Disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's web of high-profile connections grows ever more complex with the release of thousands of new emails and correspondences by the US House Oversight Committee.

US President Donald Trump again labelled the "Epstein file" a "hoax" after Democrats on the committee leaked three emails that mentioned Trump, including Epstein saying Trump "knew about the girls" Epstein's accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell was recruiting from Mar-a-Lago.

But more revelations are emerging from among the 20,000-plus trove of documents that followed those initial three emails – and they aren't all about Trump.

The emails below have been left in their original text and contain some spelling and grammatical errors.

READ MORE: BBC apologises to Donald Trump over misleading video edit

Bill Clinton

In other emails, Epstein strategised how to respond to accuser Virginia Giuffre's allegations, which included an account of meeting former president Bill Clinton on Epstein's island in the Caribbean.

"Presidents at dinner on caribean islands. ( clinton was never ever there, easy to confirm ). Sharing a bath with a Prince ( bathtub too small even for one adult ). sex slave being paid thousands of dollars. ( while at the exact same time, she was working as a hostess in a burger bar )."

Clinton has acknowledged travelling on Epstein's private jet but has said through a spokesperson that he had no knowledge of Epstein's crimes.

Clinton has not been accused of wrongdoing by any of the women who say Epstein abused them, including Giuffre.

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In a 2016 email to a reporter, Epstein denied ever spending time with Clinton or his vice president Al Gore on his island.

"You can also add, fresh politcal juice by stating that Clinton was never on the island," Epstein wrote.

"I never met Al Gore. No diners on the island either, no matter how much detail has been in the press."

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor

The new emails undercut the former Prince Andrew's claim that a now-infamous snapshot of him with his arm around Giuffre's partly bare midriff was doctored because he couldn't remember it being taken.

"Yes she was on my plane, and yes she had her picture taken with Andrew as many of my employees have," Epstein wrote in one 2011 email in which he called Giuffre a liar.

Epstein repeatedly disparaged Giuffre, calling her "nothing more than a telephone answerer".

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He discussed getting a reporter to investigate her, suggesting "Buckingham Palace would love it".

When the Mail on Sunday sought comment before publishing a story in March 2011 about Giuffre's allegations, Epstein forwarded the email to a contact listed as "The Duke" that is partly redacted but appears to be Mountbatten-Windsor.

"Please make sure that every statement or legal letter states clearly that I am NOT involved and that I knew and know NOTHING about any of these allegations," the reply from the email listed as "The Duke" said.

"I can't take any more of this (on) my end."

When he asked Epstein how he planned to respond to the tabloid's request, Epstein said he wasn't sure.

"The only person she didn't have sex with was Elvis," he wrote.

Ghislaine Maxwell

In January 2015, an anonymous woman – later revealed to be Giuffre – filed a lawsuit alleging that Epstein and Maxwell groomed and sexually abused her between 1998 and 2002.

The lawsuit alleged they forced her to become a "sex slave" to powerful men – including a royal prince later revealed to be Mountbatten-Windsor.

Mountbatten-Windsor has denied the allegation and later settled a lawsuit Giuffre filed against him.

In several email exchanges on January 10, 2015, after the lawsuit was filed, Epstein and Maxwell coordinated their public response to the allegations.

"Initial response, too many unanswered question raised, relationship with jeffrey/…I am writing to writin to respond to alleagtinoin that have been made wchich are categorically untrue," Epstein wrote to Maxwell.

Maxwell responded by asking if her lawyer could speak with a lawyer, then wrote: "I have to distance myself from you in statement too. And they need me to say I was not aware of massage w/ andrew in my house. These things they have to stay along w/ meeting [REDACTED] and rebutting those allegations. I needs it asap."

After Epstein assured Maxwell he was on the phone with his lawyer about getting her a lawyer, she replied, "I need it written out in full."

"Call me," Epstein replied.

Maxwell later settled a defamation lawsuit with Giuffre in June 2017 for an undisclosed sum.

In an interview with the Justice Department this summer, Maxwell said her relationship with Epstein was "almost nonexistent" between 2010 and 2019 outside of corresponding over legal matters.

