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Tag: scandals

  • Top Model’s Tyra Banks Won’t Discuss Shandi Sullivan’s Sexual Assault

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    While Netflix’s America’s Next Top Model docuseries reexamined Shandi Sullivan‘s onscreen sexual assault — including what had to be cut out from the final edit — executive producer Tyra Banks refused to discuss the incident.

    During the three-part special, released on Monday, February 16, Sullivan recalled nearly winning season 2 before a group trip to Italy.

    “When we first got there, they said, you’re gonna go to a bunch of go-sees,” she said of the 2004 episode. “That was all day long. It took all day long. And then we went back to our little house that we were staying at.”

    The locals who drove the aspiring models around in Vespas joined the cast for dinner. But Shandi, now 43, who had not “eaten anything” that day, remembered drinking “two bottles of wine” by herself before one of the guys took advantage of the situation.

    “I remember him on top of me. I was blacked out. No one did anything to stop it,” she claimed. “And it all got filmed, all of it.”

    Tyra, 52, an executive producer and host of the show, declined to expand on the sexual assault that took place on screen, saying, “I do remember her story. It’s a little difficult for me to talk about production because that’s not my territory.”

    Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model offered Shandi a platform to share her unfiltered account of the situation. There was also insight from creative director Jay Manuel and executive producer Ken Mok about what took place behind the scenes.

    Keep scrolling for the biggest revelations:

    Shandi Sullivan Shares a Harrowing Recollection of the Sexual Assault

    Before joining America’s Next Top Model in 2004, Shandi Sullivan worked at her local Walgreens in Missouri. She was part of the second season of the then-UPN series, where she made it to the final 3 before a group trip to Milan.

    “I don’t remember who said it, but somebody was like, ‘How would you guys feel about having, like, the guys that were on the mopeds come by and have dinner with you guys? And we’ll have some wine and stuff,’” she recalled. “I’m just excited to just have a night. We were just talking, drinking. I don’t think I’d eaten anything at all or had any sleep.”

    Shandi didn’t remember much of the night from there.

    “I remember getting in the hot tub. I remember April [Wilkner], Mercedes [Scelba-Shorte] getting in the hot tub. And then I just remember the guy looking at me and I looked at him. And I was pretty drunk at that point. Everything kind of after that is just a blur,” she continued. “I was hammered.”

    While Shandi was allegedly barely conscious, the cameras kept rolling. ”I just remember little bits and pieces. He threw me in the shower and then just sitting in the shower,” she noted. ”And then we’re in the bed. I was blacked out for a lot of it. I didn’t even feel sex happening. I just knew it was happening. And then I passed out.”

    She concluded: “The next day, I woke up. I was, like, ‘Holy s***, what the f*** happened last night?’ It all f***king hit me. It just flooded over me. I just sat there and cried.”

    Shandi Sullivan Addresses the Aftermath of the Sexual Assault

    Despite Shandi Sullivan being too impaired to consent to sex, the incident was introduced as a cheating story line on America’s Next Top Model.

    “I think after getting out of the hot tub and whatever happened after that, I think [production] should have been like, ‘All right, this has gone too far. We have to pull her out of this,’” Shandi told the docuseries producers while executive producer Tyra Banks had a different response, saying, “It’s a little difficult for me to talk about production because that’s not my territory.”

    Fellow executive producer Ken Mok defended the decision to keep filming. “We treated Top Model as a documentary. We told the girls that on the first day when they would show up. We would go over the rules with them like, ‘There’s going be cameras with you 24/7 – day in and day out — and they’re gonna cover everything,’” he recalled. “‘It will cover the good, the bad and everything in between. No matter what happens – while you’re on camera – we’re going to document all of that.’”

    What Was the Crew Told About Shandi Sullivan’s Assault Behind the Scenes?

    CW / Courtesy Everett Collection

    Creative director Jay Manuel said they “got word” that Shandi Sullivan was “having sex in the shower with a guy,” adding, “The rule on Top Model was that if you went into a bathroom alone, a camera could not follow you in. But when she went into the shower, she was technically not alone. So the cameras went in and they captured it. I don’t know whose decision it was but as producers do, this was a story point now and we’re going to see it all the way through.”

    Tyra Banks, a producer and creator of America’s Next Top Model, subsequently spoke with Shandi about the infidelity since the contestant was in a relationship with her then-boyfriend Eric.

    “Everybody has messed up, Shandi. I’m not judging you. But I think that we have to fight against our carnal desires,” she told Shandi at the time. “I understand that people do become attracted to other people. It’s all about your relationship and how open your relationship is and how honest you can be with one another.”

    Shandi Sullivan’s Infamous Call to Eric on ‘America’s Next Top Model’

    Shandi Sullivan said in the Netflix docuseries that she asked to call Eric, but was denied. She then requested to leave, which producers tried to talk her out of doing by then providing her with a phone to contact Eric — a conversation they then subsequently filmed.

    “After I talked to Eric again on the phone, they actually filmed me talking to the guy and asking him myself, ‘Did you wear any protection? Do you have any STDs?’” she recalled. “Why can’t you just ask them yourself? Why do you have to film this? You already got me on the phone with Eric calling me a f***king bitch.”

    Tyra Banks Hosting Duties Through Years From ANTM to DWTS


    Related: Tyra Banks’ Hosting Duties Through the Years

    All she needs is her signature smize! Tyra Banks got her start as a model, but she is perhaps more well-known as a TV host in this day and age. The businesswoman took the world by storm when she kicked off America’s Next Top Model in May 2003. She not only served as a host and mentor […]

    What Didn’t Make It Into the Final Cut After Shandi Sullivan’s Sexual Assault?

    Jay Manuel recalled Shandi Sullivan being sent to the doctor after the encounter, which was also filmed. Shandi, meanwhile, was told by the cameramen that they felt terrible about having to record her call with Eric, who broke up with her at the time.

    Tyra Banks, meanwhile, addressed the version that aired.

    “I will tell you this. When I went into postproduction and saw the footage, we scaled back that scene in a significant way … That was – for good or bad — one of the most memorable moments in Top Model,” executive producer Ken Mok said before Tyra clarified in her own confessional, “I’m not head of story. That is Ken Mok. But I did become a master editor. It’s important for people to know that we didn’t put everything on TV.”

    According to Jay Manuel, the censorship was related to the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show when Justin Timberlake briefly exposed Janet Jackson’s breast on live TV and FCC investigations fined CBS $550,000 for the wardrobe malfunction.

    “When that happened, regulations clamped down on what you could show,” Jay noted. “So then they had to rush and re-edit that scene.”

    Shandi Sullivan’s Reunion With Tyra Banks on Her Daytime Talk Show

    Tyra Banks
    Netflix

    Three years after season 2 aired, Shandi Sullivan appeared on Tyra Banks’ daytime talk show, sharing in the Netflix doc, “I told her I’d never seen [that episode in Milan]. It just brought up too many things and then I was like, ‘I can’t watch this show anymore.’ Then she just puts it on the screen in front of me. I don’t look at it and she’s like, ‘I noticed you weren’t looking.’ I literally told you behind the scenes that I’ve never seen it and I don’t want to see it.”

    Shandi called Tyra out for not respecting her wishes. “That was awful. That was miserable. That behavior doesn’t stop. Her behavior doesn’t change.” (Tyra didn’t address The Tyra Banks Show moment between her and Shandi.)

    Where Is Shandi Sullivan Now?

    After leaving America’s Next Top Model, Shandi Sullivan briefly reconciled with Eric, saying, “We tried – he really tried. He moved with me to New York after the show. But it would suck when I’d be walking with Eric down the street and somebody would recognized me and called me a s*** to my face. Or [called me] a cheating whore with Eric standing right next to me. It was fun. It made me hate myself.”

    Shandi ended up returning to her pre-ANTM job at Walgreens. She now takes care of animals for a living, sharing at the end of the special. “I want to live on a farm and have a sanctuary for animals. I’ve always loved animals,” she added.

    Tyra Banks, for her part, expressed hope of doing another season of America’s Next Top Model.

    “After the show, I had so many different ideas for my life. I’m obsessed with pivoting. And I live in Australia now,” Banks said in the doc. “I feel like my work is not done. You have no idea what we have planned for cycle 25.”

    If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

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    Yana Grebenyuk

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  • What the New Epstein Files Say About Trump: Updates

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    Here’s a brief overview of their friendship and falling-out, and how Trump’s political career intersected with Epstein’s prosecution.

    1980s to Early 2000s: Trump & Epstein Are Friends. Trump parties with Epstein and flies on his private jet at least seven times. Trump appears in Epstein’s “little black book”, along with several of his family members (and many other famous and powerful figures).

    2004: Trump-Epstein Friendship Ends. Trump and Epstein have a “falling-out,” as the president put it years later. The cause may have been a real-estate battle, but it’s not totally clear when or why they cut ties.

    2006: Epstein Indicted in Florida. After Florida police investigate multiple claims of Epstein sexually abusing underage girls, he is indicted on just one count of soliciting prostitution. Florida officials are accused of giving him special treatment, and the FBI launches its own investigation.

    2008: Epstein Takes Plea Deal. Epstein pleads guilty to two state charges after striking a plea deal with the U.S. Attorney in Miami, Alexander Acosta, to avoid federal prosecution (Acosta later served as Trump’s Labor secretary). Epstein serves most of his 18-month sentence in a work-release program that lets him leave jail during the day.

    July 6, 2019: Feds Arrest Epstein. Epstein is arrested on federal sex-trafficking charges in New York. Acosta resigns from the Trump administration days later amid public outcry over his decision not to prosecute Epstein years earlier.

    August 10, 2019: Epstein Dies. Epstein is found dead in his Manhattan jail cell. His death is ruled a suicide.

    2024: Giuffre-Maxwell Documents Released. Files from a settled defamation suit Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre brought against his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell are released, fueling public interest in the case. On the campaign trail, Trump suggests he’ll declassify the federal government’s Epstein files if reelected.

    February 2025: Bondi Says Epstein Files Are Coming. Attorney General Pam Bondi teases the release of more Epstein files, saying the “client list” is “sitting on my desk right now to review.” Days later, right-wing influencers are given binders of previously released Epstein materials.

    July 7, 2025: FBI & DOJ Cancel Epstein Release. The FBI and DOJ release a memo saying that following an “exhaustive review,” they have determined that there is no “client list,” nothing in the Epstein files warrants further investigation, and there will be no further document releases.

    December 2025: Congress Orders Epstein Files Release. The Epstein Files Transparency Act passes almost unanimously. (After unsuccessfully trying to stop the vote, Trump backs it at the last minute.) The DOJ posts the first batch of documents on December 19, but misses the deadline set by the law.

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    Margaret Hartmann

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  • Grok AI scandal sparks global alarm over child safety

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    Grok, the built-in chatbot on X, is facing intense scrutiny after acknowledging it generated and shared an AI image depicting two young girls in sexualized attire.

    In a public post on X, Grok admitted the content “violated ethical standards” and “potentially U.S. laws on child sexual abuse material (CSAM).” The chatbot added, “It was a failure in safeguards, and I’m sorry for any harm caused. xAI is reviewing to prevent future issues.”

