As the controversy grows, Attorney General Pam Bondi, the president’s representative, has requested grand jury testimony from the Jeffrey Epstein case be released.
After the Trump administration reversed its plan last week to release documents it had suggested contained damning revelations about Epstein and his alleged elite clientele, the case of the deceased high-profile sex offender Epstein has been in the news recently.
Many of Trump’s most devoted supporters were upset by that decision, which led to accusations that his administration is fabricating obscene details of Epstein’s crimes to protect wealthy and powerful individuals.
Trump once referred to Epstein as a friend and had previously been associated with him.
“I have requested Attorney General Pam Bondi to provide any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval, given the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein.” “This SCAM, which the Democrats continue to support, should end right away”! Late on Thursday, Trump posted a letter to his Truth Social account.
Attorney General Bondi announced on social media that the Justice Department would request the grand jury transcripts be released on Friday shortly after Trump’s statement.
We are prepared to move the court tomorrow to release the grand jury transcripts, according to Bondi, “President, Trump, and I.”
The Wall Street Journal published a story about an allegedly risky letter he wrote to Epstein that contained a drawing of a naked woman, prompting Trump’s most recent development. According to the WSJ report, the note to Epstein that contained Trump’s signature was a collection made for Epstein’s 50th birthday in 2003. It quickly spread throughout the US capital.
The newspaper stated that it had read the letter but did not have an image printed.
President Trump and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt informed the Wall Street Journal’s editor that the letter was a fake, Trump wrote on his social media account.
He claimed that they are instead choosing a “false, malicious, and defamatory story” in any case.
“In a few days, President Trump will file a lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal, NewsCorp, and Mr. Murdoch. He continued, “The Press needs to learn to be truthful and not to rely on sources that are probably not even there.”
Trump claims that the alleged letter contains several lines of typewritten text, which are outlined in a silhouette of a naked woman, which has been drawn with a marker.
According to the Journal, “The future president’s signature is a squiggly “Donald” below her waist, resembling pubic hair.”
Happy Birthday, and may every day be another wonderful secret, is the message in the letter.
Trump asserted to the WSJ, “This is not me. This is a “fake” item.
He claimed, “I don’t draw pictures of women.” It’s not my native tongue, I say. Not in my words, I say.
After being accused of sex trafficking in a schema where he allegedly groomed young, underage women for sexual abuse by the rich and powerful, Epstein committed suicide in a New York prison in 2019 during Trump’s first term.
In the largest government shakeup since Russia’s invasion three years ago, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has appointed a new prime minister and other key figures.
Denys Shmyhal, who has been in charge since 2020, was succeeded by Yulia Svyrydenko, 39, who received her confirmation on Thursday by the Ukrainian parliament.
Prior to becoming first deputy prime minister and minister of economic development and trade, Svyrydenko had a close relationship with Donald Trump’s administration. She was credited with negotiating a crucial mineral deal between Trump and Kyiv earlier this year, which helped to deglaze a shaky relationship between Zelenskyy and Trump.
Svyrydenko stated on social media that she intends to concentrate on strengthening Ukraine’s economy, expanding domestic production, and strengthening its armed forces.
She said, “Our government plots its course toward a Ukraine that is strong on its own foundations, including military, economic, and social.” Every Ukrainian will experience positive outcomes in daily life, which is what my main objective is. There is no room for delay in a war. She urged us to take a swift and decisive course of action.
I am honored to serve as the leader of the Ukrainian government today.
Our country’s government plots a Ukrainian nation that is strong on its own foundations, military, economic, and social. Every Ukrainian will experience positive outcomes in daily life, which is what my main objective is.
War… image https://twitter.com/oytWMCp1S3
As defense minister, 49-year-old Shmyhal will succeed him, taking over a ministry that has struggled with a number of corruption scandals.
Andrii Sybiha, a 50-year-old foreign minister, will remain in office, but Zelenskyy has chosen ailing justice minister Olga Stefanishyna, 39, as his new ambassador to the US pending US approval. Stefanie worked with the European Union, NATO, and the Trump administration’s most recent mineral deal, among other things.
Stefanishyna will succeed Oksana Markarova, the outgoing envoy who earned Trump’s respect for her cooperative relationship with former US President Joe Biden’s administration.
Rustem Umerov, the president’s defense minister, was rumored to be Zelenskyy’s next US envoy, but he was allegedly not approved by Washington, according to opposition MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak, according to reports last week.