Soon-Yi Previn

The emails show an interesting exchange between Jeffrey Epstein and Soon-Yi Previn, the wife of controversial filmmaker Woody Allen.

Epstein sent an article to Previn, titled, "Bill Clinton's CIA chief joins Trump campaign."

The article, published by The Hill in September 2016, was about the former Clinton-appointed CIA director James Woolsey joining Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.

"Woody said it doesn't mean anything," Previn wrote in response to Epstein.

It's unclear why Epstein flagged the news to Previn and what, if any, interest she or her husband would have had in Woolsey's involvement with Trump.

Donald Trump

So far, no correspondence between Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein has emerged, nor has Trump been accused of any wrongdoing in the documents released.

But Epstein had plenty to say about his one-time friend.

He called Trump "borderline insane" in a 2018 email exchange with former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers.

"Trump – borderline insane," Epstein wrote on December 22, 2018.

It's unclear what prompted the exchange between Epstein and Summers.

A week after Trump was inaugurated to his first term as US president, he signed an executive order banning the entry of foreign nationals from Muslim majority countries for 90 days, widely referred to as the "Muslim ban".

Epstein said in an email to a New York Times reporter on January 28, 2017: "IT helps as he is seen as keeping his word."

He added later in the email: "That being said Donald is f—— crazy, I told you that."

In a March 24, 2018, email chain with Kathryn Ruemmler, a former White House counsel under President Barack Obama, Epstein shared a Daily Beast article titled, "How Close Is Donald Trump to a Psychiatric Breakdown?"

The exchange shows Epstein forwarding the story early that morning to Ruemmler, with her replying: "Not confidence inspiring."

Epstein then responded: "but – accurate."

A year earlier in July 2017, Ruemmler wrote an email to Epstein saying, "Trump is truly stupid."

"Duh," Epstein replied several hours later.

It is not clear why Ruemmler and Epstein were corresponding at the time.

In December 2018, Epstein emailed Ruemmler about Trump's behaviour, writing:

"you might want to tell your dem friends that treating trump like a mafia don, ignores the fact that he has great dangerous power. tightening the noose too slowly, risks a very bad situation. gambino was never the commander in chief. there was little gambino could do as the walls closed in. not so with this maniac."

In 2018, Epstein also questioned in an email with a reporter whether Trump was suffering from "early dementia".

Steve Bannon

In early June 2019, Trump made a state visit to the United Kingdom, where he was welcomed by the former Prince Andrew.

A photo shows Andrew grinning as he shakes Trump's hand.

In a June 2019 email exchange with Steve Bannon, Trump's former White House chief strategist, Epstein wrote, "prince andrew and trump today.. Tooo [sic] funny." And then he added, "recall prince andrews accuser came out of mara lago [sic]."

Bannon replied, "Can't believe nobody is making u [sic] the connective tissue."

It's unclear what exactly Bannon meant by the message.

Trump fired him from the White House in 2017, though Bannon remained influential in conservative politics, as he does today.

Trump and Andrew socialised together in the 1990s and 2000s, per newspaper reports, alongside Epstein and Maxwell, sometimes at Mar-A-Lago.

CNN reached out to Bannon for comment but did not immediately hear back.

Peter Mandelson

The new cache of documents from the House committee also seem to shed further light on the extent of the contact between Epstein and Peter Mandelson, who was recently fired as British ambassador to the US over his ties to Epstein.

Emails show that the pair were in contact as late as 2016 when Mandelson appeared to reference Epstein's birthday two weeks earlier.

"63 years old. You made it," he wrote.

Their exchange also appears to suggest that Mandelson had cautioned Epstein to avoid Mountbatten-Windsor, with the disgraced financier writing that "you were right about staying away from Andrew".

Mandelson responds, "Yes, without Andrew it would not have gone nuclear."

It's unclear exactly what the two men are referring to.

CNN has attempted to reach out to Mandelson for comment.

Mandelson was fired as Britain's ambassador to the US in September after Bloomberg published a trove of emails between him and Epstein which revealed the depth of their friendship.

Those emails had shown that Mandelson had sent Epstein messages of support until 2010 – even after the sex offender was convicted of soliciting prostitution with a minor in Florida two years prior.

