Meetings

In transcript van House-commissie ontkende minister van Handel enig verder contact met gegrachttelijke financier • De Amerikaanse minister van Handel, Howard Lutnick, vertelde wetgevers in een besloten interview eerder deze maand dat hij Jeffrey Epstein slechts drie keer heeft ontmoet en geen “persoonlijke of professionele relatie” had met de gegrachttelijke financier, volgens een onlangs vrijgegeven transcript van de bijeenkomst. • “Ik veroordeel onvoorwaardelijk het gedrag dat aan Jeffrey Epstein wordt toegeschreven en iedereen die deelnam aan zijn illegale activiteiten,” zei Lutnick in zijn openingsverklaring voor de House oversight and reform committee.

Exclusive: Varun Chandra’s talks with Google, Meta, Apple and others raise fears of ‘lobbying behind closed doors’An influential government adviser close to Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves held 16 undisclosed meetings with top US tech executives, the Guardian can reveal.The No 10 business aide Varun Chandra discussed regulatory changes, AI and Donald Trump’s second administration with tech corporations during confidential meetings between October 2024 and October 2025. In one meeting he offered to help a top executive meet the prime minister directly. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Two ‘intimate conversations’ held with writers, directors and producers, with a third due in JuneNato is holding closed-door meetings with film and TV screenwriters, directors and producers across Europe and the US, the Guardian can reveal, prompting accusations the alliance is seeking to use the arts to generate “propaganda” for the bloc.The alliance has held three meetings with film and TV professionals in Los Angeles, Brussels and Paris and is due to continue its “series of intimate conservations” next month in London, meeting with screenwriter members of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain (WGGB), which represents professional writers in the UK. Continue reading...