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- [00:05]
A
Good morning. I'm Cecilia Ley filling in for Shamita Basu. On today's show, the latest Epstein documents causing scandals beyond America's borders. And the British Prime Minister is now fighting for his political life.
- [00:19]
B
The victims of Epstein have lived with trauma that most of us can barely comprehend. For them, I want to say this. I am sorry.
- [00:30]
A
The Wall Street Journal tells about the harmful chemicals in some people's water wells. And at the super bowl, the Seahawks shut down the Patriots. And Bad Bunny delivers a historic show. It's Monday, February 9th, and this is Apple News. Today, The latest Jeffrey Epstein files are exposing just how deep the convicted sex offender's network was among the rich and powerful. So so far, they've had limited impact on the political careers in the us but in other countries, the revelations have been explosive. It's put a spotlight on senior political figures in Europe and could even bring down the British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer.
- [01:13]
B
We've got to clean up the system. A total cleanup of the system. An end to the corruption and unethical behavior. And if we don't do it, we'll pay a heavy price. I don't think you can understate how serious the situation, the peril is that the Prime Minister finds himself in. And there is no denying how bad that position is.
- [01:33]
A
Veterans of Starmer's party there speaking to the BBC. This all centers on Peter Mandelson, Starmer's controversial pick for U.S. ambassador. The documents revealed that Mandelson maintained a close friendship with Epstein long after the financier's conviction. And they show that while he was in government, Mandelson appeared to pass on market sensitive and confidential information to Epstein. He's now being investigated by the police. For his part, Mandelson denies acting for financial gain and has apologized for keeping in touch with Epstein. Mandelson was fired as ambassador last September, but there's still big questions over the decision to appoint him. And yesterday, Starmer's chief of staff resigned over the scandal. But that's unlikely to be the end of the matter. Starmer's polling is now among the worst of any modern British leader, and this has only weakened him further. Sky News questioned Starmer about his future as he apologized to Epstein's victims last week.
- [02:29]
B
It has proved a catastrophic error of your judgment to put him back into your government. Some of your MPs, some are saying publicly now that you should stand down because your position's become untenable. Why are they wrong? Well, as I've said a number of times, I regret the decision to appoint Mandelson as ambassador. He was asked questions about the nature and extent of his relationship with Epstein, and he told lies.
- [02:59]
A
Starmer isn't the only European politician damaged by the latest files. Norwegian police are investigating its former prime minister and chair of the Nobel Committee. Meanwhile, the CEO of the World Economic Forum, which organizes the exclusive Davos gathering, is now the subject of an internal investigation, and a former French culture minister is also being investigated. All have denied any wrongdoing. While the documents have not had the same dramatic effect in the US the scrutiny is far from over. NBC reports that this week lawmakers will get to see unredacted versions of the 3 million files currently available to the public. That's only about half of the documents in the DOJ's possession. There are thought to be 3 million unreleased documents remaining. As lawmakers scrutinize the documents, they're also calling senior political figures to Congress. The Clintons have been ordered to give closed door depositions to the House of Representatives Oversight Committee, though over the weekend the couple called for their testimony to be held in public. Former President Bill Clinton was in some of the released photos, though he hasn't been accused of any wrongdoing. Some Democrats have said Republicans are targeting the Clintons for political reasons, as Trump has not been called on to testify. One Republican facing some heat right now is Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who was once Epstein's Manhattan neighbor. On the Pod Force One show last October, Lutnick said he was so disgusted by Epstein's comments when he met him in 2005 that he resolved never to see him again.
- [04:30]
B
My wife and I decided that I will never be in the room with that disgusting person ever again. So I was never in the room with him socially for business or even philanthropy. If that guy was there, I wasn't going because he's gross.
- [04:50]
A
But the latest files reveal they invested in the same company, communicated on neighborhood and philanthropic issues, and appear to have socialized together in the Caribbean. The Commerce Department said the interactions were very limited and described the reports as a distraction. Today, Epstein's longtime associate and co conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell will appear in front of the House Oversight Committee to testify, though she's expected to plead the Fifth. An exhausted attorney's comment to a federal judge in court last week revealed how the Department of Justice is struggling to manage an ever growing mountain of immigration cases.
