By Luc Cohen and Brendan Pierson

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Ghislaine Maxwell’s sentencing hearing for helping sex offender and globetrotting financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse teenage girls kicked off on Tuesday.

Prosecutors are seeking a sentence of at least 30 years for Maxwell, 60, who was convicted in December of recruiting and grooming girls to have sexual encounters with Epstein, then her boyfriend, between 1994 and 2004. [nL1N2YA05K]

U.S. Circuit Judge Alison Nathan will sentence the British socialite at the conclusion of the hearing in Manhattan federal court. Two of the victims who testified at her trial, Annie Farmer and a woman known as “Kate,” are expected to make statements at the hearing.

Maxwell’s monthlong trial was widely seen as the reckoning that Epstein – who killed himself in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019 at age 66 while awaiting his own sex trafficking trial – never had.

It was one of the highest-profile cases in the wake of the #MeToo movement, which encouraged women to speak out about sexual abuse, often at the hands of wealthy and powerful people.

In often emotional and explicit testimony during the trial, Farmer, Kate, and two other women testified that Maxwell was a central figure in their abuse by Epstein.

(Reporting by Luc Cohen and Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Mark Porter and Noeleen Walder)

Washington (AFP) – A former top White House aide with unique access to Donald Trump and inner workings of the West Wing was expected to testify publicly Tuesday before the committee probing the attack on the US Capitol.

Cassidy Hutchinson, an executive assistant to Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows, was a central figure in the White House around the period of the insurrection on January 6 last year.

She has already been the source of several blockbuster revelations, appearing in videotaped depositions at two previous hearings and memorably naming a group of House Republicans who sought pardons from Trump following the violence.

She was also in contact with officials in the battleground state of Georgia, where Trump infamously pressured officials to “find” enough votes to overcome Joe Biden’s victory margin in a phone call that is the subject of a criminal probe.

Hutchinson testified behind closed doors in February, March and May, revealing she saw Meadows incinerate documents in his office after meeting a Republican congressman implicated in the plot to overturn the election.

The lawmaker, Scott Perry, was pivotal in Trump’s failed effort to install his own pliant attorney general as part of a plan to co-opt the Justice Department into his scheme to cling to power.

It was Hutchinson, according to CNN, who told the select committee that Trump voiced approval for the “hang Mike Pence” chants from rioters at the Capitol — an allegation that was among the many eye-popping claims to come out of the opening hearing on June 9.

Hutchinson also testified that she remembered a Secret Service agent informing Meadows of intelligence reports saying there could potentially be violence on January 6.

‘Public spirit’

“I don’t know what Cassidy Hutchinson will say today,” conservative political commentator Bill Kristol, a founder of the advocacy group Defending Democracy Together, posted on Twitter. 

“But by agreeing to step forward and testify under oath, this young woman is showing far more public spirit, integrity and courage than many of her well-established elders who have chosen a far easier and less honorable path.”

Meadows himself has refused to testify before the panel since handing over thousands of text messages and other documents in the early stages of the investigation.

The House of Representatives held Meadows in contempt in December but the Justice Department decided not to charge him.

The announcement of Tuesday’s hearing with less than 24 hours’ notice raised eyebrows across Washington, since the committee had said it was pushing the rest of its hearings to July and perhaps beyond.

The panel revealed the about-face in a brief release which didn’t mention the purpose of the hearing or reveal who would appear, simply saying it would “present recently obtained evidence and receive witness testimony.”

The reason for the change of plan remained a mystery hours ahead of Hutchison’s appearance, although US media reported she had become more cooperative since changing lawyers earlier this month.

Congressional media outlet Punchbowl reported that there had been “sincere concerns” about Hutchinson’s safety because of what she knows and has already revealed.

The committee did not say if there would be more than one witness and Washington insiders speculated that documentary filmmaker Alex Holder’s footage of Trump and his family could also figure.

