The transcript of Bill Gates’ testimony was released. Gates told lawmakers he believed the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was preparing to blackmail him over his extramarital affairs. The Department of Justice said last year it found no credible evidence that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals.

Bill Gates tells Oversight panel that meeting with Epstein was a ‘grave error in judgment’

“I was not blackmailed, but, you know, as you look at these emails, you know, it looks like Mr. Epstein’s brainstorming was going in that direction,” Gates said about materials from the Epstein files released earlier this year by the Department of Justice. “It appears that in many cases he, at least in emails to himself, was sort of rehearsing how either he or he coaching someone else might choose to blackmail me, but none of those messages were ever sent to me.”

After Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates tried to end his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender attempted to use compromising information about Gates’ extramarital affairs to force his way back into Gates’ life — but never explicitly threatened him, Gates told the House Oversight Committee earlier this month, according to a transcript of the closed-door session released Tuesday.

Gates, according to the transcript, said Epstein used an adviser to send him “veiled” threats, appeared to coach Gates’ adviser on how to potentially blackmail him, and mixed fact and fiction to leverage compromising information against the software billionaire.

During the interview, Gates acknowledged having at least three extramarital affairs, though he said that Epstein was involved with none of the women and that Epstein only learned about them after he and Epstein had cut ties.

Gates told lawmakers that his interactions with Epstein were limited to business, that he never witnessed Epstein commit a crime, and that he did not suspect that the women who were traveling with the disgraced financier were victims of sex trafficking. Asked about photos showing him with some of Epstein’s victims, Gates said Epstein occasionally asked to take photographs of Gates with women who Gates said he believed were Epstein’s assistants.

“I have never victimized anyone. While he may have sought to foster a personal relationship, I was never interested in that and never reciprocated,” Gates told lawmakers.

Gates told the Oversight panel that he first began to meet with Epstein in 2011 because he thought the financier’s purported connections with the wealthy could help advance the Gates Foundation’s global health work. When they first began to meet, Gates said he was aware of Epstein’s “bad reputation stemming from his criminal conviction,” but continued to see Epstein.

“I was aware that he had a criminal conviction,” Gates said. “I knew that it was of a sexual nature, but, no, I don’t think I knew, dug into the specifics, although I probably should have.” 

Gates said he only became aware of the full extent of Epstein’s crimes in 2018 after the Miami Herald’s in-depth reporting on Epstein’s lenient deal with federal prosecutors.

Gates said he thought the other high-profile individuals with whom Epstein socialized helped create an “image of legitimacy,” acknowledging that his own relationship with Epstein likely bolstered that image.

“I was so focused on the possibility of raising funds for global health that I allowed that goal to override my better judgment,” Gates said. “If the time I spent with Epstein lent him credibility, I am deeply sorry. I’ve learned a significant lesson and am now far more careful about who I engage with, even in a limited capacity.” 

Describing Epstein as a “dilettante” with a surface-level knowledge of science and academics, Gates said that Epstein suggested he “provided advice to lots of billionaires” who might be able to advance philanthropic causes.

“He talked about Wall Street billionaires, he talked about Middle East billionaires. He made it sound very extensive … maybe for me to have a good impression of him,” Gates said.

While Gates insisted that his meetings with Epstein “weren’t social,” he recounted that some of those dinners involved “wide ranging discussion” with academics and bankers, including one dinner that included entertainment from magician David Blaine. Gates also said that Epstein repeatedly invited him to his private island, as well as an erotic show in Paris — invites that Gates said he refused.

According to Gates, his science adviser claimed they could likely go backstage to meet some of the performers that Epstein had dated, but Gates said he did not want to be spotted at an erotic show with Epstein.

“It wasn’t consistent with the relationship I had with Epstein,” Gates said. “I guess not only is my appearing at an erotic event a risk to my reputation, it would be compounded by appearing with somebody who, although I didn’t know the full extent of it, had been convicted of a sexually related crime.”

After occasionally meeting with Epstein for about three years, Gates said he began to express concerns that Epstein was “stringing” him along with his claims that he could deliver “meaningful philanthropic support.” According to Gates, Epstein set up a series of meetings in 2014 with high-profile individuals including hotel billionaire Thomas Pritzker, media billionaire Mort Zuckerman, and private equity investor Leon Black to demonstrate his connections to purportedly help Gates’ philanthropy work, though Gates said the meetings were a “dead end.”

“At that point, I concluded Epstein would never deliver on his promises. I told him we would go no further and stopped communicating or meeting with him,” Gates told the panel. 

After Gates tried to cut ties with Epstein in 2014, he said the disgraced financier attempted to force his way back into his life, including by leveraging his knowledge of Gates’ extramarital affairs.