– Reported with CNN and Associated Press.

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The driver responsible for one of Australia's deadliest bus crashes has lost his bid to reduce his jail sentence over a horrific mass fatality crash.

Brett Andrew Button, 60, was handed a decades-long sentence for causing a crash that killed 10 mostly young wedding guests and injured another 25 in June 2023.

He was driving too fast and under the influence of the opioid painkiller Tramadol before his bus tipped at a roundabout in Greta in the NSW Hunter Valley.

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His sentencing judge said in his half-century of involvement in the judicial system, he was unaware of any other case that had such a devastating impact on so many people.

Seven victims were from nearby Singleton – many linked to the local AFL club, including coach Nadene McBride and her daughter Kyah and Kyah's partner.

Others lived in Queensland or the married couple's childhood city of Melbourne.

Button appealed the length of his 32-year sentence, with his lawyer arguing some of the 35 criminal charges he pleaded guilty to had been double-counted.

The NSW Court of Criminal Appeal dismissed his appeal on Friday, leaving in place the full term and 24-year non-parole period.

Button's lawyer had argued the sentence was disproportionate to the crime.

"As catastrophic as the consequences were of the applicant's dangerous driving, the aggregate sentence imposed was manifestly unjust and unfair," Button's barrister Paul Rosser KC had written in submissions to the court.

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Button also argued the sentencing judge erred by finding the bus driver knew he was under the influence of the painkiller and that the tipping point of the bus was only 31km/h.

The bus driver had previously argued he did not realise he was affected by the opioid because he had taken it for so long and never felt impacted by it.

Director of Public Prosecutions Sally Dowling SC told the appeal hearing Button should have known he was under the drug's effect because he was fired from a previous job when his employer learned he had become addicted.

The bus, which was carrying guests from a wine estate wedding, entered an elliptical roundabout on the way to Singleton before tipping over and hitting a guardrail.

"This next part's going to be fun," Button told passengers before accelerating into the roundabout and speeding around the turn before the crash.

Survivors described feeling they were about to die as the bus fell sideways towards a roadside barrier.

"The sensation of falling sideways and being completely powerless was terrifying," Jason Junkeer told Button's sentencing hearing.

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The BBC has apologised to US President Donald Trump over a misleading edit of his speech on January 6, 2021, but said it strongly disagreed that there was a basis for a defamation lawsuit.

The BBC said Chair Samir Shah sent a personal letter to the White House saying that he and the corporation were sorry for the edit of the speech Trump gave before some of his supporters stormed the US Capitol.

It said there are no plans to re-broadcast the documentary that spliced together parts of his speech that came almost an hour apart.

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"We accept that our edit unintentionally created the impression that we were showing a single continuous section of the speech, rather than excerpts from different points in the speech, and that this gave the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action," the BBC wrote in a retraction.

Trump's lawyer had sent the BBC a letter demanding an apology and threatened to file a US$1 billion ($1.53 billion) lawsuit.

The dispute was sparked by an edition of the BBC's flagship current affairs series Panorama, titled "Trump: A Second Chance?" broadcast days before the 2024 US presidential election.

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The third-party production company that made the film spliced together three quotes from two sections of the 2021 speech, delivered almost an hour apart, into what appeared to be one quote in which Trump urged supporters to march with him and "fight like hell."

Among the parts cut out was a section where Trump said he wanted supporters to demonstrate peacefully.

Director-general Tim Davie, along with news chief Deborah Turness, quit Sunday, saying the scandal was damaging the BBC and "as the CEO of BBC News and Current Affairs, the buck stops with me."

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The Pentagon conducted its 20th strike on an alleged drug trafficking boat earlier this week, a Defence Department official said.

"The strike occurred in the Caribbean and four narco-terrorists were killed, no survivors," the official confirmed in a statement to CNN on Thursday.

Trump administration officials have acknowledged they do not necessarily know the identities of the individuals aboard the vessels before they are targeted.

READ MORE: Driver in deadly wedding bus crash set to learn appeal fate

The strike occurred on Monday, the official said. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth previously announced two Sunday strikes, the 18th and 19th conducted by the US military, on two vessels each with three people aboard.

