girl

On a cool Saturday morning at Fresno’s Woodward Park, Oliver Hunter of Dana Hills became his school’s fifth consecutive state cross-country champion by winning the Division 3 championship with a time of 14 minutes 55.3 seconds.

“He trusted the process. He was all smiles,” coach Craig Dunn said.

Evan Noonan won three titles and Jai Dawson won the other. Hunter was a little concerned early in the season about being pushed and being fit, but Dunn told him again and again, “Trust the process,” and he was ready for his best effort after winning last week’s Southern Section Division 3 championship.

In Division 1 boys, Redondo Union won the team title and Conor Lott of Clovis North held off Maximo Zavaleta of King to win the individual title. Lott ran 14:43.2 and Zavaleta finished in 14:49.7. In Division 1 girls, Jaelyn Williams of San Diego Eastlake won in 16:28.1.

Summer Wilson of Irvine won the Division 2 girls’ title with a course-record time of 16:20. Aelo Curtis of Ventura was second in 16:35.6. Sacramento Jesuit won its 11th boys’ title.

El Toro won the Division 3 girls’ title. Carol Dye of Santa Margarita placed third in 17:22.2.

JSerra won the Division 4 boys’ and girls’ titles. Vin Krueger of Oaks Christian was third in 15:10.5 in the boys’ race.

In Division 5 boys, Olly O’Connor of Viewpoint won the title in 14:52.7.

A STAR from Boy Meets World has revealed he has welcomed a baby girl.

Ben Savage has shared the joyous news that he has become a dad at 45.

The actor, who played the lead role of Cory Matthews on the ABC sitcom Boy Meets World and its Disney Channel sequel Girl Meets World, has shared the first snaps of his baby girl on Instagram.

Ben is married to Tessa Angermeier, whom he wed in March 2023.

And now the pair have welcomed their first child together.

Taking to the platform on Thanksgiving, Ben shared a selection of sweet photos to reveal the birth of their bundle of joy.

Alongside a carousel, Ben wrote simply: “Welcome little one.”

Fans flocked to the comments section to congratulate the actor and his partner on their arrival.

One person penned, “Girl meets world (for real).”

“Dad meets girl, congrats,” said a second.

“Awe congratulations!!! Boy meets baby. Much love to you and your sweet family,” penned a third.

A fourth then added, “Boy met his girl in this world!! Congrats!!”

“Awe how cute, so tiny. Girl meets world. Congratulations to you both,” said a fifth.

While a sixth person wrote, “Congrats man and happy Thanksgiving with the new baby.”

And a seventh added, “Congratulations! Enjoy every moment. Hope Mamma is doing well!”

Prior to Ben and Tessa’s wedding in 2023, the couple had been together for over four years.

Tessa made her first appearance on Ben’s Instagram in August 2018.

Ben’s wife is an Indiana native and currently works as a senior graphic designer.

She works for the company Ben Soleimani, a luxury furniture store in West Hollywood.

She is also the graphic designer, merchandise manager and tour manager for the band The Growlers.

POP star Lizzo has claimed plus-size women are being “erased” as society grapples with the impact of the “Ozempic boom.”

The Truth Hurts singer, 37, has lost a lot of weight in recent years but said she is “still a proud big girl” after years of championing the body positivity movement.

In an essay shared on Substack, she wrote: “So here we are halfway through the decade, where extended sizes are being magically erased from websites.

“Plus sized models are no longer getting booked for modeling gigs. And all of our big girls are not-so big anymore.”

But Lizzo, who said she still weighs more than 14 stone, hit out at people who have criticised her for losing weight.

She said: “We’re in an era where the bigger girls are getting smaller because they’re tired of being judged.

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“And now those bigger girls are being judged for getting smaller by the very community they used to empower.

“There’s nothing wrong with living in a bigger body.

“There’s nothing wrong with being fat.

“But if a woman wants to change, she should be allowed to change.”

She said she started exercising in 2023 following a lawsuit in which she was alleged to have sexually harassed former dancers, which she denies, and which she said left her suicidal.

Lizzo previously revealed she had also used weight loss medication, as well as overhauling her diet.

Other stars including Meghan Trainor, Rebel Wilson and Amy Schumer have been criticised for slimming down, having previously championed larger bodies.

But Lizzo said she felt compelled to do so because of how she was viewed by society.