    That admission alone is alarming. What followed revealed a far broader pattern.

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    OPENAI TIGHTENS AI RULES FOR TEENS BUT CONCERNS REMAIN

    The fallout from this incident has triggered global scrutiny, with governments and safety groups questioning whether AI platforms are doing enough to protect children.  (Silas Stein/picture alliance via Getty Images)

    The apology that raised more questions

    Grok’s apology appeared only after a user prompted the chatbot to write a heartfelt explanation for people lacking context. In other words, the system did not proactively address the issue. It responded because someone asked it to.

    Around the same time, researchers and journalists uncovered widespread misuse of Grok’s image tools. According to monitoring firm Copyleaks, users were generating nonconsensual, sexually manipulated images of real women, including minors and well-known figures.

    After reviewing Grok’s publicly accessible photo feed, Copyleaks identified a conservative rate of roughly one nonconsensual sexualized image per minute, based on images involving real people with no clear indication of consent. The firm says the misuse escalated quickly, shifting from consensual self-promotion to large-scale harassment enabled by AI.

    Copyleaks CEO and co-founder Alon Yamin said, “When AI systems allow the manipulation of real people’s images without clear consent, the impact can be immediate and deeply personal.”

    PROTECTING KIDS FROM AI CHATBOTS: WHAT THE GUARD ACT MEANS

    An X post from Grok

    Grok admitted it generated and shared an AI image that violated ethical standards and may have broken U.S. child protection laws. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

    Sexualized images of minors are illegal

    This is not a gray area. Generating or distributing sexualized images of minors is a serious criminal offense in the United States and many other countries. Under U.S. federal law, such content is classified as child sexual abuse material. Penalties can include five to 20 years in prison, fines up to $250,000 and mandatory sex offender registration. Similar laws apply in the U.K. and France.

    In 2024, a Pennsylvania man received nearly eight years in prison for creating and possessing deepfake CSAM involving child celebrities. That case set a clear precedent. Grok itself acknowledged this legal reality in its post, stating that AI images depicting minors in sexualized contexts are illegal.

    The scale of the problem is growing fast

    A July report from the Internet Watch Foundation, a nonprofit that tracks and removes child sexual abuse material online, shows how quickly this threat is accelerating. Reports of AI-generated child sexual abuse imagery jumped by 400% in the first half of 2025 alone. Experts warn that AI tools lower the barrier to potential abuse. What once required technical skill or access to hidden forums can now happen through a simple prompt on a mainstream platform.

    Real people are being targeted

    The harm is not abstract. Reuters documented cases where users asked Grok to digitally undress real women whose photos were posted on X. In multiple documented cases, Grok fully complied. Even more disturbing, users targeted images of a 14-year-old actress Nell Fisher from the Netflix series “Stranger Things.” Grok later admitted there were isolated cases in which users received images depicting minors in minimal clothing. In another Reuters investigation, a Brazilian musician described watching AI-generated bikini images of herself spread across X after users prompted Grok to alter a harmless photo. Her experience mirrors what many women and girls are now facing.

    Governments respond worldwide

    The backlash has gone global. In France, multiple ministers referred X to an investigative agency over possible violations of the EU’s Digital Services Act, which requires platforms to prevent and mitigate the spread of illegal content. Violations can trigger heavy fines. In India, the country’s IT ministry gave xAI 72 hours to submit a report detailing how it plans to stop the spread of obscene and sexually explicit material generated by Grok. Grok has also warned publicly that xAI could face potential probes from the Department of Justice or lawsuits tied to these failures.

    LEAKED META DOCUMENTS SHOW HOW AI CHATBOTS HANDLE CHILD EXPLOITATION

    Grok app on a screen

    Researchers later found Grok was widely used to create nonconsensual, sexually altered images of real women, including minors. (Nikolas Kokovlis/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

    Concerns grow over Grok’s safety and government use

    The incident raises serious concerns about online privacy, platform security and the safeguards designed to protect minors.

    Elon Musk, the owner of X and founder of xAI, had not offered a public response at the time of publication. That silence comes at a sensitive time. Grok has been authorized for official government use under an 18-month federal contract. This approval was granted despite objections from more than 30 consumer advocacy groups that warned the system lacked proper safety testing.

    Over the past year, Grok has been accused by critics of spreading misinformation about major news events, promoting antisemitic rhetoric and sharing misleading health information. It also competed directly with tools like ChatGPT and Gemini while operating with fewer visible safety restrictions. Each controversy raises the same question. Can a powerful AI tool be deployed responsibly without strong oversight and enforcement?

    What parents and users should know

    If you encounter sexualized images of minors or other abusive material online, report it immediately. In the United States, you can contact the FBI tip line or seek help from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

    Do not download, share, screenshot or interact with the content in any way. Even viewing or forwarding illegal material can expose you to serious legal risk.

    Parents should also talk with children and teens about AI image tools and social media prompts. Many of these images are created through casual requests that do not feel dangerous at first. Teaching kids to report content, close the app and tell a trusted adult can stop harm from spreading further.

    Platforms may fail. Safeguards may lag. But early reporting and clear conversations at home remain one of the most effective ways to protect children online.

    Take my quiz: How safe is your online security?

    Think your devices and data are truly protected? Take this quick quiz to see where your digital habits stand. From passwords to Wi-Fi settings, you’ll get a personalized breakdown of what you’re doing right and what needs improvement. Take my Quiz here: Cyberguy.com       

    Kurt’s key takeaways

    The Grok scandal highlights a dangerous reality. As AI spreads faster, these systems amplify harm at an unprecedented scale. When safeguards fail, real people suffer, and children face serious risk. At the same time, trust cannot depend on apologies issued after harm occurs. Instead, companies must earn trust through strong safety design, constant monitoring and real accountability when problems emerge.

    Should any AI system be approved for government or mass public use before it proves it can reliably protect children and prevent abuse? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com.

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    Copyright 2025 CyberGuy.com.  All rights reserved.

    Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on “FOX & Friends.” Got a tech question? Get Kurt’s free CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com.

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  • Founder of Indonesian ride-hailing app Gojek stands trial over Chromebooks procurement

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    JAKARTA, Indonesia — An Indonesian court on Monday opened the trial of a co-founder of the country’s ride-hailing and payments company Gojek, who is accused of corruption in a government project to procure Google Chromebook laptops for schools.

    Nadiem Anwar Makarim, 41, was a former education, culture, research and technology minister when he was arrested Sept. 7. His arrest came during an investigation by the attorney general’s office in Jakarta into an alleged $125 billion corruption scandal linked to the project.

    The laptop procurement initiated under the government’s “digitalization of schools” policy aimed to equip schools in remote areas with digital devices and infrastructure.

    Makarim, who was education minister between 2019 and 2024, allegedly favored Google’s Chromebook despite a ministry research team refusing to recommend the laptop model due to ineffectiveness in regions lacking internet access.

    The indictment claims Makarim steered the nationwide procurement in 2020–2021 “entirely for personal business interests.” Prosecutors said he pressed Google to invest in PT Aplikasi Karya Anak Bangsa, known as PT AKAB. The company is the parent of Gojek.

    Makarim received about 809 billion rupiah ($48.2 million) in connection with the program, prosecutors claimed.

    He faces a possible sentence of life imprisonment for causing state losses and misusing public funds under Indonesia’s 2001 Corruption Law.

    “The procurement ignored proper pricing benchmarks and technical needs, especially for remote or under-resourced regions,” lead prosecutor Muhammad Fadli Paramajeng told a panel of three judges at Jakarta’s Corruption Court on Monday.

    The purchase of more than 1.2 million Chromebooks was designed to strengthen Google’s dominance in Indonesia’s education tech ecosystem and linked to subsequent Google investments of about $787 million in PT AKAB through Google Asia Pacific, he said.

    Makarim, a Harvard University graduate, was a tech CEO who co-founded Gojek in 2009 and remained until 2019, when the company was valued at over $10 billion. He stepped down to join the cabinet of former Indonesia President Joko Widodo.

    Prosecutors allege his resignation from PT AKAB and Gojek was a “strategic concealment” to mask conflicts of interest while Makarim appointed close associates as directors and “beneficial owners,” allowing him to maintain indirect control over company decisions.

    Makarim has denied the allegations, saying he did not personally receive funds from the Chromebook procurement or related services.

    Makarim’s defense attorneys argue Google’s investment largely predated his ministerial tenure and was routine corporate activity that was not tied to the laptop deal.

    Makarim divested from PT AKAB upon taking office, his wealth fell by more than 50% during his term and procurement decisions were made by technical teams and officials, not the minister, they said.

    “The defendant was not involved in the procurement process, as his role was limited solely to formulating policy,” defense lawyer Ari Yusuf Amir told the court. He called the indictment “unclear, inaccurate and incomplete,” saying it conflated Makarim’s ministerial authority with the work of other government officials.

    Two former education ministry officials and a former tech consultant also were charged in the case, while another staff member is wanted by authorities but remains at large.

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  • Below Deck Med Recap: Kizzi Wanted to Look Sexy to Tell Victoria About Joe Kiss

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    Below Deck Mediterranean‘s Kizzi Kitchener explained why she wanted to “look sexy” before telling Victoria SanJuan that she kissed her boyfriend Joe Bradley.

    During the Monday, December 29, episode of the hit Bravo series, Victoria returned to Bravado days after Joe was unfaithful to her — without Victoria’s knowledge. Joe couldn’t look Victoria in the eye while Kizzi was nervous about how to tell her friend about their secret hookup.

    “I am feeling very stressed,” Kizzi said in a confessional. “I think I might cry.”

    After gathering to celebrate Victoria’s birthday, the group got ready to honor the stew’s late boyfriend. Kizzi kept changing her outfit before elaborating to the cameras about her plan to come clean to Victoria.


    Related: ‘Below Deck’ Cast Through the Years: A Guide to Who’s Dated Who

    The cast of Below Deck and its spinoff series will do just about anything for love … or at least to have a fun crew hookup. After seven seasons of the Bravo series — with more than 100 episodes — there have been plenty of romances to watch unfold. Add in the Below Deck Mediterranean flings and Below Deck Sailing […]

    “Obviously this is a very sensitive time for V, which makes me feel even worse,” she added. “I want to look sexy when I have this conversation just purely because I don’t want her thinking he’s kissing someone ugly.”

    Joe and Victoria formed a connection when he joined halfway through season 10 as she was still mourning the death of her ex-boyfriend Bon. Below Deck Med viewers are familiar with Joe’s past love triangle with Bri Muller and Elena Dubaich.

    Below Deck
    Fred Jagueneau/Bravo

    “My message is I’m single and if you want to have a bit of fun and give me the same energy that it just gets a bit chaotic,” Joe exclusively told Us Weekly in November about returning to the franchise. “But I’m your friend at the end of the day, so I’ve still got contact with Elena and I am still in contact with Bri.”

    He continued, “We’re friends and we’re young and we’re in a closed environment. It’s going to happen. But I’ve got contact with everyone and I’ve got no malicious intentions.”

    Joe joked he learned “absolutely nothing” from his drama with Bri and Elena, adding, “To answer that question without a smile on my face, [my love life this season] was just chaos.”

