Harvard to investigate Larry Summers’s Epstein ties as he exits OpenAI board

Newly released Epstein documents drag the ex-treasury secretary into deeper scrutiny as Harvard widens its review

Harvard is set to launch a new investigation into former university president and Bill Clinton economic adviser Larry Summers about his ties to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein as it also emerged Summers has resigned from the board of OpenAI.

The moves comes after Summers said he would be stepping back from public engagements after emails revealed the extent of his relationship with the late sex offender.

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Tony Blair met Jeffrey Epstein in No 10 on advice of Peter Mandelson, documents reveal

National Archives papers show how then MP pushed for 2002 meeting between PM and ‘young and vibrant’ financier

Sir Tony Blair met Jeffrey Epstein in Downing Street while he was prime minister after a recommendation by Peter Mandelson, newly released papers from the National Archives show.

Epstein visited Blair on 14 May 2002, after the suggestion by Lord Mandelson to the prime minister’s then chief of staff, Jonathan Powell.

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Maxwell transcripts bring some respite for Trump, but fail to quell Maga uproar

Hundreds of transcript pages unlikely to pacify those who want to know more of president’s association with Epstein

For weeks, Donald Trump has been on the defensive over his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigative files and the extent of his own personal links to the late sex trafficker.

While Trump had promised to release files related to Epstein, his justice department announced in July there would be no more disclosures, prompting uproar among conspiracy-minded Maga adherents and many other of his supporters.

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Starmer hopes ‘pathway to peace’ will end Gaza war. History is not on his side

From Balfour declaration to Tony Blair, UK has struggled to drive meaningful progress towards peace in Middle East

The former British prime minister Harold Macmillan once said there was no problem in the Middle East because a problem had a solution. Keir Starmer is the latest incumbent in No 10 to try to prove Macmillan wrong, with a plan that has been described by Downing Street as a “pathway to peace” for Gaza and the wider region. The record of Britain’s previous interventions do not augur well.

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Bill Clinton reportedly sent Jeffrey Epstein note for birthday album

Wall Street Journal reports ex-president’s letter, while New York Times reports Trump called Epstein ‘the greatest’

Donald Trump apparently isn’t the only president that sent a birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein. “The biggest name in the album” was Bill Clinton, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. The ex-president’s letter appeared alongside nearly 50 others, including other prominent celebrities and executives.

Last week, the Journal reported that Trump had authored a “bawdy” letter to Epstein, who died in jail in 2019 after he was arrested on federal sex-trafficking charges. The letter was included in an album Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell compiled on the occasion of his 50th birthday in 2003. Trump has sued Rupert Murdoch, two Wall Street Journal newspaper reporters and the newspaper’s publisher Dow Jones for libel and slander over the reporting.

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Trump to talk to Putin on Monday about Ukraine ceasefire proposal and trade

In social media posts, president also slammed Walmart for price increases and spread anti-Clinton conspiracy theories

Donald Trump has said that he will speak to both Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy in an effort to stop what he called the “bloodbath” war in Ukraine, in a barrage of new social media posts that included baseless conspiracy theories and a demand that Walmart not raise prices for customers because of tariffs he has imposed.

Trump, posting on his Truth Social account on Saturday, wrote that he will speak to Putin on Monday morning. “THE SUBJECTS OF THE CALL WILL BE, STOPPING THE ‘BLOODBATH’ THAT IS KILLING, ON AVERAGE, MORE THAN 5000 RUSSIAN AND UKRAINIAN SOLDIERS A WEEK, AND TRADE,” Trump wrote, in his customary all-capitalized prose.

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Bill Clinton urges Americans to put aside ‘resentments’ 30 years after Oklahoma City bombing

Former president spoke at commemoration for the 168 people who died in the 1995 attack by far-right extremist

Bill Clinton called on Americans to put aside “whose resentments matter most” and issued a defense of government employees as he returned to Oklahoma City on Saturday for a remembrance service for the 30th anniversary of the deadliest homegrown terrorist attack in US history.

“If our lives are going to be dominated by efforts to dominate people we disagree with, we’re going to put the 250-year-old march toward a more perfect union at risk,” he said. “None of us would ever get much done. Believe me, we’ve all got something to be mad about.”