In addition to the reshuffles, deputy prime minister for European integration and deputy minister of economy, environment, and agriculture will be replaced by Oleksiy Sobolev and Taras Kachka.
On Friday, July 18, 2018, this is how things are going.
Fighting
Three Ukrainian settlements, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense, have been taken by Dehtiarne in the northeastern Kharkiv region, Kamianske in the southeast, and Popiv Yar in the Donetsk region.
A Kremlin aide claims that Russia and Ukraine have reached an agreement during the second round of peace talks in Istanbul in June that includes the exchange of more bodies of their war dead. In exchange for 19 Russian soldiers’ bodies, 1, 000 of Ukrainian soldiers’ bodies were exchanged for.
military assistance
According to NATO’s top military commander, Alexus Grynkewich, preparations are being made to quickly transfer additional Patriot air defense systems to Ukraine.
According to Ales Vytecka, director of the Czech Defence Ministry’s AMOS international cooperation agency, the number of coordinated artillery shipments to Ukraine has increased this year. Total 850, 000 shells have been shipped this year, including 320, 000 NATO 155mm projectiles.
According to Kyiv’s state-backed arms investment and procurement group Brave1, foreign arms companies will be able to test out their most recent weapons against Russia.
Zelenskyy told the Ukrainian parliament that within the next six months, he anticipates an increase in the amount of domestically produced weapons on the battlefield of Ukraine from 40% to 50%.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called for greater clarity regarding how the US might replace any weapons Europe might send to Ukraine. During a meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, he made the statement.
diplomacy and politics
According to Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, President Trump’s decision to increase arms shipments to Ukraine sends a message to Kyiv to abandon efforts to bring peace.
Dmitry Medvedev, the ex-russ president, claimed that Russia lacked any plans to attack NATO or Europe but that it did consider using preemptive strikes if it thought the West was beginning a full-fledged conflict with Russia.
Yulia Svyrydenko, 39, was chosen as the country’s first new prime minister in five years as part of a major cabinet overhaul designed to revitalize the nation’s reputation for waging war in a region with bleak prospects for peace with Russia. Denys Shmyhal, the former prime minister of Ukraine, has been appointed defense minister.
Andrii Sybiha will continue as Ukraine’s foreign minister, according to the parliament’s vote, and Olha Stefanishyna will become its new ambassador to the US.
A bill that would outlaw browsing or viewing content considered to be “extremist” in nature, such as songs that glorify Ukraine and music by the feminist rock band Pussy Riot, has been proposed by Russian lawmakers.
Andreas Hutapea assumed he would not have much trouble finding a stable career after graduating from college with a law degree two years ago.
Hutapea actually encountered several rejections.
In his attempt to work as a trainee prosecutor, Hutapea first failed to pass Indonesia’s notoriously difficult civil service exams, which only about 3% of applicants received.
Hutapea had a dream about joining the army before going to law school, but he was unable to meet the height requirement.
Hutapea eventually moved back in with his parents, who operate a simple store selling oil, eggs, rice, and other groceries after his money ran out and left the student housing he was renting.
Since then, Hutapea has been employed at his parents’ store in a small town in Medan, North Sumatra’s capital.
Hutapea, who graduated from high school in 2020, told Al Jazeera, “I open the shop for them in the morning, sit there all day serving customers, and then help close the store at night.”
I can’t blame my parents for not paying me a wage for my labor, she said. I’m getting free lodging and food. ”
In his search for stable, well-paying employment, Hutapea is not the only one.
One of Asia’s highest rates of youth unemployment is in Indonesia.
According to government statistics, about one-third of Indonesia’s more than 44 million teenagers between the ages of 15 and 24 are unemployed, which is more than twice the rate of youth unemployment in neighboring Thailand and Vietnam.
Young Indonesians expressed far more pessimistic attitudes toward the government and the economy than their peers in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, and Vietnam according to a survey conducted by the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore in January.
Compared to the survey’s survey, which found that 58 percent of Indonesian youth said they were optimistic about the government’s economic plans, compared to an average of 75% in the six nations.
Near the presidential palace in Jakarta, Indonesia, on February 20, 2025, students march against the recent budget-efficiency policies in the anti-government protest known as ‘Indonesia Gelap’ (Dark Indonesia).
When university students organized the Indonesia Gelap, or Dark Indonesia, movement to protest government plans to reduce public spending, some of this angst started to spread to the streets in February.