    Before Joe’s infidelity played out on screen, Victoria also broke her silence on where they stand now.

    Below Deck Franchise Couples That Happened Outside of Their Seasons


    Related: ‘Below Deck‘ Franchise Couples That Got Together Outside of Their Seasons

    Below Deck has followed various relationships and flings throughout the franchise — but some stars found love with one another outside their seasons. Malia White‘s introduction to Below Deck Mediterranean in season 2 came with a love triangle between Adam Glick and Wesley Walton. Although Malia and Wes gave their romance another try offscreen — […]

    “Joe and I will always be cordial and will always be professional. But I don’t really consider him part of my friend group,” she told Us earlier this month. “The men I keep in my friend group, I admire them because they’re more honest, have self control, hold themselves accountable and have respect — those kinds of qualities.”

    Victoria hinted at what caused their falling out, adding, “So I wish him all the best. I think he is a lovely human but I think he has got a lot to learn from his mistakes — if he’s willing to learn from them.”

    Kizzi, for her part, spoke to Us about whether she had any regrets since filming season 10, sharing in October, “In the moment, you literally forget there’s a camera crew, especially when you’ve had a drink and these people are your friends. If there weren’t cameras, I can’t even imagine what other people say.”

    She continued: “I definitely could tone it down in places but I also want to be myself and be real. These things do happen in real life and it doesn’t make you a bad person. … Watching it back, I regret sharing so much with people that aren’t thinking about the context.”

    Below Deck Med airs on Bravo Mondays at 8 p.m. ET. New episodes stream the next day on Peacock.

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    Yana Grebenyuk

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  • Imani Smith Dead: Child Star Was 26 Before Boyfriend Was Charged for Murder

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    Child star Imani Smith has died at age 26 after being allegedly murdered by her boyfriend.

    Police confirmed in a press release that Smith, who starred as young Nala in The Lion King on Broadway in 2011 and 2012, died on Sunday, December 21. According to officials, they responded to a 911 call in Edison, New Jersey, and discovered Smith “with stab wounds.” She was transported to a nearby hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

    Jordan D. Jackson-Small was subsequently arrested and charged with first-degree murder, second-degree endangering the welfare of a child, third-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and fourth-degree unlawful possession of a weapon. Jackson-Small, 35, is currently being held at Middlesex County Adult Correctional Center.

    “Smith and Jackson-Small knew each other prior to the incident, thus it was not a random act of violence,” the press release read, noting that Jackson-Small is awaiting the results of his pre-trial detention hearing.

    In a GoFundMe set up by family, Smith’s aunt Kira Helper wrote that she was allegedly “senselessly killed by her boyfriend.” The aunt confirmed that Smith had a 3-year-old son and an extended family, friends, and community who loved her so very much.”

    Courtesy of Kira Sarai Helper/Instagram

    “Imani had her whole life ahead of her,” the tribute continued. “She was a vivacious, loving and fiercely talented person. A true triple-threat performer, she most notably played the role of Young Nala on Broadway in Disney’s Lion King — an experience that reflected the joy, creativity, and light she put into the world.”

    Smith’s aunt noted that the GoFundMe was created to raise money for funeral expenses, crime scene cleanup, trauma therapy for Smith’s son and family, legal and administrative costs and more.

    Pat Finn


    Related: Celebrity Deaths of 2025: ‘Friends‘ Actor Pat Finn and More

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    “In addition to their grief, [Smith’s parents] Monique and Rawni are trying to hold their family together — comforting their children, navigating the sudden responsibility to raise their grandson, and finding a way forward while their world has been shattered,” the post continued. “Monique works as a Broadway and TV/film hairdresser, and like so many in the freelance and artistic fields, time away from work means lost income during an already devastating period.”

    The GoFundMe page previously had a target of $55,000. It has since been increased up to $80,000 and has raised more than $59,000 so far.

    “We have started our fundraising goal at $50,000 because the true cost of trauma, loss, and long-term healing is impossible to know right now,” the post concluded. “Our hope is that these funds will give Imani’s parents the ability to focus on what matters most: grieving their daughter, caring for their grandson, and helping their children begin to heal — without the added fear of financial instability. Any contribution, no matter the amount, helps lift a small part of the weight our family is carrying. If you are unable to donate, sharing this page and keeping Imani, her son, and our family in your prayers means more than we can express.”

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    Yana Grebenyuk

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  • Northern California city to reform police after racist texts scandal

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    SAN FRANCISCO — A Northern California city whose police department came under national scrutiny after it was revealed that some officers shared racist and sexist texts, used excessive force and falsified records has reached a settlement agreement to implement a series of reforms, officials announced Friday.

    The City of Antioch, in the San Francisco Bay Area, will enhance police training programs, establish an independent review board to handle complaints and implement a warning system to identify problem officers, according to an agreement that settles a civil rights lawsuit filed in 2023.

    “This agreement allows the Antioch Police Department to start with a clean slate and oversee officers’ conduct and make sure they are compliant with new standards,” said John Burris, who filed the complaint in federal court on behalf of residents who said they were targeted by Antioch police officers.

    Earlier this year, 23 people who were part of the lawsuit reached a $4.6 million settlement with Antioch for monetary damages, Burris said. The city in January announced it would hire a consultant to update its policies, procedures and training on various topics as part of an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice.

    “A lot of the bad apples are gone, in jail, retired or left on their own, and there is a new command staff that seems committed to bring about change,” Burris said.

    Antioch City Manager Bessie Marie Scott said in a statement that the settlement agreement reinforces work already underway and “ensures sustainable transparency measures and updates core policies to modernize how APD continues to provide constitutional policing services to the residents of Antioch.”

    The Federal Bureau of Investigation and county prosecutors in March 2022 launched an investigation into police officers in Antioch and Pittsburg, a neighboring city, over a broad range of offenses. As part of the investigation, officials released racist and obscenity-laden text messages shared by 45 Antioch police officers that shocked the community.

    Officers referred to some suspects as “gorillas.” They also laughed and joked about harming people who apparently had surrendered or appeared to be asleep by setting a police dog on them or shooting them with a 40 mm “less-lethal” projectile launcher, according to a federal indictment against three former Antioch police officers.

    Federal prosecutors charged Morteza Amiri, Eric Rombough and Devon Christopher Wenger, saying the three former Antioch police officers conspired between February 2019 and March 2022 “to injure, oppress, threaten and intimidate residents of Antioch, California” and later falsified reports about the encounters.

    Wenger was sentenced earlier this month to seven years and six months in federal prison for conspiring to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate residents of Antioch using unreasonable force, conspiring to distribute anabolic steroids, and obstructing justice, federal prosecutors said.

    Amiri, a former Antioch K9 officer, was sentenced in June to seven years in prison for maiming someone with his police dog, falsifying reports on that case and being part of a scheme to obtain pay raises from the Antioch Police Department for a university degree he paid someone else to obtain.

    Rombough, accused of illegally shooting people with his launcher, pleaded guilty and became a government’s witness. He testified against both Amiri and Wenger in their separate trials, the East Bay Times reported. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 13.

    Antioch, a city of 115,000 residents about 45 miles (72 kilometers) east of San Francisco, was once predominantly white but has diversified in the last 30 years.

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  • Mormon Wives’ Marciano Makes News Claims About Demi’s Husband Bret

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    Vanderpump Villa‘s Marciano Brunette offered his unfiltered side of the story in a tell-all interview that addressed his affair scandals with Secret Lives of Mormon Wives‘ Jessi Ngatikaura and Demi Engemann — and how the controversy affected his career.

    During the Monday, November 24, episode of the “Simplistic” podcast, Marciano, 32, and his brother, Sonny, sat down to address the misconceptions about his individual relationships with Jessi, 33, and Demi, 30, where he attempted to clear his name.

    Hulu viewers were introduced to Marciano on the inaugural season of Vanderpump Villa, but it wasn’t until season 2 that his path crossed with Jessi and Demi when the Mormon Wives visited Italy. After filming wrapped, Marciano claimed he had been in contact with both of the reality stars — but only Jessi admitted to an emotional affair.

    Demi, for her part, accused Marciano of sexual misconduct.


    Related: ‘Vanderpump Villa’ Star Marciano’s Alleged ‘Mormon Wives’ Affairs Explained

    The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives didn’t just tackle Marciano Brunette and Demi Engemann’s alleged romantic connection — it also sparked a new revelation about an alleged affair with Jessi Ngatikaura. The drama actually started on another Hulu show — Vanderpump Villa — when Demi, Jessi, Jen Affleck, Layla Taylor and Mikayla Matthews were guests […]

    “I did come out with a pretty bold and true statement against Marciano [recently] because at that point it was like, ‘You’re lying about me. Actually, you were the predator.’ So I’m not going to stay quiet — and I stand by that statement,” she exclusively told Us Weekly in May. “There’s more happening behind the scenes with that that will come to light. I’m sure at this point it’s become a legal matter. There’s not much more I can say on it as of now because I want to preserve the fact that it’s a serious situation. But I stand behind those statements.”

    On Monday’s podcast, Marciano denied Demi’s version of events. He claimed Demi was in contact with him for weeks after they met on screen and her husband, Bret Engemann, was aware of their communication. (Demi discussed Brett knowing about her talks with Marciano on season 3 of Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, which premiered in November, but maintained that they did not have an affair.)

    Marciano also clarified that despite Demi’s accusations, no official charges against him were filed. He went on to address how Demi’s claims affected his future on reality TV. Keep scrolling for the biggest revelations from his podcast appearance:

    His Relationship With Demi From His Point of View

    Inside Mormon Wives Rumors About Marciano's Affair
    Disney/Andrea Miconi

    According to Marciano, he was in contact with Demi as soon as the Mormon Wives cast stopped filming season 2 of Vanderpump Villa. When asked how many calls he shared with Demi, he replied, “There would be times where it [would] be 10 in a day.”

    Marciano also recalled Demi and Bret offering him a place to stay — in their home — when he visited Utah. (Demi didn’t dispute Marciano’s claims on season 3 of Mormon Wives but denied allegations that they had a secret relationship.)

    How Filming for ‘Secret Lives of Mormon Wives’ Factored In

    Mormon Wives Trailer Shows Jessi Ngatikaura Husband Jordan Ngatikaura Threatening Marciano Brunette

    Jordan Ngatikaura, Jessi Ngatikaura, and Marciano Brunette.     Getty Images (3)

    The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives cast filmed their scenes for season 2 of Vanderpump Villa before their show even aired on Hulu. By the time season 2 of Vanderpump Villa premiered, so had the first season of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.

    Marciano was then asked to film content for season 2 of Secret Lives of Mormon Wives where he spoke out about his past with Demi — and his affair with Jessi. He claimed on the podcast that this was all meant to be for season 2 but the scenes were split up between the second and third installment of Mormon Wives.

    “He was contracted for season 2, not season 3. We didn’t know there was going to be a whole six months in between the next season,” Marciano’s brother, Sonny, claimed. “The contract looked the same because we thought we were doing season 2. We filmed everything thinking it was going into season 2.”

    While Marciano didn’t “want to throw everyone in the mud,” Sonny expressed frustration that the scenes were filmed for season 2 before the show blew up. But ultimately some of the content was allegedly saved for season 3 once Secret Lives of Mormon Wives became a big hit.

