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Hair stylist Frédéric Fekkai and ex-Miami Beach mayor Philip Levine accused in new testimony, lawmakers reveal

Republican lawmakers have asked the Department of Justice to investigate sexual assault allegations involving two men made by Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime assistant.

In a transcribed closed-door interview in late May, as part of a congressional investigation into Epstein, Sarah Kellen, one of the late sex offender’s former aides, told the House oversight and reform committee she was “sexually and psychologically abused” by him during her employment – but also alleged she was sexually assaulted by the French celebrity hairstylist Frédéric Fekkai, and by Philip Levine, the former mayor of Miami Beach, in separate incidents in the early 2000s.

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The Persepolis author understood us and translated us for the world. We have lost our most eloquent spokesperson

Marjane Satrapi has died and every Iranian woman I know is in shock and mourning, while none seems confused by reports of the cause. She died “of sadness”, according to those close to her. Of course she did. Iranians often do. And Satrapi felt everything so intensely.

For my cohort (girls who began their adolescence in 1980s Iran and ended it in the west) Marjane Satrapi was a spokesperson for our trauma, our upbringing and our particular flavour of shame, repression and outspokenness. She made us legible to our western peers in our 20s and 30s, and I was sure she would do it again in middle age.

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Country is shaken by the brutal murders of two girls, aged 14 and 17, whose bodies were discovered just days apart

Argentina has reacted with fury after the bodies of two murdered teenage girls were found just two days apart. The latest killings underscore the South American country’s enduring femicide crisis despite years of feminist campaigning, and have prompted alarm over the decision to cut support for victims of gender-based violence under the far-right administration of Javier Milei.

Police found the remains of Agostina Vega, 14, on Saturday, in a field on the outskirts of the city of Córdoba. She had been fatally strangled and her body had been dismembered, according to local media reports.

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Exclusive: Greater Manchester mayor sets out his priorities before Makerfield byelection – and what might happen after the vote

Andy Burnham has signalled he would begin transforming the broken social care system this year if he became prime minister, accusing Westminster of “flinching away” from tackling difficult policy problems.

The Greater Manchester mayor said politicians must be willing to take on “the weight of the system” that stands in the way of radical change, as he began to set out his prospectus for government if he won the Makerfield byelection.

Said Labour should be a broad church with more government ministers from the left of the party, but Jeremy Corbyn should not be allowed back in.

Signalled there would be no snap election if he replaced Keir Starmer, but defended himself from criticism over a shadow leadership campaign.

Defended his comments that politicians should not be “in hock” to the bond markets, and denied he was boxing himself in by sticking to Rachel Reeves’s fiscal rules.

Argued it would be a mistake to rerun the Brexit referendum but that he wanted the UK to rejoin the EU in his lifetime.

Praised Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, for “facing up” to the big issues on immigration.

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DEN HAAG (ANP) - De Tweede Kamer wil weten wat het kabinet gaat doen om beïnvloeding door buitenlandse actoren op sociale media tegen te gaan. Niet alle partijen zien hetzelfde gevaar, maar een ruime meerderheid van de Kamer wil wel dat er meer gebeurt om de mogelijkheden tot beïnvloeding te verkleinen.

Tweede Kamerlid Barbara Kathmann van PRO vroeg zich in een debat af waarom het kabinet het pikt dat bigtechbedrijven wetten niet naleven en waarom Nederland dat pikt. "We worden er allemaal bijgenaaid. Wanneer gaan we eindelijk totale transparantie afdwingen?" Volgens Kathmann is een oplossing dichtbij. De bedrijven achter de sociale-mediaplatforms moeten openheid geven. "Alle informatie die nodig is om buitenlandse beïnvloeding te stoppen, is er al bij die bedrijven."

Daniël van den Berg van JA21 zag het gevaar ook, maar hij vreesde ook dat het inperken daarvan al snel uitkomt op het beperken van de vrijheid van meningsuiting. "We moeten terughoudend zijn met censuur en discussies sturen."