Hegseth said in a post on X the following day that those strikes killed all six. The 20th strike was first reported by CBS News.

The attack brings the total number of people killed by the US military's strikes on the alleged drug boats to 80.

CNN has reported that the military is using a variety of fighter jets, drones, and gunships to carry out the strikes in the campaign officials say is meant to disrupt the flow of drugs into the US.

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The Justice Department has told Congress the administration does not need its approval to carry out the strikes, which some experts have said could violate US and international law.

The ongoing campaign has also begun to surface tensions with allies; the United Kingdom has stopped sharing intelligence with the US about suspected drug trafficking vessels to avoid being complicit in the strikes, CNN reported this week, which the UK believes are illegal.

The president of Colombia also said this week that he had ordered his country to suspend intelligence sharing with the US until the attacks stop.

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Australia's first tropical cyclone of the season could reportedly develop as early as next week, as sea surface temperatures warm off the northern coast.

Weatherzone reported that sea surface temperatures in the region were topping 31 degrees, well above the minimum of 26.5 degrees needed for a cyclone to form.

"Water temperatures to the north of Australia are currently sitting around 1 to 2 degrees above average for this time of year, with sea surface temperatures as high as 31 degrees to the west of the Top End and north of the Kimberley," Weatherzone's Ben Domensino wrote.

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"The blob of warm water to the northwest of Darwin ranks in the top 10 percent of historical records for this time of year, meaning the ocean is primed to support tropical cyclone development in the coming weeks."

The Bureau of Meteorology's tropical cyclone forecast says there is a small chance a storm could form as early as Tuesday next week.

But several forecast models show the odds shortening a bit towards the end of next week.

"Another factor that adds weight to the increasing potential for early-season tropical cyclone activity next week will be a tropical atmospheric wave passing to the north of Australia," Domensino wrote.

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"This wave, called the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO), should cause an increase of cloud and thunderstorm activity near northern Australia next week.

"This enhanced storminess can help create low pressure systems that can deepen to become tropical cyclones."

Despite the overall long odds of a cyclone forming, let alone making landfall in Australia, next week, residents in the country's north are urged to keep an eye on the Bureau's weather updates.

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An AI-powered, humanoid robot that was meant to signal the next big Russian tech advance went sour in Moscow after literally falling flat on its "face".

The robot, dubbed AIdol, made its public debut at an event staged by manufacturer Idol.

Video showed the robot taking a slow few steps onstage.

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It raises its right "arm" for a wave and appears to waver, with handlers approaching rapidly.

But AIdol managed to stay upright for a few more steps before apparently overbalancing and falling forward.

The handlers rush to lift the robot up, at the same time as another is drawing a black sheet in front of the scene.

Idol chief exectuive Vladimir Vitukhin said the fall was caused by calibration errors and that the robot remained in its testing phase, according to media reports.

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WARNING: This article discusses the issue of stillbirth and the death of a newborn.

Sydney nurse Nerida Rosenthal was 33 weeks pregnant with her first baby when she suddenly felt worried that she hadn't felt her daughter move in a long time.

"I was at work, and I remember it was a really busy day," she said.

"I sat down in the afternoon and thought, 'Oh, I haven't really been paying attention to the movements.'"

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Stressed, Rosenthal left work for a regular acupuncture appointment.

It was during this quiet time that she usually felt her daughter move.

But not this time.

"I just thought, 'No, I'm not feeling her'," Rosenthal said.

Now very concerned, Rosenthal called her husband, who took her to the hospital.

"I went in and was sat in the waiting room," Rosenthal said.

"It was obviously a very busy shift in the delivery suite."

A staff member came out to the waiting room and put a cardiotocography (CTG) monitor on Rosenthal to measure the baby's heart rate.

The measurements reassured staff, who detected a heartbeat before returning to the ward.

However, Nerida wasn't reassured and suspected it was her own heartbeat, elevated by anxiety, that was picked up by mistake.

Instinct told Rosenthal that something was very wrong, and she refused to leave the hospital until she received an ultrasound, despite reassurances that her baby was okay.