    His Disappearance From the Narrative

    Vanderpump Villa Season 3 Heads to Lisa Vanderpump Homeland in England Season 2 Cast
    Christopher Willard/Hulu/Disney/Everett Collection

    Before Demi accused Marciano of sexual misconduct, which he has continued to deny, the Vanderpump Villa alum was expected to play a larger role in season 3. Marciano and Sonny recalled him allegedly being “pulled out” of an event after Demi went public with her claims and they haven’t heard from production since about his future on the show.

    Marciano previously alluded to the controversy when he shared a TikTok in May about being disinvited to an event. Bret, for his part, showed support for Demi amid the drama.

    “I’m so proud of this beautiful human. She’s the most incredible woman I will ever know,” he wrote via Instagram at the time “The amount of nonsense she’s had to endure at the hands of disingenuous and deceitful fools is astounding. She’s conducted herself like a graceful lioness amongst a bunch of yipping hyenas.”

    Marciano also claimed that he offered to film a sit down with Demi’s husband but was told Bret wasn’t interested. While Vanderpump Villa has been renewed for a third season, Marciano remained unsure about his reality TV future due to the allegations.

    Jessi vs. Demi

    Mormon Wives Jessi Pokes Fun at Demi Claiming She Can t Do Hair With Taylor Swift s Father Figure
    Disney/Pamela Littky (2)

    Despite exploring a connection with both Demi and Jessi, Marciano only had true feelings for one of them.

    “Jessi all day. That’s the easiest decision of all time,” he revealed. “Because Jessi was a real person where I didn’t have to question her motives — especially after everything came out. She was such a good person. It was way deeper.”

    Marciano said he thinks he was in love with her, adding, “I will always have feelings for her. But she’s married so I shouldn’t be saying that. … I wish I went for Jessi first.”

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  • Things to Know About the Growing Pressures Facing Zelenskyy During a Crucial Week of Diplomacy

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    KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy faces a crucial week of diplomacy, testing his abilities to stand his ground while demonstrating to the United States that he is willing to compromise.

    Since a draft of a 28-point U.S.-Russia brokered peace plan was leaked to the press on Thursday, Ukraine and its European allies have been trying to buy time and ensure their interests are represented in any deal. The draft has triggered alarm in Kyiv and European capitals for favoring Russian demands and goals. It includes points on limiting the size of Ukraine’s army as well as handing over Ukrainian territory that Russia has occupied, and Kyiv relinquishing any justice for the thousands of recorded alleged war crimes committed by Moscow. The dial appeared to swing back somewhat more favorably for Kyiv after a U.S. and Ukrainian delegation met in Geneva on Sunday. Both sides said discussions were “productive” and would continue. Zelenskyy said he felt Trump was “hearing” Ukraine in a statement late Sunday after the Geneva talks ended. All this is playing out as Zelenskyy tries to stem public anger from a major corruption scandal and Russia makes slow but steady advances across parts of the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line and relentlessly bombs Ukraine’s power plants, causing severe electricity shortages as colder weather sets in. Here are some things to know about the growing pressures confronting Zelenskyy.


    Ukraine and Europe politely push back

    After the plan was leaked, U.S. President Donald Trump set a hard deadline for Kyiv to sign on to it before Thanksgiving, jolting Ukraine and Europe. Ukraine and European leaders made a series of statements, stressing how grateful they are to Trump for his efforts to end the war while stating the need to ensure Kyiv has input into any deal. In a joint statement on Friday, European leaders, together with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, said they welcomed the plan, saying it contained “important elements” and could be used as “a basis that will require additional work.” The U.S. and Ukraine dispatched delegations to Geneva with the aim of hashing out an agreement on Sunday. Speaking after the Geneva talks, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared to roll back on the hard deadline, saying that “more time is needed.”

    The U.S. and Ukraine said the talks were “productive” but neither side shared details of the issues still unresolved. “It is important that European partners support our positions and our people,” Zelenskyy said on Monday, emphasizing his reliance on European support in the face of U.S. pressure and at times open hostility from Trump, who claimed Sunday that Zelenskyy showed “zero gratitude” for U.S. support.


    Peace talks distract from Zelenskyy’s domestic woes

    Zelenskyy sent his beleaguered presidential chief of staff, Andrii Yermak, to Geneva for talks with Rubio on Sunday, glossing over intense pressure to fire him.

    Zelenskyy faced an unprecedented rebellion from his own lawmakers last week after investigators revealed a $100 million corruption scandal involving top Ukrainian officials.

    Although Yermak was not accused of any wrongdoing, several senior lawmakers in Zelenskyy’s party said Yermak should take responsibility for the debacle to restore public trust. Some said that if Zelenskyy didn’t fire him, the party could split, threatening the president’s parliamentary majority. But Zelenskyy resisted, saying Yermak was key to the negotiation process, according to a leading party lawmaker, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue publicly. On Friday, Zelenskyy urged Ukrainians to unite and “stop the political games” in light of the U.S. pressure.

    “All of us together must not forget or confuse who exactly is the enemy of Ukraine today,” Zelenskyy said in an address to the nation.


    Zelenskyy is not under imminent threat

    Despite the recent week of unprecedented criticism, including rebellion from within his own party, Zelenskyy’s own position has not come under fire. Even if Zelenskyy’s grip on parliament weakens and his popularity plummets, it would be nearly impossible to legally unseat him while the war is still going on — unless he voluntarily resigns. Russia’s invasion triggered martial law in Ukraine, indefinitely postponing presidential and parliamentary elections.

    Ukraine’s presidential term is normally five years and before the war the next elections had been scheduled for the spring of 2024.

    But Zelenskyy will need support from parliament to push through any peace deal and questions about Yermak could resurface. And if he were to seek reelection after the war, his chances could be hurt if Yermak is still in the picture, political analysts say.


    Pressure on the front and across the country

    Against this backdrop, Russia’s better equipped army has scaled up attacks along the front line and against energy facilities in the rear, putting further strain on Ukraine.

    The Russian army continues to steadily advance in multiple areas. Russian forces are pushing into the towns of Kupiansk and Pokrovsk, where the fiercest battles rage.

    Russian attacks on Ukraine’s power plants in November have resulted in some of the worst electricity shortages since the war began. Meanwhile, after Russia destroyed much of Ukraine’s gas extraction capabilities in two mass attacks this year, its state gas company, Naftogaz, has had to raise emergency funds to import expensive gas.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Photos You Should See – Nov. 2025

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  • Trump paints Zelenskyy into a corner with his new plan to end Russia’s war on Ukraine

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    WASHINGTON — With his new 28-point plan to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, President Donald Trump is resurfacing his argument that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy doesn’t “have the cards” to continue on the battlefield and must come to a settlement that heavily tilts in Moscow’s favor.

    Trump, who has demonstrated low regard for Zelenskyy dating back to his first term, said Friday he expects the Ukrainian leader to respond to his administration’s new plan to end the war by next Thursday.

    “We think we have a way of getting peace,” Trump told reporters in an Oval Office appearance. “He’s going to have to approve it.”

    Buffeted by a corruption scandal in his government, battlefield setbacks and another difficult winter looming as Russia continues to bombard Ukraine’s energy grid, Zelenskyy says Ukraine is now facing perhaps the most difficult choice in its history.

    Zelenskyy has not spoken with Trump since the plan became public this week, but has said he expects to talk to the Republican president in coming days. It’s likely to be another in a series of tough conversations the two leaders have had over the years.

    The first time they spoke, in 2019, Trump tried to pressure the then newly minted Ukrainian leader to dig up dirt on Joe Biden ahead of the 2020 election. That phone call sparked Trump’s first impeachment.

    Trump made Biden’s support for Ukraine a central issue in his successful 2024 campaign, saying the conflict had cost U.S. taxpayers too much money and vowing he would quickly bring the war to an end.

    Then early this year in a disastrous Oval Office meeting, Trump and Vice President JD Vance tore into Zelenskyy for what they said was insufficient gratitude for the more than $180 billion the U.S. had appropriated for military aid and other assistance to Kyiv since the start of the war. That episode led to a temporary suspension of U.S. assistance to Ukraine.

    And now with the new proposal, Trump is pressing Zelenskyy to agree to concessions of land to Moscow, a massive reduction in the size of Ukraine’s army, and agreement from Europe to assert that Ukraine will never be admitted into the NATO military alliance.

    “Now Ukraine may find itself facing a very difficult choice: either loss of dignity, or the risk of losing a key partner,” Zelenskyy said in a video address Friday.

    At the center of Trump’s plan is the call on Ukraine to concede the entirety of its eastern Donbas region, even though a vast swath of that land remains in Ukrainian control. Analysts at the independent Institute for the Study of War have estimated it would take several years for the Russian military to completely seize the territory, based on its current rate of advances.

    Trump, nevertheless, insists that the loss of the region — which includes cities that are vital defense, industrial and logistics hubs for Ukrainian forces — is a fait accompli.

    “They will lose in a short period of time. You know so,” Trump said Friday when asked during a Fox News Radio interview about his push on Ukraine to give up the territory. “They’re losing land. They’re losing land.”

    The Trump proposal was formally presented to Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Thursday by Dan Driscoll, the U.S. Army secretary. The plan itself was a surprise to Driscoll’s staffers, who were not aware as late as Wednesday that their boss would be going to Ukraine as part of a team to present the plan to the Ukrainians.

    Army officials walked away from that meeting with the impression that the Ukrainians were viewing the proposal as a starting point that would evolve as negotiations progressed, according to a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive talks.

    It’s unclear how much patience Trump has for further negotiation. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday that Trump’s new plan reflects “the realities of the situation” and offers the “best win-win scenario, where both parties gain more than they must give.”

    Asked about Zelenskyy’s initial hesitant response to the proposal, Trump recalled the February Oval Office blow-up with Zelenskyy: “You remember, right in the Oval Office, not so long ago, I said, ‘You don’t have the cards.’”

    The mounting pressure from Trump comes as Zelenskyy is dealing with fallout over $100 million in kickbacks for contracts with the state-owned nuclear energy company. The scandal led to resignations of top Cabinet ministers and implicated other Zelenskyy associates.

    Konstantin Sonin, a political economist and Russia expert at the University of Chicago, said “what Donald Trump is certainly extremely good at is spotting weak spots of people.”

    One of the 28 elements of Trump’s proposal calls for elections to be held within 100 days of enactment of the agreement.

    “I think it’s a rationalistic assessment that there is more leverage over Zelenskyy than over Putin,” Sonin said. He added, “Zelenskyy’s back is against the wall” and “his government could collapse if he agrees” to the U.S. proposal.

    All the while, Ukraine is increasingly showing signs of strain on the battlefield after years of war against a vastly larger and better equipped Russian military. Ukraine is desperately trying to fend off relentless Russian aerial attacks that have brought rolling blackouts across the country on the brink of winter.

    Kyiv is also grappling with doubts about the way ahead. A European plan to finance next year’s budget for Ukraine through loans linked to frozen Russian funds is now in question.

    The Trump proposal in its current form also includes several elements that would cut deeply into Ukrainian pride, said David Silbey, a military historian at Cornell University.

