(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump continued Wednesday to dismiss calls within his own party for more transparency into the Jeffrey Epstein investigation and made claims, without evidence, that the controversy was designed to undermine him.
In a lengthy social media post, which included references to the president’s previous claims about the 2017 Russian election interference probe, Trump blamed Democrats for creating what he called a “scam” and “hoax.”
“Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this ‘b——–,’ hook, line, and sinker,” he wrote.
Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi have come under fire from conservatives on the Hill and across the country for declining to release the Epstein probe files in their entirety.
The Justice Department and FBI last week stated they found no evidence the deceased financier kept a “client list” of associates whom he blackmailed or conspired with to victimize dozens of women.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday that Bondi should explain the administration’s handling of the case especially after she told Fox News in February that Epstein’s alleged “client list” was “sitting on my desk now to review.”
Johnson also did not rule out responding to growing calls from Republican lawmakers to have Epstein’s convicted associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, testify before Congress.
“I’m for transparency. We’re intellectually consistent in this,” Johnson said when asked about Maxwell potentially testifying before Congress.
In his post, Trump disavowed those who focus on the Epstein story rather than his accomplishments.
“Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, don’t even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don’t want their support anymore!” Trump said.
(NEW YORK) — The largest Mars meteorite ever found on Earth was sold at a Sotheby’s auction in New York on Wednesday for $4.3 million.
The Martian rock, known as NWA 16788, weighs more than 54 pounds, is nearly 15 inches long and is 70% larger than the next biggest piece of Mars that has been recovered, according to the auction house.
Sotheby’s said the piece broke from the surface of Mars following a recent asteroid strike and traveled more than 140 million miles across the Solar System.
It crashed in the Sahara Desert in the Agadez region of Nigeria and was found by a meteorite hunter in November 2023, Sotheby’s said.
“This is the largest piece of Mars on planet Earth. The odds of this getting from there to here are astronomically small,” Cassandra Hatton, vice chairman of science and natural history at Sotheby’s, said in a video posted online. “Remember that approximately 70% of Earth’s surface is covered in water. So we’re incredibly lucky that this landed on dry land instead of the middle of the ocean where we could actually find it.”
The auction house said the reddish brown rock is “unbelievably rare” because meteorites from Mars make up just 400 of the 77,000 officially recognized meteorites. According to Sotheby’s, the rock that was sold represents 6.5% of all Martian material currently on Earth.
Hatton said a sample of the rock was sent to a specialized laboratory to be tested for Maskelynite glass, which is only found in meteorites.
Testing determined the rock is an olivine-gabbroic shergottite, which is a relatively new type of Martian meteorite, according to an April 2024 report from researchers the U.S. and Canada. It was formed from the as magma on Mars slowly cooled, Sotheby’s said, and contains materials such as olivine, which is also found in Earth’s upper mantle.
“This isn’t just a miraculous find, but a massive data set that can help us unlock the secrets of our neighbor, the red planet,” Hatton said.
Prior to going up for auction at Sotheby’s, the rock was in a public exhibit at the Italian Space Agency in Rome during the 2024 European Researchers’ Night and in a private gallery in Arezzo, Tuscany.
It’s unclear who the current owner is and if the Martian rock will be in a public or a private collection.
Also up for auction was a Ceratosaurus skeleton from the late Jurassic period, about 154 to 149 million years ago, which was sold for $30.5 million, and the skull of a Pachycephalosaurus from the late Cretaceous period 72 million to 66 million years ago for $1.75 million.
Wednesday’s auction, containing 122 items, is part of Sotheby’s Geek Week, which holds sales for items related to natural history, the history of science and technology, and space exploration.
Among the items up for sale on Thursday, the final day of Geek Week, include a first generation of Apple-1 computer from the first batch of 50 built by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in 1976.
Ramez Habboub / GocherImagery/Future Publishing via Getty Images
(LONDON) — At least 20 people were killed in an incident at one of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid distribution sites in the southern Gaza Strip, the U.S.-backed group said in a statement on Wednesday.
