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Jeffrey Epstein had unsuccessfully tried to reach out to another high-profile paedophile via a letter that was eventually returned to sender, a new trove of documents about the disgraced billionaire financier has revealed. The previously unreported letter was penned to Larry Nassar, who was sentenced to between 40 and 175 years in jail for abusing more than 150 women and young girls in the biggest sexual abuse scandal in sports history. The letter was found returned in the jail’s mailroom weeks after Epstein’s death, according to the more than 4,000 pages of documents reported by the Associated Press on Thursday. New details in the documents shed light on Epstein’s behaviour during his 36 days in jail, his death and its chaotic aftermath. Epstein, who was arrested in July 2019 on federal charges of sex trafficking and conspiracy died in a prison cell of Metropolitan Correctional Center on 10 August 2019 as he awaited trial. The contents of the letter to Nassar were not included in the documents turned over to the news agency. “It appeared he mailed it out and it was returned back to him,” the investigator who found the letter told a prison official by email, according to documents. “I am not sure if I should open it or should we hand it over to anyone?” The documents were handed over by the Bureau of Prisons under the Freedom of Information Act and included a detailed psychological reconstruction of the events leading to Epstein’s controversial death, his health history, internal agency reports, emails, memos and other records. Just two weeks before he died by suicide, Epstein was seen sitting in a corner of his jail cell with his hands covering his ears as he desperately tried to muffle the sound of a toilet that kept running. After once living a life of luxury and comfort, Epstein complained of struggling to adapt to his new life behind bars and called himself a “coward” at one point. He remained agitated at times and was unable to sleep, the documents revealed. Epstein was on a suicide watch for 31 hours after a suicide attempt that left his neck bruised and scraped. He, however, insisted to a jail psychologist that he had a “wonderful life” and it “would be crazy” to end it. The night before his death, Epstein excused himself from a meeting with his lawyers and said he needed to make a call to his family. He told a jail attendant he was calling his mother, who had been dead for 15 years by then, according to a memo from a unit manager. His death came as a federal judge had unsealed about 2,000 pages of documents in a sexual abuse lawsuit against him just a day before he died. That event combined with the erosion of social connections, lack of significant interpersonal connections and “the idea of potentially spending his life in prison were likely factors contributing to Mr Epstein’s suicide,” officials wrote. The documents also exposed lapses in the management of the Bureau of Prisons and the now-shuttered Metropolitan Correctional Center. The guards who were on duty for Epstein that night were sitting on their desks just 15ft away from Epstein’s cell as they shopped online for furniture and motorcycles and did not make required rounds every 30 minutes, prosecutors alleged. The two guards, Tova Noel and Michael Thomas, were charged with lying on prison records after they said they made the required checks before Epstein’s body was found. Both appeared to be asleep during a two-hour period that night, according to their indictment. After arriving at the Metropolitan Correctional Center on 6 July 2019, Epstein complained about having to wear an orange jumpsuit like a “bad guy” and requested a brown uniform instead for his near-daily visits with his lawyers. He said during his initial health screening that he had 10-plus female sexual partners within the previous five years. According to records, he tried to make adjustments to his new lifestyle. He had signed up for a Kosher meal and sought permission to exercise outside. Just two days before he was found dead, he bought $73.85 worth of items from the prison commissary. The items included a radio and headphones. If you are a child and you need help because something has happened to you, you can call the NSPCC free of charge on 0800 1111. You can also call the NSPCC if you are an adult and you are worried about a child, on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adults on 0808 801 0331 Read More JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon says he never heard of Jeffrey Epstein until after his 2019 arrest How Donald Trump’s sex abuse verdict is paving the way for countless women to hold powerful men to account Elon Musk subpoenaed by US Virgin Islands in Jeffrey Epstein lawsuit

MEXICO CITY Mexico has accepted a request from the United States to review an alleged denial of collective

MAGA firebrand Lauren Boebert emerged as one of the fiercest critics to the debt ceiling deal brokered by House leader Kevin McCarthy and President Joe Biden to avoid a catastrophic default. But when it was time for the House of Representatives to cast their votes on Wednesday night, she failed to show up. Ms Boebert was mocked on social media after she reportedly “narrowly missed the vote, running up the steps right as they gaveled”, according to Axios Capitol Hill reporter Juliegrace Brufke. Spencer Soicher, a reporter from Ms Boebert’s home state of Colorado, pointed out that she had made 23 Twitter posts in the past week voicing her displeasure with the compromise deal. Democrat Adam Frisch, who in 2022 lost his bid to unseat Ms Boebert in Colorado’s third district by just 546 votes, wrote on Twitter: “How can you represent #CO03 when you don’t even show up? What was more important than voting?” Jon Cooper, who chairs The Democratic Coalition, tweeted: “Lauren Boebert was a vocal opponent of the bipartisan debt ceiling bill — but she ended up MISSING tonight's vote entirely. Is anyone surprised?” Ms Boebert had earlier vowed to vote against the debt ceiling deal, saying on Tuesday that the bill was a “bunch of fake news and fake talking points” that did nothing to rein in federal spending. “If every Republican voted the way that they campaigned, they would vote against tomorrow's bad deal.” The House voted overwhelmingly by 314 to 117 to raise the debt limit, after Republicans were given concessions to cut IRS funding and increase work requirements on social spending programmes. A total of 71 Republicans voted against the deal, along with 46 Democrats, avoiding an apocalyptic scenario where the US would default on its debts. The bill now heads to the Senate, where a vote is expected to be held by Friday. Read More Debt ceiling news - live: Senate races to pass Biden-McCarthy deal as Boebert mocked for missing House vote What’s next for Biden-McCarthy debt ceiling deal as Senate races to beat default deadline? White House rejects Lauren Boebert’s claim that antisemitism plan will be used ‘go after conservatives’ Boebert didn’t turn up to vote on debt ceiling deal she furiously campaigned against Lauren Boebert claims Biden plan to combat antisemitism will target ‘conservatives’ Lauren Boebert intervened in son’s alleged 911 abuse call, report says

