48 h. ago Trump requests release of Epstein grand jury transcripts amid report of ‘bawdy’ birthday note

President directs Pam Bondi to seek release of testimony from sex-trafficking case and threatens to sue Wall Street JournalDonald Trump said on Thursday he had directed his attorney general, Pam Bondi, to seek the release of grand jury testimony related to Jeffrey Epstein’s sex-trafficking case as he sought to tamp down controversy over a story that he allegedly contributed a sketch of a naked woman to Epstein’s 50th birthday album.The president said on Truth Social he had authorized the justice department to seek the public release of the materials, which are under seal, citing “the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein”. Continue reading...

Politics

3 d. ago Purity Ring: the 10 funniest things I have ever seen (on the internet)

The electropop duo’s vocalist mj shares what brings her joy online – including odes to napping, crying and rainbowsI try to spend as little time on the internet as possible. I didn’t get a cell phone until I was 19. I stayed mostly away from screens and spent a lot of time in the woods, on the water and in my head. As far as I’ve seen, those were and always will be better places to find ourselves.I ended up skipping some of the internet’s best years – they’re long gone, along with the dream of what the internet could have been. In all the hours I spend doomscrolling I can say I haven’t gained much but the following makes some of that time feel worth it. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago This is why so many women are suffering from chronic UTIs, the factors that make them worse and the startling link to sepsis: CHRISTA D'SOUZA

Most women know the pattern. The tell-tale ache in your kidney. The vain hope it's in your head, then the frantic drinking of water to flush out the suspected infection.

Politics

2 w. ago Glastonbury 2025: Sunday with Olivia Rodrigo’s headline set plus the Prodigy, Rod Stewart and more – follow it live

The festival reaches its final day, featuring a crowd-pleasing afternoon of legends on the Pyramid stage, plus the Prodigy, Wolf Alice and Kate NashIt is mercifully overcast at Worthy Farm today, without the heat that’s been oppressing festivalgoers so far this weekend. That makes for a pleasant setting at the Pyramid stage to see Mercury prize-nominated and Brit rising star award-winner Celeste. She is preparing to release her sophomore album Woman of Faces, nearly five years after her debut Not Your Muse instantly topped the UK album charts. She says that she did not expect it to take this long for her follow-up, but that“everything happens when it’s supposed to”.With her brilliantly smoky, soulful vocals, Celeste invokes the likes of Billie Holiday, Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin, yet her distinctly English lilt provides a girl-next-door entry point to her magnificence. The emotion in her voice and in her songs is so overflowing that she repeatedly flaps her arms, as if shaking...

Events

2 w. ago Glastonbury 2025: Sunday with Olivia Rodrigo’s headline set plus Chic, Rod Stewart and more – follow it live

The festival reaches its final day, featuring a crowd-pleasing afternoon of legends on the Pyramid stage, and Prodigy, Wolf Alice and Kate Nash elsewhereIt is mercifully overcast at Worthy Farm today, without the heat that’s been oppressing festivalgoers so far this weekend. That makes for a pleasant setting at the Pyramid stage to see Mercury prize-nominated and Brit rising star award-winner Celeste. She is preparing to release her sophomore album Woman of Faces, nearly five years after her debut Not Your Muse instantly topped the UK album charts. She says that she did not expect it to take this long for her follow-up, but that“everything happens when it’s supposed to”.With her brilliantly smoky, soulful vocals, Celeste invokes the likes of Billie Holiday, Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin, yet her distinctly English lilt provides a girl-next-door entry point to her magnificence. The emotion in her voice and in her songs is so overflowing that she repeatedly flaps her arms, as if sh...

Events

2 w. ago Glastonbury 2025: Sunday with Wolf Alice, Rod Stewart, Olivia Rodrigo and more – follow it live!

The festival reaches its final day, featuring a crowd-pleasing afternoon of legends on the Pyramid stage, with the likes of the Libertines and Celeste kicking things offIt is mercifully overcast at Worthy Farm today, without the heat that’s been oppressing festivalgoers so far this weekend. That makes for a pleasant setting at the Pyramid stage to see Mercury prize-nominated and Brit rising star award-winner Celeste. She is preparing to release her sophomore album Woman of Faces, nearly five years after her debut Not Your Muse instantly topped the UK album charts. She says that she did not expect it to take this long for her follow-up, but that“everything happens when it’s supposed to”.With her brilliantly smoky, soulful vocals, Celeste invokes the likes of Billie Holiday, Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin, yet her distinctly English lilt provides a girl-next-door entry point to her magnificence. The emotion in her voice and in her songs is so overflowing that she repeatedly flaps he...

Events

3 w. ago Bantock: The Seal Woman album review – Celtic folk opera that never quite gets its head above water

Howard/Carby/Scottish Opera/Andrews(Retrospect Opera, two CDs)Granville Bantock’s story of a Selkie emerging from the sea is a century-old curio whose beauty has faded over the yearsExcept perhaps in Birmingham, where his memory is still cherished for what he did for the city’s music, including co-founding the CBSO, Granville Bantock (1868-1946) has slipped quietly into the margins of 20th-century British music. But as well as being an academic and conductor, Bantock was a prolific composer, with a work list including four symphonies, five concertos and nine operas, of which the last, the “Celtic folk opera” The Seal Woman, is easily the best remembered now.The premiere of The Seal Woman in 1924 was the Birmingham Repertory theatre’s first production; librettist Marjory Kennedy-Fraser took the main role of the Cailleach, whose dreams and visions tell the story of the Selkie, seal-people who emerge from the sea every seven years to live on land, shedding their skins to take human for...

Culture

3 w. ago The Breakdown | Next Gen Wallabies sense Farrell’s Lions are there for the taking

Australia coach Joe Schmidt has lifted team from lowest ebb and made a country feel it can win againAustralian rugby liked what it saw – and didn’t see – last week, as the British & Irish Lions got their 2025 tour off to a losing start against Argentina. Sure, it was the opening game of a 10-match odyssey and Andy Farrell’s men were lacking cohesion after only two weeks in camp. But for a young Wallabies side rising fast under their head coach, Joe Schmidt, it put blood in the water and proved the tourists are very beatable.Schmidt’s 6-7 record in his first season in charge of the Wallabies might not cost Lions fans much sleep but Farrell, his former second‑in‑command at Ireland, will sniff the seeds of ambush. In their last start in November, the Wallabies led Ireland 13-5 only to lose 22-19. Schmidt won’t let that happen again. The 2025 Wallabies these Lions face are light years from the lambs Eddie Jones led to slaughter at the 2023 World Cup in France. Continue reading...

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