"I knew it in my gut and I said, 'I'm not leaving here based on a CTG, I need a scan'," she said.

Rosenthal's obstetrician arrived at the hospital and immediately performed an ultrasound, which confirmed her worst fears.

"The doctor just turned to me, and he had tears in his eyes. He said, 'You're right. There's no heartbeat'," she said.

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Rosenthal's daughter had suffered an umbilical cord accident.

The cord was wrapped around her neck twice and kinked, stopping the blood flow.

Around 2380 families are affected by stillbirth every year in Australia.

It's a rate that has remained largely unchanged over the last two decades.

In 2022, the rate of stillbirths even increased slightly to 8.0 per 1000 births, up from 7.2 per 1000 births a year earlier, according to the latest available data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

In 2018, a Senate inquiry examined the lack of movement on Australia's stillbirth rate.

In response, the National Stillbirth Action and Implementation Plan was launched in 2020, which included a federal government target to reduce the number of stillbirths by 20 per cent by December 2025.

While Rosenthal believes her daughter Mia's death was unpreventable, she, alongside many other bereaved parents, is calling for change around this issue

"It's just crazy that the stats haven't changed in all of this time," she said.

"We know that some of these stillbirths are preventable. So what can we do to prevent them?

In September, a parliamentary petition collected more than 6000 signatures, calling for a national stillbirth awareness campaign.

The petition was launched by Tim McCranor, who, along with his wife Michelle, lost their baby daughter Celeste in 2001.

The couple's advocacy has also included the making of a recently released documentary called Her Name is Celeste. 

Why haven't stillbirth rates improved?

Despite medical advancements in other areas of health, stillbirth rates have stagnated and even showed a slight uptick in 2022, when the highest rate in 20 years was recorded.

In its analysis, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) said there had been no consistent trend over the past few decades when it came to the number of stillbirths.

However, some fluctuations had coincided with key events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2019–20 bushfires, and changes in the underlying birth rate, AIHW said.

Some of the increase in 2022 could be attributed to the improved capture and inclusion of cases in some areas, it said.

Vicki Flenady is the director of the Stillbirth Centre of Research Excellence (CRE), a peak body leading the effort to prevent stillbirths in later gestation, from 28 weeks onwards.

Flenady said possible factors which may have influenced stillbirth rates included disruptions to maternity care during the COVID-19 pandemic and inequity in care.

"Stillbirth disproportionately affects marginalised groups, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, women from some migrant and refugee backgrounds, women under the age of 20, and women from rural and remote areas," Flenady said.

"These disparities are linked to factors like social disadvantage, intergenerational trauma, and limited access to culturally safe healthcare."

It is estimated that about 20-30 per cent of stillbirth deaths in late gestation are preventable.

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While the national overall figures for stillbirths measured deaths from 20 weeks onwards, one area which had shown improvement was in later gestation from 28 weeks, Flenady said.

"In this group, there has been a downward trend," Flenady said.

"The average annual rate reduction reveals a 3.1 per cent decrease in late gestation stillbirth rates in the decade to 2022."

A key stillbirth prevention strategy in the National Stillbirth Action and Implementation Plan has been the rollout of a Safer Baby Bundle in higher-risk communities and clinical settings through Stillbirth CRE.

The bundle helps clinicians identify women at a higher risk for stillbirth and provides strategies for their care.

Modelled on the UK's National Health Service's (NHS) Saving Babies' Lives Care, the bundle has shown promising early results, Flenady said.

"Pre-COVID Victorian data show a 21 per cent reduction in stillbirths occurring at 28 weeks' gestation or more where the Safer Baby Bundle has been embedded."

Lack of real-time data hinders efforts

One major factor hampering the efforts to reduce the stillbirth rate is the lack of real-time data, Flenady said.

There is currently a three-year delay in the release of stillbirth statistics by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

"Access to timely, comprehensive data limits the ability to measure, in real time, the impact of prevention initiatives or other factors that influence stillbirth rates," Flenady said.

"In addition, there is a two-year delay between the occurrence of a stillbirth and its inclusion in data sets made available for analysis."