    One provision calls on Russia and Ukraine to abolish “all discriminatory measures and guarantee the rights of Ukrainian and Russian media and education,” and “all Nazi ideology and activities must be rejected and prohibited.” That element could be seen by the Ukrainian side as giving credence to Putin’s airing of distorted historical narratives to legitimize the 2022 invasion.

    Putin has said the war is in part an effort to “denazify” Ukraine and complained of the country’s “neo-Nazi regime” as a justification for Russia’s invasion. In fact, in Ukraine’s last parliamentary election in 2019, support for far-right candidates was 2%, significantly lower than in many other European countries.

    The plan’s provision is “very clearly an attempt to build up Putin’s claim to Russian cultural identity within Ukraine,” Silbey said. He added, “From territory loss to the substantial reduction of the Ukrainian military to cultural concessions that have been demanded, I just don’t think Zelenskyy could do this deal and look his public in the eye again.”

    ————

    AP writers Michelle L. Price and Konstantin Toropin contributed reporting.

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  • Philippine police will arrest 18 suspects in a major corruption scandal, president says

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    MANILA, Philippines — Philippine police will arrest 18 suspects in a corruption scandal involving flood control projects that has sparked huge protests and forced implicated congressional leaders to step down, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. announced Friday.

    Marcos has been scrambling to quell public outrage over the massive corruption, which has been blamed for substandard, defective or non-existent flood control projects in a poverty-stricken country, long prone to deadly typhoons, floodings and extreme weather in tropical Asia.

    The president said the arrests were only the beginning.

    The warrants were issued by the Sandiganbayan, a special anti-corruption court, against former lawmaker Zaldy Co, who has resigned from the House of Representatives and fled to an unspecified country, and 17 others, including government engineers and executives of Sunwest Corp., a constructions firm, over irregularities in a flood control project in Oriental Mindoro province.

    Government prosecutors have recommended no bail for the suspects because of the scope of the irregularities in the river dike project, worth 289 million pesos ($4.8 million).

    “They will be arrested, presented to the court and made to answer to the law,” Marcos said in a video message where he thanked the public for its patience. “There will be no special treatment, and nobody would be spared.”

    Last week, Marcos said many of at least 37 powerful senators, members of Congress and wealthy construction executives implicated in the corruption scandal would be in jail by Christmas.

    Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla, a key prosecutor in charge of fighting government corruption, told The Associated Press that at least five former and incumbent senators were under investigation for allegedly pocketing huge kickbacks in the faulty flood control projects. Among them is former Senate President Chiz Escudero, who has strongly denied any wrongdoing.

    Those implicated include lawmakers opposed to and allied with Marcos, including Rep. Martin Romualdez, the president’s cousin and key ally, who has denied any involvement but has stepped down as House of Representatives speaker. Sen. Bong Go, a key ally of former President Rodrigo Duterte, has also come under suspicion but has denied any wrongdoing.

    Duterte was arrested in March and detained by the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands for alleged crimes against humanity over his deadly anti-drugs crackdowns.

    He is a harsh critic of Marcos and father of the incumbent vice president, Sara Duterte, who has said that the president should also be held accountable and jailed for signing into law the 2025 national budget that carried appropriations for irregular infrastructure projects.

    Aides have defended Marcos from allegations linking him to the irregularities, saying that he first raised alarm over them in July in his annual state of the nation address before Congress.

    Some 9,855 flood control projects worth more than 545 billion pesos ($9 billion) that were supposed to have been undertaken since Marcos took office in mid-2022 are under investigation. In September, Finance Secretary Ralph Recto told legislators that up to 118.5 billion pesos ($2 billion) for flood control projects may have been lost to corruption since 2023.

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  • VPR’s Scheana Shay and Lala Kent’s Feud: A Full Timeline Explained

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    Scheana Shay and Lala Kent are the latest Vanderpump Rules alums to be on the outs — but what led to their ongoing feud?

    The former costars had their issues during their time on the hit Bravo series, but were able to form a bond after becoming mothers. Scheana and Lala were on good terms when their time on Vanderpump Rules came to an end, even planning their next steps together.

    “Lala and I had a good cry about it on the podcast, something that was such a big part of my life for so long. But also I think it was time. Honestly, it all feels right. It’s still all happening. It’s just happening a little differently,” Scheana shared on a December 2024 episode of her “Scheananigans” podcast. “I don’t think I will change anything that I have been [doing].”

    She continued: “I text Ariana [Madix] here and there. I ran into Katie [Maloney] at a festival, but I’m not going to reach out more [or] reach out less. I’m just going to continue doing what I’ve been doing because show or no show, all of these people have been in our lives for so long. So it’s like, ‘When I see you, I see you. And when I don’t, I’m living my life.’ I’m just going to continue on the same path I’m on and excited for new adventures.”

    Several months later, Scheana and Lala sparked rumors of a rift after they stopped posting about each other. Scheana hinted that she was upset at several friends — including Lala — after they didn’t show any public support for her memoir, My Good Side.

    Lala and Scheana initially claimed they remained on good terms. Scheana subsequently confirmed that they faced major ups and downs connected to her memoir revelation about her husband, Brock Davies, cheating on her in 2021 when she was pregnant with their daughter, Summer.

    “That was my way of trying to keep our private matters private by publicly calling her. But the real reason [we aren’t on good terms] is not about the book,” she explained in October 2025 on her Scheananigans podcast. “The real reason — which I’ve alluded to in interviews but I didn’t want to put people completely on blast is because these are people I genuinely care about.”

    Keep scrolling for a full breakdown of the ongoing feud:

    July 2025

    Casey Durkin/Bravo via Getty Images

    After Scheana confirmed that Brock was unfaithful while she was pregnant, Lala was asked whether she knew, sharing on her “Give Them Lala” podcast, “Yes, I did. But not for a while. So that [excerpt] came out and Scheana called me and said, ‘I just want to give you the heads-up that tomorrow this article is coming out with the excerpt. And I may need to tap you in. I’m very nervous.’”

    Lala continued. “I won’t share exactly what she said on the phone because that’s between her and her husband. But I thought the excerpt that was pulled from her book was beautifully written. Well done.”

    August 2025

    Scheana Shay Is Surprised by Lack of Support for Memoir From 'VPR' Costars
    Casey Durkin/Bravo via Getty Images

    Scheana later hinted on her podcast that she wasn’t on the best terms with Lala and the rest of her friends who didn’t help promote or endorse her memoir.

    “I think it was like maybe a week after it came out, I saw she posted a slide [with the book]. There was nothing else that she posted,” Scheana recalled. “I had reached out to her a couple days after all of the boxes were delivered. Because yes, you do expect your closest friends to post and support.”

    Scheana was surprised Lala didn’t share a post supporting her book release sooner.

    “I sent everyone a really nice PR box. I’m sure you guys saw some others who posted it,” she continued. “And I reached out [to Lala] and I was like, ‘Hey, did your box come? Because I hadn’t seen it posted yet.’ I just wanted to make sure I didn’t need to reach out to the publisher to be like, ‘Hey, Lala didn’t get her box.’”

    Scheana added: “She said that her brother and her mom deal with the packages and that she would have them check. But then a week went by and the box didn’t get posted. So I’m assuming she got it because she posted the book.”

    While Scheana didn’t offer further details on her friendship with Lala, she noted that her daughter, Summer, and Lala’s eldest, Ocean, were “still friends.”

    October 2025

    Vanderpump Rules Executive Producer Teases Messy and Complicated Dynamics With New Cast

    Katie Maloney, Ariana Madix, Tom Sandoval, Lisa Vanderpump, James Kennedy, Lala Kent, Tom Schwartz, Scheana Shay     Gizelle Hernandez/Bravo

    Scheana was the first one to break her silence and confirm an actual feud.

    “After extending grace last week, I do feel the need to address it because Lala knows why our friendship is in the state that it’s in,” Scheana explained on her podcast, before claiming Lala “did not take accountability” for their feud. “This is not just about not posting my book for a week. It is about so much more than that.”

    Scheana noted that Lala made their falling out public “without even realizing it.” According to Scheana, she found herself being asked often about where she stands with Lala but she would pretend they were on good terms — going as far as calling Lala during her live book shows so fans wouldn’t notice tension.

    “Not one — but two — of my closest friends repeated the Brock affair story to other people. One of those that it was repeated to was Brittany [Cartwright]. I know Brittany doesn’t have bad intentions,” Scheana noted. “I wanted to tell her myself but I didn’t have a chance. That one that I can’t get over is Lala telling [our mutual friend] Jenna Willis, who I have not been on good terms with since last season.”

    She continued: “Lala did it to humanize me because she said that Jenna was going so hard on me that she wanted to tell her about what I was actually going through. Now I understand the intent was not malicious. … I kept this to myself for two years and then I told one of my best, closest and dearest friends and you go and tell someone. That was extremely heartbreaking.”

    After finding out that Lala told multiple people about Brock’s affair, Scheana asked for some space. Conversations about them filming The Valley made things turn sour between them as well in the aftermath.

    “It was especially painful for me because Lala knew the dark place that I was in mentally. Finally, I was ready to open up to my close friends about this and she did the same thing. So she violated my trust in a way like that, I was like, ‘This is not a safe space for me. This is not a friendship I feel good in,’” she continued. “This has been a pattern of behavior for years. I remember Ariana and I would talk about this before every reunion, like, “Oh, are we ready for the Lala apology tour?’ Every year should treat me like s*** and then come to the reunion and cry and apologize and I would forgive her.”

    Scheana wanted to take steps to protect her peace.

    “I don’t want to just get over things and move on now. I want to place boundaries and have a little more respect for myself and the circle that I’m keeping. I want it to be people I trust,” she explained. “I feel safe in all of my friendships and now I don’t feel safe in this. I know she’s not used to me standing up for myself because in the past I just let people walk all over me and I sweep it under the rug. I couldn’t let this just be water under the bridge. It needs to be fully rebuilt and I don’t know if I want to rebuild it.”

    October 2025

    Scheana Shay Is Surprised by Lack of Support for Memoir From 'VPR' Costars
    Rachpoot/Bauer-Griffin/Getty Images

    Elsewhere in her podcast, Scheana called out Lala’s alleged behavior toward her.

    “Some of our mutual friends [are] like, ‘Why do you put up with this? What are you gaining from this friendship?’ I just make excuses and make excuses and I’m always there for her,” she said. “Part of me wonders, did she instigate this over the summer to fuel her story line on The Valley? Because she’s only friends with a couple of them and I’m friends with all of them. So she has beef with me and then she gets in more episodes.”

    Scheana addressed her decision to keep her distance from Lala.

    “I would reach out multiple times privately because I wanted to hash this out privately. I’ve seen people saying this was manufactured for a story line and there is no truth to that. But I feel like the podcast episode that she just put out was purely performative,” Scheana said. “It’s one thing behind closed doors and one thing in front of the cameras and it’s just frustrating.”