The American musician explained: “I was sick and tired of my identity being overshadowed by my fatness.

“People could not see my talent as a musician because they were too busy accusing me of making ‘being fat’ my whole personality.

“I had to actively work against ‘mammy’ tropes by being hypersexual and vulgar because being a mammy by definition is being desexualized.”

She added: “We have a lot of work to do, to undo the effects of the ozempic boom.

“I want us to allow the body positive movement to expand and grow far away from the commercial slop it’s become. Because movements move.”

Despite being denied a three-peat in the Southern Section Division 1 playoffs, the Mater Dei High girls volleyball team still ended the season a champion — and ranked No. 1 in California.

The Monarchs (35-5) captured their second Open Division state title in three years and their third overall with a 25-13, 25-22, 25-18 sweep of Rocklin on Saturday night at Santiago Canyon College.

Getting 31 kills from USC signee Layli Ostavar and 43 assists from Cal State Bakersfield-bound setter Sam Capinpin, Mater Dei closed out the Sac-Joaquin Section Division 2 winners with a 13-6 run in the third set.

Dan O’Dell’s squad won 20 of its last 21 matches — its only blemish being a four-set defeat to Sierra Canyon in the CIF-SS final.

Earlier Saturday, Cypress made the most of its first state finals appearance by sweeping Clovis West, 25-20, 25-23, 25-22, to win the Division II title under head coach Alex Griffiths.

Isabella Faro had 14 kills and fellow senior Hannah Schoffstall dished out 30 for the Centurions (25-10), who swept Santa Ana Foothill on November 6 in the CIF-SS Division 3 final.

It was redemption for Cypress, which had lost to Bishop Diego in the CIF-SS Division 3 semifinals and to Long Beach Poly in the first round of the Division II regionals last season.

On Friday, Harvard-Westlake earned its sixth title and first since 2021 with a 25-22, 25-14, 25-17 victory over Roseville Woodcreek in the Division I championship match.

Kylie Parker pounded 14 kills and dug 15 balls, Sophia Cotter had 11 kills and senior middle blockers Lauryn Lewis (committed to Penn) and Maya Stillwell (committed to Northwestern) controlled the net for the Wolverines (28-8), who finished third in the Mission League behind Sierra Canyon and Marymount and lost to Mater Dei in the Southern Section Division 1 quarterfinals, a remarkable turnaround for a team that had a losing record and missed the playoffs last year.

Coach Morgan Wijay returned to the program in January after a decade-long stint at Bishop Alemany, where she guided the Warriors to back-to-back CIF titles in 2021 and 2022. Wijay was on Adam Black’s staff back in 2007 when Harvard-Westlake won the Division III state title.

Shelley Spadoni reflects on the time she interviewed comedy legend Ruby Wax and how after a wobbly start, the I’m A Celebrity star won her over completely

The one and only time I ever interviewed the inimitable Ruby Wax was in 2023, a long time before she had to contend with eating camel’s penis, or deal with run-ins with YouTube stars ‘blocking her light’.

The no-holds-barred I’m A Celebrity star, 72, has already made her mark in the jungle with her straight-talking ways and abrasive humour – and to be honest, I’m not surprised. She’s a force of nature.

Getting ready to speak to her on the phone two years ago as she prepared to set off on the UK tour of I’m Not As Well As I Thought (also the name of her book at the time), I was a little apprehensive.

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I had this idea in my head – and how wrong can these preconceived notions be – that she was a brash, at-times rude, if supremely-talented comedian, writer and TV star who if she was having a bad day, would make mincemeat out of me.

And as we began chatting, my fears were, in part. realised. I kicked off by asking Ruby about some of her favourite showbiz memories over the years, of which there are too many to mention here. In hindsight, perhaps I should have warmed her up a little first.

I recall cringing after asking how she felt about finding herself in 2000 sharing a plane with the now-US President Donald Trump, which she’s already talked about around the I’m A Celeb campfire.

Quick as a whippet, she responded, slightly irritated, with, ‘Shelley, I’ve talked about this many times before – as well as hanging out with Pamela Anderson. What else would you like to know that I haven’t said before?”

Fair play. She’s got a bag full of tricks when it comes to A-lister anecdotes. But she’s also got another huge passion in life – campaigning for mental health, and getting people to open up about theirs.

