Valeria Chomsky says Epstein had deceived them and they were ‘careless’ not to thoroughly research his background

Noam Chomsky and his wife, Valeria, made a “grave mistake” and were “careless” not to thoroughly research the background of Jeffrey Epstein, Valeria Chomsky said in a lengthy statement on Saturday, adding also that Epstein had deceived them.

The relationship between Noam Chomsky, the 97-year-old linguist and philosopher, and Epstein has been under scrutiny after documents released by the justice department shed light on their friendship. As Epstein came under scrutiny for sex trafficking allegations in 2019, he asked Chomsky for advice on how to respond. “I’ve watched the horrible way you are being treated in the press and public. It’s painful to say, but I think the best way to proceed is to ignore it,” Chomsky wrote in a message signed “Noam” that Epstein shared in email with an associate.

Vijay Prashad said he was ‘disgusted’ by linguist’s friendship with Epstein as new files shed light on their relationship

• Newly released Jeffrey Epstein files: 10 key takeaways so far

An author who collaborated on two books with Noam Chomsky has written a letter condemning the acclaimed scholar’s friendship with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, as newly released files shed light on the social relationship between the two men.

Vijay Prashad – a journalist, author and the director of the Tricontinental Institute for Social Research – wrote that he was “heartsick” over the new correspondence between Chomsky and Epstein.

Billionaires and intellectuals attended events with the disgraced financier years after he served time for sex offense, files reveal

Newly released emails and travel itineraries appear to show that for years after Jeffrey Epstein served time for procuring underage girls for prostitution, he continued to attend exclusive dinners alongside Silicon Valley’s most famous billionaires.

The emails, part of a trove released by the Department of Justice on Friday, show that as late as 2018, Epstein was invited to or attended dinners alongside the likes of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Twitter co-founder Evan Williams, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, and Google vice-president and later Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer.

Latest communications undermine Chomsky’s earlier claims that he primarily had financial dealings with Epstein

The close friendship that Noam Chomsky maintained with Jeffrey Epstein continued being detailed extensively among millions of investigative records pertaining to the late convicted sex offender recently released by the US justice department, including Chomsky “fantasizing about the Caribbean island”.

In Friday’s tranche of documents, which built upon earlier disclosures of their close social ties, there is no specific indication that the famed academic and linguist was referring to his friend’s private Caribbean island where children were sexually abused. But the personal familiarity between the two men in that exchange is palpable, as it is in numerous other emails between Chomsky and Epstein aimed at planning more mundane social gatherings.

The once-lauded director of Black Swan and The Wrestler has drowned himself in AI slop with an embarrassing new online series

If you happen to find yourself stumbling through Time magazine’s YouTube account, perhaps because you are a time traveller from the 1970s who doesn’t fully understand how the present works yet – then you will be presented with something that many believe represents the vanguard of entertainment as we know it.

On This Day … 1776 is a series of short videos depicting America’s revolutionary war. What makes On This Day notable is that it was made by Darren Aronofsky’s studio Primordial Soup. What also makes it interesting is that it was created with AI. The third thing that makes it interesting is that it is terrible.

‘No light at the end of the tunnel for consumers’ as 2025 figure is 50% higher than previous year, says Citizens Advice

Royal Mail has been criticised for offering an “unacceptable” performance over the crucial Christmas period after it failed to deliver letters and cards on time to about 16 million people, Citizens Advice found.

The consumer watchdog, which carried out research into Christmas deliveries, said that figure was 50% higher than in 2024, and the highest level over the festive period in five years, excluding when Royal Mail was hit by strike action in the run-up to Christmas four years ago.

Hunkering down in January; hiking boots for outdoor adventures; and cold-weather beauty essentials

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Congratulations, you’ve made it through more than 75% of January, Blue Monday and all. Extra kudos if you got through it without booking a holiday amid the onslaught of sun-soaked adverts, although I confess I’m not tempted. Would I rather spend hours on a plane with 200 strangers who had prosecco for breakfast, or hibernate until spring? I’ll take hibernation, thanks. Especially now that I’ve learned to do it properly.

Hunkering down may not sound like something you need tips to master, but January is the best of times and the worst of times for those of us who struggle with insomnia. On the upside, all the darkness encourages your body to produce plenty of the “sleep hormone” melatonin (nature’s way of telling you to sleep through it). On the downside, lack of sunlight is a key trigger for seasonal affective disorder (Sad) – one of the symptoms of which is broken sleep. Never simple, is it?

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• 37-year-old shot dead by federal agents on Saturday

• Angel Reese and Ryan Clark also post about shooting

• Hall of famer Alan Page seen at anti-ICE protests

A number of prominent US sports stars have condemned the killing of a registered nurse, Alex Pretti, by federal agents in Minneapolis on Saturday.

Pretti, 37, is the second person shot and killed by federal agents in Minneapolis in less than three weeks as protests over Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown sweep the city. Senior Trump administration officials have claimed Pretti intended to “massacre” federal officers with a handgun but video of the killing appears to contradict those claims.

Single malt prices soar, but scotch should be fun and affordable

We have Robert Burns to thank for perhaps the greatest poem about any dish ever – a poem so good that it inspires an entire nation to dedicate an evening of each year to eating haggis, even though most people find it kind of gross.

No? If the “Great Chieftan o’ the Puddin-race” were that delicious, we’d all be eating it all the time, surely? And yet Burns’ Address to a Haggis is enticing enough to dispel any such doubts just once a year. I especially like the bit about slitting it open so the bright entrails spill out: “And then, O what a glorious sight / Warm-reekin, rich!”