Meanwhile, Trump lawyer John Eastman, the architect of the former president’s scheme to overturn the election, revealed in a court filing Monday that the FBI had seized his cell phone. 

He said he was confronted by FBI agents as he was leaving a restaurant and called for a judge to have his phone returned.

Cara Delevingne loves being able to “represent” the queer community in ‘Only Murders in the Building’.

The 29-year-old model – who identifies as pansexual and is currently thought to be dating singer Minke – stars as Selena Gomez’s love interest Alice in the second season of the show and admitted that she and the former Disney Channel actress had such an “easy” time together on set.

She said: “It was honestly the best project I’ve ever done. I just didn’t want it to end. I really loved being able to represent the queer community. It was so easy and safe.[Selena and I] already have that relationship in terms of comfortability. But honestly, it was the best set to ever work on, it was so hard to end… it should just continue forever.”

Cara was already a big fan of the show before she landed her role because she thinks the writing is so clever.

She said: “The story that they write and how it unfolds, it’s just never expected and that’s what I love so much because I’m usually pretty good at that stuff and I really have still never got it right.”

Meanwhile, pop star Selena, 29, – who has played the role of true crime obsessive Mabel on the mystery-comedy since it began in 2021 – echoed her new co-star’s thoughts and enjoyed working with Cara because they have been friends for several years.

She told ‘Entertainment Tonight’: “I’ve known her for so many years. It was honestly like working with a childhood friend. I just enjoyed it. She’s hilarious!”

Cara is to star as sophisticated New York City art world insider Alice on the show, who becomes embroiled in the apartment building’s ongoing murder puzzles and will also be seen on screen alongside other regulars Steve Martin and Martin Short when the season premieres on Hulu this week.

Washington (AFP) – The US Supreme Court’s ruling ending the nationwide right to abortion was one of the most seismic domestic political shifts in a generation — upending the crucial midterm elections that will decide who controls Congress next year.

Republicans are celebrating the culmination of almost 50 years of activism around the argument that Roe v. Wade — the 1973 landmark ruling guaranteeing federal protection of abortion rights — was wrongly decided. 

Democrats, too, have been galvanized by the scrapping of half a century of reproductive rights, and by fears Republicans will go further and introduce a federal abortion ban if they retake Congress — threatening legal access nationwide.

Democratic President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi set out what they see as the stakes on Friday, with both saying abortion would be “on the ballot” in November.

The issue has traditionally animated conservatives more than liberals but the Supreme Court may permanently have altered the political topography, analysts say.

“By striking down Roe, this is likely to create a new constituency of pro-choice voters who are activated to turn out and donate in ways that they would not normally in a midterm election,” Shana Gadarian, a professor of political science at Syracuse University, told AFP.

“The Roe decision not only has a major effect on the midterm elections, but it paved the way for greater implications on human rights as a whole,” Democratic political strategist Amani Wells-Onyioha added.

“The conservative right has made it clear that it intends on coming for contraception, the LGBT+ community, and African Americans next.”

Mixed messaging

A new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll out Monday showed a whopping 78 percent of Democrats believe the court’s decision made them more likely to vote in November — 24 points higher than Republicans.

Democrats are leveraging this and several recent similar polls to make the case that the position adopted by Republicans across the country is far outside of the mainstream.

The party sees it as galvanizing for its liberal base but also, according to Democratic pollster Carly Cooperman, a mobilizing issue for the moderate suburban women the party is trying to peel away from the Republicans in battleground House districts.

“Republicans will do everything possible to turn the conversation back to inflation, the economy, and high gas prices,” Cooperman told AFP.

“At a time when Democrats have consistently shown less enthusiasm for the midterms compared to Republicans, the question will be how much the court’s ruling will narrow this gap.”

Gerard Filitti, senior counsel at the New York-based Lawfare Project think tank, argues that Democrats may be able to reframe the midterms as a battle over fundamental rights rather than the cost of living.