CAÏRO/GAZA (ANP/RTR) - Bij de Israëlische luchtaanvallen op de Gazastrook zijn donderdag volgens medische hulpverleners zeker tien doden gevallen. Onder hen waren vijf familieleden. Alleen een meisje uit dit gezin overleefde, volgens hulpverleners.

Vroeg op de dag werd een appartementengebouw aangevallen, waarbij vier woningen getroffen werden en negen doden vielen. Daarnaast vielen er zeker vijftien gewonden in het getroffen pand. Later is bij een andere luchtaanval in Gaza-Stad een dode gevallen.

Sinds de Amerikaanse president Donald Trump regelde dat er een wapenstilstand kwam tussen Israël en de beweging Hamas in oktober, zijn er bij Israëlische aanvallen ongeveer 930 Palestijnen gedood. Sinds de grootscheepse aanvallen op de dichtbevolkte Gazastrook in 2023 begonnen, zijn er zeker 72.000 Palestijnen gedood - voornamelijk burgers, aldus de autoriteiten en hulpdiensten in Gaza.

GENÈVE (ANP/RTR) - Het Zwitserse leger gaat naar eigen zeggen 4000 militairen inzetten met veiligheidstaken rond de in Frankrijk gehouden top van de G7. President Emmanuel Macron is 15 tot 17 juni gastheer van de top in Évian-les-Bains aan het Meer van Genève. Évian ligt dicht bij de Zwitserse grens.

Onder de gasten is naar verwachting de Amerikaanse president Donald Trump. Hij heeft mogelijk een aparte ontmoeting met Macron in de marge van de top.

De G7 is oorspronkelijk een op economische kwesties gerichte informele overleggroep van Canada, Duitsland, Frankrijk, Groot-Brittannië, Italië, Japan en de VS. De EU, voorheen de Europese Economische Gemeenschap, schuift sinds 1977 aan, maar niet als officieel lid. De G7 houdt zich steeds meer met politieke zaken bezig.

AMSTERDAM (ANP) - De gemeente Amsterdam legt een aantal technische diensten in handen van het Nederlandse KPN, om zo minder afhankelijk te zijn van niet-Europese techbedrijven. KPN werkt momenteel met een Duits bedrijf aan een Europese soevereine cloud, als lokaal alternatief voor het opslaan van data.

De gemeente gunt een nieuw contract voor hosting, het beschikbaar stellen van servers en infrastructuur waarop applicaties draaien, en het monitoren, onderhouden, beveiligen en actualiseren van deze applicaties aan telecombedrijf KPN. Daarmee wil de gemeente meer controle krijgen over "kritieke digitale systemen", schrijft wethouder Alexander Scholtes in een brief aan de gemeenteraad. KPN krijgt de opdracht voor een periode van vijf jaar.

"Hiermee kiest de gemeente voor een Nederlandse partner die investeert in een autonome cloud voor Europese overheden en organisaties", licht Scholtes toe. Volgens de wethouder is het de tweede aanbesteding waarin digitale autonomie expliciet is meegewogen.

Maar wat een feest was dat: de overdracht van de glazen toverstok van Maria Roosen door Katinka Simonse aan Esther Kokmeijer in de Fenix donderdagmiddag 4 juni. Esther stralend alsook geëmotioneerd in op haar beurt [Meer...]

De oud-directeur van Milieudefensie vertrok na één dag bij Tata Steel na een onthulling over zijn extreemrechts-activistisch verleden. Milieudefensie was hiervan op de hoogte maar koos ervoor die informatie niet intern of met de buitenwereld te delen.

De aanklager verwijt de vrouwen van 31 en 34 jaar verder ernstige kindermishandeling en wederrechtelijke vrijheidsberoving.

De verontwaardiging was groot over acht stokstaartjes die werden „geëuthanaseerd” in Diergaarde Blijdorp. Over het aantal dieren dat dagelijks wordt geslacht hoor je amper iemand. „De taal rond een bepaalde praktijk vormt de ervaring.”

