Jes Staley made comments to US lawmakers investigating his links to the convicted sex offender

The former Barclays boss Jes Staley has denied having sex with a woman dressed as Snow White, after being questioned about an infamous email exchange about Disney princesses with Jeffrey Epstein.

The comments were detailed in newly released transcripts from a closed-door interview last month with US lawmakers as part of their investigation into Epstein, who died in prison in August 2019 while awaiting trial on child sex-trafficking charges.

American actor best known for his role as Salvatore ‘Big Pussy’ Bonpensiero in the US TV crime drama series The Sopranos

The character actor Vincent Pastore, who has died aged 80, made Italian mobster roles his speciality, most notably playing Salvatore “Big Pussy” Bonpensiero, one of the capos in The Sopranos. Although the character’s nickname came from his early career as a cat burglar, in a recent interview Pastore said the Soprano’s creator, David Chase, had written the part “for an actor who could play a tough guy but also could be sensitive. I saw Big Pussy as a man with a big heart.”

In the show, Pastore’s Pussy balanced the violent intensity of Tony Sirico’s Paulie Walnuts. “It was like sharing the camera with an elephant,” Pastore joked about the much smaller but intense actor.

It’s silly, singular and occasionally tearjerking: this tale of a mechanical companion to an elderly widow is shot through with love and care

The home, warns Jamaican nurse Brianna (Michelle Greenidge), can be a “lethal” environment for elderly people. “You lucky like plucky you never smash your head on the corner of the coffee table, or land teeth first on the iron doorstep!” she says, fatalistically, as Sue (Sue Johnston) tries in vain to explain that she didn’t “have a fall”, but fainted due to low blood pressure. In any case, Sue – widowed two years ago – has wound up in hospital with a sprained wrist and is discharged with her arm in a sling.

At least she has her son, Michael (Paul Ready), to rely on. Except that Michael – gutless, whiny and covered in red blotches from a drug trial he’s joined for quick cash (“if it was dangerous”, he says, “do you really think drug companies would do it?!”) – is moving back in with his cheating ex. His solution? A robot carer, preloved and purchased on a 24-month contract. Cocking snooks at an era where everything is on subscription and at the general direction of late-capitalist travel, the preloved Ann Droid robot is useless without an internet connection, and is delivered by overburdened delivery driver Cass (Sarah Kendall), who we later discover has completed a PhD on Chaucer. Sue is appalled.

Elizabeth Warren asks Jamie Dimon if he was advised to ‘mildly threaten’ UK chancellor over tax on bankers’ bonuses

A leading Democratic senator has written to the boss of JP Morgan to request clarification on the bank’s contact with the child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the senate banking committee, wrote to Jamie Dimon last week to ask if he took advice from Epstein while lobbying against a UK tax on banker bonuses, in a letter published by the committee on Monday.

She’s been a soap icon, a Royle and even a zombie pensioner. Now the actor is starring in Ann Droid, Diane Morgan’s madcap comedy about an elderly woman and her cybernetic companion

Sue Johnston is the kind of actor who usually can’t stand seeing herself on screen, but for Ann Droid she made an exception. The new sitcom by Diane Morgan and Sarah Kendall stars the 82-year-old as a recent widow whose son hires a humanoid robot called Linda (played with delightful uncanniness by Morgan herself) to assist her after he moves out. The results are initially farcical: Linda is a dated – and therefore relatively cheap – model who lacks the intelligence of newer variants and attempts to cheer people up by blasting Cotton Eye Joe at them. Yet the pair soon become inseparable. Johnston describes the show as “rich with humour and love”. When she watched it back, she found it so absorbing that “I forgot it was me – I very rarely do that and I just enjoyed it.”

Ann Droid is worth raving about on its own terms – it’s rambunctiously funny and exceptionally poignant – but it is clear Johnston’s enthusiasm stems from somewhere else too. “I’m proud of Diane and I just want it to work for her,” she says with feeling. The pair met on the set of the Sky sitcom Rovers before Morgan made it big with Philomena Cunk and Motherland and kept in touch. “Which you don’t with everyone. We’re both silly about our dogs; we just made a connection.” She was thrilled to reunite. “There’s a lot about Diane that reminds me of Caroline Aherne. They’ve got that northern, straight-face, cut-through humour. And they’re geniuses.”

The 47th has his 80th this weekend – a milestone that surely shouldn’t go unmarked. Artists, activists, writers and thinkers send their messages to the man of the hour (even if they’re unlikely to get a party invite)

Cory Doctorow

Dear Comrade Trump: On this, the occasion of your 80th birthday, I write to extend my sincere thanks for all the work you have done. After decades of deadlock, you have inspired the world to action! You have done more to de-dollarise the world than any American leader in history. Without you, there would be no way that Ethiopia would be revaluing its national debt in yuan. You have done more to end the global dependence on oil than any leader (except, perhaps, for Comrade Putin). Without you, there would be no way that India would be chucking out its gas hobs and replacing them with induction tops. And, of course, you have done more than any president in history to end American dominance over the internet. Without you, there would be no way the EU would be racing forward with projects such as Eurostack and European Digital Infrastructure Consortium, with whole nations ditching American tech exports like Microsoft Office 365 in favour of free, open, auditable, transparent alternatives running on servers within the EU’s borders. Comrade Trump, you are, at long last, ushering in the post-American world, and a grateful planet salutes you!

