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Ghislaine Maxwell has repeated claims that a photograph showing Prince Andrew with his arm around Virginia Giuffre is “fake”.

The 61-year-old was speaking from a Florida prison, where she is serving a 20-year sentence after being found guilty of luring young girls to massage rooms for disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein to molest between 1994 and 2004.

The disgraced British socialite has previously cast doubt on the authenticity of the photo, said to be taken inside her Mayfair home, and showing her smiling in the background.

Clips released ahead of an interview to be broadcast on TalkTV show her saying: “It’s a fake. I don’t believe it’s real for a second, in fact I’m sure it’s not.”

She goes on: “Well, there’s never been an original and further there’s no photograph, and I’ve only ever seen a photocopy of it.”

Prince Andrew has also questioned the authenticity of the image of him with Ms Giuffre and has said he’s “not one to hug” or “display affection” in public.

Ms Giuffre – formerly known as Virginia Roberts – used the image as evidence to support her allegations against the prince before the case was settled outside of court.

The duke – who paid millions to settle the civil sexual assault case – is now looking into ways to overturn the settlement, according to reports in The Sun on Sunday and Mail on Sunday.

He denies all claims and says he has never met Ms Giuffre.

Ghislaine Maxwell was found guilty of recruiting underage girls to be sexually abused by Jeffrey Epstein
Image:
Maxwell with Jeffrey Epstein

Ms Giuffre sued the duke for allegedly sexually assaulting her when she was 17 after she was trafficked by convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the former partner of Maxwell.

Epstein was found dead in his cell at a federal jail in Manhattan in August 2019 while he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide.

Read more:
How girls were lured to be abused by Jeffrey Epstein
‘Partners in Crime’: The intimate picture of Maxwell and Epstein

In an interview with BBC Newsnight in 2019, Andrew said while he recognises himself in the picture, he claimed it is not possible to prove whether the image had been faked.

He also said the picture could not have been taken in London, as he was wearing his “travelling clothes”.

Ms Giuffre told BBC Panorama the photo was “authentic” and said she gave the original to the FBI in 2011.

Maxwell originally cast doubt on the authenticity of the photo in a deposition.

She said the surroundings in the photo looked “familiar”, but also said: “We can’t really establish the photograph and all that”, adding: “I don’t know if that’s true, if that’s a real picture or not.”

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Anti-Trump protests sweep America for the second time in weeks

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Anti-Trump protests sweep America for the second time in weeks

Anti-Trump protests took place across America on Saturday, with demonstrators decrying the administration’s immigration crackdown and mass firings at government agencies. 

Events ranged from small local marches to a rally in front of the White House and a demonstration at a Massachusetts commemoration of the start of the Revolutionary War 250 years ago.

Thomas Bassford, 80, was at the battle reenactment with his two grandsons, as well as his partner and daughter.

He said: “This is a very perilous time in America for liberty. I wanted the boys to learn about the origins of this country and that sometimes we have to fight for freedom.”

At events across the country, people carried banners with slogans including “Trump fascist regime must go now!”, “No fear, no hate, no ICE in our state,” and “Fight fiercely, Harvard, fight,” referencing the university’s recent refusal to hand over much of its control to the government.

Some signs name-checked Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadorian citizen living in Maryland, who the Justice Department admits was mistakenly deported to his home country.

Read more: Donald Trump’s deportations explained

Pic: AP
Image:
Pic: AP

People waved US flags, some of them held upside down to signal distress. In San Francisco, hundreds of people spelt out “Impeach & Remove” on a beach, also with an inverted US flag.

People walked through downtown Anchorage in Alaska with handmade signs listing reasons why they were demonstrating, including one that read: “No sign is BIG enough to list ALL of the reasons I’m here!”

Pic: AP
Image:
Pic: AP


Protests also took place outside Tesla car dealerships against the role Elon Musk ahas played in downsizing the federal government as de facto head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

The protests come just two weeks after similar nationwide demonstrations.

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Organisers are opposing what they call Mr Trump’s civil rights violations and constitutional violations, including efforts to deport scores of immigrants and to scale back the federal government by firing thousands of government workers and effectively shuttering entire agencies.

The Trump administration, among other things, has moved to shutter Social Security Administration field offices, cut funding for government health programs and scale back protections for transgender people.

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Day 91: Q&A – deportations, dollar bills and MAGA hats

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Day 91: Q&A - deportations, dollar bills and MAGA hats

👉 Follow Trump 100 on your podcast app 👈

On Day 91, our US correspondents James Matthews and David Blevins tackle listeners’ questions.

Is Trump’s El Salvador deportation plan good business? Could President Trump put his face on a dollar bill? And are MAGA hats made in China?

If you’ve got a question you’d like the TRUMP100 team to answer, you can email it to trump100@sky.uk.

Don’t forget, you can also watch all episodes on our YouTube channel.

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JD Vance has ‘quick and private’ meeting with the Pope during visit to Rome

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JD Vance has 'quick and private' meeting with the Pope during visit to Rome

US vice president JD Vance has met with Pope Francis.

The “quick and private” meeting took place at the Pope’s residence, Casa Santa Marta, in Vatican City, sources told Sky News.

The meeting came amid tensions between the Vatican and the Trump administration over the US president’s crackdown on migrants and cuts to international aid.

No further details have been released on the meeting between the vice president and the Pope, who has been recovering following weeks in hospital with double pneumonia.

Mr Vance, who is in Rome with his family, also met with the Vatican’s number two, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and the foreign minister, Archbishop Paul Gallagher.

The Vatican said there had been “an exchange of opinions” over international conflicts, migrants and prisoners.

According to a statement, the two sides had “cordial talks” and the Vatican expressed satisfaction with the Trump administration’s commitment to protecting freedom of religion and conscience.

“There was an exchange of opinions on the international situation, especially regarding countries affected by war, political tensions and difficult humanitarian situations, with particular attention to migrants, refugees and prisoners,” the statement said.

Francis has previously called the Trump administration’s deportation plans a “disgrace”.

Read more from Sky News:
US VP meets Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni

Trump: Putin not playing me – but I might give up on peace talks

Mr Vance, who became Catholic in 2019, has cited medieval-era Catholic teaching to justify the immigration crackdown.

The pope rebutted the theological concept Mr Vance used to defend the crackdown in an unusual open letter to the US
Catholic bishops about the Trump administration in February, and called Mr Trump’s plan a “major crisis” for the US.

“What is built on the basis of force, and not on the truth about the equal dignity of every human being, begins badly and
will end badly,” the Pope said in the letter.

Mr Vance has acknowledged Francis’s criticism but said he would continue to defend his views. During an appearance in late February at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington, he did not address the issue specifically but called himself a “baby Catholic” and acknowledged there were “things about the faith that I don’t know”.

While he had criticised Francis on social media in the past, recently he has posted prayers for the pontiff’s recovery.

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