DOJ hides Trump-related Epstein files. And, what to know for the State of the Union

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Right this moment’s high tales

Hundreds of thousands of pages of Epstein information have been launched to the general public, however an NPR investigation reveals a spot: The Justice Division has eliminated or withheld dozens of pages associated to allegations that President Trump sexually abused a minor a long time in the past. The Justice Division declined to reply NPR’s questions on the document about these particular information, what’s in them, and why they aren’t printed.

🎧 NPR’s Stephen Fowler tells Up First that an NPR evaluate of the information discovered an FBI e mail from final July itemizing varied claims and suggestions it acquired about Trump. One report accused Trump of sexually abusing a minor round 1983, when Jeffrey Epstein additionally allegedly abused her. A area workplace investigated the report, and the data present the FBI interviewed the accuser 4 instances. Solely one of many accuser’s interviews was made public, but it surely does not point out Trump. Based on the DOJ’s monitoring system, the Justice Division didn’t make at the very least 50 pages of the information public. The White Home and the Trump administration have persistently acknowledged that nothing within the paperwork incriminates the president.

Chaos erupted after Mexico’s army killed a person often known as El Mencho, the nation’s strongest drug lord. Now, the nation’s cities are slowly returning to regular. Companies are set to reopen immediately, and colleges within the state of Jalisco will reopen tomorrow. However massive questions stay about what El Mencho’s dying means for Mexico’s struggle towards organized crime.

🎧 NPR’s Eyder Peralta says the scene in Jalisco’s capital, Guadalajara, is eerie and feels much like the COVID lockdown. Streets are empty, and a few streets have burnt-out autos on the medians within the aftermath of the violence that erupted after the drug lord’s dying. Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has repeatedly mentioned she does not need to spark a brand new battle towards organized crime, because it has sometimes led to bloodshed. As a substitute, she says the best way to sort out the problem is to handle root causes resembling training and jobs. Trump is pressuring Mexico for a extra frontal struggle towards the cartels and has threatened to take unilateral army motion to handle it.

Trump will take heart stage tonight to handle a joint session of Congress for the primary State of the Union deal with of his second time period in workplace. The prime time deal with offers the president a possibility to tout his agenda and form his social gathering’s messaging forward of this yr’s midterm elections. Trump is anticipated to begin talking at 9 p.m. ET. If historical past is any indication, you need to put together for a protracted night time. Here is what else you must know forward of tonight’s speech.

A brand new federal class motion lawsuit alleges federal brokers are unconstitutionally retaliating towards observers recording immigration enforcement. The nonprofit Defend Democracy and the regulation corporations Dunn Isaacson Rhee and Drummond Woodsum filed the go well with, alleging that federal brokers are gathering details about observers and labeling them as “home terrorists” after telling them they might be added to a “watchlist.” After the lawsuit was filed yesterday, the Division of Homeland Safety informed NPR that it does not have a database for home terrorists. DHS additionally mentioned that it follows the U.S. Structure in its regulation enforcement strategies.

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California Gov. Gavin Newsom has been spending his last yr in workplace touring the U.S. and rallying voters for the midterm elections. Newsom, who hasn’t dominated out a run for president in 2028, actively challenges Trump, typically mocking the president’s aggressive model on social media. “I am placing a mirror as much as President Trump and I am combating fireplace with fireplace and I’m punching a bully again within the mouth,” he tells NPR. Concurrently, Newsom has additionally engaged main right-wing figures like Steve Bannon and Ben Shapiro, drawing criticism from his personal social gathering. The governor just lately spoke with All Issues Thought-about forward of the discharge of his memoir, Younger Man in a Hurry. He mentioned how his struggles with dyslexia formed his life, his technique for coping with Trump and the way the Democratic Celebration ought to meet this political second.

Learn extra about Newsom’s dialog with NPR’s Ailsa Chang or watch the interview. You may also try the dialog on NPR’s YouTube web page, Contemplate This and the NPR App.

Behind the story

4 years in the past, Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. NPR’s Ukraine correspondent Joanna Kakissis and Russia correspondent Charles Maynes replicate on what it has been like reporting on the battle and the toll it is taken on residents.

Now we have documented Russia’s full-scale battle on Ukraine because the starting: the terrible human price, the hundreds of lacking Ukrainian kids, the exhausted entrance line cities, the best way this battle has modified fashionable warfare and geopolitics, in addition to Ukrainian and Russian society. An invasion that the Kremlin — and plenty of within the West — predicted would finish with Ukrainian capitulation inside days has now lasted 4 years, with monumental casualties on each side, in keeping with British and U.S. sources.

Ukrainians are exhausted. They’ve adjusted their lives to fixed Russian drone and missile assaults, to the turmoil and grief of defending the nation in a protracted battle. Many flinch when praised as resilient, as if, they are saying, there may be one other alternative. “Now we have paid too excessive a worth to surrender,” says Olha Chupikova, from the southern front-line metropolis of Kherson. Her son, a soldier, was killed in motion final yr. Volodymyr Mykolayenko, a former Kherson mayor who got here dwelling final fall after years in Russian captivity, is skeptical that talks sponsored by the Trump administration will truly finish the battle. “We used to see America as a defender of democracy,” he says. “Now they selected [Russian President Vladimir] Putin as their pal.”

No matter Trump’s diplomatic purpose, it hasn’t been sufficient to persuade Putin to cease his assault. Russians’ hope that Trump may ship peace has pale as Putin rejected even essentially the most beneficiant phrases on provide. Regardless of Kremlin claims on the contrary, Western sanctions are taking their toll on the financial system. State repression was once aimed squarely on the political opposition. Now, even the invasion’s most ardent supporters have been focused. Authorities restrictions now more and more attain into the digital and cultural house — with bans on films, music and social media affecting almost everybody. Open criticism of the battle was criminalized early on. But there is a rising sense that amid a battle endlessly, the state’s want for management, too, is countless.

3 issues to know earlier than you go

The British Academy of Movie and Tv Arts Awards (BAFTAs) launched an apology yesterday after the BBC aired a delayed broadcast of the ceremony that included a person with Tourette syndrome shouting a racial slur.Scientists found a brand new species of huge, horned, fish-eating Spinosaurus dinosaur — the primary in over a century. The dinosaur species dates again to the Jurassic interval, over 140 million years in the past.Because the battle in Ukraine enters its fifth yr, NPR’s Far-Flung Postcards brings you to Kyiv, the place candles are the final possibility throughout wartime blackouts.

This article was edited by Suzanne Nuyen.