“Concern over civil rights may well trump concerns over the economy, and the Republicans are no longer assured a clear path to victory in the November midterms,” he said.

The Republicans’ messaging has been mixed, with many members of Congress and state governors rushing to celebrate a historic victory while others prefer to keep the focus on the cost of living and economic uncertainty.

‘Win for life’

Republican leader and former president Donald Trump called the decision “the biggest win for life in a generation” while Adam Laxalt, the Republican Senate nominee in Nevada, said the issue “won’t distract voters from unaffordable prices, rising crime or the border crisis.”

The decision set off a frenzy of activity on both sides, with at least eight states imposing immediate bans and a similar number expected to follow suit within weeks.

Dozens of arrests were reported during a weekend of nationwide protest — although incidents of violence and vandalism were isolated.

Mississippi, Utah and Louisiana have been hit with lawsuits seeking to block their bans. The plaintiff in Mississippi, abortion provider Planned Parenthood, said it will spend $150 million on the midterm elections, alongside NARAL Pro-Choice America and Emily’s List. 

In Congress, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has suggested that a federal ban would be “possible,” although he has also acknowledged that no position on the issue has ever achieved the upper chamber’s 60-vote threshold.

“It will be important to see how Republican candidates campaign after this Supreme Court decision,” Lyle Solomon, a California-based principal attorney at Oak View Law Group, told AFP.

“If they campaign on abortion restrictions and focus a lot on the Supreme Court decision being a victory, it may backfire on them. On the other hand, Democrats will be looking to take full advantage of the Supreme Court decision and rally voters around the message of abortion rights and access to safe abortion.”

Elliot Page has applauded producers of his show ‘The Umbrella Academy’ for the way they handled the transgender storyline.

The 35-year-old ‘Juno’ star came out as a trans man back in 2020 and his character on the Netflix hit, Viktor Hargreeves, has also transitioned with Elliot insisting the story was handled sensitively and packed a real emotional punch.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, he explained: “I think one of the most special things about this is how it’s handled. It’s not void of emotional moments … I’m experiencing all that, because I’ve stepped into this moment where I’m a trans person and perceived that way, and having all these new experiences I didn’t have before.

“Then these scenes were resonating with that, which was really incredible. We don’t see that when we’re not in control of our stories a lot of the time. So it felt really special.”

‘The Umbrella Academy’ showrunner Steve Blackman added they are hoping to continue Viktor’s journey in future episodes, saying: “We have ideas for what we’d like to do if we’re lucky enough for Season 4. “What I thought was nice is that it didn’t become the storyline of the show, and with these lovely people that you’re talking to, we were able to craft something that felt very balanced and real, authentic. We want to continue to do that going forward.”

The show has run for three seasons on Netflix with the latest instalment currently available to screen. It’s not yet known whether ‘The Umbrella Academy’ will return for a fourth run.

Chris Hemsworth used a sock to preserve his modesty during his Thor nude scene.

The actor strips off in a saucy segment for new superhero film ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ and he’s now revealed he bared almost all on set aside from a tiny garment which he used to spare most of his blushes.

During an appearance on US TV show ‘The Project’ on Monday (26.06.22), Chris was asked if he was given a “modesty garment” for the scene and he replied: “A sock. Just a sock.”

The actor was being interviewed alongside the film’s director Taika Waititi and co-star Russell Crowe, and the star joked the two men joined him stripping off on-set.

He said of Russell: “He does a great thing where he’s also naked from the waist down. That made me feel at ease.”

Taika then added: “On set, it’s an agreement we have. I was naked too,” with Chris chiming in saying: “Taika took his pants off.”

The director also joked that Chris didn’t understand the modesty sock and wore it on his ear instead, adding: “He wears a sock on one ear. That’s his thing. He thinks it’s a distraction.”

Chris embarked on a gruelling health and fitness regime to get in shape for the role in the latest Thor sequel and said the nude scene was more than a decade in the making.