The GHF said in a post to X that 19 of the dead were “trampled” and another was stabbed, in what it described as a “chaotic and dangerous surge.” The GHF blamed “agitators in the crowd” for the stampede.
The Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza said that 15 of those killed “died of suffocation as a result of tear gas fired at the starving people and the subsequent stampede.” The ministry said at least 21 people were killed in the incident. The GHF denied using tear gas, saying instead that there was a “limited use” of pepper spray.
Video filmed by local journalist Abdallah Alattar and verified by ABC News appeared to show lifeless bodies being unloaded from a cart outside Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.
A man could be seen holding a boy whose head appears to be limp and telling the cameraman, “They died by suffocation. There was a stampede.”
Marwan Al Hams, director-general of field hospitals in Gaza, told ABC News that victims arriving there showed signs of bruising on the face and body, injuries that the source said were consistent with intense crowding. Victims also showed notable indications of “oxygen deprivation,” the source said.
As of July 13, at least 875 people have been killed in recent weeks while trying to get food in Gaza, according to Thameen Al-Kheetan, a spokesperson for the U.N.’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Of those, 674 were killed “in the vicinity of GHF sites,” Al-Kheetan said.
The GHF is backed by the U.S. and Israeli governments, with the U.N. and other aid organizations refusing to collaborate with the group, citing concerns about its transparency and political impartiality.
The GHF has consistently rejected criticisms by the U.N. and other aid groups of its aid distribution operations and multiple deadly incidents occurring among groups of Palestinians on their way to collect food.
In its statement on Wednesday’s deadly stampede, the GHF said it had “credible reason to believe that elements within the crowd — armed and affiliated with Hamas — deliberately fomented the unrest.”
“For the first time since operations began, GHF personnel identified multiple firearms in the crowd, one of which was confiscated,” the group alleged. “An American worker was also threatened with a firearm by a member of the crowd during the incident.”
“We mourn the lives lost today, and we remain committed to providing humanitarian aid as safely and responsibly as possible,” it added. “GHF exists to serve the people of Gaza with compassion and integrity, and our mission has never been more urgent or more challenged.”
The Hamas-run Government Media Office in Gaza issued a statement rejecting the GHF allegations.
This week, the GHF unveiled a new “flag system” to indicate the status of its sites to Palestinians seeking aid. A red flag will be flown to signify that the site is closed, while a green flag will indicate it is open, the group said in a Monday post to social media.
The Israeli government says the GHF is required to prevent Hamas fighters from seizing humanitarian aid, which Israel has accused the terror group of throughout the war in Gaza. Hamas has denied such thefts.
On Saturday, the Israel Defense Forces told ABC News in a statement that it “allows the American civilian organization (GHF) to distribute aid to Gaza residents independently, and operates in proximity to the new distribution zones to enable the distribution alongside the continuation of IDF operational activities in the Gaza Strip.”
Previous deadly incidents attributed to Israeli military action at or near the GHF sites, the IDF said, “are under review by the competent authorities in the IDF.”
Hungry Palestinians say they have to go to the sites to collect aid, with few other options.
“How can I go and buy 1 kg of flour for 70 shekels ($20) when I don’t have that kind of money?” Mohanned Al Tifi, awaiting treatment inside Nasser Hospital, told ABC News on Wednesday morning. “This is what forced me to go there, the hunger.”
Al Tifi said he suffered a pelvic fracture in the morning’s chaos. He had to wait for 3 hours before he was helped to safety at the aid site by a “good Samaritan,” he said.
“Let me tell you if I could bring 5 kg of flour I will go home happy,” he said.
(WASHINGTON) — House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer told reporters that former Vice President Kamala Harris and former first lady Jill Biden “should” be subpoenaed in the panel’s investigation into former President Joe Biden’s mental capacity while in office after another top Biden official pleaded the Fifth today.