Vivek Ramaswamy, the biotech entrepreneur and anti-woke asset manager turned Republican presidential hopeful, has a plan for ending Russia's year-and-a-half war on Ukraine – sort of. The 38-year-old political newcomer will unveil what he describes as a plan to bring the brutal conflict to a close by halting American support for Kyiv and "negotiating a peace treaty with Russia that achieves a vital US security objective: ceasing Russia's growing military alliance with China". In remarks to be delivered on Friday in New Hampshire to the Belknap County GOP Lincoln Day, Mr Ramaswamy will say his plan is the mirror-image approach of the late US president Richard Nixon's effort to break up the Soviet Union's alliance with the People's Republic of China, citing what he describes as Russian President Vladimir Putin's status as "the new Mao". The Independent obtained a copy of his speech ahead of Friday's event. It cites a two-decade-old treaty between Russia and the PRC, as well as the "no limits" partnership unveiled by Mr Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping as evidence that a Sino-Russian alliance "presents the greatest military risk the US has ever faced" and accuses President Joe Biden of "pushing Russia into a closer military alliance with China which increases the risk of nuclear war" through his quarterbacking of US and Western support for Ukraine's defence. While Mr Ramaswamy's prepared remarks call his solution to the conflict a "peace treaty," what he lays out does not appear to meet the definition of the term. Peace treaties, by and large, represent final settlements to armed conflicts. Famous examples include the Treaty of Versailles, which ended the First World War, and the 1951 Treaty of San Francisco that formally brought an end to the Second World War. What he instead proposes is an analogue to United Nations-enforced armistice that has been in force on the Korean Peninsula since 1953. Under the terms of his plan, Kyiv would legitimise Russia's occupation of Ukraine's Donbas region by ceding it to Russia. The US and the West would end all sanctions on Russia, cease defence assistance to Ukraine, and Nato would prohibit Ukraine from ever becoming a member of the 31-nation defensive pact. The alliance would also roll back troop deployments that have taken place on its eastern frontier since 2016 – including closing all bases on Nato territory in Eastern Europe. In return, he proposes that Russia would exit its 2001 treaty with China, end the "no limits" partnership while ceasing any military cooperation with Beijing, rejoin the New START arms control treaty, withdraw any forces deployed in Latin America and remove "all nuclear weapons and delivery capabilities" from Belarus, any Ukrainian territory it has annexed, as well as the Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad, which is Russia's only ice-free port for its Baltic Fleet. His prepared remarks do not offer any evidence that Russia would be willing to cease cooperation with China or give up its military presence in Kaliningrad, which has housed a major naval base since the Soviet era. Nor does he provide any evidence to support his claim that Moscow would be willing to cut off decades of warm relations with Beijing in return for an end to Western sanctions, particularly since the Sino-Russian relationship has existed since the dawn of the 21st century. Despite multiple credible reports from US officials and other Western governments which say Kyiv's defence forces have dealt a major blow to Russia's conventional warfare capability, he plans to say that he believes Ukraine "will not defeat Russia militarily" without "extraordinary intervention" on the part of the United States, which he claims would lessen America's ability to respond to a Chinese attack on Taiwan. "Under my peace plan, Ukraine will still emerge with its sovereignty intact and Russia permanently diminished as a foe. Ukraine's best path to preserving its own security is to accept a US-negotiated agreement backstopped by Russian commitments to the US," he will say. The rollout of his plan for the Ukraine conflict represents the political neophyte's first foray into foreign policy waters since he launched his presidential campaign earlier this year. His opposition to continuing US defence assistance to Kyiv is in line with much of the pro-Trump wing of the GOP, which tends to view Russia far more favourably than the general US population. In a press release, the Democratic National Committee condemned the plan as "siding against our ally as Vladimir Putin wages an unjust and violent war in Ukraine" and derided Mr Ramaswamy as a "MAGA Republican presidential hopeful". "Vivek Ramaswamy is promising to end America's support of Ukraine – posing a threat to our allies on the ground and democracy itself," the DNC said. The DNC also pointed out that Mr Ramaswamy's position syncs up with much of the GOP presidential field, including the two highest-polling candidates: Mr Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Mr Trump, who has long professed an affinity for Mr Putin and has described him in positive terms despite his having ordered an unprovoked invasion of another country, praised the war crime-laden invasion as "savvy" and "genius" just days after Russian tanks crossed over the Ukrainian border. Mr DeSantis, who is a distant runner-up to Mr Trump in most polls of the GOP primary electorate, downplayed war – the largest land-based conflict on the European continent since 1945 – as a "territorial dispute" and a flight over "borderlands". But James Stavridis, a retired four-star US Navy admiral who served as Nato's Supreme Allied Commander, Europe from 2009 to 2013, was far more generous in his reaction to the plan. Mr Stavridis told The Independent in an email that he is "all for creative ideas in international diplomacy" and said he "would love to be able to say that there is a chance of this type of settlement occurring". But he added that he could not say there would be such a chance. For one, the former Nato commander said Mr Putin is "so deeply invested in the relationship with China" that there is "zero chance" he'd abandon his partnership with Mr Xi. He added that in his estimation, Russia would "never" agree to give up Kaliningrad as a base for nuclear-capable forces, and said there is also no chance that Kyiv would agree to cede approximately 20 per cent of its territory to Moscow. "Nor do I think that the west would be willing to completely walk away from Ukraine and deny providing them appropriate security guarantees, or even membership in NATO. The red lines for both sides are significant," he said. But Mr Stavridis did say he believes a "Korean-style armistice" is the most likely outcome of the 14-month-old conflict, with the caveat that "it's too soon to know where those boundary lines might be or where the trade-offs could occur". "Our job in the west is obvious, which is to give the Ukrainians everything they need in terms of material and training, so they can be at the best position when the negotiations ultimately begin," he said, adding later that "one thing [he knows] for sure" is that the Ukraine war presents "deeply complex issues with enormous, competing equities on all sides," with the chances of a simple settlement "within 24 hours" as Mr Trump suggested at a recent CNN town hall "approach[ing] negative infinity". While the ex-Navy admiral was measured in his evaluation of Mr Ramaswamy’s plan, a prominent GOP foreign policy veteran was far less generous when asked to opine on his proposal. Senator Lindsey Graham, a longtime member of the upper’s chamber’s foreign relations committee, told The Independent on Thursday that the anti-woke businessman’s plan amounted to “rewarding aggression” and called him “somebody who really doesn’t understand how the world works”. He added that rewarding Mr Putin for his aggression would result in China feeling empowered to take Taiwan. “You know, I’m glad people don’t think that way when it came to our freedom,” he said. “Go study history and give me an example where aggression was rewarded where you got less of it”. Senior Washington Correspondent Eric Garcia contributed reporting from Capitol Hill Read More Trump's welcome of Scott into 2024 race shows his calculus: The more GOP rivals, the better for him Zelensky salutes ‘powerful support’ from allies at Moldova summit – as he increases pressure over jets A six-year-old Ukrainian girl saved by adoption or a murderous adult imposter: Who really is Natalia Grace? The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary

Tom Cruise: A Lifelong Journey in Pursuit of Perfection

The Biden administration said on Friday it would stop issuing new oil and gas drilling leases within 10

Cruise has reportedly been venting his frustration to Paramount execs about having to compete with Nolan's 'Oppenheimer' for IMAX screens

Two women were killed by shrapnel as they travelled in a car, officials say.

Donald Trump sat down with Sean Hannity for a town hall in Iowa on Thursday evening to answer questions from local voters, although almost all of the questions came from the Fox News host himself. Before a raucous and adoring crowd, the Republican former president was asked about domestic and foreign policy topics, claiming he would solve most within six months of retaking office, boasting of his tough stance towards Russia and Iran. When other GOP primary candidates like Ron DeSantis and Asa Hutchinson were brought up, he dismissed the threat they posed as his audience booed and jeered the very mention of their names. But there was no mention whatsoever of Fox’s recent $787m settlement with Dominion Voting Systems over the former’s coverage of Mr Trump’s bogus claims that the 2020 presidential election fraud was “rigged” against him by a vast Democrat-led conspiracy to deprive him of a second term. Mr Trump did use the opportunity provided to try to shoot down the latest allegations that he knowingly stored classified Pentagon documents from his presidency at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, insisting: “I don't know anything about it. All I know is everything did was right.” Read More Trump’s Fox and CNN town halls expose media’s inability to fact-check a fountain of nonsense Trump plays down legal threat of secret papers recording at Fox News town hall Trump surprises crowd by mocking people who say ‘woke’ – including his own son who runs businesses off it

Miles Morales have an upend task to save his father, his world and the universe in the third instalment of the Spider-Verse franchise

By Kirsty Needham SYDNEY Australia's War Memorial said it was considering "additional content and context" for displays about

In ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’, Miles Morales finds his way out of Spider Society and lands on Earth-42 only to learn of a harrowing truth