He told Entertainment Tonight’: “I mean, it was kind of 10, 11 years in the making, that shot. “In each film we’ve taken off another item of clothing, and now we just kind of took it all off.”

He added to Variety: “Well, I had (my butt) out in (2013 film) Rush many years ago, but in a Marvel film, it was a very large screen, it was a very big pair of cheeks.”

By Nate Raymond

(Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday made it harder for prosecutors to win convictions of doctors accused of running “pill mills” and excessively prescribing opioids and other addictive drugs by requiring the government to prove that defendants knew their prescriptions had no legitimate medical purpose.

The 9-0 ruling, authored by liberal Justice Stephen Breyer, sided with Xiulu Ruan and Shakeel Kahn, who argued that their trials were unfair because jurors were not required to consider whether the two convicted doctors had “good faith” reasons to believe the numerous opioid prescriptions were medically valid.

While both doctors were registered under the a U.S. law called the Controlled Substances Act to prescribe such drugs to their patients, prosecutors at their trials argued that the prescriptions fell outside the usual course of professional practice.

Breyer, who is retiring at the end of the court’s current term in the coming days, wrote that once the doctors produced evidence that they were authorized to dispense drugs like opioids, prosecutors needed to prove they knowingly or intentionally acted in an unauthorized manner.

Breyer said a decision by a doctor registered with the Drug Enforcement Administration to intentionally prescribe addictive drugs in an unauthorized way would be illegal, not the prescriptions themselves.

“We normally would not view such dispensations as inherently illegitimate; we expect, and indeed usually want, doctors to prescribe the medications that their patients need,” Breyer wrote.

The justices, though, declined to decide whether jurors were sufficiently instructed in Ruan’s and Kahn’s cases or, if not, whether the mistakes were harmless. The Supreme Court sent the cases back to two federal appeals courts that had upheld the convictions for further proceedings based on Monday’s ruling.

Justice Samuel Alito, writing on behalf of himself and fellow conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Amy Coney Barrett, said he agreed with the decision’s bottom-line result but said its reasoning could result in “confusion.”

The United States for more than two decades has struggled with an opioid epidemic that, according to federal health officials, has claimed the lives of more than a half million Americans.

States have sued drug companies and pharmacies to hold them liable, but another key element in the public health crisis has been the role of doctors in prescribing massive volumes of the highly addictive pain medication.

Some doctors have been accused of turning their medical practices into “pill mills” – routinely prescribing controlled substances without a medical necessity and outside the bounds of a normal professional practice.

Ruan, who practiced in Alabama, and Kahn, who practiced in Arizona and then Wyoming, were sentenced to 21 and 25 years in prison, respectively, in separate criminal cases.

Prosecutors said Ruan with a business partner ran a clinic in Mobile that issued nearly 300,000 controlled-substance prescriptions from 2011 to 2015 and was one of the top U.S. prescribers of certain fentanyl-based pain medications.

Prosecutors said he accepted kickbacks from drugmaker Insys Therapeutics Inc to prescribe a fentanyl spray to patients. Insys’ founder, John Kapoor, was later convicted of conspiring to bribe doctors including Ruan to prescribe the drug and defraud insurers into paying for it. The Supreme Court on June 13 rejected Kapoor’s bid to overturn his conviction.

Prosecutors said Kahn regularly sold prescriptions for cash and unlawfully prescribed large amounts of opioid pills, resulting in at least one patient dying of an overdose.

Lawyers for the doctors did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Justice Department declined to comment.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Will Dunham)

By Gwladys Fouche

OSLO (Reuters) -A Norwegian court on Monday identified the suspect in a deadly rampage at a gay bar in Oslo as Zaniar Matapour, a Norwegian citizen of Iranian origin, as the city prepared a demonstration of solidarity to honour the victims later on Monday.