The National Stillbirth Action and Implementation Plan identified the need to improve data collection on stillbirths and committed in the medium term to "develop and implement a standardised approach to data collection on causes and contributing factors for perinatal deaths, across maternity services linked to perinatal mortality review committees to ensure timely review and reporting of stillbirth deaths".

Do you have a story? Contact reporter Emily McPherson at EM********@******om.au

A teenager who didn't hesitate before fatally stabbing a grandmother in front of a young girl has been jailed for 16 years over the horrendous murder that sparked landmark law reforms.

Vyleen White was murdered by the boy, then aged 16, in a car park at Redbank Plains shopping centre, west of Brisbane in February 2024.

The 70-year-old's death was a catalyst for the Queensland LNP government's controversial "adult crime, adult time" laws, ensuring juveniles face at least 20 years in custody for murder.

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However, they are not retroactive, meaning the teen was today sentenced under Queensland's previous laws after earlier pleading guilty to murder.

Chief Justice Helen Bowskill described the boy's actions as "cowardly and callous" when she handed down her sentence.

The teen – now 17 and who can't be legally identified – not only took one life but destroyed many others when he murdered White while she was holding up her hands and backing away, she said.

A little girl witnessed the "senseless" attack.

"(White) was a person who mattered greatly to her family and her community," Justice Bowskill said.

"All lives matter. They are precious. They are not to be wasted by selfish and senseless acts of violence."

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The teen quickly approached White before he demanded her car keys then inflicted a 17cm-deep knife wound that was fatal.

The teen stole White's 2009 Hyundai Getz hatchback and drove it to a nearby residential area where he showed it off to other teens.

"Taking Mrs White's life has caused immense, indeed catastrophic pain and suffering to her family," Justice Bowskill said.

The little girl who witnessed the stabbing was very brave in seeking help from bystanders in the horrendous circumstances of the murder, she said.

White's husband Victor and his three daughters wept as they watched the sentencing via a video link to a nearby courtroom.

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The grandmother had been married for 50 years and was a companion to her husband, helping him with his worsening eyesight, Justice Bowskill said.

But the teen was remorseful and had spared White's family the trauma of going through a trial by pleading guilty, she said.

Crown prosecutor Chris Cook pushed for a sentence of 17 to 18 years, saying the teen's offending was significantly aggravated by him covering his face with a mask and the murder was witnessed by a young girl.

The teen was also on bail for armed robberies, including an incident where a man was injured with a knife.

The teen's barrister Matthew Hynes had pushed for the killer to be released before he turned 25 because the murder was not premeditated.

The teen also pleaded guilty to car theft and three counts of stealing.

He stared straight ahead and did not visibly react as his 16-year sentence was handed down.

The teen will be released from detention after serving 60 per cent of the 16 years.

He has already served one year and nine months on remand, leaving him likely to be released in late 2033.

The bombshell trove of documents from the estate of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein have lit a political bonfire in the US, with one email recording the sex offender telling somebody, "I know how dirty Donald is".

The "Donald" he spoke of was at that time in 2018, as he is now, the US president and Commander-in-Chief, Donald J Trump.

Here's what has been gleaned from the files so far.

READ MORE: Crisis engulfs White House as Trump pressures allies

'I know how dirty Donald is'

The newly released documents don't provide any smoking guns when it comes to evidence of wrongdoing by Trump. But there are suggestions throughout that Epstein knew things about Trump that could hurt him.

In one 2018 email, Epstein remarked amid a discussion about Trump's possible impeachment: "you see , i know how dirty Donald is. my guess is that non lawyers ny biz people have no idea. What it means to have your fixer flip." (That last part was apparently a reference to Michael Cohen, who flipped on Trump.)

After Trump won the New Hampshire primary in 2016, a correspondent wondered to Epstein about "the stories you could tell," according to one of the released email exchanges.

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After the correspondent wagered that such information might not actually damage Trump, Epstein seemed to reference how Trump was "a phony rich person."

Epstein told the same person months earlier that he could produce photos "of donald and girls in bikinis in my kitchen."

He also told the person that he at one point "gave" his 20-year-old girlfriend to Trump, in the mid-1990s.

