By Annie Grayer, CNN

(CNN) — Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is facing questions from congressional investigators Wednesday about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein after revelations that his contact with the late convicted sex offender extended years beyond what he initially claimed.

Lutnick is the highest-ranking Trump administration official prominently named in the Epstein files — outside of the president himself — and his appearance behind closed doors marks an extremely rare occurrence of a sitting Cabinet official testifying in a congressional probe. It underscores that the Epstein scandal still hangs over President Donald Trump and his administration, despite the president’s repeated efforts to move on from the saga.

The secretary is expected to face questions from the committee related to his multiple interactions with Epstein, including a 2012 visit to the financier’s infamous Caribbean island with his wife, nannies and children.

While Lutnick has faced calls for his resignation, the White House has so far expressed confidence in him. But the headache for the Trump administration won’t end with Lutnick’s appearance. The Republican-led panel is expected to question former Attorney General Pam Bondi later this month about her role in overseeing the release of the Epstein files, which has been mired in controversy.

Lutnick did not answer questions from reporters on Capitol Hill Wednesday.

House Oversight Chair James Comer told reporters ahead of the interview that he planned to ask Lutnick why his interactions with Epstein spanned years beyond his initial claims. Although Comer conceded that Lutnick was not forthcoming about the extent of his interactions with Epstein, the Republican chairman said judgment is up to the American people.

“We’re going to ask him all of these questions, and we’ll let the American people judge whether the credibility was damaged or not,” the Kentucky Republican said in a response to a question from CNN. “At the end of the day, I haven’t seen wrongdoing in the email correspondence, but he wasn’t 100% truthful with whether he had been on the island. So we’ll see.”

In October 2025, Lutnick told the New York Post in a podcast interview that he and his wife decided to cut off contact with Epstein in 2005 after the financier showed off a massage table and made suggestive comments while giving them a tour of his home. But the Epstein files revealed that the relationship between the two men, who lived as neighbors in New York City, went on much longer.

From email correspondence in 2011, a visit to Epstein’s island in 2012, investing in the same business venture in 2013, and corresponding about a neighborhood issue as late as 2018, Lutnick and Epstein kept in contact years after Lutnick claimed to have cut ties.

Beyond clarifying his own record with Epstein, Comer said Lutnick has useful testimony for the Republican-led panel given his visit to Epstein’s island.

“We haven’t talked to too many people that have admitted they’ve been on the island,” Comer told reporters.

Testifying in front of a different Senate committee in February, Lutnick confirmed that he and his family had lunch with Epstein on his Caribbean island in 2012 but insisted that the two did not have a relationship.

“I did have lunch with him, as I was on a boat going across on a family vacation. My wife was with me, as were my four children and nannies,” Lutnick told the Senate committee at the time. “We had lunch on the island, that is true, for an hour, and we left with al

By Kara Alaimo

(CNN) — Think DMing your friends on TikTok or Instagram will keep you closer?

Not necessarily.

Using social media isn’t likely to strengthen your friendships and could even make you lonelier, suggests a study published Wednesday in Public Health Reports, the official journal of the US Public Health Service.

Adults with a greater percentage of social media connections whom they hadn’t ever met in person were lonelier, according to the survey of over 1,500 Americans ages 30 to 70 years old. What’s more, connecting with more close friends on social media didn’t make people less lonely, said lead author Dr. Brian Primack, a professor of public health at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon.

While a lot of past research has focused on how social media affects kids, the new study offers insights into how adults are affected by their online interactions, Primack said. One limitation of the study is that it isn’t clear whether people who were lonelier connected with more strangers online or whether connecting with strangers caused their loneliness, Primack said, but he suspects it’s both.

Much research shows that having offline friends makes people less lonely, Primack noted. But connecting with friends online clearly is “just not the same,” he said.

Primack compared connecting with friends online instead of in person to eating flavored apple cereal instead of apples. “This flavored apple cereal will fill your belly, it still provides calories and it tastes good, but it’s not providing the special sauce that we evolved to need,” he said.

That disparity could help explain why so many people are lonely. About half of American adults feel this way, according to a 2023 Surgeon General’s report, which called the problem an epidemic. Being socially disconnected is as awful for a person’s health as smoking up to 15 cigarettes per day, according to the report.