Matapour, whom police have described as a radicalised Islamist with a history of mental illness, is accused of killing two people and injuring 21 on Saturday, the day the city was due to celebrate its annual Pride parade.

He was apprehended by passers-by who chased him down the street. Police arrived at the scene five minutes after receiving the first emergency calls and took him into custody.

The Oslo district court will decide on Monday the initial terms of Matapour’s detention during the investigation into the mass shooting. He will undergo a psychiatric evaluation as part of that, police said.

Hours later, members of the city’s LGBTQ community will gather in front of Oslo Town Hall. Monday also marks the anniversary of New York’s Stonewall riots of June 1969, seen as the protests that gave birth to the international gay rights movement.

Intelligence services said they had been aware of Matapour since 2015 and that he had been part of a network of Islamist extremists in Norway.

“Around 2015 we were worried about this person,” Roger Berg, acting head of Norway’s police intelligence service, PST, told private broadcaster TV2 on Saturday.

“We have followed him, to a degree. In more recent times, he was not one of the people we were the most worried about.

“We assess everyone who are part of these networks … The information we had did not give us ground for further worry, which would mean we would follow him very closely.”

The suspect’s lawyer, John Christian Elden, did not reply to a request for comment when contacted by Reuters.

He told TV2 it was not possible to draw any conclusions about the motives or reasons for the attack. “It is far too early to do so,” he said.

Matapour is accused of murder, attempted murder and terrorism. His response to the accusations is not known.

Matapour moved to Norway as a child with his parents, tabloid VG reported. As an adult, he lived in Oslo, became a father and for several years his main source of income was benefits, it said.

(Reporting by Gwladys Fouche; editing by John Stonestreet)

Pink has declared any of her fans who support the overturning of Roe v. Wade should never listen to her music again.

The pop star has weighed in on the US Supreme Court’s decision last week which ended protections on women’s right to abortions, meaning several states will now move forward with plans to ban or restrict the procedures – and Pink has now voiced her outrage.

In a candid post to her 31.5 million Twitter followers, she wrote: “Let’s be clear: if you believe the government belongs in a woman’s uterus, a gay persons business or marriage, or that racism is okay – then please in the name of your lord never f*****g listen to my music again.”

The 1973 Roe v Wade battle centred around ‘Jane Roe’ – a pseudonym for Norma McCorvey. She was a single mother pregnant for the third time who wanted an abortion, and sued the Dallas attorney general Henry Wade over a Texas law that made it a crime to terminate a pregnancy except in cases of rape or incest, or when the mother’s life was in danger – arguing the law infringed on her constitutional rights.

The ruling was overturned on Friday (24.06.22) and there has been an outpouring of anger from celebrities including Madonna, who declared she feels “scared” for her daughters.

The 63-year-old singer- who is mum to Lourdes, 25, Rocco, 21, David and Mercy, both 16, and nine-year-old twins Stella and Estere – said she has been “plunged into deep despair”.

In a post on Instagram, she wrote: “I woke up to the terrifying news that Roe V Wade had been overturned and that. Legislation has decided that we no longer have rights as women over our bodies. This decision has plunged me and every other woman in this country into deep despair … I am scared For my daughters. I’m scared for all women in America. I am just plain scared.”

Other stars to have spoken out against the ruling include Lizzo, Tiffany Haddish, Halle Berry, Billie Eilish and Taylor Swift.

By Lawrence Hurley

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday expanded the religious rights of government employees by ruling in favor of a Christian former public high school football coach in Washington state who sued after being suspended from his job for refusing to stop leading prayers with players on the field after games.

In the latest of a series of Supreme Court rulings taking a broad view of religious liberty, the justices in a 6-3 decision sided with Joseph Kennedy, who until 2015 served as a part-time assistant football coach in the city of Bremerton and has since become a cause celebre for conservative Christian activists.

The court’s conservative justices were in the majority and its liberal members in dissent.

