28 h. ago How many big names have paid the price for being linked to Jeffrey Epstein? Fewer than you might think | Emma Brockes

Remarkably, most of the men connected to the convicted sex offender have barely experienced any fallout. That says as much as the scandal itselfA couple of weeks ago, the annual DealBook Summit got under way in New York. It’s a series of public talks billed as conversations with “the world’s most consequential people”, and is part of that circuit of live events in which the worst people on Earth gather on stage to address the second-worst people on Earth, their paying audience. Hosted by Andrew Ross Sorkin, the conference was a characteristically starry affair, but in a lineup that included Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, and “changemaker” Halle Berry, it was Ehud Barak, the former prime minister of Israel and a former associate of Jeffrey Epstein, who really caught the eye.My first thought about Barak’s appearance was: Larry Summers must be spitting. Summers, the former president of Harvard and another Epstein associate, was very much not...

Politics

2 w. ago Digested week: Minor quake hits book lauding bits of Robert F Kennedy Jr’s chest | Emma Brockes

Defenders rally to Olivia Nuzzi amid book mockery, while rakish David Dimbleby channels his inner DickensIt’s publication week for American Canto, the hastily turned around memoir by the former New York magazine journalist Olivia Nuzzi, who took on the challenge of explaining what it was about Robert F Kennedy Jr she found so alluring, a task for which no upper word limit is adequate. Nuzzi, if you’ve fallen behind, developed romantic feelings for the then presidential candidate, now Trump health minister, while profiling him for the magazine and since I’ve had to read this sentence, you do too: “He was exhausted, and he threw himself onto the bed, his pink shirt unbuttoned, revealing my favorite parts of his chest.” If you have a favourite part of RFK Jr’s chest, or consider chests in general subject to preference by localised area, this may be the book for you. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago Watch Simon Cowell’s TV search for a new boyband – and see how our world has changed | Emma Brockes

Twenty years on, the social media-savvy contestants will have greater power. His brutal approach to judging them will have to change, tooThere is a moment in the trailer for Simon Cowell’s new Netflix show, The Next Act, that is almost touching in its adherence to the way things once were. Cowell, who we see on a variety of beige sofas primly clutching his knees, talks about how to curate a new boyband, 20 years after the launch of his first TV talent show. “There is a huge risk here,” he says, heavy with drama. “If this goes wrong, it will be: ‘Simon Cowell has lost it.’” In fact, as anyone who has an eye on dwindling audience figures for his existing shows knows, for the vast majority of 18- to 24-year-olds – or even for younger millennials – the more likely response will be, “Simon who?”Which doesn’t mean that a new generation of viewers can’t be lured in by Cowell’s expertise. The question of whether 66-year-old Cowell can tweak a dusty and decades-old model has less to do with ...

Culture

3 w. ago At last, TV about influencers that isn’t cringe – I Love LA is my show of the year | Emma Brockes

It gets into its twentysomething characters’ heads in a way that’s fresh and real. You either get it, or you don’tIt’s been a while since a TV show came along that people leaned into losing their minds about, but finally, and after a year of otherwise mediocre programming, we have one. I Love LA, the HBO comedy set among wannabe gen Z influencers, is only halfway through its eight-episode run, but it is already comfortably the best show of the year. And more importantly, it has triggered all the signifiers of event TV: obsessive repeat viewings, line-by-line coverage, big platform profiles of its stars and weekly recaps on Vulture, New York magazine’s website. Within days of each episode airing, people have transcribed and uploaded the entire script, which – with the best will in the world – no one’s doing for Riot Women.The surprising thing about this is not the fact that it’s the first show by Rachel Sennott, the show’s 30-year-old creator and star, or that the action takes place ...

Culture

3 w. ago NFL week 12: Chiefs v Colts, Packers v Vikings and Bears v Steelers – live

Minute-by-minute updates on the 1pm UK time kick-offsAny questions or comments? You can email GrahamNightmare start for Kansas City. Patrick Mahomes attempts a pass on his own goal line after the ball is bobbed up in the air and caught by Laiatu Latu. Incredible play.TOUCHDOWN! Lions 0-7 Giants 12:56, 1st quarter Continue reading...

Politics

4 w. ago Every time new emails drop, elites do the Epstein shuffle: ‘Yes I knew him, but I didn’t KNOW him’ | Emma Brockes

For the New York and Washington great and good who loved the company of wealth and power, all that glitters is no longer goldMany years ago, I went to a party in central London thrown by a host known for curating interesting and heavyweight guest lists and, on entering, encountered David Irving, the disgraced historian and Holocaust denier. As a marker of social pariahdom, Holocaust denial is up there with – or perhaps even more potent than – a conviction for sex offences, and I turned around and walked out; not through any particular moral superiority, but because I thought “notoriety” as a criteria for inclusion on a guest list was stupid and offensive. As I left, I remember looking across the room at the host and thinking: you silly bloody bint, I’m embarrassed for you.I thought about that party and Irving this week while reading, with grim amusement, the absolute scramble currently under way in the US among media and other public figures seeking to explain, justify, downplay and...

Politics