At other points in Epstein's correspondence, author Michael Wolff seems to try and convince Epstein to come forward and say something about Trump.

"There's an opportunity to come forward this week and talk about Trump in such a way that could garner your great sympathy and help finish him," Wolff told Epstein days before the 2016 election. "Interested?"

Trump has never been accused of wrongdoing in the Epstein case and has denied involvement in Epstein's crimes. The White House this morning said the emails "prove absolutely nothing, other than the fact that President Trump did nothing wrong."

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Emails reignite questions about what Trump knew and when

There have remained huge unanswered questions about what Trump knew and when about Epstein's proclivities. That's especially given Trump's explanations have often proved evasive or false.

The White House responded to the initial three emails mentioning Trump by arguing Democrats had "selectively leaked" the emails to "create a fake narrative to smear President Trump."

But these emails certainly deepen the intrigue about what Trump knew.

To recap what we already knew: Trump in 2002 referred to how Epstein liked women "on the younger side." A Florida businessman said in a 2019 interview that he raised concerns with Trump about Epstein "going after younger girls" at a 1992 "calendar girl" event.

Trump adviser Roger Stone in a 2016 book quoted Trump talking about how Epstein's "swimming pool was full of beautiful young girls" and joking that it was nice of Epstein to "let the neighborhood kids use his pool."

The president and his aides have also repeatedly said Trump distanced himself from Epstein because Epstein was a "creep" – but without elaborating on why, precisely, Trump viewed him as such.

Beyond that, Trump this summer acknowledged being aware of Epstein's accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell recruiting employees, including the former Prince Andrew's accuser Virginia Giuffre, at Mar-a-Lago – but he seemed to be quite reluctant to go into detail.

The question from there was whether Trump had an inkling about what Giuffre was being recruited for.

Trump said he didn't "know really why" Epstein Maxwell was recruiting people. (Maxwell has denied recruiting people.) But Giuffre was a minor. To the extent Trump was aware of the particulars of the situation – and was aware of Epstein's taste for young females – that would seem to raise red flags.

"It makes us ask if he was aware of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell's criminal actions," Giuffre's two brothers and her sisters-in-law said in a statement this summer.

The 2019 Epstein email released by the committee says of Trump: "of course he knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop."

That doesn't prove Trump knew what Maxwell and Epstein were recruiting the girls for. But it suggests that Trump was involved in telling Maxwell to knock it off and was seemingly familiar with the details of the situation.

The 2011 Epstein email that suggests Giuffre "spent hours" at his house with Trump also adds to the relevant facts here.

When Trump was acknowledging his awareness of Maxwell's recruiting at Mar-a-Lago, he initially said he didn't know if it was Giuffre who had been recruited. But then he quickly said that it was indeed her.

If Trump actually spent time with Giuffre, as Epstein's email seems to say, it would not only raise questions about why. It would also make Trump's handling of the situation appear even more bizarre.

And it's clear from Giuffre's own memoir that they knew each other and had had conversations about her working for his friends.

"Trump couldn't have been friendlier, telling me it was fantastic that I was there," Giuffre writes about the time that her father took her to meet Trump in his office. She goes on to recount that Trump asked her if she liked children and explained that he had friends in houses "next to the resort" who needed babysitting for their kids.

Giuffre did not accuse Trump of any wrongdoing in her recent posthumously-published memoir.

The emails undercut Maxwell's attempts to distance Trump from Epstein

The Trump Justice Department decided to interview Maxwell, a convicted sex offender, this summer while her appeals were ongoing. It did so despite her established credibility problems and motivations to say what the administration wanted.

(Trump at the time hadn't ruled out the possibility of pardoning Maxwell. And around this time, we also learned Maxwell had been moved to a lower-security prison camp for which she didn't appear eligible as a sex offender. The administration still hasn't explained how this happened, months later.)

And sure enough, Maxwell said things that were helpful to the president. She basically said she had no knowledge of any Trump wrongdoing and downplayed his relationship with Epstein.

But the new emails call her claims into question.