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Bill Clinton book describes ‘frustration’ over Monica Lewinsky affair questions

In new memoir Citizen, Clinton acknowledges he has not directly apologized to Lewinsky over White House affair

Bill Clinton, the former US president, has written of his “frustration” at being questioned about his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky while acknowledging that he has never apologized to her directly.

Clinton became embroiled in one of the biggest political scandals in history when it emerged in 1998 that he had a sexual relationship with the then 22-year-old Lewinsky. The president, who initially lied before apologizing, was impeached by the House of Representatives but acquitted by the Senate.

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Democratic convention schedule: Oprah reported to be among speakers on night three

Tim Walz and Bill Clinton headline the third night amid reports Oprah Winfrey will also appear. Here’s a look at other noteworthy speakers on the schedule

The Democratic national convention is under way, with primetime addresses scheduled for tonight from Bill Clinton; Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’s running mate; and many more.

CNN reported that Oprah Winfrey, the talkshow host and longtime Democrat, is set to appear on the main stage. In previous elections, Winfrey lent her star power to Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

Chris Murphy, US senator, Connecticut

Olivia Troye, former Trump administration national security official

Bennie G Thompson, member of the US House of Representatives, Mississippi

Andy Kim, member of the US House of Representatives, New Jersey

Stevie Wonder, singer-songwriter and musician (performance)

Kenan Thompson, comedian, and guests (remarks on Project 2025)

Mindy Kaling (host introduction)

Hakeem Jeffries, US House of Representatives Democratic leader

Bill Clinton, former US president

Nancy Pelosi, former US House speaker

Josh Shapiro, governor of Pennsylvania

Catherine Cortez Masto, US senator, Nevada

Amanda Gorman, national youth poet laureate, whose performance of The Hill We Climb at Joe Biden’s 2021 inauguration wowed the audience

Wes Moore, governor of Maryland

Pete Buttigieg, US transportation secretary

John Legend and Sheila E, musicians (performance)

Amy Klobuchar, US senator, Minnesota

Tim Walz, governor of Minnesota and Kamala Harris’s running mate (keynote address)

Democratic national convention 2024 live updates

Monday: For the People

Tuesday: A Bold Vision for America’s Future

Wednesday: A Fight for Our Freedoms

Thursday: For Our Future

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Bill Clinton says ‘Trump creates chaos’ and mocks crowd-size obsession in star-studded night at DNC – live

Former president addresses delegates amid reports Oprah Winfrey is expected to make an appearance

Kamala Harris’s campaign raised four times as much money last month than Donald Trump’s campaign, Reuters is reporting, citing federal disclosures filed late on Tuesday.

The Harris campaign told the Federal Election Commission it raised $204m in July, compared to $48m reported by Trump’s main fundraising group.

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Biden campaign raises $25m ‘money bomb’ at event with Obama and Clinton

Chuck Schumer and Lizzo made appearances before the presidents talked onstage in event that widens fundraising lead over Trump

Joe Biden and his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, headlined a star-studded fundraiser with Bill Clinton on Thursday that organizers said raised more than $25m for the US president’s re-election campaign.

Such a haul, which Politico called an “NYC money bomb”, will widen Biden’s lead over Donald Trump in fundraising for the November election.

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Nearly 200 names linked to Jeffrey Epstein expected to be made public

List could be released as soon as Tuesday after deadline for objections to unsealing of names passes midnight Monday

Nearly 200 names connected to the Jeffrey Epstein-Ghislaine Maxwell sex trafficking conspiracy could be released by a New York judge as soon as Tuesday, exposing or confirming the identities of dozens of associates of the disgraced financier that until now have only been known as John and Jane Does in court papers.

A deadline for objections to the unsealing of name passes at midnight on Monday, nearly nine years after victim Virginia Giuffre filed a single defamation claim against Maxwell, daughter of the late British press baron Robert Maxwell, in 2015, that in turn produced the names in legal depositions.

