The make-up of Donald Trump’s inner circle has come under scrutiny after US Senator Jon Ossoff remarked on the President’s close relationship with his executive assistant, Natalie Harp.
The White House fired back at his comments about Trump simply wanting to “travel with Natalie“, calling Harp, 35, “one of the most loyal and hardest-working aides on President Trump’s team”.
The clash highlighted how Trump has surrounded himself with young, perfectly groomed Maga women in the White House, with the President regularly referring to their good looks and admiring their spirited defences of his policies.
us news
Meta agrees to pay up to $17bn to settle social media case
Meta has reached a settlement with US states and territories to resolve a court case related to child safety.
The agreement will require the social media giant to pay up to $17bn (£12.5bn).
What has Meta agreed to?
Meta agreed to establish safeguards for teenage users, including daily usage limits and night-time blocks nationwide in the US.
This is the first time Meta has been forced to change how its platforms function.
As part of the settlement, the company denies wrongdoing.
What happened at the trial?
- It was alleged the company had violated numerous federal and state privacy laws for children.
- The states suing Meta claimed it used its platforms “to ensnare youth and teens”, and ignored the damage they did to the “wellbeing of America’s youth”.
- After the settlement was announced, District of Columbia attorney general Brian Schwalb called it a “monumental public health victory”.
What did Meta say?
Today, we are announcing an agreement with a bipartisan group of 52 attorneys general across US states, territories, and the District of Columbia, building on our long-standing efforts to empower parents and support teens
Calls for TikTok to follow
- The company said TikTok and YouTube should also implement the same safety features for their younger users.
- “Our new Time Limit commitments, Night Mode features and usage limits during school hours set the right path forward for our whole industry, but this framework will only work if all our peers join us,” Meta’s chief legal officer, CJ Mahoney, said.
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The subtle eye signals your dog may be sending you
Researchers have found that dogs blink more frequently when they see their owners doing so, which may mean that they are communicating more than just a need to momentarily close their eyes.
What did the study find?
Writing in the journal , Dr Chiara Canori from the University of Parma described how 35 different breeds were shown two videos with three people in them, one of them being their owner. In one video the humans blinked every three seconds and in the other they did not blink.
The researchers found that the dogs blinked more when the humans did, and this increased when shown their owner.
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What do the blinks mean?
Previous research has found that dogs turn on puppy eyes when humans look at them and can distinguish happy human faces from other expressions.
However, there may not be a huge amount of meaning behind dogs’ blinks. Canori said: “As of today… we cannot say that a dog deliberately blinks in order to convey a particular message. It may provide subtle feedback about attention or engagement.”
Blinking can be influenced by social context
Our study does not show that every time a dog blinks it is deliberately ‘saying’ something (…) What our work suggests is that this apparently simple and automatic behaviour can nevertheless be influenced by the social context
Dr Chiara Canori, University of parma
Downpours and thunderstorms will continue to bring the risk of flooding to parts of the UK on Wednesday and Thursday.
A yellow warning for thunderstorms is in place in large areas of the country from 3am until 10pm on Wednesday, then again from 6am until 10pm on Thursday.
Where does the warning cover?
The Met Office warning covers much of the Midlands, parts of northern, eastern and southern England as well as the far east of Wales.
A yellow warning means severe weather is possible and could cause travel disruption.
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Wednesday’s weather warning
Thursday’s weather warning
Rain to fall after prolonged drought
Many areas of the country have recently experienced drought, with the next few days likely to bring the wettest weather in many weeks.
- The punishing heat has made the ground hard, meaning the water cannot soak in and flash flooding is a real concern.
Scientists find ‘window of opportunity’ to start to cut dementia risk
A large new study of postmenopausal women in the UK has found that a common treatment for menopausal symptoms may significantly lower the risk of dementia.
What you need to know
The study, led by experts from the University of East Anglia and University of Exeter, found taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT) was associated with a 10 per cent reduced risk of all dementia and 16 per cent reduction in risk of Alzheimer’s disease specifically.
- The team discovered that starting treatment between the ages of 46-56 “conferred the greatest benefit”.
A closer look at the results of the study
The research analysed more than 183,000 postmenopausal women taking part in the UK Biobank study.
- An average 13-year follow-up found that almost 4,000 of them were diagnosed with dementia.
- After examining information on the dementia diagnoses, they found that those who started HRT between the ages of 46-50 had a 13 per cent reduced risk of dementia.
- Those who started taking HRT when they were aged 51-56 had a 23 per cent reduced risk.
- Women who took HRT after surgical menopause had a 26 per cent lower risk.
What else did the study find?
The study also found that women who naturally had lower exposure to oestrogen over their lifetime appeared to have a 16 per cent lower chance of dementia after taking HRT.
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Why nicotine vapes are still best chance to quit smoking
Smokers are more likely to quit their habit by using vapes compared to conventional methods such as nicotine gum and patches, according to a new study.
Quit rates are higher
The Cochrane Review examined 80 studies involving almost 30,000 people and found that quit rates were higher with vape use, with it leading to 61 per cent increased odds that a quit attempt would be successful after six months.
