A tragedy – not a conspiracy
Last weekend the terrible news broke that Virginia Giuffre, one of the most prominent victims of the disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein, had died by suicide. Conspiracy theorists immediately started circling. A tweet from 2019, in which Giuffre said she wasn’t suicidal, was dredged up. Donald Trump Jr, the president’s eldest failson, then amplified the theory to his millions of followers, adding that “other than the Clinton’s [sic] no one has more suiciding going on”.
Laura Loomer, a far-right influencer who seems to wield a huge amount of influence in the Trump administration, also started insinuating online that Giuffre had been silenced by dark forces. “We are never getting the Epstein list, are we?” Loomer tweeted.
Various other people amplifying this conspiracy theory have noted that Giuffre isn’t the first Epstein survivor to have died in recent years. In 2023, Carolyn Andriano, who had accused Epstein of abusing her when she was 14 and who testified against Ghislaine Maxwell in her trial, was found dead of an accidental overdose in a Florida hotel room. Andriano testified in 2021 that she had been addicted to “pain pills and cocaine” and taken them “to block out” Epstein’s sexual abuse. Another of Epstein’s victims, Leigh Patrick, also reportedly died of a heroin overdose in Florida in 2017.
The fact that three Epstein survivors have died by drug overdose or suicide is enraging and tragic, but it is not a conspiracy. I have a suggestion for the likes of Donald Jr and Loomer: instead of searching for secret plots, why not grapple with some very clear facts? The first being that childhood sexual abuse is associated with a wide range of physical and mental health conditions, including substance abuse. In a statement praising Giuffre’s courage, the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (Rainn) warned that victims of abuse are “significantly more likely to attempt suicide or suffer other long term effects of trauma”.
The “conspiracy” that Donald Jr and Loomer are searching so hard to find isn’t hidden, it’s staring them right in the face. Far too often, when a woman accuses a powerful man of abuse she will have her life destroyed, while the man walks away. Society is set up to protect powerful predators and their enablers: misogyny is woven into the fabric of all our institutions. Look at the supreme court, where two of the six men serving have faced sexual misconduct associations. Anita Hill had her reputation destroyed after accusing Clarence Thomas, then a supreme court nominee, of sexually harassing her. Christine Blasey Ford, Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s accuser, was forced to flee her house to protect her safety. (Both justices deny the allegations.)
And, of course, look at the White House. Trump was legally branded a sexual predator in 2023 and it didn’t stop him from becoming president again.
Look too at all the years that Epstein evaded justice; all the years he rubbed shoulders with some of the most powerful people in the world who didn’t seem to care about his predilection for young girls. Which, by the way, hardly seemed to be a secret. Trump joked about Epstein liking women on the “younger side” back in 2002. Florida prosecutors also reportedly knew that Epstein assaulted young girls years before he cut a very lenient deal with them in 2008. In that deal he pleaded guilty to state charges of procuring a person under 18 for prostitution and solicitation of prostitution. The financier had to register as a sex offender and serve a 13-months sentence, but was allowed to spend most of his day in his office.
I can understand why conspiracy theorists are so obsessed with Epstein. After all, the man operated a vast sex trafficking ring with the help of an enormous number of powerful people. And yet, five years after the sex offender’s death, the only person to have faced any real consequences is Ghislaine Maxwell, who is in a low-security federal prison. Some high-profile men have been embarrassed, sure, but nobody except Maxwell is in prison. It’s not a conspiracy that’s to blame for this: it’s society’s attitudes toward women.
Logan Paul has daughter, realizes that women are human too
The influencer, boxer, and YouTube personality – who has tens of millions of followers – recently spoke out about how his “mind went to some dark places” when he found out his wife was pregnant with a girl. “I don’t want to come across like a woke asshole, but like, dude, women have it hard,” Paul said on his reality show. “Women have it fucking hard. And I empathize with them.”
Jill Sobule dies in a house fire age 66
The musician’s 1995 single I Kissed a Girl is considered the first openly LGBTQ-themed song to crack the Billboard top 20 singles chart.
Breast cancer is becoming less deadly for younger women in the US
From 2010 to 2020, the number of breast cancer deaths among women ages 20-49 dropped significantly, researchers have reported.Breast cancer mortality fell across racial and ethnic groups, but in both 2010 and 2020, non-Hispanic Black women had the highest rate.
Why are more than 90% of pilots still men?
“Despite more than a decade of initiatives designed to increase the number of women flying planes, just 6.5% of pilots working for UK companies are women,” Amelia Gentleman reports. “There is something stubbornly retro about gender roles in this industry. Female doctors began to outnumber their male peers in the UK for the first time this year, but preconceptions about what an airline pilot should look and sound like have not shifted.”
Texas senate approves legislation to clarify exceptions to extreme abortion ban
The new legislation, Senate Bill 31, aims to prevent maternal deaths under the state’s strict abortion ban – and serves as an acknowledgment that women were being denied lifesaving care because of confusion about the limits of the abortion ban. While it’s a step forward, don’t get too excited. ProPublica notes: “The bill stops short of removing what doctors say are the ban’s biggest impediments to care, including its major criminal penalties, and doesn’t expand abortion access to cases of fetal anomalies, rape or incest.” The Texas senate has also just passed perhaps the broadest crackdown on abortion-inducing drugs in the country.
Judge in Finland dismisses charges against three men accused of raping a 17-year-old girl outside a hospital
The girl was taken to Malmi Hospital by an ambulance due to her severe intoxication, the Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat reports. Three men, two of whom were in their 30s, then took the 17-year-old out of the hospital and had violent intercourse with her, which they filmed. The Helsinki district court has held that the girl – who, again, had been brought to hospital because of intoxication, consented to all this and dismissed the charges against the men.
Cory Booker can speak non-stop for 25 hours, but has no comment about genocide
The New Jersey senator was heaped with praise by liberals for speaking for 25 hours on the Senate floor last month. “This is not right or left. It is right or wrong. This is not a partisan moment. It is a moral moment,” Booker said during his speech. “Where do you stand?” Stirring words, indeed. But Booker was awfully quiet this week after Shabtai, the Yale-based society he co-founded, invited the Israeli extremist Itamar Ben-Gvir – a man convicted of terrorism–to give a speech. Booker also took a smiling photo in his office with Yoav Gallant, wanted by the ICC for war crimes, in his office last year. Booker is absolutely right that this is not a partisan moment, it is a moral moment. You are either for genocide, or you are against it. You are either for starving children and murdering journalists, or you are against it. Booker has made very clear where he stands. If Booker is the “resistance”, we are all in trouble.
The week in pawtriarchy
The world’s smallest dog (Pearl, chihuahua, 3.59 inches) and the world’s tallest dog (Reggie, Great Dane, 3ft 3in) recently got together for a playdate, and it was as cute as it sounds. Despite the fact that most chihuahuas seem to have a mildly psychotic side (source: me, a chihuahua owner), Pearl was very chill around Reggie. I guess oppawsites attract.
• In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist
