Democrats divided on trans athletes in women's sports amid GOP pressure
Prominent Democrats are pushing their party to rethink its approach to transgender issues, particularly when it comes to women's sports.
At times they have warned that the party has fallen out of step with the United States public and it needs to recalibrate for future elections.
Some elected officials
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RNZ News
44 minutes ago
- RNZ News
Wall Street Journal reports Trump is in Epstein files, White House calls story 'fake'
By Andrew Goudsward and Joseph Ax Composite image of Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump. Photo: AFP / NEW YORK STATE SEX OFFENDER REGISTRY/HANDOUT US Attorney General Pam Bondi told President Donald Trump in May that his name appeared in Justice Department files related to financier Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender who died in prison, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing senior administration officials. Reuters was not able to immediately verify the Journal's report, which the White House characterized as "fake news." The newspaper's report threatened to expand what has become a major political crisis for Trump, whose past friendship with Epstein has drawn renewed scrutiny after his administration said it would not release the files, reversing a campaign promise. The Justice Department released a memo earlier this month that there was no basis to continue probing the Epstein case, triggering a backlash among Trump's political base who demanded more information about wealthy and powerful people who had interacted with Epstein . Trump has not been accused of wrongdoing related to Epstein and has said their friendship ended before Epstein was first prosecuted. Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. He had pleaded not guilty and the case was dismissed after his death. Under political pressure last week, Trump directed the Justice Department to seek the release of sealed grand jury transcripts from the case. A federal judge denied that request earlier on Wednesday. While the White House immediately dismissed the report as fictitious, Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche issued a statement that did not directly address the newspaper's reporting. "Nothing in the files warranted further investigation or prosecution, and we have filed a motion in court to unseal the underlying grand jury transcripts," the officials said. "As part of our routine briefing, we made the President aware of the findings." The Journal reported that Bondi and her deputy told Trump at a White House meeting that his name, as well as those of "many other high-profile figures," appeared in the files. US Attorney General Pam Bondi Photo: MANDEL NGAN / AFP Last week, the newspaper reported that Trump had sent Epstein a bawdy birthday note in 2003 that ended, "Happy Birthday - and may every day be another wonderful secret." Reuters has not confirmed the authenticity of the alleged letter. Trump has sued the Journal and its owners , including billionaire Rupert Murdoch, asserting that the birthday note was fake. Since the Justice Department's memo, Trump has faced growing frustration among his base of supporters, after far-right figures spent years promoting conspiracy theories - at times echoed by Trump - about Epstein and alleged ties to prominent Democratic politicians. Epstein hung himself in prison in 2019, according to the New York City chief medical examiner. But his connections with wealthy and powerful individuals prompted speculation that his death was not a suicide. The Justice Department said in its memo this month that it had concluded Epstein died by his own hand. In a sign of how the issue has bedeviled Trump and his fellow Republicans, US House Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday abruptly said he would send lawmakers home for the summer a day early to avoid a floor fight over a vote on the Epstein files. His decision temporarily stymied a push by Democrats and some Republicans for a vote on a bipartisan resolution that would require the Justice Department to release all Epstein-related documents. More than two-thirds of Americans believe the Trump administration is hiding information about Epstein's clients, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted last week. Wednesday's court motion stemmed from federal investigations into Epstein in 2005 and 2007, according to court documents. US District Judge Robin Rosenberg found that the Justice Department's request in Florida did not fall into any of the exceptions to rules requiring grand jury material be kept secret. The Justice Department also has pending requests to unseal transcripts in Manhattan federal court related to later indictments brought against Epstein and his former associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence after her conviction for child sex trafficking and other crimes. - Reuters
NZ Herald
4 hours ago
- NZ Herald
Trump administration targets Harvard's foreign student programme in latest investigation
Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech. Trump launched an investigation into Harvard's visa sponsorship programme. Photo / Getty Images US President Donald Trump's administration has launched an investigation into Harvard University's ability to sponsor visiting students and academics, part of a continuing crackdown on the elite institution. Since taking office in January, Trump has repeatedly accused Harvard and other top US universities of having a 'liberal' bias, accusing some of 'antisemitism' to cut federal funding and demand greater oversight. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the latest investigation would examine whether the university was complying with regulations in the Exchange Visitor Programme. That included probing whether the university was 'conducting their programmes in a manner that does not undermine the foreign policy objectives or compromise the national security interests of the United States'. 'The American people have the right to expect their universities to uphold national security, comply with the law, and provide safe environments for all students,' he said in a statement.
NZ Herald
4 hours ago
- NZ Herald
Analysis: Both men are constrained by a shared need to please conservative Americans
Another host, Greg Gutfeld, said Democrats were secretly 'relieved that the golden age is here'. The war Trump is waging against Murdoch over the Journal's coverage, including a US$10 billion ($16.6b) lawsuit he filed last week, has been billed as a Battle of the Titans. Given their stature atop conservative politics and media, it is certainly that. In suing Murdoch, Trump, who has extracted multimillion-dollar settlements in suits against ABC News and CBS News, is taking on the most battle-tested, self-assured, and politically astute mogul in media. But the continued affection for Trump among Fox News hosts makes it clear that while this is a fight between giants, it is like nothing found in the works of Homer or Hesiod. That's because the two men are constrained by the one thing that has kept them linked across 10 years of personal comity and conflict: their shared need to please conservative Americans. For Murdoch, those conservatives are the most important constituency of his empire. They provide a committed base audience for Fox News — his leading revenue generator — and they expect the network to mirror their own loyalty to Trump in return. It explains why Fox News largely avoided repeating the Journal's scoop or saying much about Trump's lawsuit against the Journal. Although loyalty to Trump among Fox viewers has appeared unshakable, Trump clearly wants to keep it that way. They are his core voters, many of them glued to Fox more than to the Maga multiverse of social media and podcast influencers who make up the harder-edged, ideological wing of his movement. Trump's appreciation for the Fox audience has been evident in his decision to populate his new Administration with former Fox hosts and contributors. It has also shown up in the many Truth Social messages he has posted since he sued Murdoch, directing his followers to watch Fox News segments. Trump's ire is exclusively trained on Murdoch and the Journal for moving ahead with what Trump called a 'fake' story, according to a person with knowledge of Trump's views about the feud. The article focused on a 'bawdy' birthday message the Journal said Trump sent to Epstein in 2003. Trump, this person said, considers Fox News — and for that matter, the New York Post, another business owned by Murdoch — to be in a separate, friendlier category, where he has warm relations with various personalities. That helps explain why even as Trump filed his lawsuit he wrote on Truth Social: 'Everybody should watch Sean Hannity tonight. He really gets it!' What Hannity got that evening: Trump's was 'the single most consequential, transformational presidency in our lifetime.' Hannity, who is happy to acknowledge his admiration for his friend, has avoided mentioning the Journal article on his show. But another Murdoch-world friendly, Miranda Devine at the New York Post, went so far as to call the article a 'nothingburger'. The relationship between Trump and Murdoch has always been complicated. When Trump first told Murdoch he was running for president, at a lunch at Murdoch's New York offices, Murdoch didn't hide his scepticism. Murdoch did not see Trump as a president. The Fox News audience thought otherwise, Murdoch soon discovered. And as someone who built his empire by giving his customers what they want, he came on board as network hosts rallied to help place Trump in the White House in 2016. An awkward friendship blossomed, as both came to enjoy gossiping and comparing notes over the phone — satisfying Murdoch's thirst for access to the Oval Office and Trump's craving for acceptance from his fellow billionaire conservative. The 2020 election wedged them apart anew. Trump was furious at Murdoch for refusing to block Fox News' projection that Trump had lost the pivotal state of Arizona. Murdoch was furious at Trump's stolen-election conspiracies, which drew sympathetic coverage among some Fox hosts and resulted in a US$787.5 million payout to settle a defamation suit from Dominion Voting Systems, a company at the centre of the false narrative. The two did not speak for a long period after the election as Murdoch's outlets lined up behind a would-be challenger to Trump, Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida. But the audience still wanted Trump, forcing the two back together last year. Murdoch was on the dais at Trump's second inauguration and appeared with the President before cameras inside the Oval Office in early February. Even then, though, there were some signs of the tension that has exploded into view in the past week. Speaking with reporters as Murdoch sat nearby, Trump called the media mogul one of the 'most talented people in the world'. Then a reporter in the room asked the President about an editorial in the Journal that accused him of starting 'The Dumbest Trade War in History'. It was one of many critical editorials the Journal, whose opinion page has long favoured free trade and an opposition to tariffs, has published on the Administration's economic policy and other topics. Trump grimaced and said of Murdoch: 'I'm going to have to talk to him about that'. He added, 'I've been right over the Wall Street Journal many times'. In the weeks that followed, the Journal's editorial board expressed numerous other criticisms of the Administration, even as it offered praise at times, too. It called Trump's decision to pull security for several former national security officials 'a new low'; gave him a new name, 'Tariff Man'; asked if he would 'please take a summer vacation for the good of the nation'; and suggested the Federal Communications Commission was operating as Trump's 'personal protection racket'. The two men continued to talk on the phone throughout, trading information and gossip. A pivotal interaction, though, came last week, with the Journal's reporting on Epstein. Trump has said he directly asked Murdoch to spike the article, arguing that it wasn't true. Murdoch, in Trump's telling, said he would 'take care of it'. Murdoch's representatives declined to comment on that assertion. Murdoch, though, has shown a pattern of refusing to intervene to kill his journalists' stories. Dow Jones, the Journal's parent company, expressed 'full confidence in the rigour and accuracy of our reporting' and vowed to 'vigorously defend against any lawsuit'. That leaves many progressives and First Amendment advocates looking to an unlikely protagonist. 'Is this what we have come to,' Tina Brown, the author and former top magazine editor, wrote this week, 'depending on Rupert Murdoch to stand up for press freedom?' She predicted he would, but the ultimate outcome may depend on the viewers-slash-voters who are so central to Murdoch's and Trump's power. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Written by: Jim Rutenberg Photograph by: Hiroko Masuike ©2025 THE NEW YORK TIMES