While Gates said he never disclosed the affairs to Epstein, he speculated that Epstein learned about the indiscretions through his relationship with Gates’ science adviser Boris Nikolic. Gates said that Nikolic was aware of the affairs because of their close relationship, including at least one instance when he used meeting with Nikolic as an alibi to rendezvous with one of the women.

“One time it was a scheduling thing, when we were in London, where I said to him I was going to disappear and wanted him to show that I was meeting with him at that time,” Gates said.

When Nikolic began the process of leaving the Gates Foundation, he engaged Epstein to help him negotiate the terms of his departure, Gates said. Epstein traveled to Seattle at one point to assist in Nikolic’s negotiation, Gates said, and Nikolic eventually began to make “veiled” threats via email.

“It’s hard to characterize the Epstein stuff because there was never a direct threat of any kind. There was always this veiled language like ‘we should remain friends,’ you know, which made me wonder what Dr. Nikolic had shared with him,” Gates said.

Asked about two draft emails released by the Department of Justice seemingly written by Epstein on behalf of Nikolic, Gates said the notes — which vaguely referenced the affairs and suggested that Gates has contracted a sexually transmitted disease — appeared to be part of a plot to attempt to “blackmail” him.

While Gates acknowledged at least three affairs, he explicitly denied contracting a sexually transmitted disease from the affairs, suggesting Epstein mixed falsehoods with known compromising information to use as leverage.

“If those emails that contained some truth and some false things were ever sent, then we could say there was an attempt at blackmail that never happened,” Gates said.

After he severed his relationship with Epstein, Gates claimed that the disgraced financier attempted to force his way back into his orbit, including by seeking reimbursement for money he claimed to have paid a woman with whom Gates had an affair. He told lawmakers that Epstein had nothing to do with the relationship and said he was unaware of any money that Epstein may have paid the woman, telling lawmakers that he believed the requests for payment were a “tactic [for Epstein] to reengage” him.

“I’d never asked him to do anything with respect to the person we’re discussing, so I was rather surprised. That was the first time I knew explicitly that he’d become aware of that affair,” Gates told lawmakers.

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Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch issued a statement confirming the searches, saying the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau was working alongside the FBI in executing search warrants “as part of a criminal investigation being pursued by the NYPD, the FBI, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.”

“The investigation is ongoing and concerns conduct by former and current members of the NYPD,” she said.

The investigation is targeting current and former police executives, according to a report by ABC News.

The investigation is examining, among other things, promotions and assignments and how they were carried out ABC report also mentioned.  

Commissioner Tisch in her statement did not identify potential suspects or charges.

“When I became Police Commissioner, I promised New Yorkers that under my leadership the NYPD would conduct itself with integrity and that there would be a thorough investigation of any claim that members of service failed to meet that standard,” Tisch said. “This investigation and our actions this morning are part of the ongoing effort to fulfill that commitment and hold the Department to its highest ideals.”

The investigation was targeting the current chief of Manhattan South, Jimmy McCarthy, who has been placed on modified duty, according to the NYPD. Another target is the department’s former chief spokesman, Tarik Sheppard, according to ABC news.

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The case centers on a city contract issued during the Adams administration, according to the ABC News.

Carone and the others were expected to be arraigned in Brooklyn federal court on Wednesday. Their indictment remained sealed on Wednesday, so the exact charges were not immediately known.

Carone helped with Adams’ transition into office in January 2022 and served as the mayor’s chief of staff until that December, when he departed the administration. He said as he departed that it had been an “honor keeping the trains running for this administration,” according to a press release from the time.

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A three-alarm fire heavily damaged the Knights Inn motel in Endwell, New York, on June 22, 2026. Six people died and more than 70 were displaced, State police said.

Police arrested 24‑year‑old Tyler J. Russell and charged him with six counts of second‑degree manslaughter and one count of arson.

According to troopers, just after 6 a.m. on Monday, June 22, local first responders received multiple reports of a fire at the motel in Endwell, a hamlet near the New York and Pennsylvania state lines.

Crews with the Endwell Fire Department arrived to find the motel fully engulfed and “heavy black smoke in the front of the building and flames showing from the rear of the building.”

The fire spread rapidly, police said, and additional fire departments and law enforcement agencies, including the New York State Office of Fire and the Broome County Office of Emergency Services, arrived to assist. At least two people were transported to a hospital and six people died in the fire, troopers said in news released.

In its release, the New York State Police said the victims’ identities will be released “at a later time.”

