A New York Times spokesperson told WIRED in a statement that Brooks “regularly attends events to speak with noted and important business leaders to inform his columns,” and that Brooks had no contact with Epstein before or after attending the 2011 dinner where the photo was taken.

A representative for the Gates Foundation did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did representatives for Google, Allen, Chomsky, and Bannon’s War Room podcast.

The release also includes closeups of women’s body parts with quotes from Vladimir Nabokov’s book Lolita scrawled onto them, a photo of a pill bottle labelled with a medication usually used to relieve the symptoms of urinary tract infections, and redacted images of travel documents from several countries, including Ukraine and Lithuania.

The House committee’s investigation into Epstein has been going on for several months, and is separate from the document dump expected to be released by the US Department of Justice this week. The Epstein Files Transparency Act, which was signed into law last month, requires the DOJ to release “all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials” in its possession by December 19.

As part of the investigation, the committee subpoenaed the Epstein estate, and included instructions for the estate to produce two separate sets of documents—one to the Democrats on the committee, the other to Republicans. As the committee has been receiving documents from the estate, both Democrats and the committee as a whole have done their own releases. Material in these releases has raised new questions about the well-documented relationship between Epstein and president Donald Trump; among other things, it shows Epstein claiming intimate knowledge of Trump’s views in exchanges with a Gates adviser.

Documents related to investigations into Epstein have overshadowed the first year of the second Trump administration, several members of which made the release of the documents a central talking point in the lead up to the 2024 presidential election. The political dynamics have shifted over the past year, as it became clear that Trump, a one-time friend of Epstein’s, appears repeatedly in the investigative record.

“As we approach the deadline for the Epstein Files Transparency Act, these new images raise more questions about what exactly the Department of Justice has in its possession.” said Representative Robert Garcia, the ranking Democratic member on the committee, in a press release. “We must end this White House cover-up, and the DOJ must release the Epstein files now.”

Comparing Our Favorite Linen Sheets

Honorable Mentions

Not all sheets are created equal. The linens below are good but not as great as our picks above.

Avocado Natural Linen Sheets for $549: These were our previous organic pick, but they’re no longer GOTS-certified or marked organic by Avocado. These are still great, heavyweight linen sheets, and still have an Oeko-Tex certification to confirm no toxic materials were used during production.

Brooklinen Washed Linen Core Set for $359: This is the updated version of these linen sheets, but they feel similarly to the previous edition; a little itchy at the start compared to our other picks, and felt a little warm to sleep on too. They’re solid linen sheets, and often have new colors available (seasonal colorways do sell out fast) but all of our picks are softer, and some are cheaper, too.

Buffy Belgian Linen Sheet Set for $279: These sheets feel rough if you touch them with just your hand or sit on the sheets, but lying down entirely on these, they felt much more comfortable. These are solid, breathable linen sheets with flax sourced from Belgium. Both my husband and I had insane dreams the week we slept on these sheets, so if you’re looking for more fun dreams, give these affordable linen sheets a whirl.

Company Store Legends Hotel Washed Linen Sheet Set for $357: If you’re looking for something with a little more heft but don’t want to drop $500+, then The Company Store’s Legends Hotel Washed Linen Sheets sit nicely in the middle of price and weight. These sheets have a little more weight than The Citizenry and Pottery Barn, but don’t feel as heavy as Cultiver and Rough Linen. Many colors and sizes are currently out of stock, though.

Cozy Earth Linen Duvet Cover for $288: This cover has a great softness to it and feels ideal for summertime, but the zipper on my set broke almost immediately. It could just be bad luck, since we usually love Cozy Earth’s home goods.

Ikea Dytag Duvet Cover: My favorite linen duvet cover and pillowcase set from Ikea has been replaced with a few different cheaper lines, including the Angslilja ($40) and Strandlummer ($65). My Dytag lasted me a few years, though cheaper linen sets might not last as long as that set did.