    She continued: “I’ve always had a soft spot for her and it is why I’ve put up with a lot of struggles in this friendship over the years. I know there is a good person there. You’re not always a good friend but I can forgive. I can move on but if we’re gonna do that then we need to put the full truth out there. You need to take full accountability. I found myself in the biggest thing I’ve ever done professionally and I’m just getting weighed down by Lala’s emotional manipulation yet again. There’s never going to be accountability in this friendship. The real issue in this friendship is not that Lala changed, it is that I’ve changed.”

    November 2025

    During BravoCon 2025, it was confirmed that Lala was joining the cast — but Scheana wouldn’t after last minute conversations caused her to pull out. Lala, however, chose not to speak on the topic of Scheana.

    “I have nothing to say about her,” Lala told Us.

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    Yana Grebenyuk

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  • Hundreds of thousands rally in Manila against flood-control corruption scandal

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    MANILA, Philippines — Hundreds of thousands of Filipinos gathered Sunday in the capital in the largest rally so far to demand accountability for a flood-control corruption scandal that has implicated powerful members of Congress and top government officials.

    Various groups have protested in recent months following the discovery that thousands of flood defense projects across one of the world’s most typhoon-prone countries were substandard, incomplete or simply did not exist.

    Government engineers, public works officials and construction company executives have testified under oath in hearings by the Senate and a fact-finding commission that members of Congress and officials at the Department of Public Works and Highways took kickbacks from construction companies to help them win lucrative contracts and avoid accountability. Most denied the allegations.

    About 650,000 members of the Iglesia Ni Cristo, or Church of Christ, joined the start of the three-day rally Sunday in Manila’s Rizal Park despite intermittent rains, police said. Many wore white shirts and carried anti-corruption placards. About 2,000 people, including retired generals, held a separate anti-corruption protest late Sunday at the “People Power” monument in suburban Quezon city.

    “These thieves have made us very outraged because we pay our taxes and these officials just plunder the treasury and rob us of our future,” said Rachel Morte, a 41-year-old resident from northern Pampanga province who joined the huge Manila rally. “We hope we’ll get justice and the stolen money will be returned to the people.”

    Iglesia is an influential group that votes as a bloc and is courted by political candidates during elections.

    The police, backed by the military, went on full alert and deployed thousands of personnel to secure the weekend rallies, which were peaceful, Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla said.

    During a Sept. 21 anti-corruption demonstration, a few hundred black-clad protesters threw rocks, bottles and firebombs at police near the presidential palace in Manila, injuring more than 100 officers. Criminal complaints have been filed against 97 protesters.

    The presidential palace went on security lockdown over the weekend, with major access roads barricaded by anti-riot police, cargo containers and barbed wires.

    National police chief Lt. Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. ordered law enforcement to exercise “maximum tolerance” in Sunday’s rallies.

    Flood control is an especially sensitive issue in the Philippines, one of the Asian countries most prone to deadly typhoons, flooding and extreme weather. Two typhoons left at least 259 dead this month, mostly from flash floods and landslides, and affected millions of others.

    President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has been trying to quell public outrage and street protests sparked by the scandal, saying on Thursday that many of the powerful senators, members of Congress and wealthy businesspeople who were implicated would be in jail by Christmas.

    Marcos said an independent fact-finding commission he created has already filed criminal complaints for graft , corruption and plunder against 37 suspects. Criminal complaints have also been filed against 86 construction company executives and nine government officials for allegedly evading nearly 9 billion pesos ($152 million) in taxes.

    Among those accused are lawmakers opposed to and allied with Marcos, including former House of Representatives Speaker Martin Romualdez, the president’s cousin and a key ally; and former Senate President Chiz Escudero. Both have denied any wrongdoing.

    Sen. Bong Go, a key ally of former President Rodrigo Duterte, has also been accused of involvement in corruption in flood control and other infrastructure projects. He has denied the allegations.

    Duterte, a harsh Marcos critic, was detained by the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands in March on charges of crimes against humanity over his brutal anti-drugs crackdowns.

    His daughter, the current vice president, said Marcos should also be held accountable and jailed for approving the 2025 national budget, which appropriated billions for flood control projects.

    There have been isolated calls, including by some Duterte supporters, for the military to withdraw its backing for Marcos, but Armed Forces of the Philippines chief of staff Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. has repeatedly rejected the idea.

    “With full conviction, I assure the public that the armed forces will not engage in any action that violates the Constitution,” Brawner said. “Not today, not tomorrow and certainly not under my watch.”

    ___

    Aaron Favila in Manila, Philippines contributed.

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  • Once a Shadowy Dealmaker, One-Time Zelenskyy Associate Is Accused in Ukrainian Corruption Scandal

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    KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Before the revelation of a multi-million dollar embezzlement and kickbacks scandal involving Ukraine’s state nuclear energy company brought his name to the forefront, Tymur Mindich was a shadowy presence — navigating deals and moving behind the scenes with unseen influence, known to many, yet rarely spoken of.

    Mindich was linked to growing fears over his expanding influence within the country’s lucrative industries, his access facilitated by his ties to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The two were once business partners and Mindich’s influence had expanded under Zelenskyy’s tenure.

    Mindich has fled the country, with any criminal proceedings against him likely to be carried out in absentia. Two top government ministers have resigned.

    Ukrainian officials, experts and activists contend Mindich’s rise to power is closely tied to his privileged relationship with the president and Zelenskyy’s inner circle.

    “What we were hearing only as rumors now has some evidence,” said activist Tetiana Shevchuk, of Ukraine’s Anti-Corruption Action Center. “For a long time we have heard that Tymur Mindich is a shadow controller of the energy sector.”

    Until Zelenskyy’s presidency, Mindich, 46, was just one among many wealthy Ukrainian entertainment industry entrepreneurs.

    Mindich was a co-owner of Zelenskyy’s production company Kvartal 95, named for the comedy troupe that helped catapult the Ukrainian president to fame as a comedian before he entered politics. Zelenskyy transferred his stake in the company to his partners after he was elected.

    Despite expanding his business portfolio since Zelenskyy’s election, Mindich maintained ties to the entertainment world. Until the corruption probe was exposed this week, he was a producer of the comedy show “Stadium Family” on YouTube. In light of the scandal and his tarnished reputation, the show’s owners shut it down this week.

    He is also a relative of Leonid Mindich, who was arrested by Ukraine’s anti-corruption watchdogs in June when he was trying to flee the country, according to local reports; he was charged with embezzling $16 million from an electric power company.

    Zelenskyy and Mindich’s close friendship is documented. The president used Mindich’s armored car during the final stretch of his presidential campaign in 2019. In January 2021, Zelenskyy celebrated his birthday in Mindich’s apartment during COVID. The two own apartments in the same building.

    After Zelenskyy’s 2019 presidential win, Mindich’s political ties grew.

    He was a close business associate of Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoysky, who backed Zelenskyy’s presidential campaign. Zelenskyy later cut ties with the billionaire and in 2023 Kolomoysky was arrested by Ukrainian security services on fraud and money-laundering charges.

    Businesses once associated with Kolomoysky began claiming that Mindich was now their beneficiary. “Gradually, in three years, he became, not an oligarch, but a known businessman with an interest in a lot of businesses,” said Shevchuk, the anti-corruption activist.

    They include agricultural enterprises and the nationalized SENSE bank. But, his name appeared most often in association with state energy companies, according to current and former Ukrainian officials, activists and experts.

    Ukrainian activists contend that without his close association with Zelenskyy, it would have been impossible for Mindich to cement his rise.

    Mindich “would have never been in politics, never been in a position of power or business without his connection to Zelenskyy, and this magnitude is worse because it’s happening during war time, and it is related to energy infrastructure at a time when Ukrainians don’t have electricity in their homes,” Shevchuk said.

    The case against Mindich rests on 1,000 hours of wiretaps revealing his significant influence over Herman Haluschenko, Ukraine’s energy minister from 2021-2025 until he was named justice minister in July. Haluschenko resigned that post after the investigation became public this week.

    While rarely named as a direct beneficiary in official documents, investigators cite extensive wire-tapping evidence they allege shows Mindich exerted control over a network of loyalists who pressured contractors for Energoatom, the state nuclear power company, demanding kickbacks of up to 15% to bypass bureaucratic obstacles and do business smoothly.

    Investigators allege the illicit funds were siphoned off, laundered through shell companies and funneled into Mindich’s pockets and those of his associates.

    These findings collected by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, known as NABU, and Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, or SAPO will be central to any future court proceedings.

    NABU is also conducting an investigation into Mindich’s alleged dealings with Ukraine’s top drone manufacturer, Fire Point, but has not yet revealed its findings. Fire Point, which develops deep-strike drones capable of hitting targets inside Russian territory, has denied any such dealings.

    Ukraine’s domestic drone industry has seen a swift and remarkable rise, fueled by wartime innovation and urgent military demands. What was once a niche sector quickly evolved into a formidable technological force within just a few years.

    Fire Point is among local companies and startups that have rapidly developed advanced drones for reconnaissance, surveillance and combat operations, supported by growing investments. The NABU investigation is looking into whether Mindich is the ultimate beneficiary of the company.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Photos You Should See – Oct. 2025

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    Associated Press

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  • The Epstein Scandal Is Now a Chronic Disease of the Trump Presidency

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    On Wednesday, more than twenty thousand pages of documents from Epstein’s files were released—not from the much-anticipated Justice Department trove but from a separate collection subpoenaed by Congress from Epstein’s estate—and, reading through them, it soon became clear how many new lines of inquiry could yet emerge. Julie K. Brown, the Miami Herald writer who has pursued the Epstein story longer and more doggedly than anyone, reported that Trump’s name appears thousands of times in these documents. Within hours, there were reports about Epstein’s correspondence with Steve Bannon, Larry Summers, and Michael Wolff. One Epstein e-mail suggested, but offered no proof, that Trump “knew about the girls,” many of whom were later found by investigators to have been underage. Another missive from Epstein implied, mysteriously, that he had spent the first Thanksgiving of Trump’s Presidency in Palm Beach, in close proximity to him, years after the two had supposedly broken off all contact. Several other e-mails also hinted at ongoing ties.

    In a twist that took me by surprise but I suppose shouldn’t have, the e-mails also revealed that Epstein corresponded with a wide network of international contacts about Trump in the years before he died, including attempting to pass along a message to Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, in advance of Trump’s 2018 Helsinki summit with Vladimir Putin. It was, in effect, an invitation to get the scoop on the American President, relayed via Thorbjørn Jagland, a former Prime Minister of Norway who was then serving as head of the Council of Europe. “I think you might suggest to putin that lavrov can get insight on talking to me,” Epstein wrote. In the same e-mail exchange, he said that he had previously talked with Russia’s late Ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, about Trump. “Churkin was great,” Epstein wrote. “He understood trump after our conversations. it is not complex. he must be seen to get something its that simple.” I was not the only one stunned by this. In response to Politico’s reporting, Sheldon Whitehouse, the Democratic senator from Rhode Island, wrote, “All of the times I’ve wondered what Putin had on Trump, and now we find out Jeffrey Epstein was talking to Putin’s ambassador about Trump.”

    The e-mails—unverified, typo-ridden assertions from a man who is not around to testify about them—do not constitute specific proof of anything, it should be underscored, just fodder for endless new rounds of questions now that politicians in Trump’s own party have chosen to release them. Who knows what else is lurking in there?