“First and foremost, our deepest thoughts and continuous prayers are with the victims and their families who were impacted by this morning’s tragic events,” the Endwell Fire Department said in a statement on Facebook. “Please know that our entire department and community stand with you during this incredibly difficult time.”

The exact cause and origin of the fire was not immediately released by police. A motive in the fire was also not immediately known.

Tyler J. Russell, 24, was arrested and charged with six counts of second-degree manslaughter and one count of arson in the early morning inferno that tore through the Knights Inn in Broome County, New York State Police wrote.

As a result of the ongoing investigation and after consultation with the Broome County District Attorney’s Office, troopers arrested Russell on manslaughter and arson charges about 8:30 p.m. ET that same day and booked him into the Broome County Jail.

The American Red Cross was assisting the displaced guests, police said, and a temporary shelter was set up at the Vestal United Methodist Church.

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Former New York City comptroller Brad Lander scored a big victory over the incumbent Dan Goldman in the 10th Congressional District, which covers Lower Manhattan and stretches into Brooklyn.

In New York’s 7th Congressional District, that includes part of Queens and Brooklyn, State Assembly Member Claire Valdez, swiped a wide win over Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso.

In the 13th Congressional District, made up of parts of Upper Manhattan and the West Bronx, Democratic socialist and community organizer Darializa Avila Chevalier beat out the five-term incumbent Adriano Espaillat.

The race in the 12th congressional district, Micah Lasher took the win there with Alex Bores coming in second though   Mayor  Mamdani did not endorse. There were several high-profile races across New York on Tuesday.

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The Senate approved it Monday with similarly overwhelming bipartisan support.  It now heads to President Trump’s desk for his signature.

The main issue this bill tries to address is that the U.S. does not have enough houses to keep up with demand. Realtor.com estimated that last year the U.S. was short by more than 4 million housing units.

Mortgage rates have also risen over the past several years, and that boosts the monthly cost of ownership. Rates had been falling earlier this year, but the war in Iran raised the cost of borrowing, and the nationwide average is now about 6.5%. Families also have less purchasing power, as inflation has outstripped wages.

Rather than making a single change, the bill is a hodgepodge of provisions designed to either encourage housing construction or make it easier for home seekers to buy. The flashiest part of the package is a ban that prevents corporate investors from buying up more single-family homes to rent out. If one of those groups already owns at least 350 houses, it won’t be able to buy others.

This provision was one of the most contested as the bill worked its way through the legislative process. Some politicians endorsed it as a move to stop corporate landlords from being able to outbid families and buy up large chunks of local housing markets with cash offers.

Another is aimed at making manufactured homes more affordable by getting rid of the rule that those houses must have a permanent chassis, or a steel frame that makes them movable. Manufactured homes are often installed onto permanent foundations, and housing policy experts say that removing the chassis requirement could cut $5,000 to $10,000 off construction costs and allow for designs that could more easily incorporate a second story or basement.

“Housing affordability has become a priority for Congress” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., a co-sponsor of the bill, told in an interview with NPR.

“Every time every member of Congress goes back home they hear how urgent it is to bring down home prices. And that’s what the bill does,” she said.

Sen. Warren said, “It has just been more than 30 years since the federal government has done anything but sit by and say, ‘Damn, the price of housing sure has gone up.’ Finally, we are actually moving.”

The bill also encourages local governments to speed up the homebuilding process by giving more federal dollars to places that build more housing. “If you don’t build more housing, you should lose those incentives. And they should go to the places where you’re building more housing,” said the bill’s co-sponsor, Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., on the Senate floor Monday ahead of the chamber’s vote.

While the legislation doesn’t provide new federal dollars for homebuilding, it streamlines some of the regulations homebuilders must follow to get existing federal financing.

For example, it allows builders to skip the environmental review when a housing project is going up between two buildings that have already gone through the process.

A different provision creates a grant program for communities to develop “pattern books” of preapproved housing designs, so builders won’t need as many approvals to get up to code.

But nationally, these investors make up only about 3% of the single-family rental market. And some experts warn the ban could actually limit the supply of available homes, because investors often buy and fix up homes that would otherwise fall out of the market.

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Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday, made the announcement outside the prime minister’s 10 Downing St. residence, said he would resign as the leader of his party and as prime minister, setting the stage for the United Kingdom’s seventh prime minister within a decade.

“The question my party is asking now is whether I am best placed to lead us into the next general election,” he said outside 10 Downing Street. “I have heard the answer of my parliamentary party to that question, and I accept that answer with good grace.”

Keir Starmer  who said, he spoke on Monday with King Charles, said he expected to remain in office until a successor was chosen from within his Labour Party.