Don’t want to spend months watching corporate greed besmirch football? Fear not. From the spectacular return of Larry David to Will Ferrell’s wild golf comedy and Anya Taylor-Joy as a badass con artist, it’s going to be a summer of fantastic TV. Here are the shows you can’t miss

House of the Dragon finds itself slightly up against it this year, as the faster and funnier A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms has snatched its crown as the premium Game of Thrones spin-off. But let’s not discount it, because what House of the Dragon has in spades is scale and spectacle plus newly announced co-star James Norton. If that doesn’t excite you, nothing will. Sky Atlantic/Now/HBO Max, 22 June

JPMorgan Chase leads 65 banks making decisions incompatible with restraining rising temperatures, researchers say

The world’s largest banks committed $906bn in financing to the fossil fuel industry last year, an “unfathomable” increase in investment locking in years more of coal, oil and gas production as the world continues to overheat, a new report has found.

The surge in new fossil fuel lending, up $64bn or nearly 8% on 2024, shows that the world’s largest 65 banks are making decisions incompatible with international agreements to restrain rising global temperatures, according to the coalition of environmental groups behind the new analysis.

Die US-Bank JP Morgan drängt ins deutsche Bankgeschäft und bietet zum Start bis zu vier Prozent Zinsen. Die Deutsche Bank zieht nach. Das Wichtigste zum Zins-Rennen.

SS and Glass Lewis back shareholder resolution amid fears over power wielded by Jamie Dimon, who holds both roles

Investors in JP Morgan have been urged to vote in favour of splitting the role of chief executive and chair at America’s largest bank, amid concerns over the power wielded by its billionaire boss Jamie Dimon.

ISS and Glass Lewis, which issue advice to some of the world’s biggest fund managers on how to vote at annual investor meetings, have thrown their weight behind a shareholder resolution that would ensure two separate people hold the office of chair and chief executive “as soon as possible”. Investors are due to vote on the resolution at the bank’s annual general meeting on 19 May.

The campaign, fronted by a CGI squirrel, is part of government initiative to boost financial risk taking, amid fears UK growth is being stymied

• Nils Pratley: the ‘Savvy Squirrel looks a hit too tame’

City firms are pinning their hopes on a government-endorsed advertising blitz fronted by a finance “savvy” CGI squirrel to encourage cautious British savers to shift out of cash and start investing.

The long-awaited retail investment campaign, which will cost up to £50m, is part of the chancellor Rachel Reeves’ nationwide push to encourage more financial risk taking, amid fears risk-averse consumers are losing out and ultimately stymying UK growth.

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PMQs is starting soon.

Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question.

I’ll be honest, when people would pop up on social media laying those sorts of charges, they tended to be the sort of people who appear in your timeline trolling. And I just didn’t think it could be credible that [Mandelson] would have had that kind of relationship.

So, the FT did a report, but I don’t remember seeing it in other newspapers. Mandelson still had a podcast. He was appearing regularly on really big news programmes. And so, to be honest, the only time I remember seeing stuff, Mandleson/Epstein, you just think, ‘I haven’t seen that from a credible news source, he hasn’t been questioned, I think that must be overblown’.

I think it stems from the same root cause, which is those women [Epstein’s victims], those girls, not being taken seriously enough, their experiences not mattering enough and being prioritised. And that is exactly the sort of sexism and misogyny at the root of the issue, I’m afraid. And I think all of us have to take responsibility for that.

JP Morgan boss warns of risks of higher inflation and interest rates due to Iran war in annual letter to shareholders

• Middle East crisis – live updates

The head of the US’s largest bank has pressed the White House to strengthen Washington’s allies economically in order to “avoid truly adverse consequences”, in the latest intervention in an increasingly testy relationship with the Trump administration.

As the Middle East conflict sparked by US and Israeli attacks on Iran enters its sixth week, Jamie Dimon, the chair and chief executive of JP Morgan Chase, said in his annual letter to shareholders that good US foreign policy should put America first “though not alone”.

Jeffrey Epstein soll sein Vermögen auch mit aggressiven Steuertricks vergrößert haben. Dokumente aus den Epstein Files werfen dabei auch neue Fragen zur Rolle der Deutschen Bank auf.

Exclusive: Bank Policy Institute, representing lenders such as JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs, argues that new licenses could harm US consumers and financial system

Some of the largest US banks are considering suing their financial regulator, arguing that a new raft of licenses for crypto, payment and fintech could put American consumers and the wider financial system at risk.

The Bank Policy Institute (BPI), which represents 40 of the biggest US lenders including JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, is understood to be weighing its legal options after the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) failed to heed repeated warnings from influential banking groups and state regulators over its reinterpretation of federal licensing rules.

The Philomena Cunk star’s life was changed by the Fall and she knows a Spitting Image song inside out. But which haunting banger does she say is the best ever?

The first song I fell in love with
Baggy Trousers by Madness. I remember thinking it was the most brilliant thing I’d ever heard, partly because there was a man in huge trousers suspended from the ceiling playing a saxophone on Top of the Pops. That probably helped. It was hilarious!

The first single I bought
The Smurfs? I think I just asked for it rather than went out and bought it myself because I was three. Apparently I was mesmerised by both Kate Bush and the Smurfs, so I had great taste in music. The first single I bought with my own pocket money was probably I Should Be So Lucky, because I hadn’t become acquainted with the Fall yet.

Reform UK’s Robert Jenrick has announced party’s plans to cut welfare spending

Robert Jenrick, Reform UK’s Treasury spokesperson, is giving his speech now.

He has announced, or confirmed, three measures to cut welfare spending.

The number claiming disability benefits for an attention disorder has more than doubled since Covid. We all know a significant number of these claims are spurious …

We will stop those with mild anxiety, depression, and similar conditions from claiming disability benefits and instead encourage them into the dignity of work.

We will end the abuse of the Motability scheme, where expensive cars are handed out for conditions like tennis elbow, and paid for by working people who can’t afford them themselves.

The final stretch of the JP Morgan Chase chief’s career is a bumpy one, as Trump himself demands prosecutors investigate Epstein’s ties to Dimon’s bank