Not just Trump, Bill Clinton also among 50 who wrote letters to Epstein: Report
A spokesperson for Clinton reiterated to The Wall Street Journal that the former president severed ties with Epstein over a decade before Epstein's 2019 arrest and was unaware of his criminal activities. Clinton, who served two terms from 1993 to 2001, had been photographed with Epstein and Maxwell at the White House in 1993 and reportedly socialised with Epstein in the early 2000s. Clinton's team had earlier confirmed that he took four trips on Epstein's private jet and visited his Manhattan townhouse once — each time accompanied by Secret Service agents and in connection with the Clinton Foundation's work.The Wall Street Journal had previously reported that President Trump's name appeared in the same album, alongside a bizarre fictional dialogue: "A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret", ending with a hand-drawn outline of a naked woman. Trump swiftly sued The Wall Street Journal, its reporters, and its publisher Dow Jones, calling the note 'fake' and 'nonexistent'. Dow Jones has defended its reporting, stating it stands by the rigor and accuracy of its investigation.Other messages in the resurfaced birthday book ranged from the suggestive to the absurd. Leon Black penned a risqu poem, two lines of which read "Blonde, Red or Brunette, spread out geographically / With this net of fish, Jeff's now The Old Man and The Sea". Vera Wang jokingly suggested Epstein should appear on The Bachelor and invited him on a shopping spree. Leslie Wexner's note contained a crude drawing of a woman's breasts. Both declined to comment.Attorney General Pam Bondi reportedly informed President Trump in May that his name surfaced in the files linked to Epstein, according to the Journal's recent report. While digital copies of the book have been reviewed by Justice Department officials in earlier Epstein-Maxwell probes, it remains unclear whether these pages feature in the Trump administration's recent review of Epstein case documents.advertisementEarlier this month, the Justice Department stated there was no incriminating "client list" nor any evidence that Epstein blackmailed influential figures. Epstein, once a financier and convicted sex offender, died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges. Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted in 2021 of assisting Epstein's trafficking network and is serving a 20-year prison term.- Ends
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Indian Express
a day ago
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Europe stresses need to protect Ukrainian interests ahead of Trump-Putin talks
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Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, said the current peace push was the first 'more or less realistic' attempt to stop the war but she remained sceptical about the agreements being implemented. 'There is virtually no doubt that the new commitments could be devastating for Ukraine,' she said. Fierce fighting is raging along the more than 1,000-km (620-mile) front line in eastern and southern Ukraine, where Russian forces hold around a fifth of the country's territory. Russian troops are slowly advancing in Ukraine's east, but their summer offensive has so far failed to achieve a major breakthrough, Ukrainian military analysts say. 'Not a single serviceman will agree to cede territory, to pull out troops from Ukrainian territories,' Olesia Petritska, 51, told Reuters as she gestured to hundreds of small Ukrainian flags in the Kyiv central square commemorating fallen soldiers.
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Business Standard
a day ago
- Business Standard
Europe, Ukraine push US on peace plan ahead of Trump-Putin Alaska talks
European officials presented their own Ukraine peace proposals to the United States on Saturday as President Donald Trump prepared for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on ending the war. Trump plans to meet Putin in Alaska on August 15, saying the parties, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, were close to a deal that could resolve the three-and-a-half-year conflict. Details of the potential deal have yet to be announced, but Trump said it would involve "some swapping of territories to the betterment of both". It could require Ukraine to surrender significant parts of its territory, an outcome Zelenskyy and his European allies say would only encourage Russian aggression. U.S. Vice President JD Vance met Ukrainian and European allies on Saturday at Chevening House, a country mansion southeast of London, to discuss Trump's push for peace. A European official confirmed a counterproposal was put forward by European representatives at the meeting but declined to provide details. The Wall Street Journal said European officials had presented a counterproposal that included demands that a ceasefire must take place before any other steps are taken and that any territory exchange must be reciprocal, with firm security guarantees. "You can't start a process by ceding territory in the middle of fighting," it quoted one European negotiator as saying. A U.S. official said "hours-long" meetings at Chevening produced significant progress toward bringing an end to the war in Ukraine. The White House did not immediately respond when asked if the Europeans had presented their counterproposals to the U.S. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron spoke and pledged to find a "just and lasting peace" in Ukraine and "unwavering support" for Zelenskyy while welcoming Trump's efforts to end the fighting, a Downing Street spokesperson said. It was not clear what, if anything, had been agreed at Chevening, but Zelenskyy called the meeting constructive. "All our arguments were heard," he said in his evening address to Ukrainians. "The path to peace for Ukraine should be determined together and only together with Ukraine, this is key principle." He had earlier rejected any territorial concessions, saying "Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupier". The Trump administration is considering inviting Zelenskyy to join the U.S. and Russian presidents at their Alaska meeting, NBC News reported, citing an unnamed U.S. official. A Trump spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and Russian and Ukrainian officials could not immediately be reached for comment. Macron also said Ukraine must play a role in any negotiations. "Ukraine's future cannot be decided without the Ukrainians, who have been fighting for their freedom and security for over three years now," he wrote on X after what he said were calls with Zelenskyy, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Starmer. "Europeans will also necessarily be part of the solution, as their own security is at stake." Ukraine and the European Union have pushed back on proposals that they view as ceding too much to Putin, whose troops invaded Ukraine in February 2022, citing what Moscow called threats to Russia's security from a Ukrainian pivot towards the West. Kyiv and its Western allies say the invasion is an imperial-style land grab. Moscow has previously claimed four Ukrainian regions Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson â€' as well as the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which was annexed in 2014. Russian forces do not fully control all the territory in the four regions and Russia has demanded that Ukraine pull out its troops from the parts of all four of them that they still control. Ukraine says its troops still have a small foothold in Russia's Kursk region a year after its troops crossed the border to try to gain leverage in any negotiations. Russia said it had expelled Ukrainian troops from Kursk in April. Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, described the current peace push as "the first more or less realistic attempt to stop the war". "At the same time, I remain extremely sceptical about the implementation of the agreements, even if a truce is reached for a while. And there is virtually no doubt that the new commitments could be devastating for Ukraine," she said. Fierce fighting is raging along the more than 1,000-km (620-mile) front line along eastern and southern Ukraine, where Russian forces hold around a fifth of the country's territory. Russian troops are slowly advancing in Ukraine's east, but their summer offensive has so far failed to achieve a major breakthrough, Ukrainian military analysts say. Ukrainians remain defiant. "Not a single serviceman will agree to cede territory, to pull out troops from Ukrainian territories," Olesia Petritska, 51, told Reuters as she gestured to hundreds of small Ukrainian flags in the Kyiv central square commemorating fallen soldiers. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