Naturepedic Organic Linen Fitted Sheet & Pillowcases Set for $305: This set is heavy, but still manages to be really breathable; it was downright chilly to sleep on alone in the winter. It’s also a rare organic set, with GOTS-certified organic flax used. There’s no top sheet available right now, but you can get a fitted sheet and two pillowcases together, or separately.

Rough Linen Orkney Sheets for $498: WIRED reviewer Scott Gilbertson loves these super heavyweight linen sheets, and says they’re best for confirmed linen lovers with how heavy and rough they are. They’re completely sold out, otherwise they’d be a pick in the guide. We’ll reinstate them once they’re back in stock.

Rough Linen Smooth Linen Sheets for $498: These linen sheets live up to the name with a silky, smooth feel, like a linen twist on sateen. They were a little heavy for my liking, but if that’s up your alley, it’s a beautiful set of sheets that will last.

Slumber Cloud Performance Linen Blend for $329: This is a blend set that uses Slumber Cloud’s patented Outlast fiber, which is part of what makes the brand’s cooling Tencel lyocell sheets so good. These linen blend sheets were soft to the touch, but didn’t pack as cooling of an experience compared to regular linen and Slumber Cloud’s other sheets.

Thuma Flax Linen Sheet Set for $315: These linen sheets from the famed Thuma were solid all-around linen, keeping me nice and cool. (So cool that they’re a pick in our cooling sheets guide.) They also had a good weight and structure to them. They’re not quite as soft as our picks above, but were still a little softer than other options like Brooklinen.

FAQs

Power up with unlimited access to WIRED. Get best-in-class reporting and exclusive subscriber content that’s too important to ignore. Subscribe Today.

The Working Families Party said Thursday that it is putting out a specific recruitment call for people who are organizing against data centers in their communities to run for office.

The announcement comes amid a period of heightened political turmoil around data centers, as some high-profile Democrats wade into the fight. Earlier this week, three Democrats in the Senate sent letters seeking information from Big Tech companies about how data centers impact electricity bills, while senator Bernie Sanders, the independent from Vermont, became the first national politician to call for a moratorium on data center construction.

“We see our role as responding to what working families and working people are concerned about, what issues are keeping them up at night,” says Ravi Mangla, the national press secretary for the Working Families Party. “We would be ignoring the needs of our constituents if we were not responding to the issue of data centers and their impacts on communities.”

The Working Families Party was originally founded in New York in the late 1990s; it now has chapters in states across the country. While it (mostly) doesn’t seat candidates independently, the progressive third party’s endorsements and organizing power can carry real weight in the races where it chooses to get involved. It endorsed Zohran Mamdani in New York’s mayoral race this year, as well as a string of other successful candidates.

Opposition to data centers has skyrocketed in some areas of the country over the past year, as tech companies have ramped up their investment in building out hundreds of facilities across the country. Polling from the outlet Heatmap released in September shows that less than half of Americans of all political persuasions would welcome a data center being built near where they live, while a recent survey from a private industry group shows that community opposition increased in the second quarter of this year, successfully stalling or stopping billions of dollars in data center development.

In many regions of the country, affordability issues—including rising electricity bills—are becoming tangled with other concerns around data centers, like worries over the climate and water impacts, or even noise from the centers themselves. Concern over data centers played a role in a number of midterm elections, including factoring into several races in Virginia, which has the highest concentration of data centers in the country and is facing rising demands for energy from more facilities projected to come online through the end of the decade. The political ripple around data centers has lasted beyond the midterms—and stretched beyond just Virginia. In the past week, officials in Chandler, Arizona voted 7-0 to reject a proposed data center in the city, despite high-profile lobbying from former senator Kyrsten Sinema, while voters in Georgia on Tuesday elected a newcomer to the state legislature who has promised legislation to make data centers “pay their fair share.”

Mangla says the Working Families Party decided to launch the recruitment effort after seeing how the issue played out in Virginia’s elections, and after observing some of the intense local pushback around the country. “You can’t fill a community center or a town hall just organically,” he says. “There are people who are clearly stepping up in their communities, organizing their neighbors, and leading the charge to push back against these data centers.”