Over that little hiccup, we began discussing her stage show at the time, exploring mental health – as well as her Frazzled Cafe, the online space Ruby founded in which people can share their mental health stories and struggles in a safe space.

And the star slowly came to life. The more we spoke, the more I realised, Ruby just wanted to get to the nitty gritty, the thing that clearly is a huge part of what drives her.

And during the course of our interview, she showed not only her dark sense of humour, but also a vulnerability that is quite rare in the world of celebrity.

At one point, discussing her own mental health struggles, she brought up the idea that we all have an inner voice, ‘negative loops’ inside our head s that try to bring us down, and which she still has to try very hard to ignore.

Hers, she admitted with that throaty laugh, tells her, “I’m old, I’m finished and nobody likes me. And I tend to hear them when I’m feeling anxious. It’s like chewing a wad of gum and feeling exhausted.”

Her honesty was disarming. Mindfulness, she confessed, helps her deal with those intrusive thoughts. With her typically dark humour, she said she had first read about it while being treated in a mental institution, following a devastating bout of depression.

She suggested I try it, that we all do. And by the time we said goodbye to each other, I was a big fan – and have been, ever since.

We haven’t seen much of this vulnerable, reflective side of Ruby in the jungle yet, but I think we will. And though she may have divided fans at times, the more we see of her, the more viewers will understand what makes her tick.

Meanwhile, of course, she’ll continue to be absolute TV gold. She may say it like it is if someone rubs her up the wrong way, but she’s hugely entertaining.

The mother of three is also very insightful about the human condition, something that is sure to come through Down Under, during those famous deep and meaningfuls around the campfire at night.

As she told me before I hung up the call, “We’re all on different boats Shelley, but believe me, we’re in the same storm!”

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Nov. 17 (UPI) — Authorities in central California said divers have recovered the body of a 7-year-old girl who was swept into the ocean by massive waves on Friday.

Her body was recovered by a volunteer diver at 1:20 p.m. PST Sunday about a half-mile north of where she went missing at Garrapata State Park, California State Parks said in a statement.

Officers with the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office had responded Friday to reports of a water rescue at Garrapata State Park Beach.

The sheriff’s office said in a statement that her father Yuji Hu, of Calgary, Alberta, had attempted to save the unidentified child from waves estimated to be as tall as 20 feet. As he reached for her, both were swept out to sea.

A beachgoer and an off-duty California State Parks officer were able to bring Hu back to shore and initiated CPR. Hu was transported to the hospital, where he was later pronounced dead, the sheriff’s office said.

The mother who had entered the water to attempt a rescue of her own was treated for hypothermia and released, while a 2-year-old child who was present was not injured.

A search was then launched for the missing girl, who was initially reported to be 5 years old, involving multiple agencies.

“The family has expressed their gratitude to all agencies, personnel and community members in the search and recovery efforts. They continue to request privacy and do not wish to make further statements at this time,” the sheriff’s office said.

The British street artist has created several versions of the iconic painting across London, as well as in Palestine.

A man has been sentenced to 13 months in prison by a British court for stealing a print of street artist Banksy’s iconic Girl with Balloon from a London gallery in September last year.

Larry Fraser, 49, was jailed on Friday by a judge in southwest London after he pleaded guilty to the smash-and-grab burglary of the elusive artist’s painting, valued at 270,000 pounds ($355,200).

Despite trying to conceal his identity with a mask, Fraser was caught on camera, and police tracked him down two days after the theft. The artwork was recovered shortly afterwards, according to London’s Metropolitan Police.

“This is a brazen and serious non-domestic burglary,” said Judge Anne Brown, passing the sentence at Kingston Crown Court.

The Girl with Balloon first appeared on the streets of London’s Shoreditch neighbourhood in 2002, with Banksy creating versions of the painting on London’s South Bank in 2004 and in the occupied West Bank in 2005.

One version of the painting shredded itself into pieces the moment after it was sold for more than one million British pounds ($1.3m) by London auction house Sotheby’s in 2018.

Detective Chief Inspector Scott Mather said: “Banksy’s ‘Girl with Balloon’ is known across the world – and we reacted immediately to not just bring Fraser to justice but also reunite the artwork with the gallery.”

Banksy’s paintings in Palestine

The secretive British street artist has returned to Palestine on multiple occasions to create artworks, including a version of the girl with the red balloon.