- That means that eight to 10 out of 100 people using vaping to quite smoking might succeed compared to six of 100 people using nicotine-replacement therapy.
Providing vapes can help
Researchers looked at behavioural support – offered through advice and counselling – and found that people who were also given nicotine vapes were more likely to quit.
The expert view
We have very strong evidence that regulated nicotine e-cigarettes are substantially less harmful than smoking. Based on the consistency of the findings here, it’s clear that they are a proven and viable option for people wishing to quit cigarettes
Dr Jamie Hartmann-Boyce, senior author of the review from University of Massachusetts Amherst
How shingles jab ‘could slash heart risks’
The shingles vaccine currently used by the NHS may slash the risk of heart failure, heart disease and stroke, according to a new study.
What you need to know
Shingles is a viral infection that causes a painful rash and the jab that protects against it – Shingrix – is available on the NHS for people aged 65-70, people aged 70-79 (as part of a catch-up program) and for those over 18 with a severely weakened immune system.
Experts say that if all over-60s had the jab, it could prevent tens of thousands of deaths.
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The study
The NHS switched to Shingrix from the former vaccine, Zostavax, three years ago. Researchers from the University of Oxford compared the risk of stroke, ischemic heart disease or heart failure between the two vaccines over seven years.
- They analysed data from more than 70,000 people and found that up to seven years after the jab, people who had Shingrix lived 9 per cent longer without developing a cardiovascular disease.
more on health from the i paper
Children’s eyesight is getting worse. This is what parents can do about it
The rise in short-sightedness is not directly caused by too much screen time, but a related change in children’s behaviour. Fortunately it can be reversed.
Dolly Parton – a life in pictures
Dolly Parton died on Tuesday at the age of 80. Tributes from around the world have honoured the country music superstar, who passed away following a “brief battle with cancer”.
The singer was best known for her genre-defining hits including “9 To 5”, “I Will Always Love You” and “Jolene”.
Born into a musical family in 1946
Dolly Rebecca Parton was born in 1946, the fourth of 12 children, into a poor farming family who lived in a one-bedroom cabin in Tennessee.
Her father, Robert Lee Parton, was a tobacco farmer. Parton spoke about her mother, Avie Lee, singing folk songs all the time, and her aunt played the guitar.
Country star’s unique style
During her teens, Parton began modelling herself on a local character known as the “town tramp”.
The lady wore bright red nail polish, low-cut tops and high heels – young Dolly thought she was beautiful.
A musical powerhouse
Despite being unable to read sheet music, Parton was proficient on several instruments including the banjo, harp, piano and saxophone. She had her first No 1 hit with the song “Joshua” in 1971.
- It was the theme song that Parton wrote for the 1980 movie 9 to 5 that fully propelled her to stardom.
A nearly 60-year marriage
Parton maintained a deeply committed, nearly 60-year marriage to Carl Dean until his death in 2025. “Carl and I spent many wonderful years together. Words can’t do justice to the love we shared,” Parton said when he died.
Dean remained out of the public eye, choosing to focus on his asphalt-paving business in Nashville. The couple had no children.
Parton’s life in pictures
At least 15 newborn babies die in Islamabad hospital fire
At least 15 infants were killed when a fire broke out at a state-run hospital in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, triggered by a fault in air conditioning systems, local broadcaster Geo TV reported.
Here is everything we know about the incident so far.
What happened?
The blaze started at around 7am local time on Wednesday at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences on the third floor of the mother and child health ward.
The incident is among the deadliest hospital fires in recent years in the country, where government healthcare is subsidised but facilities are overburdened.
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The story in pictures
A closer look at the detail
- There were 16 newborns in the ward when the fire broke out, one of whom was rescued, Geo reported.
- Prime minister Shehbaz Sharif has directed authorities to conduct an immediate investigation, his office said.
- “Those responsible should be identified, and the strictest action should be taken,” Sharif’s office said.
Harp has reportedly taken on a role as the 80-year-old’s “comfort blanket” and “gatekeeper”, who leaves him adoring notes telling him “I want to bring you joy”. But he is also regularly flanked by the likes of “White House influencer” Margo Martin, 30, and deputy press secretary Anna Kelly, a 29-year-old former beauty queen.
The First Lady, Melania Trump, made a poised appearance in the days that followed Ossoff’s comments about Harp, indicating that she was unconcerned by the rumour mill. But as with Trump’s deeply loyal cabinet – both men and women – his youthful aides are raising genuine concern because of the part they play as enablers, whose sycophantic behaviour could help to legitimise the President’s most extreme actions.
Karoline Leavitt, 28, has been perhaps the most prominent of these women as White House press secretary and Trump’s most public defender. She recently announced she would step down at the end of August to focus on her family, but she will rejoin the pro-Trump super PAC Maga Inc as a top outside adviser.
Leavitt, who has served as press secretary since the beginning of Trump’s second term in January 2025, became the youngest person to ever hold the position at 27. She is known for her combative style and quick thinking – with some describing her as Trump’s “attack dog” – as well as for pushing false claims, including a notorious one about USAid using taxpayer money to fund $50m-worth of condoms in Gaza.
