each strike, a 33% increase on 2024. The deadliest attack occurred in Dnipro on 24 June, when Russian missiles hit a passenger train,…

Hours after remarks by Barack Obama sparked widespread speculation about extraterrestrial life, the former US president issued a clarification saying he has seen no evidence that aliens exist. Speaking on a podcast hosted by Brian Tyler Cohen over the weekend, Obama appeared to suggest that aliens were real during a fast-paced question-and-answer segment. Asked directly, “Are aliens real?”, Obama replied: “They’re real, but I haven’t seen them.” He added that they were not being hidden at Area 51, dismissing claims of a secret underground facility and saying any such conspiracy would have had to be concealed from the president himself.…