In 2005, he sprayed nine stencilled images at different locations along the illegal, eight-metre-high (26-foot) separation wall that Israel has constructed in the occupied West Bank.

They included a ladder reaching over the wall, a young girl being carried over it by balloons and a window on the grey concrete showing beautiful mountains in the background.

In 2007, he painted a number of artworks in Bethlehem, including a young girl frisking an Israeli soldier pinned up against a wall.

In February 2015, he allegedly sneaked into the Gaza Strip through a smuggling tunnel and painted three works on the walls of Gaza homes destroyed in Israeli air strikes during the previous year’s conflict.

In 2017, he opened the Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem, just four metres from Israel’s separation wall.

Earlier this year, authorities attempted to scrub a Banksy painting on a London court wall that depicted a judge hitting a protester and was believed to refer to the country’s crackdown on the Palestine Action protest group.

Banksy rose to fame for sharply ironic outdoor graffiti with political themes. Once a small-time graffiti artist from the English city of Bristol, his artwork has become hugely popular worldwide and valuable.

Before she came to USC, it had never occurred to Jazzy Davidson how charmed her basketball upbringing had been. Growing up outside of Portland, nearly all of her years playing the game were spent with the same tight-knit group of girls — girls who’d been best friends since before the fifth grade and who, after all that time, could anticipate her every move before she made it.

“They’re basically my sisters,” Davidson says.

They’d been that way pretty much as far back as she could remember. Allie, she met in kindergarten. She and Sara joined the same squad in second grade. By 10, Dylan, Reyce and Avery were on the club team, too. For the next eight years or so, up through March’s Oregon girls 6A state championship, they were inseparable, the six of them spending almost every waking moment together.

But now, a few days before the start of her freshman season at USC, Davidson is in Los Angeles, while her former teammates are scattered across the Pacific Northwest playing with various other Division I schools. It’s an odd feeling, she admits, but a thrilling one, too — to be here with a new team, continuing her basketball journey without the girls who’d been there the whole way.

Reyce Mogel, left, Avery Peterson, Dylan Mogel and Jazzy Davidson played together on youth and high school teams.

(Courtesy of Reyce Mogel)

“Being here made me realize how comfortable I was with them,” Davidson said. “It’s definitely different now, definitely a learning experience.”

Within that well-worn dynamic, Davidson developed into one of the top women’s hoops prospects in the nation, all while she and her friends led Clackamas High on an unprecedented, four-year run of success. Now, early in her freshman season at USC, Davidson steps into circumstances that no one would have anticipated when she signed with the school.

At the time, the expectation was that she could be brought along as a talented No. 2 while the Trojans’ generational star JuJu Watkins commanded all the outside noise and nightly double teams. But then Watkins injured her knee in March, forcing her to sit out the 2025-26 season. Suddenly, the Trojans’ top prospect also became their saving grace.

No one, for the record, is saying that out loud at USC. Nor does anyone in the building expect Davidson to step seamlessly into Watkins’ shoes.

“Those are very unique shoes,” USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb says. “But the fact that Jazzy can step into our program and already just make a really unique and incredible impression on everybody is pretty wild.”

By her own admission, Davidson has never been the fastest to warm up with new people. Most outside of her circle would probably describe her as “quiet” or “reserved.” It’s only once you get to know her that you really see who she is and what she’s capable of.

USC got a brief glimpse Sunday, with the Trojans trailing by a point to No. 9 North Carolina State and 10 seconds on the clock. Coming out of a timeout, the 6-1 Davidson cut swiftly through two defenders toward the basket, caught an inbound pass and, without taking a step, laid in the game-winning bucket.

The stage gets even bigger on Saturday, when No. 8 USC meets No. 2 South Carolina at Crypto Arena in the first of several grueling tests awaiting on a slate that includes four games against the top three teams in the Associated Press preseason top 25 poll. Any hope of the Trojans reaching the same heights as last season hinges in part on their star freshman quickly finding her potential.

No one has seen Davidson fulfill that promise like the girls who have been there since the start. As far as they’re concerned, it won’t be long before the world sees what they have.

“If you know Jazzy,” says Allie Roden, now a freshman guard at Colorado State, “you know she can do anything she wants, pretty much.”

When Davidson’s mother saw that her 5-year old daughter was unusually tall, she signed Jasmine — who would later be known as Jazzy — up for basketball. Roden was on that first team. She has seen the video evidence of the two of them, both still in kindergarten, launching basketballs over their heads at the backboard.

