The Headlines - Trump’s New Order on Epstein Files, and Colbert’s Canceled ‘Late Show’

Episode Date: July 18, 2025

Plus, your Friday news quiz.On Today’s Episode:Trump Tells Bondi to Seek Release of Epstein Grand Jury Testimony, by Glenn ThrushHouse Republicans Dangle Possible Vote on Epstein Files, After Voter Backlash, by Glenn ThrushCongress Agrees to Claw Back Foreign Aid and Public Broadcast Funds, by Catie EdmondsonCrypto Industry Reaches Milestone With Passage of First Major Bill, by David Yaffe-Bellany and Robert JimisonCBS Canceling ‘Late Show With Stephen Colbert’ After Next Season, by John KoblinThe U.K. Plans to Lower the Voting Age to 16. Here’s What to Know, by Stephen CastleTune in every weekday morning. To get our full audio journalism and storytelling experience, download the New York Times Audio app — available to Times news subscribers on iOS — and sign up for our weekly newsletter. Tell us what you think at: [e-mail]. 

From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Friday, July 18th. Here's what we're covering. In the face of intense pressure from his right-wing base, President Trump is now pushing for the release of more records in the Jeffrey Epstein case. Many of his supporters have been crying foul ever since the Department of Justice said it was closing the case, despite claims more records in the Jeffrey Epstein case. Many of his supporters have been crying foul ever since the Department of Justice said it was closing the case, despite claims earlier this year

from his own attorney general that there was more to be revealed. The DOJ may be releasing the list of Jeffrey Epstein's clients. Will that really happen? It's sitting on my desk right now to review. I'm reviewing that. I'm reviewing JFK files, MLK files.

Pam Bondi and others fueled theories about the disgraced financier and sex offender, including that there could be documents implicating others close to Epstein, who had a large circle of acquaintances, including Bill Clinton and Trump himself. When the DOJ then said there was no list and really nothing of note left to release, it

set off a backlash that Trump has struggled to contain. They're wasting their time with a guy who obviously had some very serious problems. Trump urged his supporters to move on, calling the whole thing a democratic hoax. But now he's taking a step to satisfy the calls for transparency. He's directed Bondi to, quote, produce any and all pertinent grand jury testimony about Epstein and release it to the public. Bondi will need to get a court's approval to do that, though, and it's not clear that she'll be able to.

The secrecy of grand jury transcripts is highly protected to shield crime victims and witnesses. Even if the transcripts are made public, which could take months of legal wrangling, they reflect only a fraction of material related to the investigation. The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that the DOJ had at one point examined a collection

of birthday cards for Epstein that included one from Trump from back in 2003. It allegedly had a sexually suggestive drawing and the phrase, may every day be another wonderful secret. The Times has not verified the report and the president denied it, calling it, quote, false, malicious, and defamatory. At the Capitol. It's 1120 p.m. in the middle of the night.

The gentlelady will suspend. The gentlelady will suspend. The House is not in order. Despite pushback, the House followed the Senate's lead and approved the $9 billion rescissions bill overnight, clawing back money from foreign aid and public media at Trump's request. The bill has now been sent to the president for his signature. For Congress, it's a remarkable surrender

of federal spending power. The Constitution grants control of that to the legislative branch, not the White House. But Republicans who pushed it through claimed this was necessary to rein in government spending. Also on Capitol Hill, all this week lobbyists for the cryptocurrency industry went hard on a widespread charm offensive trying to win over lawmakers. There were pro-crypt crypto billboards around the city,

ads in newspapers. They even got crypto themed chocolate bars into vending machines at the Capitol. They dubbed it crypto week as they pushed legislation to cement crypto's place in the U.S. economy. Yesterday, the House came through. President Trump promised to make America the crypto capital of the world. And today we delivered. They passed the country's first major federal legislation around cryptocurrency. It essentially gives the government's seal of approval for stable coins, a popular form of digital currency that's tied to the value of the U.S. dollar. The vote was bipartisan, reflecting the inroads

the industry has made with lawmakers. It spent more than $130 million in the last election. President Trump is expected to sign the bill into law today. Congress is also considering more crypto bills, though those aren't expected to get the same level of bipartisan support. The bills address, in part, how crypto is regulated and policed. And some Democrats have warned that passing them

would effectively let the crypto industry write its own rules to benefit wealthy investors, including President Trump and his family. Before we start the show, I want to let you know something that I found out just last night. Next year will be our last season. The network will be ending The Late Show in May. Last night on The Late Show, Stephen Colbert shocked his audience and the entertainment industry when he announced that CBS is canceling the program.

Yeah, I share your feelings. The show premiered in 1993 with David Letterman as the host. And since Colbert took over a decade ago, it became the most watched show in late night. CBS executives said the move was, quote, purely a financial decision. Late night TV has been struggling to keep viewers, ad revenue has plunged, and other shows have gone dark in recent years.