    At the White House, the attempts at damage control thus far have only fuelled the story. Trump, who now labels this the “Jeffrey Epstein Hoax” to distinguish it from all the other alleged hoaxes to which his various tormentors over the years have previously subjected him, certainly did not dispel concerns by summoning a Republican congresswoman, Lauren Boebert, to the White House Situation Room in the unsuccessful effort to dissuade her from signing on to the discharge petition. The Situation Room is where Presidents are supposed to discuss urgent national-security matters, not Jeffrey Epstein’s e-mails. Yikes. Smoke, meet fire.

    At a briefing on Wednesday dominated by questions about the e-mails, meanwhile, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, noted that they “prove absolutely nothing.” She then added, in Trump’s defense, that “Jeffrey Epstein was a member at Mar-a-Lago until President Trump kicked him out because Jeffrey Epstein was a pedophile and he was a creep.” But in 2019, when Trump was asked by a reporter at a White House press conference if he had “any suspicions” that Epstein “was molesting . . . underage women,” the President replied, “No, I had no idea. I had no idea. I haven’t spoken to him in many, many years.” The question naturally arises: If he had no suspicions about Epstein’s behavior with girls then how could he have kicked him out of Mar-a-Lago for being a pedophile?

    By Thursday, Leavitt was complaining that the latest Epstein flareup was all “another Democrat + Mainstream Media hoax, fueled by fake outrage, to distract from the President’s wins.” The distraction lament is one I’ve heard many times over the years from embattled press secretaries. But it seems to me that it’s the Trump White House as much as Trump’s enemies who might want to distract from the news these days. At least, that’s usually how it works for unpopular Presidents whose poll numbers are sinking to record lows amid persistent inflation, at a time when his party is losing elections by big margins and fighting among itself over whether one of its leading propagandists should have given respectful airtime to a notorious white supremacist. But this is Trump, so who knows? ♦

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    Susan B. Glasser

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  • Trump & Epstein: Everything We’ve Learned About Their Ties

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    Here’s a brief overview of their friendship and falling out, and how Trump’s political career intersected with Epstein’s prosectuion.

    1980s to early 2000s: Trump and Epstein are friends. They are spotted partying together on multiple occasions, Trump flies on Epstein’s private jets at least seven times, and his name and number appear in Epstein’s “little black book” (along with several Trump family members and many other famous and powerful figures).

    2004: Trump and Epstein have a “falling out,” as the president put it years later. The cause may have been a real estate battle, but Trump has not confirmed this.

    2006: After Florida police investigate multiple claims of Epstein sexually abusing underage girls, Epstein is indicted on just a single count of soliciting prostitution. Florida officials are accused of giving Epstein special treatment, and the FBI launches an investigation.

    2008: Epstein pleads guilty to two state charges after striking a plea deal with the U.S. attorney in Miami, Alexander Acosta, to avoid federal prosecution (Acosta then served as Trump’s Labor secretary in his first term). Epstein is sentenced to 18 months in jail, but serves most of his sentence in a work-release program that lets him leave jail during the day.

    July 6, 2019: Epstein is arrested on federal sex trafficking charges in New York. Acosta resigns from the Trump administration days later amid public outcry over his decision not to prosecute Epstein years earlier.

    August 10, 2019: Epstein is found dead in his Manhattan jail cell. His death is ruled a suicide.

    2024: Thousands of pages of court documents from an Epstein civil suit are unsealed, reviving interest in the case. Trump is mentioned multiple times, but the documents don’t reveal any incriminating information about him. During the 2024 campaign, Trump suggests he’ll declassify the federal government’s Epstein files if reelected.

    February 2025: Attorney General Pam Bondi publicly teases the release of more Epstein files, suggesting in a Fox News interview that the “client list” is “sitting on my desk right now to review.” Days later, right-wing influencers are given binders of Epstein materials at the White house, which turn out to be previously released documents.

    July 7, 2025: In an unsigned memo, the FBI and DOJ say that following an “exhaustive review” they have determined that there is no “client list,” and nothing in the Epstein files warrants further investigation. The memo presents a previously released jail surveillance video as proof that Epstein killed himself — but it’s missing a minute of footage. The memo says there will be no further Epstein document releases.

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    Margaret Hartmann

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  • Jim McGreevey Is Back on the Ballot, 21 Years After Scandal Led Him to Resign as New Jersey Governor

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    JERSEY CITY, N.J. (AP) — Two decades after resigning as New Jersey’s governor and stunning the political world as he declared “I am a gay American,” Jim McGreevey is back on the campaign trail, running for mayor of the state’s second-largest city.

    McGreevey, a Democrat, is one of seven candidates in a nonpartisan race to replace Steven Fulop as mayor of Jersey City, just across the Hudson River from Manhattan.

    He’s running, he said, because he’s concerned that the city of his birth is at a “tipping point,” with pricy downtown high-rises raising housing costs, young people struggling to find employment and what he says are underperforming schools.

    “This is not a cathartic exercise,” McGreevey told The Associated Press in an interview ahead of Tuesday’s election. “I’ve done that long ago. That was done 20-plus years ago. This is to make Jersey City better. To improve services. To balance the budget. To be responsive to familial needs.”

    McGreevey’s opponents include two city council members, a Hudson County commissioner, a city police officer and the former president of the city’s board of education. Fulop isn’t seeking a fourth term.

    If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, a runoff election will be held Dec. 2.


    Opponent: I never had to ‘resign in disgrace’

    McGreevey’s resignation is etched in New Jersey political lore.

    In a televised speech on Aug. 12, 2004, McGreevey said, as his wife and parents looked on, that he was quitting because he had engaged in an extramarital affair with another man. With that revelation, he became the country’s first openly gay governor.

    The circumstances of McGreevey’s exit were more complicated than his merely coming out. The man McGreevey had been involved with was Golan Cipel, a former Israeli naval officer he had appointed as the state’s homeland security adviser in 2002.

    Cipel, who met McGreevey in Israel and worked for his campaign as a Jewish community liaison, was not qualified for the $110,000-per-year position, in part because, as an Israeli citizen, he couldn’t obtain the necessary U.S. security clearances.

    Cipel quit a few months into his tenure and threatened to sue McGreevey for sexual harassment, hastening the governor’s resignation. Cipel has denied that any affair occurred, saying he was the victim of McGreevey’s “repeated sexual advances.”

    Some of McGreevey’s opponents in the mayoral race have argued that his conduct as governor should disqualify him with voters. One rival, city council member James Solomon, argued that McGreevey’s run is an extension of corruption that he claimed infected his time as governor.

    Another rival, former school board president Mussab Ali, said at a recent debate: “I have never had the experience of having to resign in disgrace.”

    “My opponents may care about what happened 20 years ago,” McGreevey said. “Folks in Jersey City are worried about their rent today, worried about the children’s individual education plan today. They’re concerned about the fact that the street is dirty or that there’s a sewer break on Montgomery (Street).”


    McGreevey: ‘This would be a great closing act’

    Jersey City is where McGreevey’s grandfather moved after leaving Northern Ireland, and where his father took him for meals at the VIP Diner — a time capsule where the pay phones still work.

    And it’s where McGreevey, 68, who now runs a prison reentry nonprofit, would like to finish his once-promising political career by managing a city of nearly 303,000 residents with a municipal budget of about $700 million.

    “This would be a great closing act,” McGreevey said, an American flag pin on his lapel. “And candidly, to get the city in the right place, it’ll require some time.”

    McGreevey said he’d long ago made peace with being out of politics. He got divorced, attended an Episcopal seminary, earned a Master of Divinity degree, volunteered at a Harlem ministry and took steps to become a priest before pivoting to nonprofit work.

    As executive director of the Jersey City-based New Jersey Reentry Corporation, he said he has seen the difficulty formerly incarcerated people and veterans have finding housing and employment.

    McGreevey launched his campaign on Halloween in 2023 and posted a video soon after acknowledging his past. The title: “Second chances are central to who I am.”

    His run has drawn parallels to another ex-governor looking for a second chance. Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who resigned after being accused of sexual harassment, is running for mayor of neighboring New York City.


    McGreevey: ‘I enjoy people more. I enjoy politics a lot less’

    McGreevey said his absence from public life has given him a perspective on how politics has changed and become more polarized.

    A former prosecutor and head of the state parole board, McGreevey entered politics in 1990 as a member of the state assembly. Before becoming governor in 2002, he was mayor of Woodbridge Township, a suburb of about 103,000 residents.

    “When I was a young Assemblyman, we would campaign hard on the Democratic ticket, but then, after I was elected, you would work with Democrats and Republicans on committees, on legislation,” McGreevey said. “My sense is today, whether it’s the city or the state or the nation, almost everything is viewed through a political lens as opposed to a governmental lens.”

    Twenty years away has also changed McGreevey, he says.

    “I enjoy people more. I enjoy politics a lot less,” he said.

    Whether enough people like McGreevey and his politics enough to give him that second chance will become clearer in the weeks ahead.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Photos You Should See – Oct. 2025

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    Associated Press

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  • King Charles Heckled Over Prince Andrew’s Ties to Jeffrey Epstein

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    King Charles cannot escape the continued media attention on his brother Prince Andrew’s longstanding friendship with the late convicted pedophile, Jeffrey Epstein.

    “How long have you known about Andrew and Epstein?” an individual shouted at Charles, 76, as the royal greeted the public outside Lichfield Cathedral in Staffordshire on Monday, October 27, per footage shared online.

    “Have you asked the police to cover up for Andrew?” the heckler continued. “Have you asked the police to cover up for Andrew, Charles? What do you think — should the MPs be allowed to debate the royals in the House of Commons?”

    Charles ignored the questions and was promptly escorted away from the scene by an accompanying guard. The heckler didn’t appear particularly popular with the rest of the crowd, who had gathered to greet the King, as some onlookers could be heard on video telling the unidentified man to “stop” and “shut up.”


    Related: How Is Prince Andrew Connected to the Jeffrey Epstein Scandal? Timeline

    Prince Andrew’s downfall as a working royal is unquestionably intertwined with his connection to the late disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. While Andrew has always denied any wrongdoing, he was accused by Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre (née Roberts) of sexually assaulting her three times when she was 17 years old. The two […]

    On October 17, Andrew, 65, announced he is giving up his royal titles and honors as the relationship between himself and Epstein is once again dominating worldwide headlines.

    “In discussion with The King, and my immediate and wider family, we have concluded the continued accusations about me distract from the work of His Majesty and the Royal Family,” Andrew said in a statement to Us Weekly on Friday, October 17. “I have decided, as I always have, to put my duty to my family and country first. I stand by my decision five years ago to stand back from public life.”

    He added, “With His Majesty’s agreement, we feel I must now go a step further. I will therefore no longer use my title or the honors which have been conferred upon me. As I have said previously, I vigorously deny the accusations against me.”

    Andrew was accused of assault by the late Virginia Giuffre in 2019, further claiming that she was also sexually assaulted by Epstein, who she said introduced her to the royal along with his longtime associate and convicted sex trafficker, Ghislaine Maxwell. Giuffre sued Andrew for sexual abuse in 2021 and they settled out of court for an undisclosed sum. Prince Andrew has repeatedly denied the allegations, and Giuffre died by suicide at age 41 this past April.

