By Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Joe Biden has rejected former President Donald Trump’s executive privilege claims and ordered White House visitor logs to be released to the panel investigating the deadly Jan. 6, 2021 attack, according to a letter released on Wednesday.

In a letter to the National Archives, Biden’s White House counsel granted congressional investigators access to the data given the urgency of their work probing Trump supporters’ violent siege at the U.S. Capitol last year, and ordered the agency to turn over the logs within 15 days.

“The President has determined that an assertion of executive privilege is not in the best interests of the United States, and therefore is not justified, as to these records and portions of records,” Biden’s counsel Dana Remus wrote in the letter dated Feb. 15.

Representatives for Trump, a Republican, could not be immediately reached for comment.

Biden, a Democrat, last year also rejected Trump’s bid to block the U.S. House of Representatives Jan. 6 committee from accessing batches of documents from the former president’s time at the White House. Federal courts also rejected Trump’s lawsuit seeking to withhold the records.

Remus, in the letter, said the logs of those who visited the White House before Trump left on Jan. 20, 2021 should be handed over quickly “in light of the urgency” of the committee’s work and Congress’ “compelling need.”

“Constitutional protections of executive privilege should not be used to shield, from Congress or the public, information that reflects a clear and apparent effort to subvert the Constitution itself,” Remus wrote.

The White House planned to inform Trump’s lawyers about the decision on Wednesday, according to the New York Times, which first reported the letter.

Representatives for the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) could not be immediately reached for comment. The White House also could not be immediately reached.

HUNDREDS CHARGED

Separately on Wednesday, the founder of a right-wing militia group charged with seditious conspiracy over his alleged role in organizing the Jan. 6 attack is set to appear in court https://www.reuters.com/world/us/oath-keepers-founder-seek-release-jail-ahead-us-sedition-trial-2022-02-16, seeking to be released from jail while he awaits trial.

So far, more than 725 people have been charged with playing a role in the attack that left five people dead and more than 100 police officers injured. Another four police officers involved in defending the Capitol later committed suicide.

The Jan. 6 committee has made 81 subpoenas public, including those issued to top Trump aides and allies, and interviewed more than 560 witnesses. It has also sought records from social media and other telecommunications firms.

On Tuesday, it subpoenaed six people https://www.reuters.com/world/us/top-senate-republican-opposes-leniency-us-capitol-rioters-2022-02-01 who had knowledge of or participated in unsuccessful efforts to send false “alternate electors” to Washington for Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

Trump has repeatedly blasted the committee’s investigation and decried the November 2020 election, which he lost to Biden by more than 7 million ballots and by 74 votes in the Electoral College.

Trump, who has teased a potential presidential bid in 2024 but not formally declared his candidacy, could again file suit seeking to block the release of the visitor logs. The nation’s top court last month, however, rejected https://reut.rs/3IauWrr his early attempt to withhold documents in a near unanimous decision.

(Addditional reporting by Doina Chiacu; Writing Susan HeaveyEditing by Chizu Nomiyama and Paul Simao)

Queen Elizabeth is releasing a perfume for dogs.

Canine lovers will be able to purchase Happy Hounds Dog Cologne for £9.99 ($13.53) in the gift shop of Sandringham House, which is the British monarch’s estate in Norfolk, England.

The description of the pooch perfume, which is unisex, says it smells of “coastal walks” and has a “rich, musky scent with citrus notes of bergamot”.

The Sandringham Estate’s gift shop already lists The Sandringham Happy Hound Gift Box, touted as “the ideal present for dog lovers and their furry friends,” on its website. The box set includes a dog shampoo, game bones and a tweed dog toy.

The pet scent has been created in collaboration with Norfolk Natural Living.

Queen Elizabeth also released a range of dog biscuits in August 2021.

The 95-year-old royal approved a line of canine snacks, called Game Bones, made with meat from the grounds surrounding Sandringham House and flavoured with royal venison.

The doggy biscuits come in a paper bag with a royal seal and, although they do not contain any additives or preservatives, they are recommended for “occasional use” and as a “training aid” for pet pooches.

The Queen has owned corgis and dorgis – a cross between a dachshund and a corgi – since she was 18.

In May 2021, she mourned the loss of dorgi Fergus, one of two new puppies given to her while her late husband Prince Philip was in the hospital.

The mutt was named after her late uncle Fergus Bowes-Lyon, who died during World War I in 1915. The other dog is named was Muick after a favorite spot near Balmoral Castle.

Along with two dogs, Elizabeth still also has her last corgi, Candy.