And her political ambitions may just be beginning. Announcing her departure on Truth Social, the President said that she would remain one of his “top advisers, and an influential voice within the Republican Party”. Before serving in the White House, Leavitt was the Republican nominee for the US House of Representatives in New Hampshire’s 1st congressional district in 2022, with Trump giving his enthusiastic endorsement.
Trump has said she is “one of the best” presidential press secretaries in history, and described her as one of his “most trusted aides”. She has repeatedly criticised “liberal media”, trolled journalists, and would often open press briefings with hyperbolic monologues praising her boss. “She’s become a star,” Trump said last year. “It’s that face, it’s that brain, it’s those lips – the way they move, they move like she’s a machine gun.”
Margo Martin, communications adviser and special assistant to Trump, has been tipped as a possible replacement for Leavitt.
Leavitt said in an interview that the 30-year-old “has the trust of the President”, and “she’s able to really see the inner workings of his every day and share that with the American public”.
Martin, who has become the President’s leading content creator, has been called the “first White House influencer“. Like Harp, she is never far from Trump’s side, posting photo dumps and reels from Air Force One, international visits and high-level summits, including video from Trump’s Alaska summit with Vladimir Putin, which was criticised by Azza Cohen, Kamala Harris’s official White House videographer, for “whitewashing and sanitising”.
At a campaign rally, Trump called her “the most beautiful photographer in the world”.
Martin grew up in Oklahoma and was the President’s press assistant during his first term. She also served as deputy director of communications for his Save America PAC. More than 300 high-profile right-wing organisations, influencers and politicians, including Elon Musk, the Republican National Committee and Fox News, have mentioned Martin since the inauguration in January 2025, sharing her posts thousands of times, according to analysis by .
Anna Kelly is also in the running to replace the outgoing Leavitt, who she has worked under as White House deputy press secretary. The 29-year-old is a former beauty queen with a master’s in political management, and was previously the national press secretary for the Republican National Committee.
Kelly was raised in Fairfax, Virginia, by parents who were “politically outspoken”. She began working as a campaign intern for a local Virginia Republican committee when she was in her mid-teens, before working as communication director for Republican Representative Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin.
She is a Trump loyalist and has followed Leavitt in attacking journalists – branding The Hill’s White House correspondent Niall Stanage a “left-wing opinion writer hack” – and is quick to label “fake news”.
During a recent interview on The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show, Kelly described “winning every single day” at the White House and “having so much fun” working with the US President.
Kate Andersen Brower, the author of , a forthcoming book on women who have served as personal secretaries to US presidents, told the that Trump “uses these younger women in his orbit as people who will really make him feel better”.
Harp has been dismissively nicknamed Trump’s “human printer” because of her habit of carrying a portable printer around with which to print out news articles and social media posts for her boss. But she has far more power than that, and is trusted with typing out his Truth Social posts, among other logistical responsibilities.
Harp had an unusual path to the White House. She grew up in a conservative Christian family in California, and after attending Point Loma Nazarene University in southern California, she received an MBA from Liberty University, a Christian university in Virginia.
She has long been infatuated with Trump – and credits him with saving her life. When Trump entered the White House in 2017, she was diagnosed with bone cancer. During his first term, he enacted a law to facilitate government approval of experimental drugs, which she then used to treat her cancer.
She rose to prominence within the Maga movement by talking about her experience and was invited to speak at the 2020 Republican National Convention. “When I failed the chemotherapies that were on the market, no one wanted me in their clinical trials,” she said at the convention. “They didn’t give me the right to try experimental treatments. Mr President, you did, and without you, I’d have died waiting for them to be approved.”
Harp went on to host a show at the conservative One America News Network, or OAN – where she promoted false claims that Trump won the 2020 election – before joining his presidential campaign in 2022.
Her brother, Preston Harp, told CNN that her “dream came true” when she got the job at the White House and that his sister was Trump’s “biggest fan, so that’s probably why he likes her”.
“She thinks that he saved her life, so somebody living with that kind of gratitude must feel pretty good,” he added. “Trump is like everything that my mom taught us to respect.
“So I think that’s where her infatuation for Trump comes from, honestly.
“My mom raised us with the idea that American exceptionalism was the correct way of looking at things. That the United States is the boss of the world. My sister, unfortunately, didn’t break out of that delusion.”
The President and Harp have a very close working relationship. Reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan wrote in their book that Trump told staff that she “was the only one who loved him as much as his wife and kids”.
She reportedly left him notes saying, “you are all that matters to me”, and, “I want to bring you joy”.
Ossoff made his comments after it emerged that Harp was one of the few aides who went with the President when he secretly switched planes after a Nato summit in Turkey last month, because of a possible Iranian threat.
“I’ve heard [Harp] referred to as his security blanket,” the rising Democratic star said on MS Now when asked about why he name-checked her. “And I think we could say that about any number of the senior aides in the White House. They’re not telling him what he needs to hear.”