Reuters World News - Epstein, Air India, ‘Japanese First’ party and three-person IVF

Episode Date: July 18, 2025

U.S. President Donald Trump orders the release of grand jury documents in the Epstein case. A cockpit voice recording from the Air India flight that crashed last month suggests the captain cut the flow of fuel to the plane's engines. An upstart far-right party is gaining ground ahead of elections this weekend in Japan.  And the three-person IVF technique that spared eight children from inherited diseases.  Sign up for the Reuters Econ World newsletter here. Listen to the Reuters Econ World podcast here. Visit the Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement for information on our privacy and data protection practices. You may also visit megaphone.fm/adchoices to opt out of targeted advertising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, Trump asks for the release of grand jury testimony in the Epstein case. Air India voice recording suggests the captain cut fuel to the engines. We look at the debate around videos in cockpits. A Japanese first party shakes up elections there, and the three-person IVF technique that spared children from inherited diseases. It's Friday, July 18th. This is Reuters' World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes every weekday. I'm Carmel Crimmons

in Dublin. U.S. President Donald Trump is authorizing Attorney General Pam Bondi to seek the release of grand jury testimony in the case of deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Trump is under pressure from some of his supporters after a Justice Department review concluded there was no evidence to support conspiracy theories about the case. On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump's name appeared on a risque 2003 personal note to Epstein. The journal said the letter was one of several included in a leather-bound album meant to celebrate Epstein's 50th birthday. Reuters could not immediately confirm the authenticity of the letter.

Trump said the letter was fake and has threatened to sue the newspaper and Rupert Murdoch, who controls its publisher, News Corp. A cockpit recording from the Air India flight that crashed last month suggests the captain cut the flow of fuel to the plane's engines. That's according to a source briefed on US officials' early assessment of the evidence. The cause of the crash that killed 260 people remains under investigation, and India's Aircraft Accident Investigations Bureau said it was too early to draw definitive conclusions. Tim Heifer is Reuters' global aviation correspondent.

Tim, there's no cockpit video showing what happened. Why are there no videos in cockpits? Well, there's been a debate about this for about a quarter of a century now. The NTSB in the United States started asking for video recordings in about 2000. But there's really a very fierce ongoing debate, especially with pilots' unions who worry that this information would leak out, that it would be used against them and cause a witch hunt. But this crash has really revived that debate, right?

Yes, I think certainly it brings that debate back onto the table in a new sort of technical context in the world that we all live in where digital recordings are universally available. Pilots are very worried about this and I think they are likely to defend their position quite strongly. On the other hand, it's very difficult for people to understand why the cockpit of a modern airliner should be an oasis of privacy. You know, we're all used to cameras everywhere. That's the world we now live in. And aviation is struggling to adapt its procedures to the very rapid changes in digital technology and attitudes to privacy. Japan is grappling with rising anti-immigrant sentiment, which has been capitalised on by a new right-wing party, pushing a Japan-first rhetoric.

The party is looking to gain seats in the country's upper house election on Sunday, an election which could see the ruling coalition lose its majority. John Geddy is in Tokyo. John, tell us about this far-right party that's been gaining ground. Yeah, that has been the kind of story of the election. This party called San Sato, which basically emerged kind of during the pandemic, gaining a lot of online followers, but they have, kind of brought this online following and into the mainstream. And what they've really campaigned hard on

in this election is a kind of anti-immigrant ticket. And it seems to have struck a chord with voters. Foreigners in Japan are far more visible because because of the weak economy and the weak yen, there's been a huge influx of tourists in Japan. So in all the major cities, you see far more foreigners around. And at a time when the economy is squeezed and Japanese people are feeling the pinch because consumer prices are rising and there's all of these foreigners coming in, having great times and holidays and spending a lot of money, it's created a bit of a dynamic, a bit of kind of anti-foreign sentiment. An Israeli strike on Gaza's only Catholic church has killed three people, prompting a call from Trump to the Israeli Prime Minister. Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel regrets that a stray ammunition

