NEWS

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A top European Union official on Sunday rejected the notion that Europe faces “civilizational erasure,” pushing back at criticism of the continent by the Trump administration.

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U.S. President Donald Trump has directed the USS Gerald R. Ford, the U.S. Navy’s largest aircraft carrier, to redeploy from the Caribbean Sea to the Middle East to bolster pressure on Iran amid ongoing nuclear negotiations and regional tensions. 

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Ghislaine Maxwell, the former girlfriend of Jeffrey Epstein, has declined to answer questions from US House lawmakers but indicated she would be willing to testify that US President Donald Trump and former president Bill Clinton did nothing wrong in their ties to Epstein if her prison sentence were ended.

Maxwell made the position known during a closed-door video deposition with the House Oversight Committee, where she invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination while serving a 20-year sentence at a federal prison camp in Texas for sex trafficking.

Lawmakers are intensifying scrutiny into how Epstein, a powerful financier with elite connections, was able to abuse underage girls for years and whether others may have facilitated his crimes.

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The former White House counsel under President Barack Obama has resigned from Goldman Sachs over her ties to pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Kathryn Ruemmler, who works as general counsel at Goldman, will resign this summer after emails released by the Justice Department revealed her conversations with Epstein, according to The Financial Times.

'I made the determination that the media attention on me, relating to my prior work as a defense attorney, was becoming a distraction,' Ruemmler told the publication.

She will exit the firm on June 30.

Ruemmler rose to the top ranks at Wall Street and became a key adviser to Solomon following a storied legal career, which included serving as White House counsel to former President Barack Obama, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Executives at the firm had previously claimed that Ruemmler had a strictly professional relationship with the financier, as she argued she never represented Epstein or advocated for him though he would occasionally ask for her advice.

She has said she regretted ever knowing Epstein and had no knowledge of any new or ongoing illegal activity.

'I made decisions based on the information that was available to me,' she told the Financial Times. 'I have an enormous amount of sympathy and heartache for anyone he hurt.'

But the latest release of Epstein files shows Ruemmler hailing 'wonderful Jeffrey' in emails dated December 25 and 26, 2015, six years after he served 13 months in prison for prostituting an underage girl. 

She was even in the courtroom when Epstein was arraigned on sex trafficking charges in 2019, and he once even listed her as a backup executor of his will.

Their relationship apparently began around the time Ruemmler left the Obama administration in 2014.

In one correspondence dated September 19, 2014, Epstein told her, 'You need to talk to boss.' 

Ruemmler, who had left the Obama White House about three months earlier, according to her LinkedIn page, replied: 'Agreed, but I need to be prepared to say yes before I talk to him.' 

'Understood,' Epstein said. 'It comes down to high risk / reward / low risk / reward. professional, emotional. and fiinancial [sic].' 

She responded that 'most girls do not have to worry about this crap.' 

Epstein shot back: 'Girls? Careful i will renew an old habit.'

He then listed a group of people he was apparently set to meet with 'this week,' including Peter Thiel, Larry Summers, Bill Burns, former British prime minister Gordon Brown, Leon Black and 'Woody.'

'Also if you think there are interesting people in town, everyone here for climate summit, clinton ,security council,' Epstein added.

Messages from February 2017 also showed Ruemmler disparaging President Donald Trump, calling him 'so gross.'

'Worse in real life and upclose,' he said.

In other correspondence, Ruemmler referenced Epstein's 'Russians' in an email about a potential job offer before she joined Goldman, and in a separate exchange, Ruemmler forwarded the financier's emails about an affair she had with one of his close associates.

Meanwhile, Epstein showered her with gifts, including a Hermes bag, Apple products, spa appointments, haircuts, and plane tickets.

'Am totally tricked out by Uncle Jeffrey today!' she wrote in one email in January 2019. 'Jeffrey boots, handbag, and watch. 

In total, Ruemmler's name is featured hundreds of times in a log of emails between Epstein and his lawyers, which runs to more than 500 pages.

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President Trump on Monday warned that he could block the opening of a long-awaited bridge between the United States and Canada, escalating tensions with Ottawa amid trade disputes and broader diplomatic friction.

The Gordie Howe International Bridge, which spans the Detroit River between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, is expected to open in early 2026 after years of construction and testing. Funded by the Canadian government, the crossing is designed to ease congestion and support billions of dollars in daily trade between the two countries.

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The Trump administration is moving forward with plans to strip certain foreign-born Americans of their U.S. citizenship, with officials reportedly aiming to initiate between 100 and 200 denaturalization cases per month in 2026.

According to a report, guidance issued in December 2025 instructed U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), an agency within the Department of Homeland Security, to “supply the Office of Immigration Litigation with 100-200 denaturalization cases per month” during the year.

The plans are now being implemented, with agency experts reportedly visiting field offices nationwide and reassigning staff to review past naturalization cases to determine whether some individuals could face denaturalization proceedings.

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The FBI pored over Jeffrey Epstein’s bank records and emails. It searched his homes. It spent years interviewing his victims and examining his connections to some of the world’s most influential people.

But while investigators collected ample proof that Epstein sexually abused underage girls, they found scant evidence the well-connected financier led a sex trafficking ring serving powerful men, an Associated Press review of internal Justice Department records shows.

Videos and photos seized from Epstein’s homes in New York, Florida and the Virgin Islands didn’t depict victims being abused or implicate anyone else in his crimes, a prosecutor wrote in one 2025 memo.