New York (AFP) – Families of nine victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting have reached a $73 million settlement with US gunmaker Remington, in a landmark deal for a country traumatized by campus massacres.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs said the settlement marks the first time a gun maker has been held liable for a mass shooting in the United States.

Twenty-six children and teachers were shot dead in 2012 at the elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut by Adam Lanza, a 20-year-old with known developmental disabilities.

The killings — the second-deadliest school massacre in US history — stunned Americans, with many thinking they would mark a watershed moment that would lead lawmakers to tighten gun control.

A “settlement agreement has been executed between the parties,” a notice from lawyers for the families said Tuesday.

Calling the move “historic,” US President Joe Biden said it begins “the necessary work of holding gun manufacturers accountable.”

Manufacturers and dealers must either change their business models or “bear the financial cost of their complicity,” he said in a statement.

Lanza’s mother, a gun enthusiast, had bought him an AR-15-style Bushmaster XM15-E2S semi-automatic rifle more than two years before the shooting. 

Lanza murdered his mother before attacking the school, and killed himself afterward.

The lawsuit alleged that Remington and the other two defendants are culpable because they knowingly marketed a military grade weapon that is “grossly unsuited” for civilian use yet had become the gun most used in mass shootings.

An AR-15 was also used to kill 58 people at a mass shooting in Las Vegas in 2017, and 17 at a school in Parkland, Florida in 2018. 

Remington, the oldest gunmaker in the United States and which has since filed for bankruptcy, had denied the allegations.

The plaintiffs alleged that the gun was marketed immorally and unscrupulously and sold on its war-fighting capabilities to civilians.

Marketing, they charged, popularized the AR-15 in combat and mass shooting-type situations through the type of violent video games that Lanza was known to play.

They specifically cited Remington’s marketing of high-capacity magazines, which have only combat utility, for use with the gun.

The gun “was used not by a highly trained soldier but by a deeply troubled kid, not on a battlefield abroad but in an elementary school at home, and not to preserve freedom, but to eviscerate them,” Joshua Koskoff, a lawyer for the Sandy Hook families, told a press conference Tuesday.

Christopher Boehning, another lawyer for the plaintiffs, told AFP the settlement “sends a strong warning signal to other gun manufacturers regarding their role in these unthinkable tragedies.”

AFP has sought comment from Remington.

Popular in mass shootings

The United States leads the world in mass shootings by civilians, with many schools undergoing live shooter drills as a matter of routine.

But the grief and trauma of Lanza’s rampage was underscored by the youth of his victims. He killed 20 six- and seven-year-olds along with six staff members.

Nearly four years later, the shooting was still so visceral that it moved then-president Barack Obama to tears during a speech on gun control. 

Hopes that revulsion ignited by the massacre would finally prompt Congress to follow through on wildly popular demands for greater restrictions on weapons, however, fell flat.

Instead, the powerful gun lobby has repeatedly stamped out any efforts to further change the famed Second Amendment to the country’s constitution, which allows for the right to bear arms.

But the settlement deal between the Sandy Hook families and Remington could help pave the way for further accountability in such massacres.

The US Congress passed a law in 2005 that explicitly immunized gunmakers when their products are used in crimes.

But the Connecticut Supreme Court said that Remington could still be sued on the grounds that its marketing violated Connecticut’s unfair trade practice laws.

“The gun manufacturers knew that they were advertising a dangerous product and they exploited these dangers,” Matthew Soto, brother of first grade teacher Vicki Soto, who was among the victims, said at Tuesday’s press conference.

Nicole Hockley, the mother of victim Dylan, six, told the press conference that her family had moved from Britain “because of our belief in the American dream.”

But that “turned into the American nightmare, where for too many the right to bear arms is a higher priority than the right to life.”

By Jonathan Allen

ST PAUL, Minn. (Reuters) -Tou Thao, one of three former Minneapolis police officers on trial for violating George Floyd’s civil rights, told a jury on Tuesday he did not realize the Black man was being asphyxiated while a white officer knelt on his neck for nine minutes.

Testifying in his own defense, Thao, 36, said he assumed Floyd’s heart was still beating because he never saw the other officers attempt to revive him as they were trained to do.

Thao, 36, is on trial in the U.S. District Court in St. Paul alongside J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane. All three are accused of violating Floyd’s right to receive medical care as he lay dying, unable to properly breathe face down beneath the knee of their former colleague, Derek Chauvin.

Cellphone video of the arrest on a Minneapolis road on May 25, 2020, led to protests against racism and police brutality in cities around the world. Chauvin was convicted last year at a separate state trial for the murder of Floyd, 46.

