Trump Orders Investigation Into Epstein’s Ties to Democrats

President Trump came under pressure this week when Congress released a trove of Jeffrey Epstein’s emails, in which the convicted sex offender mentioned his ties to Trump. The president emphatically denied knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and insisted that anyone suggesting otherwise was perpetuating a “hoax.”

Today, however, Trump demanded that the Justice Department begin an investigation into several other people mentioned in the emails, including former President Bill Clinton, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and the venture capitalist and megadonor Reid Hoffman. Notably, he singled out only Democrats, and his own name was nowhere to be seen.

“This is another Russia, Russia, Russia Scam, with all arrows pointing to the Democrats,” Trump wrote today on social media. “Records show that these men, and many others, spent large portions of their life with Epstein, and on his ‘Island.’ Stay tuned!!!”

Attorney General Pam Bondi acquiesced to the president’s demand just a few hours later and named a prosecutor to lead the inquiry. The move, which came just four months after the Justice Department formally declared that nothing in the Epstein files warranted further investigation, demonstrated a stark demonstration of her willingness to surrender the department’s traditional independence.

A judge says he will approve Purdue Pharma’s bankruptcy

A bankruptcy judge announced this afternoon that he would give final approval to a plan to settle thousands of opioid lawsuits against Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin.

Under the agreement, the company will soon cease to exist. Its owners, members of the billionaire Sackler family, are mandated to pay as much as $7 billion over 15 years to states, communities, tribes and others harmed in the decades-long national opioid addiction crisis.

Russia pummels Kyiv

Ukraine’s capital city, Kyiv, came under a punishing overnight attack. Russian forces launched 430 drones and 19 missiles into Ukraine, killing six people and wounding dozens of others. Fireballs blazed through neighborhoods, and residential buildings were hit “in practically every district,” the head of the city’s military administration said.

The targets of the attacks were not immediately clear. But Russia’s recent assaults have often hit Ukraine’s power grid, an effort to plunge the country into cold and darkness as winter looms.

For more: Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, is facing domestic political pressure. His decision to remove Odesa’s mayor was viewed by some as a power grab, and a sweeping corruption investigation recently reached his inner circle.

Melting ice is a growing menace in the Himalayas

The ice of the Himalayas has been slowly wasting away, creating roughly 20,000 unstable glacial lakes across the mountain range. Those lakes, which sometimes overflow because of falling rocks or landslides, pose a potentially catastrophic threat to the cities and towns below.

My colleagues mapped out one devastating flood from a glacial lake above the secluded village of Thame.

More top news

• Insurance: The incoming president of the insurance giant American International Group abruptly withdrew after The Times asked about a romantic relationship he had with his assistant in a previous job.

• Walmart: The company’s longtime chief executive, Doug McMillon, will step down on Jan. 31, and he will be replaced by John Furner, who leads the U.S. division.

• Education: In an extraordinary 12-page letter, the former president of the University of Virginia detailed the pressure from the Justice Department that led to his ouster.

• Georgia: The head of the state’s prosecutor council appointed himself to take over Trump’s election interference case, replacing Fani Willis, who was disqualified from pursuing it.

• Jamaica: The Category 5 storm Hurricane Melissa dealt major damage to 146,000 buildings, affecting at least 90,000 families, and the island is grappling with the toll of homelessness.

• Middle East: Ayssam Ma’ala, an eighth grader in the occupied West Bank, became the first fatality in what has been a particularly violent olive harvest.

• Africa: Kenyan workers get abused abroad. The president’s family and his allies profit.

• Banks: When Charlie Javice was accused of fraud, JPMorgan was forced to pay for her defense. She has spent more than $60 million, including the hotel upgrades and cellulite butter.

• Pets: A dog accidentally shot and injured a man in Pennsylvania, police said.

Oliva Nuzzi did it all for love

Olivia Nuzzi was once one of the country’s most prominent political journalists, writing dishy magazine pieces on Trump and other major Washington figures. Then, last year, her career collapsed when the public got wind of her apparent digital affair with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., then a presidential candidate.

Nuzzi exiled herself to Los Angeles for a year, where she hiked and secretly wrote a memoir, “American Canto” — in which she writes that she really did love “the politician,” her moniker for Kennedy. Now, for the first time since the scandal, she talked to my colleague Jacob Bernstein about the experience.

Confused by the iPhone Pocket? That’s by design.

Apple’s newest product is a vividly hued knit pouch that allows you to hold your phone like a handbag. They call it the iPhone Pocket, and it costs between $150 and $230. Some Americans are baffled as to why they would pay so much to hold their phone in a more inconvenient way.

The pouch was made in collaboration with Issey Miyake — the company founded by the man who created Steve Jobs’s black mock turtleneck — and the designers expected that reaction: “Design should be leaving things a little bit less defined to allow more creativity from the user side.”

Have an unconventional weekend.

Thanks for reading. I’ll be back on Monday. — Matthew

Keith Bedford was our photo editor.

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