Weer voor Rotterdam 🌤️ - 04-06-2026 19:15 CEST

In één oogopslag:
• 17.4°C · Licht bewolkt 🌤️ | Min 14.4°C / Max 17.6°C | Kans op neerslag 59%

Verwachting voor vandaag:
• Min 14.4°C, Max 17.6°C (Zware motregen) 🌦️, Neerslag 5.1 mm, Kans op neerslag 59%, 🧭 1001.4 hPa ↗️ +1.0 hPa/24h, Windsnelheid: 31.3 km/u (8.7 m/s), richting: ↗ 220°

Uurlijkse voorspelling voor de komende 12 uur:

• 20:00: 16.6°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 76%, 🧭 1000.4 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 24.8 km/u (6.9 m/s), richting: ↗ 239°
• 21:00: 15.6°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 71%, 🧭 1001.0 hPa ↗️ +0.6 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 25.2 km/u (7.0 m/s), richting: ↗ 241°
• 22:00: 15.4°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 64%, 🧭 1001.8 hPa ↗️ +0.8 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 25.6 km/u (7.1 m/s), richting: ↗ 235°
• 23:00: 15.0°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 61%, 🧭 1002.5 hPa ↗️ +0.7 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 23.0 km/u (6.4 m/s), richting: ↗ 225°
• 00:00: 14.8°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 66%, 🧭 1003.1 hPa ↗️ +0.6 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 20.2 km/u (5.6 m/s), richting: ↗ 221°
• 01:00: 14.4°C (Gedeeltelijk bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 76%, 🧭 1003.6 hPa ↗️ +0.5 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 19.4 km/u (5.4 m/s), richting: ↗ 217°
• 02:00: 14.4°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 84%, 🧭 1004.2 hPa ↗️ +0.6 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 19.1 km/u (5.3 m/s), richting: ↗ 219°
• 03:00: 14.3°C (Zware motregen) 🌦️, Neerslag 1.0 mm, Kans op neerslag 89%, 🧭 1004.7 hPa ↗️ +0.5 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 23.4 km/u (6.5 m/s), richting: ↗ 224°
• 04:00: 14.6°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 92%, 🧭 1005.1 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 16.2 km/u (4.5 m/s), richting: ↗ 232°
• 05:00: 15.2°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 94%, 🧭 1005.8 hPa ↗️ +0.7 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 19.4 km/u (5.4 m/s), richting: → 264°
• 06:00: 15.1°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 93%, 🧭 1006.5 hPa ↗️ +0.7 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 18.4 km/u (5.1 m/s), richting: → 261°
• 07:00: 15.1°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 89%, 🧭 1007.3 hPa ↗️ +0.8 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 15.5 km/u (4.3 m/s), richting: → 272°

Voorspelling voor de komende dagen:

• vrijdag 05 juni: Min 14.3°C, Max 20.0°C (Zware motregen) 🌦️, Neerslag 1.3 mm, Kans op neerslag 52%, 🧭 1009.8 hPa ↗️ +8.4 hPa/24h, Windsnelheid: 23.4 km/u (6.5 m/s), richting: → 252°
• zaterdag 06 juni: Min 14.1°C, Max 20.1°C (Lichte regen) 🌧️, Neerslag 3.7 mm, Kans op neerslag 37%, 🧭 1012.8 hPa ↗️ +3.0 hPa/24h, Windsnelheid: 23.8 km/u (6.6 m/s), richting: ↑ 178°
• zondag 07 juni: Min 13.4°C, Max 18.1°C (Matige motregen) 🌦️, Neerslag 2.4 mm, Kans op neerslag 23%, 🧭 1018.2 hPa ↗️ +5.4 hPa/24h, Windsnelheid: 20.9 km/u (5.8 m/s), richting: ↗ 236°
• maandag 08 juni: Min 13.0°C, Max 19.4°C (Lichte regen) 🌧️, Neerslag 11.1 mm, Kans op neerslag 33%, 🧭 1016.2 hPa ↘️ -2.0 hPa/24h, Windsnelheid: 13.9 km/u (3.9 m/s), richting: ↗ 207°
• dinsdag 09 juni: Min 11.9°C, Max 15.6°C (Matige motregen) 🌦️, Neerslag 2.5 mm, Kans op neerslag 41%, 🧭 1013.6 hPa ↘️ -2.6 hPa/24h, Windsnelheid: 17.4 km/u (4.8 m/s), richting: → 260°
• woensdag 10 juni: Min 10.8°C, Max 16.4°C (Lichte motregen) 🌦️, Neerslag 5.6 mm, Kans op neerslag 39%, 🧭 1015.2 hPa ↗️ +1.6 hPa/24h, Windsnelheid: 14.4 km/u (4.0 m/s), richting: ↗ 232°