Federal prosecutors, who rested their case on Monday after about three weeks of witness testimony, have said the other officers at the scene had a duty to intervene to prevent Floyd’s death.

Thao took the stand to convince jurors that he handled a chaotic scene in accordance with his training and with concern for the well-being of Floyd and the officers arresting him. His testimony marks the first extensive public comment by any of the officers involved in the arrest.

He can be seen on videos a few steps away from Floyd, keeping back horrified onlookers, while Chauvin kneels on the handcuffed Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes. The arrest occured outside a grocery store where Floyd was accused of using a fake $20 bill.

Under questioning by his defense lawyer Robert Paule, Thao said he believed that Chauvin and the other two officers on top of Floyd were checking his pulse. He said he was falsely reassured because none of them performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

“Logically, if they’re not doing CPR, I assume he’s still breathing and fine,” Thao testified, agreeing with his lawyer that police officers are trained to start CPR as soon as possible if they cannot find a pulse.

Floyd received no medical aid until after his limp body was lifted into an ambulance and driven a few blocks away, several minutes after he fell unresponsive.

Thao testified that he had confirmed with other officers that an ambulance had been called, and saw his role as a “human traffic cone,” making sure oncoming traffic steered clear of the scene.

Jurors watched video taken by Thao’s body-worn camera that shows Thao arriving to find Kueng and Lane struggling to get a handcuffed Floyd to stay in the back of a police car. Floyd screams repeatedly that he is claustrophobic and cannot breathe.

“Not to besmirch, but I’ve never seen this much of a struggle,” Thao testified, saying he had been an officer for eight years by that time. “It was obvious that he was under the influence of some kind of drugs.”

He said Floyd was incoherent and impossible to calm, and he feared Floyd might be having a dangerous reaction to drugs. An autopsy later found fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, and methamphetamine in Floyd’s blood.

Thao said it was normal during training sessions to see an officer on top of a person being arrested while prone on the ground, using a knee near the neck to pin down the arrestee. Jurors were shown photographs of Thao and his classmates using such restraints.

“Were you ever instructed that using knees was improper technique?” Paule asked his client.

“No,” Thao replied.

A ‘STRICT’ UPBRINGING

Thao told the jury his parents fled to the United States from Laos before he was born, refugees belonging to the Hmong ethnic group. He was the third of seven siblings, he said, and his parents could afford to feed them only one meal a day.

He said he was first inspired to become a police officer when, as a child, he helped Minneapolis police officers arrest his abusive father, who had threatened Thao and his mother with a gun.

“I think they were the two most peaceful days of my childhood,” Thao testified, on the verge of tears as he described the immediate aftermath of the arrest.

According to court filings based on police records, Thao was cited at least seven times while being trained in the field over several months in 2012 for shirking his duties, sometimes pretending not to see violations of the law in order to minimize his workload.

Chauvin, who is white, was also charged by federal officers of violating Floyd’s civil rights, and changed his plea to guilty in December.

The two other co-defendants, Lane and Kueng, have also said they will testify. Thao, Lane and Kueng also face a separate state trial in June on charges they aided and abetted Floyd’s murder.

(Reporting by Jonathan AllenEditing by Alistair Bell and David Gregorio)

Washington (AFP) – Some four-letter words are taboo, but the New York Times has added a few five-lettered ones to the list — by removing them from the hit game Wordle.

The game, which consists of guessing one five-letter word a day in just six tries, was bought by the paper last month after it skyrocketed in popularity around the world.

Users began to complain earlier this week, when the game said two different words were the correct answer. One of Wordle’s much-loved features is supposed to be that everyone tries to determine the same word.

After the Times bought the simple but captivating game from its creator Josh Wardle, internet sleuths noticed it had begun removing words from the list of possible solutions.

While the Times moved the game onto its website earlier in February, some users still have access to the older version, and the older list.

The website Boingboing.net reported that words such as “pussy,” “whore,” “slave” and “wench” had been removed, while more obscure terms “pupal” and “agora” had also been axed.

“We are updating the word list over time to remove obscure words to keep the puzzle accessible to more people, as well as insensitive or offensive words,” said Times spokesman Jordan Cohen in a statement to AFP.

Wordle now has millions of users around the world, and versions have sprung up in many different languages. The Times said it bought the game for an “undisclosed price in the low seven figures,” as it seeks to win new subscribers through non-news offerings.

By Jonathan Stempel and Luc Cohen

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Britain’s Prince Andrew has settled a U.S. lawsuit by Virginia Giuffre accusing him of sexually abusing her when she was a teenager, potentially sparing him further embarrassment in a lurid case that helped precipitate his fall from grace.