“Well, I think they should,” Comer told ABC when asked if the committee should subpoena Harris and Jill Biden. “They should have already issued statements. They should have already done public relations campaign to sit down and answer questions. They should go on FOX, they should go on CNN and answer questions.”
Anthony Bernal, a veteran aide of three Democratic presidential administrations — Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden — whose service culminated as assistant to the president and chief of staff to the first lady, on Wednesday invoked the Fifth Amendment twice during a closed-door deposition before the committee investigating former President Biden’s mental capacity while in office.
Comer also said the committee has scheduled a slate of depositions with former Biden officials in the GOP’s investigation of the Biden administration’s use of the presidential auto-pen. At President Donald Trump’s urging, Republicans have taken aim at Biden’s clemency actions signed during his final hours in office — wondering whether staff acted on their own accord or at the direction of the president.
“So we’re going to bring in everyone. We’re moving up the line,” Comer later added. “So we’ve started with the lower-level staffers that we think were the ones that actually put the documents in the autopen and pressed power. Now we’re moving up to the people that we think told the staffers to use the autopen. So we’ll — we’ll see where that takes us. But I think the possibility is very good that — that we’ll be asking members of the family to come in and talk.”
(LONDON) — The Israel Defense Forces said it struck “the entrance” of Syria‘s military headquarters in Damascus on Wednesday.
Syria’s Ministry of Health told the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency that at least one person was killed and 18 others were injured Wednesday in the Israeli airstrikes on the capital, Damascus.
The high-profile strike came amid a wave of sectarian violence in the southern Syrian city of Sweida, where the Druze population has clashed with local Bedouin Sunni tribes and the recently installed Syrian government, headed by Interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa who toppled former President Bashar Al-Assad in December.
The Druze are an offshoot of a branch of Shiite Islam. Around 1 million Druze are spread across Syria, Israel and Lebanon. The majority live in Syria, concentrated in the south of the country.
“The IDF continues to monitor developments and the regime’s actions against Druze civilians in southern Syria,” the IDF said in a statement. “In accordance with directives from the political echelon, the IDF is striking in the area and remains prepared for various scenarios.”
In a post to X, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said: “The warnings in Damascus have ended — now painful blows will come.”
“The IDF will continue to operate forcefully in Sweida to destroy the forces that attacked the Druze until their complete withdrawal,” Katz added.
More than 250 people have been killed in Sweida province as of Wednesday morning since the violence erupted on Sunday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based war monitoring group. Those deaths included 21 people who were killed in “field executions” by local groups in Sweida, the organization said.
Syrian government forces were deployed to the Sweida region — home to the largest population of the Druze religious minority in Syria — on Monday in an effort to restore order but ultimately clashed with the Druze militias themselves. On Tuesday, Syrian Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra announced a ceasefire agreement in Sweida, saying government forces would “respond only to the sources of fire and deal with any targeting by outlaw groups.” But clashes continued.
As that sectarian violence has grown, the Israeli military has taken action against the Syrian government, the IDF said.
Over the past day, the IDF has struck and continues to strike tanks, rocket launchers, weapons, and pickup trucks loaded with heavy machine guns on their way to the As Suwayda area in southern Syria,” the IDF said in a statement Wednesday, using another common spelling for Sweida.
The IDF said it has “decided to reinforce its forces in the area of the Syrian border” and “will continue to operate, both in defense and offense, to ensure the security of Israeli civilians.”
The office of Syria’s interim president said in a statement Wednesday that it “has followed with great concern the unfortunate violations that have recently occurred in some areas of Sweida Governorate.”
“These acts, which fall within the category of criminal and illegal behavior, are unacceptable under any circumstances and completely contradict the principles upon which the Syrian state is based,” the presidency added. “We, in the Syrian government, strongly condemn these shameful acts and affirm our full commitment to investigating all related incidents and holding accountable all those proven to be involved.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also urged Israeli Druze groups not to cross into Syria to join the fighting.