“We were terrible,” Roden says with a laugh, “but we thought we were really great.”

Davidson moved down the street from Roden in the fourth grade, and by that point, she’d figured something out. Enough at least to catch the attention of Clackamas High coach Korey Landolt, whose daughter played for the same club program.

“I saw [Davidson] working with a trainer and just thought, ‘Huh, this kid is different,’” Landolt says.

From left to right, Avery Peterson, Sara Barhoum, Dylan Mogel, Jazzy Davidson, Reyce Mogel, Allie Roden played together for years, leading Clackamas High in Oregon to a state championship.

(Courtesy of Reyce Mogel)

Once the others joined forces a year later on the club team Northwest Select, there wasn’t much anyone could do to stop them. The six girls seemed to fit seamlessly together on the court. Off it, Roden says, “we were inseparable pretty much as soon as we met.” She doesn’t recall their team losing a game against their age group for two full years at one point.

It was around that time that Davidson separated herself from the pack as a prospect. She’d grown to 5-foot-10 by the seventh grade, only for the pandemic to shut down essentially the entire state, including all high school sports.

So Davidson threw herself into basketball. She and Sara Barhoum, who’s now a freshman at Oregon, started working out together during free time between online classes, doing what she could to add strength to her spindly frame. Then they’d shoot together at night, each pushing the other to improve.

“It was a big time for me,” Davidson says. “That was when I honed in on everything.”

Two or three times per month, the team would travel out of state to test themselves. On one particularly memorable trip, just the six of them entered a tournament in Dana Point. They ended up winning the whole thing, beating some of the nation’s best teams, despite the fact they’d stayed up late playing Heads Up and were sunburned from a beach visit the day before.

Those middle school trips only cemented their bond — as well as Davidson’s place as a top prospect. By her freshman season, with all of them together at Clackamas High, the secret was out. College coaches came calling. Gottlieb, who had just taken the job at USC, was one.

Even then, there was a certain grace with which Davidson played the game — as if it flowed from her naturally. “She’s so fluid,” Gottlieb explains. “She glides.” But there was also a fearlessness in getting to the rim against much older, stronger players.

“She had to hold her own,” Landolt says. “But people couldn’t stop her inside. They couldn’t stop her outside. She was just so versatile. She could do everything.”

As a gangly freshman, Davidson stuffed the stat sheet with 22 points, eight rebounds, four steals, three assists and one block per game on her way to being named Oregon’s Gatorade Player of the Year. She won the award again as a sophomore … as well as the next two years after that.

When those four years were up, Davidson was the all-time leading scorer in Oregon Class 6A girls basketball history with 2,726 points. Still, some of her teammates contend she was even better on the defensive end.

“Jazzy is good at everything she does,” Barhoum said. “But she’s probably the best defender I’ve ever seen.”

USC guard Jazzy Davidson blocks a shot by North Carolina State’s Devyn Quigley on Nov. 9 in Charlotte, N.C.

(Lance King / Getty Images)

The girls played on the same team for six years when Clackamas made a run to the 6A state championship game. They’d spent so much time with each other, their coach says, that it could be “a blessing and a curse.” Sometimes, they bickered like sisters, too.

Landolt would urge them to hang out with other friends, only half-kidding. But all that time together made their connection on the court pretty much telepathic.

“There were so many passes I threw to Jazzy that no one else would’ve caught, but she was just there.” said Reyce Mogel, who now plays at Southern Oregon. “We were always on the same page. And not just me and Jazzy. Everybody.”

Davidson was on the bench, in foul trouble, for a long stretch of the state championship game against South Medford. But she delivered two key blocks in the final minute as Clackamas won its first state title.

Two years later, when they returned to the state championship as seniors, Davidson was again forced to sit for a long period after twisting her ankle. This time, her absence “took the wind out of everyone’s sails,” Landolt says. Clackamas blew a 19-point, third-quarter lead from there, even as a hobbled Davidson tried to give it a go in the final minutes.

The six girls found each other after the final buzzer, heartbroken. They knew it would be the last time.

Their final record together at Clackamas: 102-14.

“We all were hugging,” Barhoum says, “and just saying to each other, we’re all off to do better things. We all made history. And now everybody is going to make history somewhere else.”

