Politics
Trump appears in newly released photos from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate
- Photos include Trump, Clinton, Bannon, Gates, and Summers.
- Republicans accuse Democrats of politicising investigation.
- Justice Department to release Epstein files by December 19.
WASHINGTON: Congressional Democrats released 19 new images from the estate of the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on Friday, including photos of now-President Donald Trump, as a deadline for an extensive release of documents related to the disgraced financier nears.
Trump is featured in three of the photos shared by House Oversight Committee Democrats, who said they are reviewing more than 95,000 images produced by the estate.
In one black-and-white photo, Trump is seen smiling with several women — whose faces are redacted — on each side of him. A second image shows Trump standing beside Epstein, and a third, less-clear image shows him seated alongside another woman, whose face is also redacted, with his red tie loosened. It was not clear when or where the photos were taken.
“Everybody knew this man,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Friday. “He was all over Palm Beach. He has photos with everybody. I mean, almost – there are hundreds and hundreds of people that have photos with him. So that’s no big deal.”
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said Trump’s administration “has done more for Epstein’s victims than Democrats ever have.”
“It’s time for the media to stop regurgitating Democrat talking points and start asking Democrats why they wanted to hang around Epstein after he was convicted,” she said.
Trump fanned Epstein conspiracies
The Epstein scandal has been a political headache for Trump for months, partly because he amplified conspiracy theories about Epstein to his own supporters.
Many Trump voters believe Trump administration officials have covered up Epstein’s ties to powerful figures and obscured details surrounding his death, which was ruled a suicide, in a Manhattan jail in 2019.
The Justice Department said in July that there was no evidence to justify investigating any third parties in the Epstein case, and that it had found no “client list” or people who might have been involved in sex trafficking, or any evidence that Epstein had blackmailed anyone.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll this week found that just half of Republicans approve of Trump’s handling of the Epstein case, well below his overall 85% approval rating in his own party.
Trump and Epstein were friends during the 1990s and early 2000s, but Trump says he broke off ties before Epstein pleaded guilty to prostitution charges.
Trump has consistently denied knowing about Epstein’s abuse and sex trafficking of underage girls.
Other men also shown
Democratic former President Bill Clinton, former Trump aide Steve Bannon, Bill Gates and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers also appear in the batch of images, as well as sex toys and a $4.50 “Trump condom” emblazoned with Trump’s face and the all-caps phrase “I’M HUUUGE!”
A spokesperson for the committee, which is led by Republican Chairman James Comer of Kentucky, said Democrats were politicising the investigation by “cherry-picking photos and making targeted redactions to create a false narrative about President Trump.”
Democrats said the tens of thousands of photos include “images of the wealthy and powerful men who spent time with Jeffrey Epstein” and “photographs of women and Epstein properties,” and more will be released in the coming days.
“These disturbing photos raise even more questions about Epstein and his relationships with some of the most powerful men in the world,” Representative Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the oversight committee, said in a statement. “We will not rest until the American people get the truth. The Department of Justice must release all the files, NOW.”
The congressional Democrats said they redacted the women’s faces to protect the identities of Epstein’s victims.
The committee is continuing to obtain and release documents even as the US Department of Justice is expected to publicise unclassified Epstein files from its federal investigation late next week.
Trump signed into law last month an overwhelmingly bipartisan bill led by Democratic Representative Ro Khanna of California and Republican Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky that compels the Justice Department to release the Epstein files within 30 days. December 19 will mark the end of that window.
In yet another incident of hate crime against religious minorities in India, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar removed the hijab (veil) of a newly recruited Muslim doctor during an official event on Monday, drawing widespread criticism worldwide.
The shameful incident took place at “Samvad,” the CM’s secretariat, where appointment letters were being handed over to newly recruited doctors, The Indian Express reported.
When the hijab-clad woman went to collect her job letter, the CM, 75, looked at her and asked: “What is this?”
Then, he bent a little and pulled her hijab down.
Meanwhile, the flustered appointee was hastily pulled aside by an official standing near the stage.
The shocking incident triggered a wave of anguish among minorities in the country and drew strong criticism from the opposition parties, especially the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).
Reacting to the video, the Congress accused Kumar of inappropriate conduct towards the woman official, calling it a “vile act”.
