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Govt accused of Trump cover-up

o Justice Department reviewing Epstein files, denies any wrongdoing

Croatia unveils humanoid robot ZAGREB: Humanoid robot Tonka, capable of performing fluid dance routines and Kung Fu-inspired movements, was unveiled on Wednesday at the Rudjer Boskovic Institute during a conference on humanoid robotics, reported Xinhua. Named Tonka after a popular Croatian female name to reflect local culture, the robot is built on the Unitree G1 platform developed by China’s Unitree Robotics. Its upgrades include a customised voice communication system and enhanced motor controls. Vandri Robotics director and co-founder Tadej Slapnik said the company has launched its first commercial application in tourism. A humanoid receptionist is expected to be fully operational within four months, tasked with welcoming guests, managing reservations and providing hotel information, he said. Slapnik described Tonka as personable yet professional. “She can joke, but she also knows how to set boundaries. Our goal is to make her acceptable to people and showcase the potential of human robots.” – Bernama-Xinhua MOSCOW: The lower house of the French Parliament passed a Bill on end-of-life assistance on Wednesday, about eight months after the Senate sent it back for re-examination, reported Sputnik/RIA Novosti. The motion was passed in a 299-226 vote, announced National Assembly Speaker Yael Braun-Pivet. The draft law will now send the Bill back to the Senate for reconsideration. The Bill was backed by the majority of lawmakers from left-wing parties, as well as the majority of lawmakers from the centrist Renaissance party. Right-wing lawmakers from the National Rally and Union for the Republic mostly voted against. In May, 305 lawmakers voted in favour of allowing access to euthanasia while 199 voted against, newspaper Figaro reported. The assembly also passed a Bill on the right to maximum access to palliative care for people suffering from incurable diseases, with 491 votes in favour and no votes against. – Bernama-Sputnik/RIA Novosti Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said he reviewed unredacted evidence logs at the Justice Department and reached the same conclusion. “Oversight Democrats can confirm that the department appears to have illegally withheld FBI interviews with this survivor,” he said, adding that Democrats would open a parallel investigation and demand the missing records be provided to Congress. The Justice Department argues that any material not posted falls within categories allowed under the law, including duplicates, privileged records or documents tied to an ongoing federal investigation. Asked for comment, the department on Wednesday referred AFP to a social media response in which it denied deleting files and said documents temporarily removed for victim-related redactions or to remove personally identifiable information would be restored. Democrats argue that the missing interview records do not fit the categories cited by the department. – AFP France passes euthanasia Bill

flagged by the public, the department is reviewing files within that category of the production. “Should any document be found to have been improperly tagged in the review process and is responsive to the law, the department will of course publish it, consistent with the law,” it said, alluding to the bipartisan Bill passed last year that ordered the Trump adminstration to release all its Epstein files. The woman at the heart of this episode of the Epstein drama first contacted authorities in July 2019, shortly after Epstein’s arrest on federal sex trafficking charges. Later internal references in the released files describe her as alleging that the disgraced financier introduced her to Trump, who assaulted her in the mid-1980s when she was between 13 and 15 years old. A 2025 FBI document in the public database recounts that claim but does not include an assessment of its credibility. Detailed memos from the follow-up interviews, which were conducted in August and October 2019, according to the indexes, are not included.

Epstein files release exonerated him. Indexes and serial numbers attached to the investigative materials into Epstein’s trafficking ring indicate that FBI agents conducted four probes with the accuser and generated summaries and notes, NPR reported. Only one summary, focused largely on her allegations against Epstein, appears in the public database. The remaining three summaries and related notes, totalling more than 50 pages, are not available on the Justice Department’s website, according to NPR’s review of the document numbering. The New York Times and cable network MS NOW reported similar findings. “This is the largest government cover-up in modern history. We are demanding answers,” the Democrats on the House Oversight Committee said. On Wednesday, the Justice Department said some media outlets have alleged that files related to Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell are also missing from records released to the public. “As with all documents that have been

WASHINGTON: Democrats on Wednesday accused US President Donald Trump’s administration of the “largest government cover-up in modern history” over reports that it withheld documents relating to allegations that Trump sexually abused a minor. The Justice Department said it is reviewing its Epstein files to see if any were handled “improperly” but denied any wrongdoing. The department has released millions of pages from files connected to notorious sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein under a transparency law enacted last year. But public broadcaster NPR found gaps in the files tied to one woman’s 2019 assault complaint against Trump. Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, arguing that the department’s

GRIM TASK ... Rescuers on Wednesday searching for victims amid the rubble and mud after a landslide triggered by heavy rains in the Paineiras neighborhood in

Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais State in Brazil. – AFPPIC

Cuba kills four ‘infiltrators’ on US speedboat HAVANA: Cuba said it thwarted gunmen trying to infiltrate from the United States as its coast guard opened fire on Wednesday at a Florida-registered speedboat near its shores, killing four individuals and wounding six. FL7726SH, one nautical mile (1.85km) from Cayo Falcones island off Cuba’s northern coast. As the coast guard vessel approached,“shots were fired from the illegal speedboat”, injuring the commander of the Cuban vessel, it said. It added that the injured were evacuated and received medical assistance.

major oil producer, for about half its fuel needs. Faced with an outcry from Caribbean leaders worried that starving 9.6 million Cubans of oil would cause the economy to collapse, Washington said it would allow shipments of Venezuelan oil for “commercial and humanitarian use”. The announcement came during a summit of Caribbean nations attended by Rubio, a Cuban-American who has spent his career hoping to topple Havana’s government. The Treasury Department said the Venezuelan oil would need to go through private businesses and not the Cuban government or the military apparatus that controls much of the island’s economy. The US oil blockade, in place for over a month, has brought an already crumbling Cuban economy, which has been under a US trade embargo since shortly after Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution, to the brink. Mexico on Tuesday despatched two military vessels carrying nearly 2,200 tonnes of aid to the island, marking its second aid shipment in under a month. Canada also announced C$8 million (RM22.75 million) in aid on Wednesday. – AFP

Havana’s Interior Ministry said those arrested after an exchange of gunfire with the boat claimed that they had “intended to carry out an infiltration for the purposes of terrorism”. The ministry said assault rifles, handguns, Molotov cocktails and other military-style gear were found on the vessel and the 10 occupants were all Cubans living in the United States. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington is seeking its own facts about the shooting and would “respond accordingly”. “We are not going to base our conclusions on what they (Cuba) have told us. I am very confident that we will know the full story of what happened here. We will gather more information, then we will be prepared to respond accordingly.“ The attorney-general of Florida, which lies just 160km from Cuba across the Florida Straits, ordered an investigation into the killings. The Cuban Interior Ministry earlier said the coast guard encountered the “illegal” US vessel, whose registration number it gave as

The ministry has released the names of seven individuals on the speedboat, noting that most of the 10 have records in Cuba for “criminal and violent activity”. A man sent from the United States to take part in this operation was arrested on Cuban soil and confessed, it added. The Cuban government frequently reports incursions by speedboats from the United States into its territorial waters. Incursion incidents are often related to people-smuggling to the United States or drug trafficking, and have included chases, shootouts and armed attacks on border guards. Wednesday’s shooting comes as Washington softened a virtual oil siege of the island imposed by US President Donald Trump in January after the US ouster of top Cuba ally Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela. Before Maduro’s ouster by US forces on Jan 3, Cuba had relied on Venezuela, once a