- [05:34]
C
I wish you would just hold me in contempt so I can get 24 hours of sleep.
- [05:39]
B
The system sucks.
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C
This job sucks.
- [05:43]
A
That's Paul Bloom a reporter with a local Fox affiliate in Minneapolis reading a much talked about quote from Julie Lee. She's a Department of Homeland Security lawyer brought into the U.S. attorney's office in Minnesota to handle what's been described as a crushing caseload.
- [05:58]
D
She had stayed up until 2:30 in the morning the night before to prepare for the hearing, and then she just kind of had a breakdown. And frankly, she said she wouldn't mind being held in contempt if it meant she could get a better night's sleep.
- [06:12]
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Sadie German is the Wall Street Journal's Justice Department reporter. She told us Lee's frustration vocalized what many federal prosecutors have been privately feeling. It also underscores a much deeper problem.
- [06:24]
D
The Trump administration's immigration crackdown and its push to arrest demonstrators who are protesting that crackdown has basically flooded many U.S. attorney's offices, which were already short staffed because now they're dealing with the increase of immigration arrests. You see additional challenges from immigrants protesting their detention.
- [06:45]
A
Justice Department officials have had to bring in reinforcements from other cities and government agencies, even enlisting military lawyers to handle what would typically be the work of civilian prosecutors. Gurman said there's another plan in the works as well.
- [06:59]
D
Officials in Washington are seeking to create what they're calling emergency jump teams, and those are like to assemble a roster of prosecutors across the country who would be willing to go to districts that are seeing unrest at a moment's notice. And instead of asking for volunteers every time there is unrest, the Justice Department can just pull from this list on a rotating basis.
- [07:20]
A
Lee's posting was temporary, and she has since returned to her old job. The Minneapolis U.S. attorney's office that she had worked in had fewer than 20 attorneys, down from 55 last year, according to the Journal. Since the Trump administration launched its massive deportation effort in the city, it has been hit with more than 500 petitions from immigrants challenging the legality of the detentions. The backlog ends up being a significant issue for plaintiffs in the cases when.
- [07:48]
D
The Justice Department misses its deadlines and is held in contempt of court. They're continuing to be detained well beyond when they're supposed to be released.
- [07:55]
A
Anders Fouk, a former acting U.S. attorney in Minnesota, shared with Fox 9 what he had been hearing recently.
- [08:02]
C
We've seen other pleadings from Assistant U.S. attorneys and from senior members of the U.S. attorney's office here who have talked about how they're just in triage mode because the volume of work is overwhelming, and that is a concern.
- [08:14]
A
A DOJ spokesperson attributed some of the strain to judges not applying the law properly under the Biden administration. But in a recent court filing, The Trump appointed U.S. attorney, Minnesota, lamented that he had to shift away limited resources to deal with what he called the enormous burden from the mounting petitions in the state. Harmful chemicals appear to be showing up more and more in water that tens of millions of Americans rely on. They're called pfas, and they're known as forever chemicals because of their extreme resistance to breaking down. They've become a big problem for private drinking wells, which aren't subject to the same regulation as water from public utilities.
- [09:00]
C
PFAS are very useful in general in the manufacturing process for things like resistance to water or resistance to heat. Firefighting foam is something commonly made with pfas.
- [09:14]
A
Michael Filis is a reporter with the Associated Press.
- [09:17]
C
Over long periods of time, they can create health risk, everything from developmental delays in kids to increased risk of certain kinds of cancers. And that's because the substance can kind of sit in your body and create problems, especially sitting in livers and kidneys and the like.
- [09:35]
A
Phyllis recently traveled to Stella, a town in northern Wisconsin that's dealing with the consequences of PFAS contamination in wells. Stella is picturesque, with pristine lakes and exceptional fishing and hunting, making it an outdoor enthusiast's dream.
- [09:51]
C
But there was a paper mill about 10 miles away for years had spread sludge on some of the farm fields there, and they suspect that the sludge contained PFAS for many years that got into the soil. So you end up having a pretty direct path from that spreading into all the private wells that are in the area. There's no municipal water in that.