The ruling, authored by Justice Neil Gorsuch, rejected the local school district’s concerns that in a public school setting Kennedy’s prayers and Christian-infused speeches could be seen as coercive to students or a governmental endorsement of a particular religion in violation of the First Amendment’s so-called establishment clause.

The Supreme Court held that Kennedy’s actions were protected by his own rights under the First Amendment, which protects free speech and religious expression.

The justices overturned a lower court’s ruling siding with the school district, which suspended him in 2015 after Kennedy repeatedly defied directions from officials to stop the post-game prayers while on duty and rebuffed their offers for him to use private locations in the school as an alternative.

Powered by its conservative majority, the Supreme Court in recent years has expanded individual and corporate religious rights while narrowing the separation between church and state.

The Bremerton school district argued that Kennedy “made a spectacle” of delivering prayers and speeches, invited students to join him and courted media attention while acting in his capacity as a government employee. Some parents said their children felt compelled to participate.

The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year ruled against Kennedy, finding that local officials would have violated the First Amendment’s ban on government establishment of religion if they let his actions continue.

Kennedy served as a coach at his alma mater, Bremerton High School, from 2008 to 2015. His lawyers assert that he “lost his job” because of his actions, suing in 2016. Kennedy sought a court order to be reinstated as a coach, accusing officials of religious discrimination and violating his free speech rights.

Kennedy initially appeared to comply with directions to stop the prayers while on duty, the district said, but later refused and made media appearances publicizing the dispute, attracting national attention. After repeated defiance, he was placed on paid leave from his seasonal contract and did not re-apply as a coach for the subsequent season.

Officials have pointed out that Kennedy no longer lives in the school district and has moved to Florida. He has said he would return if he got his job back.

First Liberty Institute, a conservative religious rights group, helped represent Kennedy in the case.

The Supreme Court has issued a series of rulings this year on religious rights.

On June 21, it endorsed the use of public money to pay for students to attend religious schools in a Maine case. On May 2, it backed a Christian group that sought to fly a flag emblazoned with a cross at Boston city hall. On March 24, it directed Texas to grant a convicted murderer on death row his request to have his Christian pastor lay hands on him and audibly pray during his execution.

In other religious rights rulings in recent years, the Supreme Court broke down barriers for public money to go to religious schools and churches and exempted family-owned corporations from a federal requirement regarding employee insurance coverage for women’s birth control on religious grounds. It also sided with a Catholic organization receiving public money that barred LGBT people from applying to be foster parents and backed a Christian baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple.

(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Will Dunham)

Olivia Rodrigo is “devastated and terrified” after the Supreme Court terminated the constitutional right to abortion in the US.

The 19-year-old pop star was appearing at Glastonbury music festival on Saturday (25.06.22) and welcomed fellow singer Lily Allen onto the stage to perform a duet of her 2008 hit ‘F*** You’ as a reaction to the overturning of the landmark Roe v Wade ruling.

Olivia said: “I’m devastated and terrified. So many women and so many girls are going to die because of this. I wanted to dedicate this next song to the five members of the Supreme Court who have showed us that at the end of the day, they truly don’t give a s*** about freedom. The song is for the justices: Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh. We hate you! We hate you.”

However, the ‘drivers license’ hitmaker – who shot to global fame back in 2020 after her music went viral on Instagram – was thrilled to be at the annual music festival in Worthy Farm sharing the stage with Lily, who could be seen swearing with her middle fingers as Olivia rhymed off the names of the justices.

She told the crowd: “This is actually my first Glastonbury and I’m sharing this stage with Lily, this is the biggest dream come true ever. But I’m also equally as heartbroken about what happened in America yesterday!”

The song – which was written by Lily back in 2008 and featured on her sophomore album ‘It’s Not Me, It’s You’ – was initially inspired by then-President George W. Bush, who Lily described as a “f****** a********.”

Some of the lyrics include: “F***you, f*** you very very much

We hate what you and we hate your whole crew, so please don’t stay in touch.”