“We are working to save our Druze brothers and to eliminate the regime’s gangs,” he said in a statement posted to X on Wednesday.
Addressing those crossing the border or attempting to, Netanyahu added: “You are citizens of Israel. Do not cross the border. You are risking your lives; you could be murdered, you could be kidnapped, and you are harming the efforts of the IDF. Therefore, I ask you — return to your homes, let the IDF act.”
(WASHINGTON) — Just as the Senate began debate on the rescissions package that would strip the Corporation for Public Broadcasting of two years’ worth of its funding, the Trump administration filed a new lawsuit against the three CPB board members whom the president has attempted to fire but have refused to leave.
Tuesday’s filing, in US District Court in Washington, is the latest volley in a monthslong legal fight between the administration and the entity that funds the nation’s public radio and television stations. It seeks to affirm President Donald Trump’s power to remove members of the CPB board — a power the corporation and its board members insist he doesn’t have.
“As recent Supreme Court orders have recognized, the President cannot meaningfully exercise his executive power under Article II of the Constitution without the power to select — and, when necessary, remove — those who hold federal office,” the administration’s filing says. “Personnel is policy, after all.”
CPB and its board members argue that while the president has the power to appoint the organization’s board members, there is no provision in the law that allows Trump to fire them.
Last month, a district court judge declined to grant a preliminary injunction on behalf of the three CPB board members whom the White House sought to fire in April, saying they had not proved the need for early judicial intervention in the case. But Judge Randolph Moss also noted that the board had the ability to change its own bylaws, which it did in May, to only permit the ouster of sitting board members — “by any person or authority, including the President of the United States,” with the concurrence of two-thirds of the board.
The new case has also been assigned to Judge Moss — the same judge who has been overseeing the CBP board members’ lawsuit.
Tuesday’s suit by the government seeks a judge’s order declaring that the three CPB board members in question — Laura Ross, Diane Kaplan and Sony Pictures CEO Tom Rothman — “do not lawfully serve” as members. Former President Joe Biden appointed the board members.
The administration is also asking the court to void any actions taken by the three board members, and to order the refund of any salary they might have been paid since the White House directed their dismissals in late April.
Researchers found evidence of a large dinosaur mating “dance” arena at Dinosaur Ridge in Colorado./Courtesy of Caldwell Buntin
(DINOSAUR RIDGE, Colo.) — Researchers have discovered evidence of one of the largest dinosaur mating “dance arenas” in present-day Colorado.
Previous studies have identified a couple of “dinosaur lek” areas — where male dinosaurs likely congregated to perform courtship displays for females, primarily for the purpose of finding a mate — at Dinosaur Ridge, 20 miles west of Denver.
However, using high-resolution drone photography and photogrammetry to make 3D models of the sandstone at Dinosaur Ridge, a team reexamined the area to see if there were more markings on the surface.
What they found were dozens of lek traces tightly clustered together, suggesting the area was once a site to perform mating rituals, similar to some modern-day birds.
“So, these trace fossils, we interpret them to be evidence of dinosaur courtship activities, just from kind of process of elimination,” Caldwell Buntin, co-author of the study and a lecturer at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, told ABC News.
Buntin said the team ruled out that these “scrapes” were caused by dinosaurs digging for food and water, from marking their territories or from colonial nesting, which is when animals build their nests close together in groups.
“Basically, these were a lot of organisms that were coming together, performing some kind of activity that would include building some kind of nest to display to a female, and then maybe doing some kind of a dance or scraping activity, which generates a lot of the scrapes around the nest display structure,” Buntin said.
The scrapes belong to theropod dinosaurs, characterized by hollow bones and three toes and claws on each limb, which were alive during the Cretaceous period, between 145 million and 66 million years ago.