But the cancellation of the late show immediately raised questions. CBS's parent company, Paramount, has been trying to close on a major merger, which would require approval from the Trump administration. At the same time, Colbert has been an outspoken critic of Trump, and he recently called a settlement that CBS agreed to pay the president over a 60-minute segment a, quote, big fat bribe. That jab aired just a few days ago, and it has a number of Democratic lawmakers

wondering if it sparked the cancellation. Senator Elizabeth Warren put out a statement saying, "'America' deserved to know if his show was canceled for political reasons. And finally, Through this strategy, we will usher in a new chapter in our democracy, reflecting our principles and restoring faith in our politics. The British government has announced it plans to lower the voting age from 18 to 16 as part of a larger overhaul of the country's election system.

I've always been kind of frustrated just watching politics and not being able to do anything, because so many of these policies affect younger people and they have to just sit and watch and have much of a voice. Supporters of the move, including some soon-to-be eligible voters, framed it as a way to boost trust in democratic institutions. The lower voting age was something that the Liberal Labour Party had campaigned on. Critics on the right said it's an attempt to skew future elections since younger voters in Britain tend to be less conservative. The new law is set to be in place by the next general election,

which is expected in about four years. That puts Britain in a small club of other countries that also allow 16-year-olds to vote at the federal level, including Austria and Brazil. On the other end of the spectrum, the United Arab Emirates, where the voting age is 25. Those are the headlines, but stick around, we've got the Friday News Quiz for you after the credits.

This show is made by Will Jarvis, Jessica Metzger, Jan Stewart, and me, Tracy Mumford. Original theme by Dan Powell. Special thanks to Isabella Anderson, Larissa Anderson, Melanie Ben Cosme, Jake Lucas, Alyssa Moxley, Zoe Murphy, Katie O'Brien, and Paula Schumann. Okay, now for the quiz. We've got questions about a few stories The Times covered this week. Can you answer them all?

First up. I've seen many organizations that frankly mean well, but execute poorly. Lack of coordination, bloated bureaucracies. This week, the Senate held a confirmation hearing for Michael Walz, who is up for US ambassador to the UN. And I'm confident we can make the UN great again. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Walz.

If confirmed, this would be the second official position Waltz has held in the Trump administration. In his previous one, he lasted for just a little over three months before leaving amid a scandal. I know a lot has happened since then, so you might have to dig deep here, but what role did Waltz have in the Trump administration and what was he criticized for? I will let Waltz himself give you a hint. I'm sure everybody out there has had a contact where it was said one person and then a different phone number.

The answer? Michael Waltz was Trump's national security adviser when he accidentally set off SignalGate by adding a journalist to a group chat with sensitive details about military strikes in Yemen. He was removed from his post, but Trump never criticized him publicly, instead saying the whole thing was a learning opportunity. Okay, next question. As we said earlier, the bill clawing back more than a billion dollars in funding for public media was sent to Trump's desk early this morning. Ahead of the final votes, critics of the cuts raised concerns about the potential effects on educational programming.

For decades, PBS has been a go-to for kids and their parents. So our challenge for you, can you name these three classic shows that aired on PBS based off just a short clip? Okay, here's the first one. DW, please move your big, enormous, large, gopher-looking head. Bring in any bells. At least my head doesn't look like a football with glasses. No.

Maybe. Here's the second one. We're all different, and we all have something to offer our world. Here's the third one. Now, since this next part of the demonstration rocks, I'm going to put on my rockin' wig of science. We'll play those one more time. I'm sure you're having maybe a couple flashbacks right now.

DW, please move your big, enormous, large, gopher-looking head. We all have something to offer our world. My rockin' week of science! So those shows are Arthur, Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, and Bill and I the Science Guy. In terms of the cuts, PBS itself will not shut down, but the network's ability to reach audiences, especially in more rural parts of the country, may be compromised.

And last question. What you all did was one of the most painful moments in the history of this company. The Emmy nominations were announced on Tuesday with the show Severance picking up the most nominations. I don't wanna hear about it, I still have not watched it. The question for you though, is about where the Emmys come from in the first place. The Oscars get their name, legend has it, because the statue looked a lot like the uncle

of an Academy staffer named Oscar. The Tony Awards are named after Antoinette Perry, an icon of early 20th century American theater. So why are the Emmys called the Emmys? I will admit this is a hard one unless you know a lot about old-school video technology? The answer? The award was named after the Imi with an I, the nickname for the image-orthicon camera tube that made modern TV possible.

They tweaked it to Emi, giving it a feminine name to match the winged woman on the award statue. Imi, Emi, there you have it. Alright, that's it for the news quiz. If you managed to answer all those questions, I am thoroughly impressed. You win the inaugural Tracy Award. It's a sparkling gold-dipped statue of me

hunched over my laptop with my headphones on. If you wanna tell us how you did or what you think about the quiz, you can always email us at theheadlinesatnytimes.com. The show will be back on Monday. ["The Quiz Show"]