Details:
• 🌡️ Huidige temperatuur (om 19:15): 17.4°C (Licht bewolkt)
• 🤚 Gevoelstemperatuur: 13.3°C (-4.1°C)
• 💨 Windsnelheid: 29.9 km/u (8.3 m/s), richting: ↗ 243°
• 🌬️ Windstoten: 59.4 km/h (16.5 m/s)
• 💧 Luchtvochtigheid: 69%
• 🧭 Luchtdruk: 1000.4 hPa ↗️ +1.4 hPa/3h
• 👁️ Zichtbaarheid: 20.1 km
• ☀️ UV-index: 1.4
• 🌅 Zonsopgang: 05:26 · 🌇 Zonsondergang: 21:54

Luchtkwaliteit:
• AQI: 30 🟢 (Goed)
• PM2.5: 4.8 μg/m³
• PM10: 11.8 μg/m³

Gegevens geleverd door Open-Meteo

#Rotterdam #Meteo #MeteoBot #MeteoNetherlands #OpenMeteo #FediMeteo

Jamelle Bouie: The cruelty is still the point of the Trump regime. “This isn’t a border security policy. It’s cruelty as governance — directed at people this administration has decided don’t deserve dignity.”

Throughout most of human history, the weather has resisted humanity’s desire to change it.

For thousands of years, we have sacrificed children, sung songs and danced, brewed alchemical concoctions, chanted prayers, fired cannons, and made many other futile efforts in the attempt to somehow change the weather a little more to our liking.

And then, with the Industrial Revolution, all that changed. Humans modified the weather on a planet-wide, unpredictable scale.

Climate change is an enormous accomplishment. From an engineering perspective, the ability to coordinate activities to modify the average temperatures of an entire planet, change the pH of deep oceans, and cause vast shifts in the distribution of arable land across continents is a realization of powers as considerable as anything humanity has achieved before. It rewrites the core story of our origins, in which we are powerless before the forces that have made us. The fact that this discovery of our powers—that we can modify the weather on a planetary scale—was more or less accidental only puts it more firmly in the canon of scientific revelations. We are also, as with our other emergent powers, quite apparently terrible at it.

The innumerable crises prompted by our moment—the desertification of arable land, increasingly catastrophic storms, the deadly rise in temperatures in previously habitable regions—are nothing if not urgent incentives to grasp hold of what we have already done. After millennia of reaching up toward the sky, the levers just out of reach, the consensus on climate change indicates that we are, in fact, already manipulating the weather every day.

All of which suggests a new question: Are we ever going to get good at it?

The rest of the piece is about efforts to “get good at” weather modification. (via longreads)

Tags: climate crisis · weather

Softness and resilience. Presence and absence. Vitality and stillness. These are just a few of the dualities that permeate the atmospheric work of Jeanne Vicerial, whose textile-focused practice taps into history and femininity with precision and reverence.

A city-wide exhibition of Vicerial’s pieces titled Incarnation: Carte blanche Jeanne Vicerial opens across several historic spaces in Aix-en-Provence this month: Musée du Pavillon de Vendôme, Musée des Tapisseries, Chapelle de la Visitation, and Musée Granet. Situated amid centuries-old architecture and existing museum collections, the artist’s works nod to time, tradition, and remembrance. The show surveys sculptures and installations created throughout the last several years, including sprawling installations that feature yards of pooling rope and smaller, intimate, provocative wall pieces.