    King Charles

    King Charles     Temilade Adelaja – WPA Pool/Getty Images

    Epstein died by suicide while he was incarcerated at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York after he was arrested on charges of federal sex trafficking of minors. Maxwell was found guilty on child sex trafficking charges in 2021 and is currently imprisoned at the Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas.

    Interest in the relationship between Andrew and Epstein was reignited after emails exchanged between the pair were made public this year. The emails, from 2011, allegedly disproved Andrew’s previous claim that he had cut off all contact with Epstein in December 2010.

    “I’m just as concerned for you! Don’t worry about me!” an alleged February 2011 email from Andrew to Epstein read. “It would seem we are in this together and will have to rise above it. Otherwise keep in close touch and we’ll play some more soon!!!!”

    GettyImages163600390Buckingham Palace Reacts to Prince Andrew Titles


    Related: Buckingham Palace Will Have New Prince Andrew Allegations Fully Investigated

    Buckingham Palace will have the new allegations made against Prince Andrew fully investigated following the relinquishment of his royal titles. After several outlets reported on Sunday, October 19, that Andrew, 65, is being investigated for allegedly asking his taxpayer-funded security detail to uncover information about late accuser Virginia Giuffre in 2011, just hours before the […]

    Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson will also reportedly move from Royal Lodge, his home of over 20 years, to another royal property (his lease for the home was set to expire in 2078). He reportedly hopes to move into Adelaide Cottage, the former home of the Prince and Princess of Wales.

    “No one is really sure how it’s going to go down at the Palace yet,” a friend of Andrew and Ferguson told The Sun. “Andy is willing to leave, but these are his demands.”

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    Stephanie Kaloi

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  • “What Did Anyone Think Was Going to Happen?”: The NBA Gambling Scandal Hiding in Plain Sight

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    The brick row house sits just steps from Washington Square Park, in plain view of any passersby from New York University. In 2021, it was rented, the New York Post reported in its wall-to-wall coverage of an unmissable sports betting spectacle, to Travis Scott over the period when he was dating Kylie Jenner—a glancing connection that suggested no wrongdoing. It was not a New York landmark, exactly, but in its simultaneous accessibility and status, it brought out some essential, familiar character of its monied Greenwich Village vicinity.

    As federal prosecutors claimed in an indictment unsealed on Thursday, the building was later where “Flappy,” “the Wrestler,” and “Juice,” among other evocatively nicknamed alleged members of the Bonanno, Gambino, Lucchese, and Genovese New York mafia families, assembled to carry out a Hollywood-ready scheme that rigged poker games with card-reading contact lenses and X-ray tables and used the attendance of an active NBA coach, Chauncey Billups, as bait for their marks. In a separate but simultaneous indictment, prosecutors alleged that an active and a former player, Terry Rozier and Damon Jones, provided insider information on NBA games to bettors and, in Rozier’s case, manipulated his performance to the gambler’s benefit. (All the defendants in the two cases—which include Billups, Rozier, Jones, and alleged organized-crime affiliates—who have entered a plea thus far have pleaded not guilty on fraud, money laundering, extortion, and gambling charges.)

    Perhaps, as alleged, the set-up was even stranger than fiction, a relic from a bygone era when Gottis in courthouses dominated the tabloid pages, or when betting scandals rocked professional baseball several times over.

    And yet, in some sense, the alleged behavior was taking place right under our noses. Vanity Fair spoke with veterans of the gambling and mafia underworlds to help situate the relative absurdity—and predictability—of the scandal that has ricocheted across sports, business, and politics.

    The new sports gambling landscape

    “What did anyone think was going to happen?” New York sports radio host Craig Carton asked me on Friday.

    Carton’s career as a leading local drive time personality was upended in 2017 when he was arrested for running a ticket reselling Ponzi-like scheme in order to cover millions of dollars in gambling debts. He was sentenced to 42 months of prison for fraud, ultimately serving about a year, at what was a fairly quaint time by the standards of today’s gambling industry.

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    Dan Adler

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  • Who Is Sutton Foster’s Estranged Husband Ted Griffin? Inside Divorce

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    Jenny Anderson/Getty Images

    Before finding love with Hugh Jackman, Sutton Foster offered glimpses into her marriage of nearly a decade to Ted Griffin.

    Foster was initially married to college sweetheart Christian Borle from 2006 to 2009. After her divorce from Borle, Foster was set up on a blind date with Griffin, who is a screenwriter with credits on Ocean’s Eleven, Prom and The Wolf of Wall Street.

    The couple tied the knot in 2014 after several years of dating and expanded their family with daughter Emily three years later.

    “We plan these surprise dates for each other, and the only rule is that you can’t say no,” Foster exclusively told Us Weekly in 2019. “It’s not like, ‘OK, you have to eat a spider.’ We try to be very gentle about it.”

    Foster said their “can’t say no dates” kept their romance alive, adding, “He planned a date for me once where we took a Latin jazz class at Lincoln Center. Then he took me to go listen to jazz music at Dizzy’s, which is at the Time Warner Center, and we had dinner at this fabulous place that we’d never gone to.”

    The actress made rare comments about her marriage before news of their divorce broke in October 2024. Foster filed for uncontested divorce from Griffin just days before their 10th wedding anniversary.

    One month later, a source told Us confirmed that Foster’s romance with Jackman led to the actor’s split from wife Deborra-lee Furness.

    “A lot of people on Broadway knew, and we kept it quiet because both of them are so nice and great people. Everyone respected their privacy. But there was an affair and overlap,” an insider told Us about Jackman and Foster, who worked together on The Music Man. “They are really happy now.”

    Keep scrolling to see Foster’s insight on her marriage to Griffin before their surprising split:

    Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness’ Relationship Timeline: The Way They Were


    Related: Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness’ Divorce Is Finalized: Timeline

    Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness were together for more than two decades before going their separate ways. Jackman and Furness started dating shortly after they met on the set of the Australian TV series Correlli in 1995. “Deb, she was a big star,” he recalled to Jess Cagle in 2017. “I get picked up [to […]

    2014

    After several years of dating, Foster and Griffin exchanged vows. Her process in picking out a wedding dress was featured on TLC’s Say Yes to the Dress.

    “I knew that it made me ‘feel’ different,” she told People of the gown she chose. “I felt very confident and knew that it was the first dress I had tried on that felt ‘right.’”

    2015

    Who Is Sutton Foster Ex Husband Ted Griffin
    Bruce Glikas/FilmMagic

    Foster gushed over her “very talented” husband’s career, telling Broadway.com, “He’s like, the smartest guy I’ve ever known. He’s incredibly smart.” The actress went on to say that she loves to go to the theater and watch movies with Griffin because he showed her “classics” including Rear Window while she enjoyed more “silly” movies.

    “I’m trying to bring his intelligence a little bit down,” she joked at the time.

    2017

    Who Is Sutton Foster Ex Husband Ted Griffin
    Walter McBride/WireImage

    Following years of fertility struggles, Foster and Griffin welcomed daughter Emily via adoption.

    “Where IVF was full of disappointment and heartbreak, adoption was so clearly what was meant to be for us,” she recalled after announcing the news at Lincoln Center’s American Songbook performance. “Our lives are forever changed, and our hearts are exploding.”

    One year later, Foster gushed about her daughter, telling People, “I’m fascinated by Emily; she changes every day. It doesn’t matter where she came from, my belly or someone else’s belly. When she was born, I was like, ‘What took me so long?’ And I realized I was waiting for her to come into my life.”

    Most Shocking Celebrity Splits


    Related: Most Shocking Celebrity Splits

    Many celebrity splits have rocked Hollywood over the years, including Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin as well as Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan. Tatum and Dewan’s love story began on the set of 2006’s Step Up, where they costarred as onscreen love interests. The duo tied the knot in 2009 and welcomed daughter Everly in 2013. […]

    2018

    Who Is Sutton Foster Ex Husband Ted Griffin
    Mike Pont/Getty Images

    Foster recalled not really understanding “the concept of motherhood” until she met Griffin.

    “There was something about being with Ted that made me want kids,” she told People. “He belonged in my family. [I] didn’t really understand the concept of motherhood until he came around.”

    2019

    In Foster’s 25 Things You Don’t Know About Me interview with Us, she revealed the moment she knew Griffin was The One, adding, “I knew I was going to marry my husband when he bought me a pair of sweatpants. I still wear them and will probably keep wearing them until they turn to dust.”

    2020

    Who Is Sutton Foster Ex Husband Ted Griffin
    Bruce Glikas/WireImage

    Foster and Griffin’s relationship evolved after they sheltered in place amid the COVID pandemic.

    “[This is] the first time that we’ve all been together for this amount of concentrated time without one of us traveling or having to leave for work every day,” she explained to People. “Especially breakfast and dinner, we’re all sitting at the table and now my daughter will ask everyone, ‘How was your day?’ We all like to sit down and talk and we’ve made it a really important part of our day that we come together as a family.”

    Foster noted that her family was “trying to make the most of this time,” with her daughter “really thriving” because they were all together.

    Celebrity Splits of 2024


    Related: Celebrity Splits of 2024: Stars Who Have Called It Quits This Year

    Some celebrity couples have gone the distance, but others haven’t been as lucky. 2024 kicked off with a handful of Hollywood duos calling it quits. Fans were shocked when The Bachelorette couple Rachel Lindsay and Bryan Abasolo split after four years of marriage. Us Weekly confirmed on January 2 that the chiropractor filed for divorce […]

    2021

    In a personal essay for People, Foster wrote how she was “always on the fence about whether” she wanted to have children.

    “I was always very career-driven, and I had such a tricky relationship growing up with my own mom. It was never clear cut for me,” she noted before reflecting on her marriage to Borle. “I married in my 30s — it didn’t last. But one thing it did give me was this little inkling that I wanted to maybe have a family.”

    She continued: “When I met my husband, it was the first time that I finally went, ‘Oh, I get it. I understand why people have families.’”

    2024

    Who Is Sutton Foster Ex Husband Ted Griffin

    Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster     Bruce Glikas/WireImage

    Us confirmed that Foster formed a connection with Jackman before her marriage to Griffin came to an end.

    “Deborra-lee was blindsided when she found out about the affair through the run of the show,” a source told Us about Jackman’s wife. “It was apparently Broadway’s worst-kept secret, and Deborra-lee was the last to know. … He didn’t own up to it.”

    Foster previously reflected on her friendship with Jackman, telling Vogue two years prior, “You usually go into these things thinking, ‘Well, I hope we get along.’ But we just spent Memorial Day with our families.”

    In a separate interview on Live With Kelly and Ryan, Foster recalled a “wonderful” ritual between her and Jackman. “We just talk and catch up on our day. That’s been one of the best parts of the whole thing,” she added. “That I’ve made this wonderful new friend.”

    2025

    In January 2025, Foster and Jackman confirmed their romance while they were photographed on a date night in Los Angeles amid her ongoing divorce from Griffin. Nine months later, Jackman and Foster made their red carpet debut as a couple at the Hollywood premiere of the actor’s film, Song Sung Blue.

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    Yana Grebenyuk

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