Good morning.
Newly released emails suggest Donald Trump knew about the conduct of the late child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, including one memo in which Epstein said “of course [Trump] knew about the girls” he trafficked, and another that said Trump had “spent hours” with one victim at Epstein’s house.
Democrats on the House oversight committee released the three emails on Wednesday in a move that looks likely to dial up the pressure on the White House to fully release the so-called Epstein files.
The committee’s Republican majority responded by publishing its own set of more than 20,000 documents, accusing Democrats of “cherrypicking” the memos “to generate clickbait”. On his Truth Social platform, Trump accused the Democrats of releasing the emails in an attempt to deflect from the government shutdown.
What do the emails say? One message from Epstein to his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, sent in April 2011, mentions Trump by name, saying: “I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump.. [victim’s name redacted] spent hours at my house with him ,, he has never once been mentioned.” The redacted name was Virginia Giuffre, who had described being trafficked, though she did not accuse Trump of abuse.
Trump signs funding bill to end longest US government shutdown
The longest US government shutdown in history ended on Wednesday after 43 days, after Trump signed a bill negotiated by Republicans and a breakaway group of Democrat-aligned senators.
The funding bill means that government operations will return to normal through January. But the issue that caused the stalemate – expiring tax credits for the Affordable Care Act – remains unresolved. The tax credits, which were created under the Biden administration, lowered premiums for enrollers of plans bought under the law.
Who voted against their caucus? Six Democrats voted for the bill: Adam Gray of California, Tom Suozzi of New York, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, Don Davis of North Carolina, Henry Cuellar of Texas and Jared Golden of Maine. Two Republicans voted against it: Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Greg Steube of Florida.
World still on track for catastrophic 2.6C temperature rise, report finds
The world is heading for a catastrophic 2.6C rise in temperature as governments have failed to commit to sufficiently strong climate action, while fossil fuel emissions have hit record levels, two major reports have found.
Despite the pledges made by governments at the Cop30 climate talks being held in Brazil, the world’s temperature is expected to reach 2.6C above preindustrial times by 2100.
Bill Hare, the chief executive of Climate Analytics, warned that a rise of 2.6C would bring a disastrous new era of extreme weather and severe hardships, including the end of agriculture in the UK and across Europe, drought and monsoon failure in Asia and Africa, and lethal heat and humidity.
How much has the world heated up so far? About 1.3C since the Industrial Revolution, owing to fossil fuel combustion and deforestation – and this is already supercharging storms, wildfires and droughts.
Have we made any progress since the 2015 Paris deal? Yes – at that point, 3.6C of heating by 2100 was predicted. This number has come down in part because of the boom in renewable energy deployment.
In other news …
One person has been killed along the Thai-Cambodia border as tensions rise between the two nations after a ceasefire agreement broke down.
The US ambassador has voiced his disappointment that the UK’s first small modular reactors will be built by Rolls-Royce and not a US manufacturer.
A former top aide to the California governor, Gavin Newsom, has been indicted over her alleged involvement in a plot to steal campaign money from Xavier Becerra, the former US health secretary.
Tremane Wood, 46, from Oklahoma has made a final plea before his execution on Thursday for a murder his brother has confessed to.
Stat of the day: High blood pressure rates in children nearly doubled in 20 years, global review finds
The proportion of children and teenagers with high blood pressure globally has nearly doubled in 20 years owing to unhealthy diets, lack of exercise and soaring obesity, according to a landmark review. The prevalence of hypertension among under-19s has increased to 6.2% from 3.2% two decades ago, with experts warning these young people face serious health complications.
Don’t miss this: How an unusual name can shape your life – for better or worse
Unusual names are on the rise. And I’m not just talking about the names celebrities give their children (see: Rihanna and A$AP Rocky’s three children, Riot, RZA and Rocki) – data shows there’s a long-term trend on this. According to one study, based on an analysis of 325 million American babies born between 1880 and 2007, the use of common baby names has decreased steadily since 1983. Emma Russell’s fascinating feature explores the evidence that names can shapes us.
Climate check: Al Gore wonders if Trump ‘bullying’ prompted Bill Gates to backtrack on climate
Al Gore has speculated that Bill Gates may have backtracked on climate through fear of being bullied by Donald Trump. The former US vice-president warned that Trump was “badly damaging the US economy” by pushing fossil fuels and pulling away from renewables, allowing China to ramp up its dominance in green energy.
Last Thing: Does everyone really prefer live music to sex?
Live Nation conducted a global survey that found most people would rather go to a concert than have sex: 70% chose seeing their favorite artist live (70%) over sex (30%). Putting aside that it’s unsurprising that a survey for a gig promoter comes out overwhelmingly in favor of its business, Elle Hunt writes that gigs and sex have more in common than you might immediately realize.
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