They may live apart now, but the six girls, all now playing on separate for college basketball programs, still talk all the time.

“I FaceTime one of them at least every day,” Davidson says.

Her Trojan teammates are still getting to know her, still learning her tendencies. That will come with time. But the reason she ultimately chose USC, over every other top program, was how much it felt like home.

Through two games, Davidson seems to have settled seamlessly into a starring role at USC, inviting the inevitable comparisons to Watkins that Gottlieb would rather avoid.

USC guard Jazzy Davidson puts up a three-point shot against North Carolina State on Nov. 9 in Charlotte, N.C.

(Lance King / Getty Images)

“You do not need to be anything other than what your best self is,” Gottlieb insists.

Her friends have seen up close how far Davidson can take a team at her best. But no one, not even the six of them, understand the circumstances Davidson has stepped into quite like Watkins.

Her advice was simple. But it still resonated with Davidson on the doorstep of the season.

“She just told me not to be anxious about any of this,” Davidson says. “You’re good. Just go play how you play, and you’ll be fine.”

WASHINGTON —  A slow drip of revelations detailing President Trump’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein that have burdened the White House all year has turned into a deluge after House lawmakers released reams of documents that imply the president may have intimate knowledge of his friend’s criminal activity.

The scope of Epstein’s interest in Trump became clear Thursday as media organizations combed through more than 20,000 documents from the convicted sex offender’s estate released by the House Oversight Committee, prompting a bipartisan majority in the House — including up to half of Republican lawmakers — to pledge support for a measure to compel the Justice Department to release all files related to its investigation of Epstein.

In one email discovered Thursday, sent by Epstein to himself months before he died by suicide in federal custody, he wrote: “Trump knew.” The White House has denied that Trump knew about or was involved in Epstein’s years-long operation that abused over 200 women and girls.

The scandal comes at a precarious political moment for Trump, who faces a 36% approval rating, according to the latest Associated Press-NORC survey, and whose grip on the Republican Party and MAGA movement has begun to slip as his final term in office begins winding down leading up to next year’s midterm elections.

Attempts by the Trump administration to quash the scandal have failed to shake interest in the case from the public across the political spectrum.

The records paint the most expansive picture yet of Trump’s relationship with Epstein, the subject of unending fascination and conspiracy theories online, as well as growing bipartisan interest in Congress.

In several emails, Epstein, a disgraced financier who maintained a close friendship with Trump until a falling-out in the mid-2000s, said that the latter “knew about the girls” involved in his operation and that Trump “spent hours” with one in private. Epstein also alleged that he could “take him down” with damaging information.

In several exchanges, Epstein portrayed himself as someone who knew Trump well. Emails show how he tracked Trump’s business practices and the evolution of the president’s political endeavors.

Other communications show Epstein closely monitoring Trump’s movements at the beginning of his first term in office, at one point attempting to communicate with the Russian government to share his “insight” into Trump’s proclivities and thinking.

White House officials attempted to thwart the effort to release the files Wednesday, holding a tense meeting with a GOP congresswoman in the White House Situation Room, a move the administration said demonstrated its willingness “to sit down with members of Congress to address their concerns.”

But House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York accused the White House and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) of “running a pedophile protection program” for trying to block efforts to release the Epstein files.

The legislative effort in the House does not guarantee a vote in the Senate, much less bipartisan approval of the measure there. And the president — who has for months condemned his supporters for their repeated calls for transparency in the case — would almost certainly veto the bill if it makes it to his desk.

Epstein died in a federal prison in Manhattan awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking in 2019. His death was ruled a suicide by the New York City medical examiner and the Justice Department’s inspector general.

As reporters sift through the documents in the coming days, Trump’s relationship with Epstein is likely to remain in the spotlight.

In one email Epstein sent to himself shortly before his imprisonment and death, he wrote that Trump knew of the financier’s sexual activity during a period where he was accused of wrongdoing.

“Trump knew of it,” he wrote, “and came to my house many times during that period.”

“He never got a massage,” Epstein added. Epstein paid for “massages” from girls that often led to sexual activity.

Trump has blamed Democrats for the issue bubbling up again.

“Democrats are using the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax to try and deflect from their massive failures, in particular, their most recent one — THE SHUTDOWN!” the president wrote Wednesday in a social media post, hours after the records were made public.

Trump made a public appearance later that day to sign legislation ending the government shutdown but declined to answer as reporters shouted questions about Epstein after the event.

