First Thing: Trump calls Epstein rumors a ‘radical left’ hoax and condemns Maga ‘weaklings’

The president battles a rare backlash from his supporters, many of whom say he is hiding vital information. Plus, a climate expert calls for a tax on AI and crypto

Good morning.

Donald Trump has turned on his Maga base, blasting his supporters as gullible “weaklings” for believing the government is holding out on crucial information about the disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The president is facing a crisis as his supporters suspect the administration is hiding details of Epstein’s crimes to protect members of the child sex offender’s elite circle – which, at one point, included Trump. In a post on Truth Social, the president claimed his voters had fallen for what he called a “radical left” hoax to discredit him.

It is unusual for his base to question Trump – but it comes after the president stirred up conspiracy theories during his election campaigns, including that the US is controlled by “deep state” elites.

What are his supporters upset about? A key sticking point has been the government’s announcement that Epstein did not keep records of a “client list”. It’s particularly contentious because the attorney general, Pam Bondi, had previously said such a list was “sitting on my desk right now to review”, though she later claimed she was referring to other documents.

European missile manufacturer selling parts for bombs that have killed children in Gaza

Europe’s largest manufacturer of missiles, MBDA, is selling key components for bombs that have been used in multiple Israeli airstrikes that have killed Palestinian children and other civilians.

A Guardian investigation with the independent newsrooms Disclose and Follow the Money has examined the GBU-39 bomb’s supply chain and how it has been used against Gaza.

The investigation identified 24 cases where the GBU-39 was deployed in attacks that killed civilians. Each attack included children among the dead, and many took place at night, without warning, on sites where displaced families were sheltering.

The UN rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, has called for global corporations to be held accountable for “profiting from genocide”.

How were the findings verified? Using open-source information and through analysis by weapons experts.

US Senate passes aid and public broadcasting cuts in victory for Trump

The US Senate has passed Trump’s plan to slash billions of dollars from foreign aid and public broadcasting budgets, as the president continues to face little resistance to his control of Congress.

The Senate voted 51 to 48 in favor of Trump’s plan to cut $9bn in spending. Most of the funding cuts are to schemes to assist countries dealing with disease, war and natural disasters – but the move also scraps the $1.1bn that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was due to receive over the next two years.

Why cut public broadcasting budgets? Trump and many of his fellow Republicans argue that the expense is unnecessary and claim the news coverage has an “anti-right bias”.

In other news …

Syria’s president has condemned Israel for “wide-scale targeting of civilian and government facilities” after its strikes on Damascus on Wednesday, as Israel waded into a conflict between the Syrian army and Druze fighters.

A sex scandal among Buddhist monks has rocked Thailand, with allegations of blackmail and luxury gifts illuminating the privileges enjoyed by the clergy.

Mark Zuckerberg has said Meta will construct a data center nearly the size of Manhattan and spend hundreds of billions of dollars on developing AI.

Eight healthy babies have been born using IVF embryos with DNA from three people in a groundbreaking procedure to prevent the children from inheriting incurable genetic disorders.

Stat of the day: Trump’s 17% increase in military spending will add emissions equivalent to those of Croatia

Trump’s 17% spending boost for the Pentagon will increase its funding to $1tn, and supercharge emissions by as much as Croatia’s annual carbon footprint. It will push the Pentagon’s total greenhouse emissions to a staggering 178 Mt of CO2e – more than the annual carbon footprint of Ethiopia, a country of 135 million people.

Don’t miss this: Lena Dunham’s Too Much is just not good enough

Lena Dunham’s Girls, a tightly written send-up of a narcissistic group of young women living in Brooklyn during the Obama era, was sharply satirical and influenced shows such as Broad City and Fleabag. However, her latest offering, Too Much, falls flat, argues Adrian Horton, in part because comedy styles shaped by the internet, “where heightened bits and jarring phrases reign supreme” (actor Megan Stalter’s experience is in front-facing camera internet comedy), do not work as well over a full-length television episode.

Climate check: Tax on AI and crypto ‘could fund climate action’

Governments should tax cryptocurrencies and consider levies on artificial intelligence to pay for climate action, one of the architects of the Paris agreement has said. “That could be a first step – again, it’s the same rationale [for AI as taxing cryptocurrency], because they use a lot of energy,” Laurence Tubiana said. Generating bitcoin each year uses up the equivalent of Poland’s annual energy consumption.

Last Thing: Finely sliced or diced? Even Neanderthals had distinct preferences when it came to making dinner

We might think of our preferences on how we like to make our dinner as particular to us – but a study has found that even Neanderthals had distinct ways of preparing their meals. Various groups of Neanderthals, living around the same time, butchered animals in different ways, the researchers found. The cut marks were “the gestures and movements of the Neanderthal people themselves, as evocative to us as footprints or hand marks on a cave wall”, one expert said.

Sign up

First Thing is delivered to thousands of inboxes every weekday. If you’re not already signed up, subscribe now.

Get in touch

If you have any questions or comments about any of our newsletters please email [email protected]