Speaking of Trump's and Epstein's relationship, Maxwell said in her testimony, the transcript of which was released in August: "I don't think they were close friends, or I certainly never witnessed the president in any of – I don't recall ever seeing him in his house, for instance."

But the newly released emails suggest Maxwell was aware of Trump being at Epstein's house, at least as of 2011.

After Epstein in the email referenced someone spending "hours at my house" with Trump, Maxwell responds, "I have been thinking about that."

Maxwell's attorney didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

This is not the first Maxwell claim from that interview that has been called into question.

Epstein and Maxwell seemed to think this information about Trump was significant

We surely need to learn more about the context of these emails. But one of the biggest takeaways is that they suggest Epstein and Maxwell seemed to feel this information about Trump was significant. There's even a hint they suggested that information could be used as leverage.

The timelines are important here.

The 2011 email came as news was blowing up about Epstein's ties to Prince Andrew, as he was then known. (He was recently stripped of his noble title.) As CNN has reported, around this time Epstein seemed to be going into legal attack mode.

Prince Andrew's most prominent accuser was Giuffre.

It was in this context that Epstein and Maxwell conversed about Trump having spent time at Epstein's house with someone who, according to Republicans, is identified in the email as Giuffre.

And notably, Epstein described Trump as the "dog that hasn't barked." This is an expression that comes from Sherlock Holmes mysteries; it basically means the absence of an expected event.

Which leads to the obvious question: Why might Epstein and Maxwell have expected news about Trump to have come out?

The timeline of the 2019 email is also relevant. That's because it came during Trump's first term as his administration was weighing significant action vis-à-vis Epstein.

The Miami Herald had in late 2018 run a major exposé on the sweetheart deal Epstein received from US Attorney Alexander Acosta, who later became Trump's labor secretary. By early 2019, a major question was whether the Justice Department would probe that deal.

The DOJ's inspector general said on January 30 of that year that he didn't have the power to examine the situation. But by February 6 the DOJ's Office of Professional Responsibility signaled that it had opened an investigation.

CNN reported at the time that multiple authorities were reviewing allegations about Epstein and minors as of early that year.

It was in this context, on January 31, that Epstein emailed Wolff about Trump "of course" being aware of Maxwell's recruitment at Mar-a-Lago.

The newly released emails also include a 2015 Epstein exchange with Wolff in which the two of them strategise about how then-candidate Trump should handle questions about his ties to Epstein. Wolff said he had heard CNN was going to ask Trump about it at the debate, either on air or after. (There is no mention of Epstein in the transcript of the debate.)

In that email, Wolff suggests the best course would be to "let him hang himself" by denying being on Epstein's plane or his house.

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Dodgy real estate agents who put misleading price estimates in property listings in NSW could face tougher penalties of up to $110,000 fines.

The proposed reforms are cracking down on underquoting, when an agent gives a buyer a property price lower than the estimated selling price to attract more buyers and create a competitive auction.

Examples of underquoting also include when an agent or advertisement asks for "offers about $900,000" or "$900,000-plus", which the state said does not provide buyers with enough information if the property is within their price range.

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While the practice is already illegal, the draft legislation hopes to increase consequences to ensure buyers are not wasting their time and money pursuing homes out of their reach.

Agents could face increased penalties from the current $22,000 to $110,000 or three times their commission, whichever is greater.

They will also be forced to include a price or price guide on all advertising, publish a statement of information to help buyers understand how the selling price was calculated and calculate and revise the estimated selling price in accordance with new and clearer guidelines to be issued by the state's fair trading commissioner.

The proposal also aims to tighten advertising rules, strengthen record-keeping obligations, boost disciplinary action against agents, and create a standalone offence for failing to meet these standards. 

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"There is broad recognition not only from buyers, but across the property industry, that stronger underquoting laws are needed to restore trust and improve transparency in property sales," Fair Trading and Better Regulation Minister Anoulack Chanthivong said.

The legislation will be introduced to parliament next year.

Last year, Fair Trading issued more than 100 penalty notices for underquoting offences.

Sellers are allowed to instruct their agent not to disclose the estimated selling price to potential buyers, but that means the agent cannot provide any price information in ads, in writing or verbally. 

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