Trump comes up in several emails

The newly released correspondence gives a rare look at how Epstein, in his own words, related to Trump in ways that were not previously known. In some cases, Epstein’s correspondence suggests the president knew more about Epstein’s criminal conduct than Trump has let on.

In the months leading up to Epstein’s arrest on sex trafficking charges, he mentioned Trump in a few emails that imply the latter knew about the financier’s victims.

In January 2019, Epstein wrote to author Michael Wolff that Trump “knew about the girls,” as he discussed his membership at Mar-a-Lago, the president’s South Florida private club and resort.

Trump has said that he ended his relationship with Epstein because he had “hired away” one of his female employees at Mar-a-Lago. The White House has also said Trump banned Epstein from his club because he was “being a creep.”

“Trump said he asked me to resign, never a member ever,” Epstein wrote in the email to Wolff.

One of the employees was Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s survivors who died by suicide this year. Giuffre said in a civil case deposition that she never witnessed Trump sexually abuse minors in Epstein’s home.

Republicans in the House Oversight Committee identified Giuffre as one of the victims whose names are redacted in an April 2011 email.

In that email, Epstein wrote to Ghislane Maxwell, a former associate who was later sentenced for conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse minors, that Trump was “the dog that hasn’t barked.”

“[Victim] spent hours at my house with him,” Epstein wrote. “He has never once been mentioned.”

“I have been thinking about that…,” Maxwell replied.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Wednesday that the emails “prove absolutely nothing other than the fact that President Trump did nothing wrong.”

News over the summer that Trump had penned a lewd birthday card to Epstein, drawing the silhouette of a naked woman with a note reading, “may every day be another wonderful secret,” had sparked panic in the West Wing that the files could have prolific mentions of Trump.

Donald Trump “spent hours at my house” and “knew about the girls,” Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier accused of orchestrating sex trafficking of young girls, wrote in private emails House Democrats released Wednesday.

“Of course he knew about the girls,” Epstein said of Trump in an email to author and journalist Michael Wolff in early 2019, when Trump was nearing the end of his first term as President.

After months of political bickering over the well-connected sex offender’s documents, dubbed “the Epstein files,” Democrats on the House Oversight Committee publicly released some of Epstein’s emails to Wolff and Epstein’s longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of sex trafficking after Epstein’s death.

The emails are just a small part of a collection of 23,000 documents Epstein’s estate released to the committee and are sure to revive questions about what the president knew about Epstein’s sexual misconduct with girls and young women.

Trump has denied knowing anything about Epstein’s crimes and no investigation has tied Trump to them.

“The more Donald Trump tries to cover up the Epstein files, the more we uncover,” California Democrat Robert Garcia (D-Long Beach) said in a statement as he released the documents.

“These latest emails and correspondence raise glaring questions about what else the White House is hiding and the nature of the relationship between Epstein and the President,” Garcia added. “The Department of Justice must fully release the Epstein files to the public immediately. The Oversight Committee will continue pushing for answers and will not stop until we get justice for the victims.”

Epstein, 66, died by suicide in a New York jail in August 2019, weeks after he was arrested and federally charged with sex trafficking and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors. A watchdog report released last year found that negligence, misconduct and other failures at the jail contributed to his death.

More than a decade earlier, Epstein evaded federal criminal charges when he struck a plea deal in a south Florida case related to accusations that he molested dozens of girls.

As part of the agreement, Epstein pleaded guilty to state charges, including soliciting prostitution. He registered as a sex offender and served 13 months in jail but was allowed to leave six days a week to work at his office.

Get ready for Troy High to again be a girls’ basketball team to watch.

Kevin Kiernan, the winningest girls’ coach in state history with 900 career wins, according to CalHiSports, has come out of retirement for a second stint at Troy, where he coached for 11 years before heading over to Mater Dei for an 18-year run as girls’ coach and later athletic director. He’s also coached at Westminster La Quinta as well as boys’ basketball and was women’s coach at Cypress College.

Kiernan served as athletic director at Mater Dei last season. Two issues that he dealt with — an injured hip and throat surgery to help his voice — have been taken care of.

“Voice is great,” said Kiernan, whose daughter, Kaidyn, is a junior on the team.

That’s bad news for opponents, players and maybe some officials.