hit Gaza's Holy Family Church. After days of bloodshed in Syria's Druiser, city of Swayda, grim scenes as survivors emerged to collect and bury the dead. The Syrian Network for Human Rights says more than 250 people were killed. Mark Zuckerberg, along with current and former leaders of META, have settled an investor lawsuit seeking $8 billion in damages over a privacy scandal. Investors alleged that the executives repeatedly allowed violations of Facebook users' privacy. The settlement was reached one day into a trial that was expected to hear evidence from some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley, including Zuckerberg himself, Netflix co-founder Reid Hastings, and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel.

Reporter Tom Hals has been following the case. I think for a lot of people, it's going to be a little frustrating that there was this Cambridge Analytica scandal about 8, 10 years ago in which the data of tens of millions of Facebook users was harvested without their consent and used by Cambridge Analytica, which is a political consulting firm, and Cambridge Analytica worked on Donald Trump's 2016 campaign. This all came to light after the 2016 election. It's never really been carefully dissected how much Zuckerberg was behind that, how much the other leaders of Facebook were directing that effort. And I think for a lot of people who were interested in getting those kind of details, it's going to be a disappointment.

They're not going to hear about that. Beyond that, the details of the settlement are, as of yet unknown, They will become public. Probably, you know, it'll take weeks, I imagine, before we get those, but they will become public. And if there's any money paid here, shareholders were seeking $8 billion from Zuckerberg and the board at the time of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. That money will be paid out of either insurance that Zuckerberg has or out of his pocket and the other defendant's pockets. It'll be paid to meta platforms. It will not be paid to shareholders directly. It could be a meaningful settlement. I have no way of knowing how much that money will be, but they were seeking billion, which to Facebook or to meta platforms is not a significant amount of money. So really, the main takeaway here might be any kind of agreements to better protect data they can force upon the board. The Justice Department is asking a judge to impose a one-day sentence on a Louisville police officer convicted of violating Brianna Taylor's civil rights. The maximum sentence for committing the crime is life in prison.

The 20-year-old black woman was killed after police executed a no-knock warrant during a botched raid of her home. CBS is canceling the late show with Stephen Colbert in May of next year. Colbert has frequently criticised Trump and the show is the most watched late-night program in the US. The network says the decision is a financial one and isn't related to its content or performance. And? A new K-pop boy band makes its global debut. And this one has two members who have defected from North Korea and a song about the consequences of escaping one of the world's most repressive states.

Eight children have been born free from devastating genetic diseases thanks to a new three-person IVF technique. Scientists at Newcastle University in the UK developed the method. They transfer the parents' egg and sperm nuclei into a donor egg. Nancy Lapid has been following the research. The new technique is banned in the US, but it is legal in the UK. What does it involve? It involves a form of genetic modification, and that's what's been controversial in the U.S.

It involves changes to eggs and sperm, and those changes can be passed on to future generations, and there have been safety concerns about its long-term effects on the child and ethical questions about having three people involved in the conception of the embryo. And there have been religious objections. Describe the medical benefits to the eight children. The eight children were at high risk for inheriting these so-called mitochondrial diseases that most often affect the brain, the muscles, the gastrointestinal tract, and in some severe cases, they're fatal.

So they're monitoring these children very closely. And the reports in the New England Journal say that the children are developing normally. but with the caveat that they're still, most of them are, they're still babies, the oldest is just two years old. So they plan to continue to monitor them carefully. It's really,

the early results are very promising and everybody hopes that the children will continue to develop normally, but time will tell. And before we leave you for today, a recommended listen for your weekend, all about youth obesity. You'll hear from a parent and a child

taking a leap on a new medication and hoping for relief from weight issues. That pod drops Saturday morning. For more on any of the stories from today, check out reuters.com or the Reuters app. And don't forget to follow us on your favourite podcast player.