Let’s make friends offline

To stave off loneliness, we clearly need offline friendships.

Don’t have enough? That’s really common, said Melissa Greenberg, a clinical psychologist at Princeton Psychotherapy Center in New Jersey who was not involved in the research.

“It doesn’t mean that there’s anything wrong with you,” she said.

How do you change this situation? Greenberg suggested going to a book club, members only events at a museum or movie theater, fitness class or arts class. You could also volunteer on a political campaign or become part of a religious group.

“People tend to make friends with people who have similar interests, so doing something that you’re interested in is probably a good place to start,” she said.

Make it something close to home, she added, because we’re more likely to strike up friendships with people who live nearby.

Also, put away your device when you go places! If you’re scrolling on your phone, it’s going to be a lot harder to connect with the people around you.

Try asking these questions

To strike up a conversation with someone that could lead to a friendship, ask a question that requires more than a one-word answer, Greenberg said. Instead of asking “how was your weekend?” try “what did you do this weekend?” Or ask what the person’s favorite bar or coffee shop in the area is.

Compliments also can work, she said.

Of course, if someone asks you a question, “give specific examples from your life,” Greenberg said. Don’t just say your weekend was great — explain what you did. Know that others may be m

By Daniel Dale, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump keeps touting a poll that was discussed on CNN in March. On Tuesday, though, Trump wrongly described that poll in three different ways.

Trump has repeatedly mentioned a March 18 television segment featuring CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten, who explained that an NBC News poll had found that the president had a 100% approval rating among supporters of Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement. Trump liked the segment so much that he had a video of it played during a late-March speech.

That’s understandable. Speaking at the White House on Tuesday, though, Trump said this: “I am at, according to CNN, 100% approval within the Republican Party … I’m at 100% approval. Did you see the CNN poll? Nobody talks about it. CNN – I think the people that did that poll probably got fired. But within the Republican Party – and MAGA, which is basically 100% of the party, I think, but – 100%.”

There are three false claims in those brief remarks. The poll in question wasn’t a CNN poll, MAGA is not “basically 100% of the party,” and Trump’s approval rating with Republicans is far from 100% – and farther than it was at the beginning of the year.

Here’s a more detailed fact check.

The ‘100%’ result Trump is touting isn’t from a CNN poll

“Nobody talks about” the CNN poll Trump was describing because it doesn’t exist: Enten’s segment was about an NBC News poll. (It’s possible that the president was genuinely confused on this point given that the segment aired on CNN.) The most recent CNN/SSRS poll, conducted from March 26 to 30, found Trump at 80% approval among Republicans.

MAGA is not ‘basically 100% of the party’

There’s no doubting that Trump retains a devoted base of supporters and that he continues to wield formidable influence within the Republican Party. But poll after poll has made clear that the MAGA movement is not close to the “basically 100%” of the party that Trump said he thinks it is.

The NBC News poll Enten was talking about, conducted from February 27 to March 3 by Hart Research Associates and Public Opinion Strategies, found that 42% of the registered voters surveyed identified as Republican or Republican-leaning, while 30% of the registered voters surveyed identified as supporters of the MAGA movement. So MAGA supporters likely made up a strong majority of Republicans and Republican-leaners in this poll, but not all of them.

In a subsequen

Carolina Garcia

MEXICALI, Mexico (KYMA) – A través de sus redes sociales del “Bazar de Gaby” fue como la popular comerciante, Gabriela Ponce hizo pública la extorsión de la que fue víctima por parte de un sujeto que entregó un regalo donde se mencionaba un mensaje en el que se le amenazaba sino entregaba dinero a un supuesto grupo criminal.

Ante el temor, Gabriela consternada lo hizo público, siendo compartido en repetidas ocasiones no solo por mexicalenses sino por personas de otros estados del pai2s.

“Me puse a pensar en todos los panoramas que podían pasar todo lo que le podía pasar a mi familia a mis empleados a mí y a la gente y pues fue el miedo lo que me hizo hablar la gente dice tuviste mucha valentía no tengo mucho miedo y sigo con mucho miedo” expresó en entrevista a Telemundo.