It’s not clear which species made the scrapes, but they were likely three to four feet high at the hip and were between 2.5 and 5 meters (8 to 16 feet) long, from the size of an emu to the size of an ostrich, according to Buntin.
There’s a “spectrum of different scrapes,” according to Buntin. Some are simple, shallow toe claw marks, indicating one or two scrapes from the left and right legs. There are also longer scrapes overprinting one another, resembling a wagon rut.
Additionally, there are semicircular bowl-shaped marks “associated with a step backward” with a second set of scrapes “indicating a counterclockwise or a clockwise turn.” Lastly, there are deep bowl-shaped marks with some shallow toe claw marks, Buntin said.
In terms of behavior, Buntin said these dinosaurs most resemble that of banded plovers, which are small shorebirds.
“Basically, they will dig out a nest display, basically a fake nest, to be able to show a female that, ‘Hey, I’m a strong male. I can dig this. I can make a good, strong place for you to lay your eggs,'” Buntin said. “And then when a female comes to visit, they’ll perform a dance which consists of kind of bowing, bobbing, raising their wings out, creating some scratches around the sides of that display nest.”
The authors emphasized that the site is public, meaning anybody can visit and see the scrapes for themselves compared to other scrap sites, which are on federally protected land.
“It does really make it a very, very unique site, because not only does it have this amazing like type behavior displayed, but it also is so accessible for lots of people to be able to see it and understand better about the behavior of these wonderful animals that we can see now,” Neffra Matthews, study co-author and former employee of the Bureau of Land Management, told ABC News.
(NEW YORK) — A heat advisory is in place across the Northeast, from Maryland to Maine, where residents are bracing for temperatures 5 to 15 degrees above average.
The heat index — what the temperature feels like with humidity — could reach 103 degrees in Philadelphia on Wednesday and Thursday.
New York City and Boston could feel like 100 degrees with humidity on Wednesday and Thursday.
Further north, the heat index may climb into the upper 90s in Burlington, Vermont, and Syracuse, New York, on Wednesday.
The dangerous heat is also invading the South and West.
The heat index could hit a scorching 105 to 109 degrees on Wednesday in New Orleans; Memphis, Tennessee; and Little Rock, Arkansas.
In the West, a heat advisory is in place from Northern California to northern Washington with temperatures 10 to 15 degrees above average. Portland, Oregon, could near 100 degrees on Wednesday and Seattle could reach the 90s.
(WASHINGTON) — Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has fired two top deputies at the Department of Health and Human Services, ABC News has learned.
Heather Flick Melanson, Kennedy’s chief of staff, and Hannah Anderson, deputy chief of staff of policy, are departing, according to a department spokesperson and another person familiar with the decisions.
Neither Flick nor Anderson immediately responded to an ABC News request for comment.
No reason was given for the ousters. The person familiar with the situation told ABC that Kennedy “has every right to make personnel decisions.”
“Secretary Kennedy has made a leadership change within the Immediate Office of the Secretary,” according to a statement provided by an HHS spokesperson to ABC News. “Effective immediately, Matt Buckham will serve as Acting Chief of Staff.”
“Mr. Buckham currently serves as the Kennedy’s White House liaison at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where he oversees the recruitment and onboarding of political appointees across the agency. He brings valuable experience in personnel strategy and organizational management to this new role,” the statement continued.
“Secretary Kennedy thanks the outgoing leadership for their service and looks forward to working closely with Mr. Buckham as the Department continues advancing its mission to Make America Healthy Again,” the statement concluded.
(MARICOPA COUNTY, AZ) — Police have recommended charges in the drowning of influencer Emilie Kiser’s 3-year-old son, Trigg Kiser, who was found unresponsive in his family’s backyard pool in May.
“After a thorough review of the evidence, we have submitted the case to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office for further review and any potential prosecutorial decisions,” the Chandler, Arizona, Police Department said in a statement Thursday.
A felony charge of child abuse was recommended by the police department. The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office has final say in whether charges are actually brought against anyone.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