The settlement, which includes an undisclosed payment, was revealed on Tuesday in a filing in Manhattan federal court, where Giuffre had sued the Duke of York last August. The prince did not admit wrongdoing in the settlement.

Giuffre’s case had focused on Andrew’s friendship with the late Jeffrey Epstein, the financier and sex offender who she said also sexually abused her. The filing said Andrew regrets his past association with Epstein.

In the joint filing, lawyers for Giuffre, 38, and Andrew, 61, said their settlement in principle calls for the prince to make a “substantial donation” to Giuffre’s charity in support of victims’ rights.

“Prince Andrew has never intended to malign Ms. Giuffre’s character, and he accepts that she has suffered both as an established victim of abuse and as a result of unfair public attacks,” the filing said.

Andrew has denied accusations that he forced Giuffre, who now lives in Australia, to have sex at age 17 more than two decades ago at the London home of Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s mansion in Manhattan and Epstein’s private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

A trial in the case had been expected to begin late this year. Andrew would have had to give testimony under oath.

“It is known that Jeffrey Epstein trafficked countless young girls over many years,” the filing said. “Prince Andrew regrets his association with Epstein, and commends the bravery of Ms. Giuffre and other survivors in standing up for themselves and others. He pledges to demonstrate his regret for his association with Epstein by supporting the fight against the evils of sex trafficking, and by supporting its victims.”

‘QUESTION MARK’

The statement represented a marked departure from a 2019 BBC interview in which Andrew, who is Queen Elizabeth’s second son, failed to show sympathy toward Epstein’s victims and refused to apologize for his friendship with the financier.

The royal family in January removed Andrew’s military titles and royal patronages and said he will no longer be known as “His Royal Highness.”

Andrew was defending against Giuffre’s lawsuit as a private citizen. For now, his legal exposure in the United States to similar claims appears to be over.

Penny Junor, a British royal biographer, called the settlement a “prudent” means to limit further damage to the royal family, but that Andrew’s reputation will likely be permanently scarred.

“I fear there is no chance he will come back to public duties,” Junor said. “A question mark will always hang over him.”

Buckingham Palace declined to comment. A spokeswoman for the prince declined to comment beyond the court filing. A lawyer for Andrew did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

David Boies, a lawyer for Giuffre, said: “This event speaks for itself.”

Andrew faces no criminal charges, and none will result from Giuffre’s lawsuit because it was a civil case.

The office of U.S. Attorney Damian Williams in Manhattan has been investigating Epstein’s sex trafficking and considered Andrew at least a potential witness, or “person of interest https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/prince-andrew-a-person-interest-epstein-probe-source-2021-08-16.”

Andrew had previously declined the office’s interview requests, former U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said in June 2020, the month before Maxwell’s arrest.

A spokesman for Williams did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

GIUFFRE ‘FEARED DEATH’

In court papers in the lawsuit, Giuffre said she “feared death or physical injury to herself or another and other repercussions for disobeying Epstein, Maxwell and Prince Andrew due to their powerful connections, wealth and authority.”

She also said that in Manhattan, Maxwell forced her to sit on Andrew’s lap as he touched her, and Andrew forced her to engage in sex acts against her will.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan refused to dismiss Giuffre’s lawsuit last month, without ruling on its merits. He also said it was premature to decide whether Giuffre’s 2009 civil settlement with Epstein also shielded Andrew. Epstein had paid Giuffre $500,000 to end her Florida lawsuit accusing him of sexual abuse, without admitting liability.

Andrew’s lawyers had contended that Giuffre’s lawsuit was “baseless” https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/prince-andrew-seeks-dismissal-accuser-giuffres-lawsuit-2021-10-29 and that she was seeking “another payday,” after also receiving “millions of dollars” in a 2017 settlement of her civil defamation lawsuit against Maxwell.

Epstein killed himself at age 66 in a Manhattan jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

Maxwell, 60, was convicted in December of recruiting and grooming underage girls for Epstein to abuse between 1994 and 2004. She is seeking a new trial https://www.reuters.com/world/us/some-ghislaine-maxwell-jurors-initially-doubted-accusers-juror-says-2022-01-05.

Giuffre sued Andrew less than a week before the expiration of a New York state law providing a two-year window to sue over child abuse dating back decades.

(Reporting by Luc Cohen and Jonathan Stempel in New York; Additional reporting by Joan Soley in New York and Andrew MacAskill in London; Editing by Will Dunham and Noeleen Walder)

Harry Hamlin thinks playing a gay character ‘ended his career.’