Este lunes, su negocio volvió a abrir, tiene seguridad tanto ella como el establecimiento, no hay detenidos, pero ha obtenido una respuesta y seguimiento por parte de la policía y fiscalía, a pesar de que en un primer momento activo en al menos tres ocasiones un botón de pánico sin obtener respuesta, sino cuando lo hizo público.

The post Comerciante denuncia extorsión a través de sus redes appeared first on News Channel 3-12.

Por Nic Robertson, Alayna Treene y Kevin Liptak, CNN

Estados Unidos e Irán están cerca de firmar un acuerdo sobre un breve memorando para poner fin a la guerra, según una fuente regional familiarizada con las negociaciones, aunque funcionarios del Gobierno de Trump advirtieron que las conversaciones se habían truncado en el último momento en ocasiones anteriores.

La Casa Blanca recibió el martes comentarios positivos de mediadores pakistaníes que indicaban que los iraníes estaban avanzando hacia un compromiso, según informaron dos funcionarios del gobierno a CNN, aunque expresaron cierto escepticismo con respecto al optimismo de Pakistán.

Sin embargo, en los últimos días ha habido un nuevo impulso diplomático, según la fuente regional. El presidente Donald Trump parece estar simplificando la agenda de temas para que los moderados del régimen iraní puedan volver a la mesa de negociaciones, añadió la fuente, con el objetivo de abordar los temas más espinosos más adelante.

Un plan de una página que se está barajando internamente contiene disposiciones que han sido fundamentales en las negociaciones para poner fin al conflicto, según informó a CNN una persona familiarizada con el plan. Según la fuente, el documento declararía el fin de la guerra y daría inicio a un período de negociación de 30 días para resolver los puntos conflictivos, incluyendo cuestiones nucleares, el descongelamiento de activos iraníes y la seguridad futura en el estrecho de Ormuz.

No fue posible verificar de inmediato los detalles precisos del plan, pero la fuente indicó que incluiría la discusión de una moratoria sobre el enriquecimiento de uranio por un período superior a 10 años. Una propuesta anterior de Estados Unidos la establecía en 20 años.

El plan también exige que Irán envíe sus reservas de uranio altamente enriquecido fuera del país, pero los detalles aún se estaban negociando.

Las noticias sobre avances positivos por parte de Pakistán impulsaron a Trump a anunciar el martes una pausa en el “Proyecto Libertad” —una operación para guiar a los barcos varados fuera del Estrecho— citando progresos en las negociaciones con Irán, según informaron funcionarios del Gobierno. La pausa se produjo después de que el secretario de Estado, Marco Rubio, declarara a la prensa que la Operación Furia Épica había finalizado y que el Gobierno se centraba por completo en el Proyecto Libertad.

Una fuente regional declaró a CNN que cuanto más insistía Estados Unidos en su agenda del Proyecto Libertad y la Operación Furia Épica, más se alzaban los sectores más intransigentes de Irán y mayor era su influencia.

La principal prioridad de Trump es encontrar una salida diplomática a la guerra y reabrir el Estrecho rápidamente, según informaron funcionarios del Gobierno.

Sin embargo, el presidente estadounidense también lanzó una nueva amenaza a Irán este miércoles, al afirmar que si no llegan a un acuerdo, comenzarían los bombardeos, que serán de mayor nivel e intensidad que antes.

Antes de la declaración del alto el fuego, los funcionarios de Trump esperaban ultimar un marco sobre una serie de cuestiones clave, como el compromiso de Irán de suspender su enriquecimiento nuclear y levantar las restricciones en el estrecho de Ormuz, así como la flexibilización de las sanciones estadounidenses contra Teherán y la liberación de miles de millones de dólares en fondos iraníes congelados, según informó previamente CNN.

Ese era el objetivo del vicepresidente J. D. Vance, del enviado especial Steve Witkoff y de Jared Kushner cuando tenían previsto viajar a Pakistán para una segunda ronda de conversaciones, antes de que las negociaciones fracasaran debido a lo que los funcionarios estadounidenses describieron como una división entre los