The high rate of jobless youth in Southeast Asia’s largest economy is attributed to a number of factors, including labor-heavy labor laws that make it difficult to hire, and low wages that fail to entice competent workers.
According to Adinova Fauri, an economist at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Indonesia, many people choose to work outside the labor market rather than to earn salaries below expectations, according to Al Jazeera.
People turn to the informal sector, which has lower productivity and protection, because good jobs are not readily available. ”
More than 280 million people live in Indonesia, which has long struggled with youth unemployment.
While the rate is still high in comparison to the rest of the country, governments have made some progress over the years in assisting more young people in finding employment. As recently as a decade ago, it was estimated that one-quarter of young Indonesians were without a job.
President of Indonesia, former president of Indonesia and former prime minister of the army, Prabowo Subianto, has acknowledged the need to create more jobs by forming task forces to combat unemployment and negotiate trade agreements with US President Donald Trump.
After Trump announced a reduction of tariffs on Indonesian goods from 32 to 19 percent, Prabowo hailed the start of “a new era of mutual benefit” for Indonesia and the US on Wednesday.
On July 16, 2025, Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto makes a wave to the media at Halim Perdanakusuma Air Force Base in Jakarta, Indonesia [Achmad Ibrahim/AP]
Although older people are less likely to be unemployed, Indonesia has a jobless rate of about 80%. 5 percent: The majority of the work is inert and poorly compensated.
According to the Bureau of Statistics’ 2024 figures, 56% of Indonesia’s workforce works in the informal sector, leaving millions of people without social security protections and in unsafe conditions.
According to Deniey Adi Purwanto, a lecturer in the Department of Economics at IPB University in Bogor, the decline in the open unemployment rate does not necessarily reflect strong employment results.
Both informal employment and the quality of employment are still significant issues. ”
However, for young people, there is a particularly severe disconnect between job seekers and job seekers.
There is a high level of informality among graduates of secondary and tertiary education, according to Purwanto, who also contends that the needs of the labor market are not always met.
The pressure on the labor market is much higher because Indonesia has a sizable population of young people.
Additionally, he continued, “We have rapidly increasing secondary and higher education levels.”
Many young college graduates choose to wait for suitable jobs, which leads to unemployment, rather than avoiding informal or low-paid jobs. ”
In comparison to neighbours like Vietnam or Malaysia, Purwanto claimed that Indonesia also lacked effective vocational training and apprenticeship programs.
He cited more industry-university linkage schemes and graduate employability programs as examples of Malaysians.
On October 8, 2024, job seekers will attend a job fair in Jakarta, Indonesia [Willy Kurniawan/Reuters].
The problem is made worse by the startling regional disparities that Indonesia, which consists of about 17,000 islands, have. Young people in remote and rural areas find it particularly challenging to get good jobs.
This is especially true in areas that are farther away from Java, where Jakarta is the country’s capital and where more than half the population lives.
When Hutapea moved back with his parents, who reside about two hours away from Medan, he first saw this.
Hutapea, who has a law degree, has been struggling for employment since moving out of his parents’ shop.
Hutapea recently had her interview for a job replenishing banknotes in ATMs. She also has a side job setting up sound systems for weddings and parties.
But despite his best efforts, he never heard back from the recruiter.
It is difficult to believe that Hutapea’s efforts were in vain because he took some of his law school coursework during the summer holidays so he could graduate a year early.
Hutapea said, “I didn’t want to burden my parents, who were already paying my entire university costs.”
Following an April 26th fatality in Indian-administered Kashmir, the United States has labeled the organization The Resistance Front (TRF) a “foreign terrorist organization.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed in a statement on Thursday that TRF is a branch of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LET) and that it was responsible for the attack in Pahalgam and other attacks on Indian security forces.
Rubio cited President Donald Trump’s consistent policy toward foreign matters in his remarks.
The Department of State’s actions demonstrate the administration’s commitment to fighting terrorism, promoting justice for the victims of the Pahalgam attack, and supporting President Trump’s call for justice, according to a statement from the State Department.
TRF initially denied involvement in the bloody attack in Pahalgam, but it changed its mind a few days later and reversed its course.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s nationalist government quickly took advantage of the attack, accusing neighboring Pakistan of supporting militant organizations that carry out attacks on Indian security forces and civilians.
In Mumbai in 2008, several LeT members carried out a multiday attack that left hundreds of people dead and injured. The Pahalgam attack, which militants targeted a well-known tourist destination in Kashmir, was described as “the deadliest attack on civilians in India since the 2008 Mumbai attacks conducted by LeT,” according to Rubio in a statement.
