Jon Stewart on Trump’s Epstein files flip-flop: ‘This dude is flailing’

Late-night hosts tore into the next chapter of Donald Trump’s never-ending Jeffrey Epstein scandal.Jon Stewart ripped into Trump on Monday evening after the president abruptly changed tack and called on House Republicans to authorize the justice department’s release of files related to Epstein, a convicted sex offender – files which Trump himself could order to be released.“If he had nothing to hide, he could have declassified and released these files himself at any time,” the Daily Show host explained. “How do I know this? A legal expert named Donald Jurisprudence Trump said so.”Stewart then played footage of Trump from 2022 in which he insisted that the president can declassify anything, at any time, just by saying so or “even by thinking about it”

Memoirs, myths and Midnight’s Children: Salman Rushdie’s 10 best books – ranked!

As the author publishes a new story collection, we rate the work that made his name – from his dazzling Booker winner to an account of the 2022 attack that nearly killed him “It makes me want to hide behind the furniture,” Rushdie now says of his debut. It’s a science fiction story, more or less, but also indicative of the sort of writer Rushdie would become: garrulous, playful, energetic. The tale of an immortal Indian who travels to a mysterious island, it’s messy but charming, and the sense of writing as performance is already here. (Rushdie’s first choice of career was acting, and he honed his skill in snappy lines when working in an advertising agency.) Not a great book, but one that shows a great writer finding his voice, and a fascinating beginning to a stellar career

High art: the museum that is only accessible via an eight-hour hike

At 2,300 metres above sea level, Italy’s newest – and most remote – cultural outpost is visible long before it becomes reachable. A red shard on a ridge, it looks first like a warning sign, and then something more comforting: a shelter pitched into the wind.The structure stands on a high ridge in the municipality of Valbondione, along the Alta Via delle Orobie, exposed to avalanches and sudden weather shifts. I saw it from above, after taking off from the Rifugio Fratelli Longo, near the village of Carona – a small mountain municipality a little over an hour’s drive from GAMeC, Bergamo’s Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea – the closest access point I was given for the site visit.The Frattini Bivouac is not staffed, ticketed or mediated

Colbert on Trump and Epstein: ‘They were best pals and underage girls was Epstein’s whole thing’

Late-night hosts covered this week’s latest bombshell Epstein and Trump revelations and spoke about the president’s latest interview with Laura Ingraham.On The Late Show, Stephen Colbert spoke about the government shutdown likely coming to an end after “an historic impasse” (the shutdown later did end) and Democrat Adelita Grijalva being sworn in as a member of Congress, seven weeks after she won a special House election in Arizona.Colbert said she has been “reborn from the ashes” and will be the 218th and final signature needed to force a vote to release the Jeffrey Epstein files.He joked that on her first day she was shown around and told “down there is the room where you’re going to topple the pervert cabal”.This week saw some new emails from Epstein released which suggest Trump knew of his conduct

‘I really enjoyed it’: new RSC curriculum brings Shakespeare’s works to life in UK classrooms

Act 1. Scene 1. A classroom in a secondary school in Peterborough. It is a dreary, wet afternoon. Pupils file into the room, take their seats and face the front

My cultural awakening: The Big Lebowski inspired me to embrace unemployment

The Dude’s relaxed attitude towards the pressures of life helped me realise it was better to be jobless than stuck in one I hatedQuitting your job in your 30s with no solid plan is generally considered poor decision-making. Doing it because you watched The Big Lebowski is probably even worse. But as I faced up to what would be my eighth year in an IT role, I watched Jeff Bridges meandering his way through the chaos of life in a dressing gown. And I found myself thinking: maybe the Dude had it figured out.For most of my working life, my identity has been strongly bolstered by work: doing well career-wise felt like evidence of my utility and respectability (despite the fact no one ever really understood what my job was anyway)

Seth Meyers on Trump: ‘The most unpopular president of all time’

Seth Meyers spoke about rising tensions within the Republican party with Donald Trump losing support from his base over the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.The Late Night host spoke about yesterday’s dramatic meeting in the situation room to discuss Epstein, an ongoing crisis that has seen the president becoming “wildly unpopular”.Meyers said that Trump is “by all the accounts the most unpopular president of all time” and up until this point has only been “able to hang on to power because he has a tight grip on the Republican party no matter what he did or how bad things got”.But a new poll shows that only 33% of American adults approve of how the president is managing the government, a figure that’s down from March with the fall driven by Republicans or independents.Meyers called this “a meaningful and real development” and “it’s not coming out of thin air” with Trump “pissing off Maga” in multiple ways

Colbert on Trump ‘building a massive compensation for his weird tiny penis’

Late-night hosts spoke about the controversial behavior of a small group of Democrats and Donald Trump’s continued destruction of the White House.On The Late Show, Stephen Colbert spoke about the vote to end the federal government shutdown which has seen some Democrats choosing to cave to Republican demands without restoring the healthcare subsidies which were initially threatened.Chuck Schumer told his party he would give the deal neither a blessing nor a curse and would give no steer on how to vote.Colbert joked that this was “bold leadership” and commented on Schumer’s “failure” in the situation.The shutdown has caused major chaos at airports as air traffic controllers were being unpaid for so long that many of them stopped coming to work

Jon Stewart on government shutdown deal: ‘A world-class collapse by Democrats’

Late-night hosts unleashed on Senate Democrats for caving on the longest-ever government shutdown with no assurance on healthcare subsidies from Republicans.Jon Stewart minced no words for congressional Democrats on Monday evening, hours after a coalition broke from the party and voted with Republicans to extend government funding through January with no assurances on the healthcare tax credits at the center of the 41-day stalemate. “By the way, tonight’s show will be brought to you by: I can’t fucking believe it,” Stewart fumed at the top of The Daily Show. “I can’t fucking believe it: for when the ‘I can’t believe it’ Edvard Munch scream emoji doesn’t quite convey how much you cannot fucking believe it.”“They fucking caved on the shutdown, not even a full week removed from the best election night results they’ve had in years,” he continued