Good evening. Here’s the latest at the end of Friday.
The Justice Dept. released a new trove of Epstein filesThe Trump administration released thousands of documents related to federal investigations of Jeffrey Epstein, as Congress mandated. A team of Times reporters is currently combing through the documents. Here’s what we know so far. The trove contained hundreds of photographs; notable figures that appear in them include Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew, Michael Jackson and Mick Jagger. The new release also included a batch of investigative files. Some appear to be related to interviews with some of Epstein’s victims, but the substantive information in many is redacted. The Justice Department said earlier today that it planned to withhold some documents, citing ongoing investigations or national security concerns. Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, said in a letter to Congress that “the volume of materials” would lead to the release of more documents and suggested the process would be done before the year ends. Blanche also said that the Justice Department had identified 1,200 names of victims of Epstein or relatives of victims, and that it had redacted materials that could reveal their identities. In other Trump administration news:
Investigators seek a motive in killings at Brown and M.I.T.As investigators worked today to uncover why a former physics graduate student may have shot and killed two students at Brown University and an M.I.T. professor at his home, his acquaintances told The Times that the suspect was brilliant but unhappy and could be a bully. Here’s the latest. The suspect, whom the authorities identified as Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, was briefly a graduate student in physics at Brown in the early 2000s. The building where the shooting took place was a “second home” for physics graduate students, one former classmate said. Neves Valente had been estranged from his family for decades. Growing up in Portugal, he studied with the M.I.T. professor Nuno Loureiro, whom peers described as an internationally renowned physicist. Neves Valente became a permanent U.S. resident in 2017 through a diversity visa lottery — a program that the Trump administration announced it was suspending, though experts questioned if it had the authority to do so. How they found him: The authorities tracked down the suspect thanks to a Reddit post, a series of surveillance images and a car rental contract.
With Europe’s support, Ukraine avoids a budget crunchUkrainian officials breathed a sigh of relief today after European leaders agreed to a $105 billion loan backed by the E.U.’s budget. The money is expected to cover two-thirds of Ukraine’s financial needs for the next two years, bolstering Kyiv’s bargaining power in peace talks. The E.U. loan was not the initial plan. Europeans had been working on a plan to use frozen Russian assets to back the loan. That deal collapsed at the 11th hour, but Ukraine will only need to pay back the no-interest loan if Russia pays reparations. In Ukraine: My colleagues spent a day at a secret command center, watching drone operators change the way that wars are fought.
The Army has long caused alarm in D.C.’s skiesFor years, the U.S. Army put inexperienced pilots in aging helicopters and sent them out over Washington, D.C. — one of the nation’s most complex airspaces. A new Times investigation found that the Army’s aviators operated in a way that suggested they were unfamiliar with some of the dangers, causing “widespread concern” among pilots. Now, those problems are being re-examined after an Army crew flew a dated Black Hawk helicopter into a commercial jet in January, resulting in the deaths of all 67 people aboard both aircraft. More top news
Are you ready to revisit Pandora?The biggest movie of this weekend is “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” the third installment in James Cameron’s franchise exploring the lush alien world of the Na’vi. The first two “Avatar” films rank among the top-three grossing movies of all time. And if you liked those, our critic Manohla Dargis writes in her review, you will most likely succumb to this one’s visual charms as well, even if its shallow dialogue falls short of its epic spectacle. Catch up: Don’t worry if you don’t remember the first two movies. We have a guide for what you need to know.
Listen to E.E. Cummings, Mary Oliver and other literary giantsFor many decades, the 92nd Street Y has been hosting the world’s biggest writers at its poetry center in Manhattan. James Baldwin talked about the writing process there in 1963 and Joan Didion read from her book there in 2005. Now, the center has released a collection of rare recordings from those talks — offering a taste of what the writers were like. Tom Wolfe, for example, was a fast talker, and Kurt Vonnegut’s jokes got belly laughs. Listen to them here.
Dinner table topics
Cook: These sesame scallion buns are crispy on the outside and tender within. Watch: “Cover-Up” traces the career highs and lows of the journalist Seymour Hersh. Read: “The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny” was the novel that interested the most readers this year. Give: It’s not too late for a last-minute gift. Check out our guide. Test yourself: Take this week’s news quiz. Play: Here are today’s Connections, Wordle and Mini Crossword. |