The 70-year-old actor – who is married to ‘Real Housewives’ star Lisa Rinna -played the role of gay writer Bart McGuire in the 1982 film ‘Making Love’ and was advised by “a lot of people” to avoid the role because of his own sexuality.

He said: “I was told by a lot of people, you can’t do that movie. I think it had been offered to pretty much everybody in town and everyone had turned it down because they thought it might be damaging to their careers.

“Even though I was told by my friends not to do it, my agent said I should.”

The ‘Clash of the Titans’ star – who has daughters Delilah, 23 and Amelia, 20, with Lisa as well as son Dimitri, 41, from his previous marriage to Ursula Andress – went on to explain that work dried up when studios became concerned about potential audience “confusion” after he had played a gay character as a straight man.

He told PEOPLE: “The [negative reception] ended my career. For years, I’d think ‘Was that the reason why I stopped getting calls?’ And finally realised that was the last time I ever did a movie for a studio. I’ve done independent films but never a studio film. I had been doing nothing but studio films and basically going out on all the castings for all the movies. That stopped completely. As far as the film business sort of shutting the door, I think it just had to do with the fact of the studio system being a closed system and once they saw there could be some confusion about my sexuality, then they just said they didn’t want to take the chance.”

“If they were contemplating having me be a love interest to a young female star, the thought was, ‘How is the audience going to react?’ Even though I was straight, I think the perception at the time was that anybody who could play gay must be gay.”

As Oscars voters have increasingly drifted away from more mainstream fare, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has toyed with various reforms to boost the ceremony’s popularity

Los Angeles (AFP) – Next month’s Oscars will include a new “fan favorite” prize for the year’s most popular film as voted for by Twitter users, organizers said Monday seeking to lure viewers back to a ceremony that has seen audiences plummet.

The announcement — which will be made during the 94th Academy Awards telecast on March 27 — comes after several crowd-pleasing blockbusters including “Spider-Man: No Way Home” and “No Time To Die” failed to earn Oscar nominations in major categories, including best picture.

Their omission raised fears that many movie fans will skip the show. But any film released in 2021 can be voted for in the new category using the Twitter hashtag #OscarsFanFavorite or via the Academy’s website, raising the chances of a blockbuster being honored on the night.

Television ratings for the Oscars have dramatically declined in recent years. Last year’s edition, which honored mainly smaller, arthouse movies such as best picture winner “Nomadland,” was watched by just over 10 million viewers — a 56 percent decline from 2020, which was already a record low.

As Oscars voters have increasingly drifted away from more mainstream fare, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has toyed with various reforms to boost the ceremony’s popularity.

In 2018, organizers proposed a “popular film” Oscar to honor blockbuster movies such as Star War films or Marvel superhero films that rake in millions at the box office.

But it swiftly shelved those plans after critics ridiculed the move, and the new “fan favorite” award will not be a formal Oscar category. 

Meryl Johnson, the Academy’s vice president of digital marketing, said the move would “help build an engaged and excited digital audience leading up to this year’s ceremony” and allow fans to “engage with the show in real-time, find a community and be a part of the experience in ways they’ve never been able to before.”

Twitter’s Sarah Rosen said the collaboration was “an exciting way to further engage movie fans and celebrate their love and passion for the films released this year.”

Hosts revealed?

Movie fans can vote up to 20 times per day until March 3, and three randomly selected winners will be invited to present an Oscar at next year’s ceremony.

A separate poll will ask voters to chose their favorite “movie cheer moment.” The five most popular choices — billed as scenes where “audiences couldn’t help but erupt into cheers in theaters” — will be shown during the Oscars.

Meanwhile, reports emerged Monday in the Hollywood trade press about the possible identities of this year’s Oscars hosts.

Variety and Deadline both reported that actors Amy Schumer, Regina Hall and Wanda Sykes will share hosting duties.

The Academy did not comment on the reports.

Broadcaster ABC last month confirmed the Oscars will have a host for the first time since 2018, when Jimmy Kimmel last took the stage for Tinseltown’s most important prize-giving event.

The following year’s hostless format drew praise and was even emulated by other awards shows such as the Emmys, but subsequent Oscar ceremonies have been criticized for lacking focus and humor.

Next month’s Oscars will return to the ceremony’s traditional Dolby Theatre venue in Hollywood, after the pandemic-affected 2021 Academy Awards were held at a Los Angeles train station.

They are being held later than usual, reportedly to avoid clashing with February’s Winter Olympics and Sunday’s Super Bowl in Los Angeles.