Starmer said he asked party leaders to open nominations for a successor on July 9. He did not give a date for his departure from 10 Downing Street, but said he expected a new prime minister to be in place by September, when Parliament returns from its summer recess.

Starmer was elected to lead the country in a general election 2024. His replacement is expected to be chosen by his party. He had been led the Labor since 2020.

“People want to see progress on economic growth, cost of living, public services, housing and opportunities for the next generation,” Starmer said. “Political change should never distract from the responsibility to improve people’s lives.”

Starmer long said he intended to see out his full five-year term, which began with his party’s 2024 landslide election victory, which also delivered Labour a historic majority in the House of Commons.

The resignation announcement followed months of turmoil for Starmer, with some members of his own party criticizing his leadership, saying he had not been able to deliver the rapid change needed after taking office following 14 years of Conservative Party rule in Britain.

Many in Starmer’s Labour party had written to Starmer asking him to step down following local elections in May, which saw the party lose more than 1,000 seats on local councils, results that were widely interpreted as a repudiation by British voters of Labour’s performance under the prime minister’s leadership.

Andy Burnham  who won a special election on Friday to become a member of parliament representing Makerfield, was expected to be sworn in in the House of Commons on Monday.

Following Starmer’s announcement, Burnham said on social media that he would seek a nomination in the Labour leadership contest.

Starmer is the sixth prime minister in a decade to stand outside 10 Downing Street and announce a premature departure. It comes the day before Britain marks the 10th anniversary of its vote to leave the European Union, a decision that still roils the country’s economy and politics.

U.S. President Donald Trump weighed in even before an announcement, linking Starmer’s potential exit to two of his recurring bugbears: immigration and renewable energy.

“Keir Starmer will resign as Prime Minister of The United Kingdom. He failed badly on two very important subjects- IMMIGRATION AND ENERGY (OPEN NORTH SEA OIL!). I wish him well! President DJT,” Trump posted on his social media platform.

It was unclear whether Trump was responding to media reports about Starmer’s plans. The two leaders didn’t speak over the weekend.

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“We’re just having a good time,” captain Tim Ream told reporters after the win. “We’re enjoying every moment together. Every goal, every block, every set play, just everything we’re doing is together. And that’s how we create the momentum.”

“We’re all going out and being ourselves and pulling together,” Ream added, “and it’s something that we’ve been trying to do for a long time — and now we’re really doing that. And it’s great to have the fans behind us and see all the reactions that are going on around the country when we play, and we want to keep that going.”

Friday’s win in Seattle comes after a dominant 4-1 victory over Paraguay last week that earned widespread praise and attention for the team’s performance on the pitch.

The U.S. men’s team has not won back-to-back games at a World Cup since the first tournament in 1930, according to FIFA.

The U.S. team next faces Turkey on June 25.

Mauricio Pochettino led the electric crowd in a booming “USA!” chant. Tim Ream shared heartfelt embraces with members of the coaching staff. Christian Pulisic joined fans in singing “Take Me Home, Country Roads” as he took a celebratory lap around the field with his teammates.

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“Over the past 24 hours, an attack by enemy drones on Moscow has continued. One of the drones damaged a facility on the territory of the Moscow Refinery. There were no casualties. Emergency services are working at the scene of the incident,” Sobyanin wrote in a post to Telegram. At least 60 Ukrainian drones were shot down, the mayor said.

Tuesday marked the ninth consecutive day of Ukrainian drone attacks on Moscow, according to statements issued by Sobyanin on Telegram. The number of drones that Sobyanin reported shot down on Tuesday was also the largest of any day since May 17.

Already this year, Sobyanin has reported the downing of more Ukrainian drones — 1,134 craft — than in all of 2025, when the mayor said Russian forces intercepted 734 Ukrainian drones en route to the capital.

Regional Governor Andrei Vorobyov said in a post to Telegram that 86 Ukrainian drones were intercepted over the wider Moscow region, with six people injured.

The latest Ukrainian strikes came a day after a major Russian attack on Kyiv, which killed at least five people, damaged a historic cathedral and prompted Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha to brand Russian President Vladimir Putin a “barbarian.”

Ukrainian forces have been expanding their drone attacks toward Moscow in recent months, as just one element of its growing long-range strike campaign into Russia — which officials in Kyiv refer to as “long-range sanctions.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shared a purported video of the burning Moscow refinery on Telegram on Tuesday morning, attributing the damage to “Ukrainian long-range strikes.”

“Russia must be compelled to end the war against our people. And Ukrainian long-range weapons are one of the important components of such coercion,” Zelenskyy wrote.

“This is a just response to Russian attacks and a response to the prolongation of the war, which needs to be ended,” Zelenskyy added.