Pakistan is widely believed to have supported these organizations in an effort to undermine India, but the latter’s harsh military rule and history of human rights violations in Kashmir have long been the source of unrest and occasionally violent resistance in the area.
Hindu nationalists want more control over Kashmir, the only province with a Muslim majority under Indian rule.
Washington, DC – The family of Sayfollah Musallet, the United States citizen who was beaten to death by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank last week, is calling for justice.
Musallet’s relatives want Washington to launch its own investigation into the incident to ensure accountability.
The Florida-born 20-year-old is the ninth US citizen to be killed by Israeli settlers or soldiers since 2022. None of the previous cases have led to criminal charges or US sanctions against the perpetrators.
That lack of response is what advocates call a “pattern of impunity”, wherein Washington demands a probe without placing any significant pressure on Israel to produce results.
In Musallet’s case, the administration of President Donald Trump urged Israel to “aggressively” investigate the killing.
“There must be accountability for this criminal and terrorist act,” Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, said in a statement on Tuesday.
It is not clear if the US has taken any further actions to seek justice in the aftermath of the fatal beating.
Critics say the “pattern of impunity” stems in part from the historically close bonds between the US and Israel. Successive presidential administrations in the US have affirmed their “unwavering” support for Israel, and the US provides Israel with billions of dollars in military aid annually.
Here, Al Jazeera looks at who the eight other victims were, how the US has responded to their killing and where their cases stand.
Omar Assad
Assad, a 78-year-old Palestinian American, was driving home in the occupied West Bank after visiting friends on January 12, 2022, when Israeli soldiers stopped him at a checkpoint.
According to the autopsy report and his family’s account, the troops dragged Assad out of his car and then handcuffed, gagged and blindfolded him, leaving him to die at a cold construction site.
The administration of then-President Joe Biden called on Israel to launch a criminal investigation into the incident.
But Assad’s relatives and lawmakers from his home state of Milwaukee wanted Washington to conduct its own probe – a demand that never materialised.
As is often the case, Israel’s investigation into its own soldiers’ conduct did not lead to any criminal charges.
In 2023, the Israeli army said that it found no “causal link” between the way its soldiers treated Assad and his death.
The Biden administration also declined to apply sanctions under US law to the Israeli unit that killed Assad: the Netzah Yehuda, a battalion notorious for its abuses against Palestinians in the West Bank.
Last year, the US Department of State announced that the battalion will still be eligible for US aid under the Leahy Law, which prohibits military assistance for security units involved in human rights violations.
Shireen Abu Akleh
Abu Akleh, a veteran Al Jazeera reporter, was fatally shot by Israeli forces during a raid in Jenin in the occupied West Bank on May 11, 2022.
Owing to her status as one of the most celebrated journalists in the Middle East, her killing sparked international outrage from rights groups and press freedom advocates.
Despite the global attention, Israeli forces attacked her funeral in Jerusalem, beating the pallbearers carrying her coffin with batons.
A portrait of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh is displayed during a memorial mass held at a church in Beit Hanina in occupied East Jerusalem [AFP]
Israel initially denied killing Abu Akleh, 51, falsely claiming that the reporter was shot by armed Palestinians.
Months later, after multiple visual investigations showed that Israeli soldiers targeted Abu Akleh, Israel acknowledged that its forces likely killed the reporter, dismissing the incident as an accident.
The Biden administration faced waves of pleas by legislators and rights groups to launch its own investigation into the killing, but it resisted the calls, arguing that Israel is capable of investigating itself.
In November 2022, Israeli media reports claimed that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was investigating the shooting of Abu Akleh, but the US Department of Justice never confirmed the probe.
More than three years after Abu Akleh’s killing, her family and supporters say justice in her case has not been served.
Tawfiq Ajaq
Born in Louisiana, Ajaq was 17 when he visited the occupied West Bank to see his relatives last year.
On January 19, 2024, he was driving a pick-up truck with his friends when Israelis sprayed the vehicle with bullets and killed him.
Mohammed Salameh, who witnessed and survived the attack, said the shooting was unprovoked.
While it is not clear which individual shot Ajaq, Israel said the incident involved “an off-duty law enforcement officer, a soldier and a civilian” and was sparked by “rock-throwing activities” – a claim that Salameh has denied.
The US State Department called for an “urgent investigation to determine the circumstance” of the incident.
But more than 19 months after the shooting, Israel has not publicly released any findings or charged any suspect in the shooting.
