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Good afternoon and welcome to your afternoon news update from AP. Today, President Trump’s racist post about the Obamas is deleted after a backlash; emails reveal Jeffrey Epstein helped arrange a White House visit for Woody Allen in 2015; and a man whose mother was found among 189 decaying bodies in Colorado tells his story.

UP FIRST

Former President Barack Obama talks with then President-elect Donald Trump as Melania Trump reads the funeral program before the state funeral for former President Jimmy Carter at Washington National Cathedral in Washington, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Trump’s racist post about Obamas is deleted after backlash despite White House earlier defending it

President Donald Trump’s social media post featuring former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, as primates in a jungle was deleted after a backlash from both Republicans and Democrats who criticized the video as racist. The Republican president’s Thursday night post was deleted Friday and blamed on a staffer after widespread backlash. Read more.

TOP STORIES

Epstein emails show he helped arrange White House visit for Woody Allen

Emails in the huge trove of Jeffrey Epstein records released by the Justice Department in recent days illustrate his relationship with Woody Allen in new depth. In 2015, Epstein used his connections to another friend who had been in President Barack Obama’s administration to help get Allen and his wife, Soon-Yi Previn, a White House tour. Read more.

Man whose mother was found among 189 decaying bodies tells the story

Derrick Johnson buried his mother’s ashes in 2023 beneath a golden dewdrop tree with purple blossoms alongside his home on Maui’s Haleakalā Volcano, fulfilling her wish of a final resting place looking over her grandchildren. One year later, the FBI called and told him those weren’t his mother’s ashes. Johnson’s mother’s remains were among nearly 200 bodies found decomposing inside a Colorado funeral home. The owners sent families fake ashes in an attempt to conceal their actions and were arrested and charged with abuses of corpses. One of those owners will be sentenced Friday and Johnson will be among the people who will confront him in court to tell him how much pain he’s endured. Read more.

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‘West Wing’ actor: Timothy Busfield indicted on 4 counts of sexual contact with a child

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