Andriy Kovalenko, the head of the Counter-Disinformation Center operating as part of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said that the Moscow refinery is one of the country’s largest, with a refining capacity of around 11 million tons of oil per year. The plant, he said, accounts for some 40% of Moscow’s gasoline needs.

“Even though Putin has deployed almost all of the key air defense and missile defense systems to Moscow, this doesn’t save the Russians. Putin is not a guarantee of safety for Muscovites,” Kovalenko wrote.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said the attack on Moscow was one element of a larger wave of overnight strikes. The ministry claimed that Russian forces downed at least 172 Ukrainian drones overnight into Tuesday morning.

Russia’s federal air transport agency, Rosaviatsiya, announced flight restrictions at more than a dozen airports across southern and western Russia, including at all four of Moscow’s international airports — Domodedovo, Vnukovo, Zhukovsky and Sheremetyevo.

Elsewhere, flight restrictions affected airports stretching from Sochi on the Black Sea coast to Nizhnekamsk in the Tatarstan Republic, some 750 miles from Ukraine.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia continued its own long-range attacks overnight. The air force said in a post to Telegram that Russia launched 132 drones and two missiles into the country in its latest barrage, of which 114 drones were intercepted or suppressed.

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“I think most parents will welcome this action,” Starmer said. “They will welcome a government that stands by them, that supports them to do the best for their children, and that fights for their happiness and safety against the most powerful companies in the world.”

The ex-Love Island personality Georgia Harrison — who described the plans as “absolutely amazing” — and more than a dozen parents from Smartphone Free Childhood.

Molly Rose Foundation, along with 5Rights, youth-led digital wellbeing charity FlippGen, and other civil society voices who’ve warned blanket bans are a blunt instrument that risk doing more harm than good, were kept away from the fanfare, and only invited to a later technical briefing run by officials from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.

Smartphone Free Childhood, which describes itself as a movement of families “standing together to delay [access to] smartphones and social media,” has long been agitating for precisely the kind of action outlined Monday.  

According to a previous report by POLITICO back in January, the charity used its 100,000 person-strong network of WhatsApp groups to organize a grassroots lobbying blitz that saw MPs flooded with messages from concerned parents urging them to back a ban. 

The U.K.’s online safety regime has already been a boon for the industry, thanks to provisions under the Online Safety Act that require services to introduce age checks to prevent children from encountering pornography and other types of “primary priority” content. 

Now more age-gates are coming — across social media, but also a wide range of services that allow livestreaming and communication with strangers, plus AI chatbots specifically designed for sexually-explicit interactions.

Two, since Ofcom is now carrying out a rapid study on what effective age assurance looks like for the purpose of verifying whether someone is over 16, there could be tighter regulation coming down the track, which is good for companies worried about cheaper but less accurate or privacy-preserving offerings, and bad for those that have so far largely escaped scrutiny.

Secondary legislation — increasingly the government’s preferred tool — is particularly vulnerable to judicial review, and concerns have already been raised about the human rights impacts of blanket bans.

Digital rights activists fear the rapid expansion of poorly regulated age checks will create a backdoor for more intensive surveillance and increase the risk of mass data breaches — and don’t trust the U.K.’s data protection watchdog to take action.

They aren’t fans of Big Tech, of course, but argue the government has failed to take a rights-respecting approach to regulation.

Watch this space. On Friday evening, a group of content creators and activists from the U.K., U.S., EU, Canada, and India met virtually to discuss the launch of a new global movement called “Stop Killing the Internet” in response to jurisdictions the world over converging around the ban playbook, a person on the call told POLITICO.

“The talk is that a Rubicon has been crossed and a line in the sand has to be drawn,” they said. The website went live shortly after Starmer’s announcement, and the campaign will launch in less then two weeks’ time.

Ofcom already has its hands full regulating the more than 100,000 services in scope of the Online Safety Act, parts of which aren’t even in force yet.

Now there’s even more to do, as its group director for online safety Oliver Griffiths acknowledged would be the case last month. Many of the proposals outlined by the government in its kids’ online safety consultation “create new duties and require comprehensive policy work to implement,” he said.

 “The Government has entrusted us to build on this progress with new measures to protect children, and we’re ready to work closely with them as the detailed regulations take shape,” a spokesperson said in a statement Monday.

‘Safety by design’

The government’s decision to kick kids off social media suggests it buys the argument — at least in the short term — that platforms can’t be made age-appropriate through regulation. 

“We remain of the view that banning children from social media platforms without addressing the underlying, unsafe and addictive design choices made by tech companies that place profit before safety and well-being will not make them safer,” the Online Safety Act Network’s director Maeve Walsh said.

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