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Jimmy Carter, Biden and Clintons pay tribute at Rosalynn Carter memorial

Jimmy Carter, 99, left hospice care at home for service for his late wife, but Trump, Obama and Bush did not attend

A tribute service for Rosalynn Carter took place on Tuesday, as politicians and public figures gathered to celebrate the former first lady’s life following her death last Sunday.

Former president Jimmy Carter, 99, attended the tribute for his late wife of 77 years, traveling from his hospice care at home to the Glenn Memorial church in Atlanta. His attendance marks a rare public appearance for the former president, who has been in home hospice care for 10 months.

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We knew in 2011 Putin would attack Ukraine, says Bill Clinton

Revelation raises questions about whether US and Europe should have been more prepared for 2014 invasion

Vladimir Putin told Bill Clinton three years before his 2014 attack on Ukraine that he was not bound by the Budapest Memorandum guaranteeing the country’s territorial integrity, according to the former US president.

The revelation raises questions about whether the US and its European allies should have been more prepared for the 2014 attack, when Russia annexed Crimea and attacked the Donbas.

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Colin Beattie ‘steps back’ as SNP treasurer following arrest amid party finance investigation – as it happened

This live blog has now closed, you can read more on this story here

PMQs is starting in five minutes.

The Cabinet Office has just published the revised list of ministers’ interests. This is the document that is supposed get updated every six months, but which has not been updated for around a year – partly because it’s the job of the No 10 independent adviser on ministes’ interests (aka, the ethics adviser), and for months the post was empty because two of Boris Johnson’s resigned, and then he gave up trying to find a replacement.

The prime minister’s wife is a venture capital investor. She owns a venture capital investment company, Catamaran Ventures UK Limited, and a number of direct shareholdings.

As the prime minister set out in his letter to the chair of the liaison committee on 4 April 2023, this includes the minority shareholding that his wife has in relation to the company, Koru Kids. The guide to the categories of interest (section 7, pages 4-6) sets out the independent adviser’s approach to the inclusion of interests declared in relation to spouses, partners and close family members within the list. The prime minister’s letter of 4 April is available at https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/38992/documents/191876/default/

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Leo Varadkar meets Biden after apparent Clinton-Lewinsky joke

Irish leader meets US president at White House for traditional St Patrick’s Day event a day after making gaffe

Ireland’s taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, has apologised for making an apparent joke about Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky, during an event in Washington on the eve of St Patrick’s Day celebrations.

Varadkar’s comment on Thursday risked overshadowing his meeting with Joe Biden at the White House on Friday for the traditional handing over of a bowl of shamrock to the US president, the most important day in the Irish-American political calendar.

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Blair asked Bush during first phone call if he could call him by first name

Archives reveal PM’s early attempts to establish personal relationship with president after 2000 US election

Tony Blair moved swiftly to place his relationship with George W Bush on a personal footing after the Republican won the 2000 US presidential election, asking him “early on” in their first telephone call if he could call him by his first name.

“Bush warmly assented (but stuck himself with addressing the prime minister as ‘Sir’),” according to a note of their call, which is among government files released to the National Archives. Blair was the first foreign leader to call to congratulate the president-elect. Michael Tatham, a British diplomat, noted that the eight-minute conversation had established “as good a rapport as one could hope for” from such a short call.

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Ken Starr, who investigated Bill Clinton over Monica Lewinsky affair, dies at 76

Starr’s Whitewater investigation, which uncovered Clinton’s affair with Lewinsky, led to US president’s impeachment in 1998

Ken Starr, the lawyer who relentlessly pursued Bill Clinton over his affair with Monica Lewinsky, has died at the age of 76, according to a statement issued by his family.

Starr was a prosecutor whose Whitewater investigation led to the impeachment of former Democratic president Clinton, in 1998. He died on Tuesday at Baylor St Luke’s medical center in Houston, of complications from surgery, the statement said.

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‘Listen to your bodies’: Bill Clinton grateful for support after hospitalisation – video

Bill Clinton has said in a video after his release from hospital that he has been touched by an 'outpouring of support'.

The former US president was hospitalised in California for a urological infection last week. He advised people on his Twitter to take care of themselves to fulfil their 'important role to play in life and in the immediate future'

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