“We feel abandoned by our government,” Ajaq’s uncle, Mohammad Abdeljabbar, told Al Jazeera last year.
Mohammad Khdour
Khdour was also 17 when he was killed under almost identical circumstances to Ajaq just weeks later.
According to his cousin Malek Mansour, who witnessed the attack, an unidentified assailant opened fire at their car in the occupied West Bank from a vehicle with an Israeli number plate.
Mansour said the attack was unprovoked. Khdour died on February 10, 2024.
The two had been eating cookies and taking selfies moments before the shooting.
Once again, Washington called for a probe.
“There needs to be an investigation. We need to get the facts. And if appropriate, there needs to be accountability,” then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters at that time.
But advocates say that, while normally Israel launches sham investigations into such incidents, Israeli authorities have not acknowledged Khdour’s killing at all.
The Israeli military and police told the publication Haaretz last year that they are not familiar with the case.
Jacob Flickinger
An Israeli air strike targeted a World Central Kitchen (WCK) vehicle in Gaza on April 1, 2024, killing seven aid workers, sparking anger and condemnation across the world.
Among the victims was Flickinger, a 33-year-old US-Canadian dual citizen.
Biden called for a “swift” Israeli investigation into the attack, which he said “must bring accountability”.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the blast a “tragic accident”.
A vehicle for the World Central Kitchen sits charred in the central Gaza Strip after a deadly Israeli strike, on April 2, 2024 [Ahmed Zakot/Reuters]
The Israeli military said the commander who ordered the strike had “mistakenly assumed” that gunmen in the area were in the aid vehicle.
It added that the commander did not identify the car as associated with World Central Kitchen, a well-known hunger relief initiative founded by celebrity chef Jose Andres.
A World Central Kitchen logo was displayed prominently on the top of the vehicle before the attack.
Israel said it dismissed two commanders over the incident, but there were no criminal charges.
Since then, Israel has killed hundreds of aid workers in Gaza, including Palestinian staff members from World Central Kitchen.
Last year, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza as well as other alleged war crimes.
Aysenur Ezgi Eygi
Eygi, born in Washington state, was participating in a protest against an illegal settler outpost in the West Bank on September 6, 2024, when an Israeli soldier shot her in the head.
She was 26.
While there were reports of a scuffle during a crackdown on the demonstration by Israeli forces, several witnesses have said that Eygi was shot during a calm period after the chaos had ended.
The State Department called on Israel to “quickly and robustly” investigate Eygi’s killing, but it ruled out conducting its own probe.
Biden dismissed her death as an “accident”, but Blinken condemned it as “unprovoked and unjustified”.
On the same day that Eygi was fatally shot by Israel, the US Justice Department filed charges against Hamas leaders after the killing of US-Israeli captive Hersh Goldberg-Polin in Gaza.
The Israeli military said its soldiers likely killed Eygi “indirectly and unintentionally” – a conclusion that her family called offensive, stressing that she was targeted by a sniper.
“The disregard shown for human life in the inquiry is appalling,” the family said in a statement.
Trump ally Randy Fine, now a Congress member, celebrated the killing of Eygi. “One less #MuslimTerrorist,” he wrote in a social media post, referring to the shooting.
Kamel Jawad
When Jawad, a celebrated leader in the Lebanese American community in Michigan, was killed by an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon on October 1 of last year, the Biden administration initially denied he was a US citizen.
Washington later acknowledged that Jawad was American, expressing “alarm” over his killing.
“As we have noted repeatedly, it is a moral and strategic imperative that Israel take all feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm. Any loss of civilian life is a tragedy,” the US State Department said at that time.
Israel has not commented publicly on the strike that killed Jawad.
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) slammed the Biden administration’s handling of the case, including the US government’s initial “smug” response.
“It’s as if they’re intentionally trying to see our people killed, intentionally downplaying us and dehumanising us,” ADC executive director Abed Ayoub told Al Jazeera last year.
Amer Rabee
On April 6, Israeli forces in the West Bank fatally shot 14-year-old Rabee, a New Jersey native, and called him a “terrorist”. Two of his friends were also injured in the attack.
While the Israeli military accused Rabee and his friends of throwing rocks at Israeli vehicles, the slain teenager’s family insisted that he was picking almonds on the side of the road.
The Trump administration failed to pursue accountability in the case or even publicly press for further details about the incident.
Instead, the State Department cited the Israeli account about the 14-year-old’s killing.