- [10:15]
A
The sludge is an effective fertilizer, and the company operating the paper mill was given permission by the state to truck it out of the site and spread millions of pounds of it on farmland in the area. That practice went on for decades and as Phyllis notes, happened before the effects of these chemicals was fully understood. During his visit to Stella, Phyllis spoke to Kristin Hanneman, who lives on a farm. In 2022, she was mailed an offer by state scientists to test her well. She accepted, not thinking much of it, but the results would upend her entire life.
- [10:48]
C
A couple months later, she gets a phone call from the state toxicologist letting her know that there's a huge issue and she should not be drinking the water. And the issues around Stella kind of blew up from there. They had testing that had to be expanded. They've had no hunt orders on parts of deer and fish, and it's really kind of overturned the community there.
- [11:11]
A
Hanneman was told that the water her kids grew up drinking contained dangerous PFAS levels thousands of times higher than federal legal limits. Stella is only one community facing this problem. More cities and towns nationwide, especially those near industrial and military sites, are dealing with PFAS contamination. The chemicals are also colorless and tasteless, meaning it's undetectable once it's in your class. According to AP, at least 20 states don't test private wells for PFAS outside of where contamination is already suspected, meaning it's difficult to detect widespread problems. In states that do offer testing, residents often wait years for help and receive far fewer resources than people who use municipal tap water. Private water wells are not regulated for quality or safety by the federal government or in most cases by states either. As a result, the responsibility falls to homeowners.
- [12:09]
C
In the end, you're dealing with a years long fight or problem solving exercise to figure out how this can be fixed and how much it needs to be fixed for what amount of money. And that can be really problematic for communities that don't quite know how to deal with it and really what their options are. They didn't expect it.
- [12:25]
A
Last May, the EPA announced it would weaken limits on PFAS and drinking water as part of the Trump administration's effort to roll back environmental regulations. The change came after the Biden administration implemented the first national standards on PFAS in 2024. And finally a few other stories were following. In Hong Kong, the pro democracy tycoon Jimmy Lai has been sentenced to 20 years in prison under national security charges brought in by the pro Beijing government. It's the harshest sentence to be given under the controversial law. 78 year old Lai ran a newspaper critical of China's growing control over the and has always denied the charges against him. His children called it a draconian sentence. US skier Lindsey Vaughan is in stable condition after a scary crash Sunday morning which left her with a broken leg. The 41 year old Olympian was racing in the women's downhill competition when she clipped a gate and pinwheeled down the slope. Vaughn could be heard screaming out in pain before being airlifted off of the mountain. Vonn had suffered a torn ACL over a week ago while training, but says she was determined to compete and pos a social media video of herself lifting weights on the injured knee. Vaughn's remarkable return to leet skiing and the Olympic stage after a six year hiatus had been one of the feel good stories of this year's Winter Games and at Santa Clara's Levi's Stadium. The Seattle Seahawks won the super bowl thanks to a strong defensive performance against the New England Patriots. Cheered on by a firmly pro Seattle crowd, the 2913 win avenged the team's painful loss to the Patriots over a decade ago. Their dominant performance prevented any hopes of a dramatic spectacle, but Bad Bunny more than made up for that with his halftime show. He emerged from a set featuring sugarcane fields and brought out Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin in a sensational Love Letter performance to his home island of Puerto Rico. The historic performance was sung largely in Spanish until near the very end, where he paid tribute to countries across the American continent.
- [14:40]
B
God Bless America. Se achile Al Jazeera Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, United States, Canada, Puerto Rico.
- [15:09]
A
Behind him, a large sign Ready? The only thing more powerful than hate is love. You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening in the News app right now, we've got a narrated article coming up next. The Metropolitan Detention center in Brooklyn, New York, has become known for holding high profile prisoners like Sean Diddy Combs, Luigi Mangione and Nicolas Maduro. But as Rolling Stone reports, it's also got a reputation for for harsh conditions inside. If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News plus Narrated to find that story and I'll be back with the news tomorrow.