In a post on X, the party said, “This is Bihar’s Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Look at his shamelessness—a female doctor had come to collect her appointment letter, and Nitish Kumar pulled off her hijab. A man occupying the highest position in Bihar is openly indulging in such a vile act.”
The RJD questioned Kumar’s mental health.
“What has happened to Nitish ji? His mental state has now reached a completely pitiable condition,” the party said in a post on X.
In India, hate crimes against religious minorities have alarmingly increased during the tenure of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Last month, a US report recommended designating India as a country of “special concern” due to religious prejudice and serious violations of religious freedom.
US Commission on International Religious Freedom, in its report, exposed religious discrimination in India and extremist policies of the RSS and the BJP’s Hindutva agenda.
The report revealed that Modi and the BJP had implemented discriminatory policies against minorities in line with the Hindutva ideology.
It added that the BJP, as the political wing of the RSS, promotes Hindu nationalism.
The RSS has been involved for decades in violent acts against minorities, particularly Muslims and Sikhs.
- Private firms may import, process uranium under new bill.
- Foreign firms in joint ventures may apply for licence.
- New bill requires approval from both houses of parliament.
NEW DELHI: India on Monday set in motion steps to end decades of state control over nuclear power, by introducing a bill in parliament that would allow private firms to build and operate plants as the government seeks to make atomic energy central to its clean energy push.
Foreign companies in a joint venture with Indian companies could apply for a licence if selected to do so by the government.
India’s nuclear sector has been tightly guarded since its first reactor went online in 1969, shaped by Cold War politics and fuel-technology restrictions after its 1974 nuclear test.
State-run Nuclear Power Corp of India Ltd (NPCIL) owns and operates India’s current fleet of nuclear power plants but Reuters reported last year that India was looking to invite domestic private firms such as Tata Power, Adani Power and Reliance Industries to invest about $26 billion in the sector.
The new bill, which must be approved by the lower and upper houses of parliament to become law, would allow any “person expressly permitted by the central government” to apply for a licence to enter the nuclear sector, a major shift from decades when only state-run companies could operate reactors.
India plans to expand nuclear power capacity to 100 gigawatts (GW) over the next two decades, more than 12 times the current 8.2 GW.
The new bill, named the Sustainable Harnessing of Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India Bill, 2025, drops a rule that lets operators sue suppliers for equipment defects, a provision foreign suppliers have long opposed. Foreign suppliers include General Electric Co, Westinghouse Electric Co and France’s EDF.
The bill doubles operator liability for large reactors to 30 billion rupees ($330.75 million), retains the overall compensation cap at previous levels and proposes a nuclear liability fund to cover accident claims in line with global norms.
Private firms will be allowed to import and process uranium, according to the bill. The government has kept strategic activities such as uranium mining, nuclear fuel enrichment and fuel reprocessing under government control, and all operators would require licences.
- Four people charged with conspiracy, reads complaint.
- Group also planned to target ice agents, vehicles, says official.
- Says plot included planting explosives at 5 sites on New Year’s Eve.
WASHINGTON: The FBI has foiled a bomb plot targeting multiple targets, including immigration agents and vehicles, in Los Angeles and Orange County, Attorney General Pam Bondi said on Monday.
“The Turtle Island Liberation Front—a far-left, pro-Palestine, anti-government, and anti-capitalist group—was preparing to conduct a series of bombings against multiple targets in California beginning on New Year’s Eve. The group also planned to target ICE agents and vehicles,” Bondi said in a statement.
Four people have been charged with conspiracy and possession of an unregistered destructive device, according to the complaint filed in the US District Court for the Central District of California.
The bombing plot called for planting explosive devices at five locations targeting two US companies at midnight on New Year’s Eve in the Los Angeles area, it said.
The four defendants named in the complaint are Audrey Illeene Carroll, Zachary Aaron Page, Dante Gaffield, and Tina Lai.
According to a sworn statement in support of the complaint, Carroll in November presented an eight-page handwritten document to a paid confidential source titled “Operation Midnight Sun” which described a bomb plot.
Carroll and Page later allegedly recruited the other two defendants to help carry out the plan, which included them “acquiring bomb-making materials and traveling to a remote location in the Mojave Desert to construct and detonate test explosive devices on December 12, 2025,” the sworn statement alleges.
FBI agents intervened, however, before they could complete their work to assemble a functional explosive device.
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