The Trump administration has made numerous false and contradictory statements about Jeffrey Epstein — and Trump himself has attempted to dismiss the story as old news.  Marcetic highlights some of the critical information and falsehoods:  BRANKO MARCETIC, [email protected], @BMarchetich Marcetic is a staff writer at Jacobin magazine, and is working on a piece on Epstein. He writes for other outlets as well, including Responsible Statecraft.      He said today: “Other than former president Bill Clinton, Trump was probably the most high-profile, long-standing, and intimate friend of Epstein’s among the political elite — his ‘closest friend,’ in the billionaire paedophile’s own words. Trump’s name, as well as more than…

“For 20 months the Israeli military had been committing acts which most genocide scholars and experts consider to be genocide. The population was now being starved, and the very distribution of humanitarian aid had been turned into a killing field, according to UNRWA. “To say that Palestine Action were committing terrorism was the precise opposite of what they were doing. They were rather seeking to prevent terror and genocide.”

Israel killed a reported 288 Palestinians in Gaza over the last three days. Middle East Eye reports: “Secret Trump letter would let Israel resume war despite ceasefire: Report,” citing Israeli media. AntiWar.com reports: “Israel Carries Out ‘Intense’ Airstrikes in Yemen.” The Intercept reports: “The Israeli Plot to Extinguish the Journalists Documenting Genocide.”

“Israeli forces have struck health-care facilities and personnel in Gaza at least 1,844 times, killing hundreds of patientsand health-care workers. According to the World Health Organization, 94 percent of hospitals in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed. All are starved of the most basic medical supplies, electricity, and even clean water.”

The U.S. missile strikes in Iran reveal how the business of military works in action.

As the 40-day fast for Gaza by Veterans and Allies ended Monday, the organizers escalated their activities with a “die-in” at the Israeli mission to the U.N. There were 28 people arrested in mass protests. Also Monday, Mike Ferner, a retired Navy corpsman and past director of Veterans For Peace threw blood at the U.S. mission to the U.N. and was also arrested. He and others held a vigil there during their fast for the past 40 days.

“A social-media screed by hedge-fund manager Bill Ackman (net worth: upward of $9 billion) was damn near apoplectic that activists and voters had so terribly transgressed. Ackman described himself as ‘a supporter of President Trump’ while expressing a fervent desire ‘to save the Democratic Party from itself.’ Mamdani’s policies, Ackman wrote late Wednesday night, ‘would be disastrous for NYC. Socialism has no place in the economic capital of our country.’”

The “Veterans & Allies Fast for Gaza” began May 22 “when six members of Veterans For Peace and allies traveled to New York City to stand at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. It has grown to over 800 people across the country and includes small groups in South Africa, Canada, Italy, Germany, Ireland, Hong Kong and Australia. Friends of Sabeel, NA has added critical behind-the-scenes support.” Fasters at the U.N. have limited themselves to “250 calories per day, considered medically to be a starvation diet and the amount reported early this year as the average available” to Palestinians…

In a news conference on Thursday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called the White House’s latest strikes on Iranian nuclear sites “highly successful.” But longtime anti-war activists see the strikes as a horrific decision by the Trump administration to attack a country that had not attacked the United States.

The Science and Community Impacts Mapping Project (SCIMaP) has created an interactive map that reveals the projected nationwide impacts of the Trump administration’s cuts to NIH funding for crucial health research, including on cancer, diabetes, dementia and more. The White House has proposed budget cuts to NIH research of $18 billion compared to FY 2024. Those cuts are projected to cause more than $46 billion in lost economic activity, given that every dollar of NIH support translates to 2.5 dollars of economic activity.