Known for her dramatic Armors series, Vicerial nods to medieval European heritage, such as knights’ armor and burial and memorial customs. “Gisante de cœur,” for example, which translates to “recumbent figure of the heart,” references the tradition of nobility or priests’ sculptural likenesses placed atop sarcophagi. Except in Vicerial’s world, these figures are all enigmatically, anonymously, and powerfully female. The silhouettes of bodies are conveyed through textile, which in turn is associated with clothing and its potential to both reveal and conceal as well as protect.

“Beyond practical functions, textiles carry within them a memory: the memory of gestures, of uses, and of the traces left behind by the bodies that have worn or transformed them,” says a statement. “Thus, the material becomes a silent witness to past presences—the medium for a history that is simultaneously individual, intimate, and collective.”

Incarnation opens on June 13 and continues through October 4.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Jeanne Vicerial’s Ethereal Sculptures Dot Historic Spaces in Aix-en-Provence in ‘Incarnation’ appeared first on Colossal.

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

The world’s AI luminaries love to warn us of impending planetary demise thanks to their creations, and they’re back with a new warning: Rapidly improving frontier AI models, combined with readily available synthetic nucleic acids, could lower barriers to biological weapons development. The open letter, published this week, calls on lawmakers to make screening of orders for synthetic nucleic acids and the equipment used to produce them mandatory. It also backs recordkeeping for synthesis orders and sequence data so that potentially dangerous activity that slips through initial screening can be traced back to its source. As has been the case with previous open letters from AI heavyweights warning of extinction-level threats from the products they created, the letter was signed by a who’s-who of the industry. Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, OpenAI chief Sam Altman, Anthropic boss Dario Amodei, Microsoft AI leader Mustafa Suleyman, and other notable names appear on the letter. Outside the AI sector, leaders from the life sciences and nucleic acid synthesis industries also signed the letter, warning that advances in AI and the growing availability of synthetic nucleic acids could pose biosecurity risks. “The ability to order synthetic DNA online has accelerated vaccine development, powered basic research, and made it possible for small teams to access capabilities that used to be confined to major institutions,” the signatories said, adding that synthetic nucleic acid availability has already been established to be a potential risk, and that advances in AI could increase those risks. “AI systems are improving rapidly, and alongside incredible benefits to science and medicine, there is a real possibility that the knowledge barriers which have historically prevented bad actors from obtaining biological weapons will meaningfully erode,” the letter continued. Screening purchases of synthetic nucleic acids and the equipment to manufacture them, the letter argues, is one of the “best understood and least disruptive biosecurity measures available.” The signatories argue that providers of the equipment and materials should check synthesis requests for “sequences of concern,” and verify the legitimacy of a customer before shipping orders. Synthesis orders and sequence data should be retained as well, which would enable tracing of threats that evade initial screening. “Awareness of traceability itself deters misuse,” the letter argues. “Many of the largest and most responsible providers in the industry already screen and record orders,” and they want those practices codified in US law.” “Given the pace at which the underlying technology is changing, we believe the need is urgent,” the letter concludes. “Congress should act this session … this is a rare moment of agreement across stakeholders that are often at odds. We hope policymakers will meet it with decisive action.” There are currently a couple of bills in Congress aimed at strengthening oversight of synthetic nucleic acid synthesis: one introduced in the House more than a year ago, and another filed in the Senate in January 2026. The House measure was ordered reported out of committee in April 2025 but has seen no further action, while the Senate bill has remained in committee since its introduction. It’s worth noting that the Biden administration’s Office of Science and Technology Policy published a framework in April 2024 directing federally funded life sciences research to procure synthetic nucleic acids and synthesis equipment from providers that follow specified screening practices. The Trump administration ordered OSTP to revise or replace that framework in a May 2025 executive order, giving the office 90 days to do so. A new version of the framework has yet to be published. ®