Reuters World News - Epstein, dry Iran and ICE data

Episode Date: November 13, 2025

A severe water crisis has taps running dry in Tehran. What we know so far about the new Epstein emails. And the loophole that has blue states inadvertently sharing driver data with ICE. Plus, an opening at the Fed.  Sign up for the Reuters Econ World newsletter here. Listen to the Reuters Econ World podcast here. Find the Recommended Read 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

Hi, I'm Kim Vinell in Wanganui, New Zealand. It's Thursday, November 13th. Today. After 43 days, the government shutdown is over. New Epstein documents are released with one email saying Trump knew about the girls. Democrat-led cities inadvertently hand drivers' license details to ICE. And Iran's capital faces rationing and even evacuation over civilians. severe water shortages. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes, seven days a week. And it's an honor now to sign this incredible bill and get our country working again.

Thank you. The longest government shutdown in U.S. history is over. And even as President Donald Trump signed the bill ending the shutdown, a fresh fight kicked off in Congress. A massive new trove of Epstein files have been released, including an email where Jeffrey Epstein said Donald Trump, quote, knew about the girls. The first set of documents, a batch of emails, was released by House Democrats.

They also include a 2011 message from Epstein to Galane Maxwell, where he described Trump as, that dog that hasn't barked, and says Trump spent hours at his house with one of his victims, whose name is redacted. Later in the day, Republicans released some 20,000 Epstein-related documents. In those, Trump is frequently mentioned, though typically in the context of his political career or allegations of sexual behavior.

White House press secretary Caroline Levitt says the president has nothing to hide. These emails prove absolutely nothing other than the fact that President Trump did nothing wrong. Reporter Nathan Lane has been going. through the documents. The emails are very short. There's not a lot of context there, so I think we cannot say definitively what they mean. However, you do have Epstein talking about Trump, talking about him spending time at his house, talking about him spending time with a victim.

So these are new disclosures, but they're not, I don't know that they're the sort of smoking gun that Democrats want them to be. Even so, Democrats are pushing forward with an attempt to force the release. of all information the government has on the late sex offender. And it starts with the swearing in of Adelita Griehalva to the House of Representatives. Congratulations. You're now member of 19215. The new representative from Arizona,

she's important because she is believed to be the 218th signature on what's called a discharge petition. That's the first step in the process to a full House vote, which could happen in a couple of weeks, that would compel disclosure of the quote-unquote so-called Epstein files. So sort of more fulsome disclosure of all of this information. In a true social post, President Trump called the file releases part of the Epstein hoax and implied Democrats timed it to divert attention away from the government shutdown.

But in terms of who people blame for the shutdown, a new Reuters-Ipsos poll shows 50% of Americans blame Republicans, while 47% blame the Democrats. In the end, a number of Democrats broke ranks to get the shutdown bill through, agreeing to a future vote on extending health care subsidies in the Senate, but with no guarantees. Democrats who continued to vote against the bill, like Hakeem Jeffries, say it's not over. House Democrats will continue to fight to address the health care crisis that Republicans have created.

Speaker Mike Johnson, meanwhile, echoing the refrain of many Republicans. The whole exercise was pointless. It was wrong and it was cruel. The bill extends funding through to the end of January and leaves the federal government on track to keep adding about $1.8 trillion a year to the country's $38 trillion debt pile. Federal workers on furlough could be back to their jobs as early as today, although just how quickly full government services will resume is unclear.

Air travel backlog could take longer to return to normal. Reuters has learned that Democrat-led states pushing back against Trump's tough immigration policies may be inadvertently handing over driver's licensed data to ICE. Our cybersecurity reporter Raphael Satter explains how federal immigration agencies are exploiting a digital loophole to tap into state databases, even in places where that information is supposed to be protected. Law enforcement across the United States talks to each other all the time, right? And driver's license data is a key data point that police forces all across the U.S. need to talk to each other about every day.

ICE is using that data for immigration enforcement. And that's something that not all states agree with. A lot of democratic states, some of who are. have passed laws against cooperating with ICE on certain matters have carve-outs that say that this data may not be shared with ICE, didn't realize that they were sharing this data anyhow. And what that illustrates is the kind of same kind of problem that you and I have, where we're never really sure what kind of data we're sharing when we're, you know, going about our daily business.

Governments have that problem, too, including our state governments, where they have all this data, and they don't always understand how they're sharing it or who they're sharing it with. Atlanta Federal Reserve President Rafael Bostick has announced his retirement, an unexpected departure amid a push by Trump for more control over the Fed. Bostick is often a hawkish voice, saying inflation is still too high for aggressive rate cuts in the face of Trump appointed governors who say steep cuts are needed. Here's Fed reporter Howard Schneider. There has been a lot of criticism from conservatives about what they call the woke Fed.

Bostick, who is the first black and first openly gay president of a Federal Reserve Bank, sort of was a symbol of that, not because he was black or gay, but because he was very outspoken about racial equity and economic equity issues. Did that affect monetary policy decisions? Probably not. He was actually pretty hawkish when it came down to it in terms of keeping inflation under control. But what it does is open a seat. Usually these things are very quiet, sort of under the radar, the people get reappointed,

nobody talks about it. It isn't a big political thing. If Trump chooses, and we don't know if he's going to do this or not, or if the administration wants to have influence over the Fed, through a different channel than just the traditional appointments to the board of governors, this is where they could get it. Israeli soldiers sent Palestinians into Gaza tunnels, despite believing those tunnels could be rigged.

with explosives. That's according to intelligence gathered by the US last year. Two former US officials told Reuters the information was shared with the White House in the final weeks of the Biden administration. Using civilians as human shields is banned under international law. The officials did not provide details on whether the Palestinians in this case were prisoners or civilians. The report is raising questions about whether the tactic was widespread. and whether Israeli soldiers were acting on their own accord or under directives. The IDF says it does not allow using civilians as shields and is investigating allegations involving Palestinians in military missions.

To Iran now, where people living in the capital Tehran may be forced to evacuate because the city is running out of water. Water levels in the city's main reservoirs have plunged by nearly half and officials are in crisis control. Parisa Hafizzi covers around. In the short term, people are already experiencing nightly water pressure cuts, sometimes to zero, which means hours without running water. If the situation worsens, formal rationing will start,

and officials have even warned of possible evacuation of Tehran, which is a city of more than 10 million people. Tehran could run out of water within weeks, two weeks actually. according to officials, if rain doesn't come. That's how urgent it is. Poresa says with memories of past unrest still fresh, there are concerns that disruptions to everyday life could lead to political protests.

People are already angry and already frustrated because of the growing economic hardships because of sanctions. At the same time, the establishment is under international pressure because of its disputed nuclear program. So imagine if this anger grows because of water shortages, so it will put the establishment under enormous pressure. And for today's recommended read, scientists have seen for the first time the very early stages of a supernova.

That's the explosive death of a star. There's a link to that story in the podcast description. For more on any of the stories from today, check out Reuters.com or the Reuters app. Don't forget to follow us on your favorite podcast player. If you're listening on a smart speaker, just ask for the latest news from Reuters seven days a week. We'll be back tomorrow with our daily headline show.