His experience alone should be beneficial to Troy, which is scheduled to be in eight tournaments and showcases. There’s only one returning player, Allyson Tan, but plenty of freshmen and sophomores, which is challenging but invigorating for Kiernan, known as a great teacher of the game.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email [email protected].

Universal Music Group said Wednesday it has reached licensing agreements with artificial intelligence music startup Udio, settling a lawsuit that had accused Udio of using copyrighted music to train its AI.

Users create music using Udio’s AI, which can compose original songs — including voices and instruments — from text prompts.

Udio has agreed with UMG to launch a new platform next year that is only trained on “authorized and licensed music,” and will let users customize, stream and share music.

“These new agreements with Udio demonstrate our commitment to do what’s right by our artists and songwriters, whether that means embracing new technologies, developing new business models, diversifying revenue streams or beyond,” Lucian Grainge, UMG’s chairman and chief executive, said in a statement.

Udio declined to disclose the financial terms of the settlement and licensing agreements. UMG did not immediately return a request for comment on the terms.

Artificial intelligence has brought new opportunities as well as challenges to the entertainment industry, as AI startups have been training their models on information on the internet, which entertainment companies say infringes on their copyrighted work.

In the music industry, music businesses have accused New York City-based Udio and other AI music startups of training on copyrighted music to generate new songs that are based on popular hits without compensation or permission.

UMG, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and other music businesses sued Udio last year. In the lawsuit, Udio was accused of using hits like The Temptations’ “My Girl,” to create a similar melody called “Sunshine Melody.” UMG owns the copyright to “My Girl.”

“A comparison of one section of the Udio-generated file and ‘My Girl’ reflects a number of similarities, including a very similar melody, the same chords, and very similar backing vocals,” according to the lawsuit. “These similarities are further reflected in the side-by-side transcriptions of the musical scores for the Udio file and the original recording.”

Udio said on its website at the time that it stands by its technology and that its AI model learns from examples, similar to how students listen to music and study scores.

“The goal of model training is to develop an understanding of musical ideas — the basic building blocks of musical expression that are owned by no one,” Udio had said in a statement. “We are completely uninterested in reproducing content in our training set.”

On Wednesday, Udio’s CEO and co-founder, Andrew Sanchez, said he was thrilled at the opportunity to work with UMG “to redefine how AI empowers artists and fans.”

The collaboration is the first music licensing agreement that Udio has reached with a major music label.

“This moment brings to life everything we’ve been building toward — uniting AI and the music industry in a way that truly champions artists,” Sanchez said in a statement. “Together, we’re building the technological and business landscape that will fundamentally expand what’s possible in music creation and engagement.”

Udio said that artists can opt in to the new platform and will be compensated, but declined to go into the specifics or the artists involved.

Udio, launched in 2024, was co-founded by former Google DeepMind employees. Udio’s backers include music artist will.i.am, Instagram co-founder and Anthropic’s chief product officer Mike Krieger and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.

Udio said millions of people have used Udio since it launched in 2024. Users can access the platform through its app or website. The company did not break out specifically how many downloads or website users it has.

Udio has had 128,000 app downloads in Apple’s App Store since its app was released in May, according to estimates from New York-based mobile analytics firm Appfigures.

On Thursday, UMG also announced a partnership with London-based Stability AI to develop music creation tools powered by AI for artists, producers and songwriters.

Carson High, an 11-time City Section champion, has been seeded No. 1 for the City Section Open Division playoffs under first-year coach William Lowe.

Birmingham, which has a 54-game winning streak against City Section opponents, was seeded No. 2. San Pedro is No. 3 and unbeaten Palisades is No. 4.

Carson will host No. 8-seeded King/Drew on Nov. 14. Palisades is the home team against No. 5 Garfield, while San Pedro hosts No. 6 Crenshaw and Birmingham hosts No. 7 Kennedy.

There was no City Open Division champion last season after Narbonne had to vacate the title for rule violations.

Venice is seeded No. 1 in Division I. Cleveland is No. 1 in Division II and Santee is top seeded in Division III.

In girls’ flag football, San Pedro was given the No. 1 seed for the Open Division. Games begin on Friday, with San Pedro hosting No. 8 Verdugo Hills; No. 4 Marshall is at No. 5 Banning; No. 6 Wilson visits No. 3 Panorama; and No. 7 Narbonne travels to No. 2 Eagle Rock.