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Chapter 1: What major documents did the Justice Department release regarding Jeffrey Epstein?
Live from NPR News in Washington, D.C., I'm Dale Willman. The Justice Department Friday released more than 3 million pages of documents, 180,000 images, and more than 2,000 videos from its files on Jeffrey Epstein. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanch announced the release and defended the department's actions concerning files that may involve President Trump.
He was asked point blank whether Trump was treated the same as everyone else who appears in the files and whether everything in there related to him is being released. It was a pertinent question in part because Blanch himself previously served as Trump's personal defense attorney.
Chapter 2: How is the funding for ICE affecting immigration enforcement?
Now, Blanch replied that the department complied with the law. He also denied that the DOJ protected Trump in any way. He said there's a hunger for information out there that won't be satisfied by the release of these files. Now, some of that hunger, it has to be said, has been fueled by Trump and other top administration officials, including at the Justice Department.
That's NPR's Ryan Lucas. The files are available on the Justice Department website.
Chapter 3: What were the outcomes of the ceasefire deal in Gaza?
The federal government is officially under a partial shutdown this weekend. The Senate Friday voted to fund most of the government through the end of September, but the House is not in session and must still also pass the spending measures. At issues is funding for ICE, and now a growing number of religious leaders are calling on Congress to withhold funding for immigration enforcement.
As NPR's Jason DeRose reports, they're raising serious concerns about deadly ICE actions in recent weeks.
This week, more than a thousand groups sent a letter to Congress saying they are horrified and outraged at the deaths in Minnesota, among those who signed the Alliance of Baptists, the Jewish group Bend the Ark, Hindus for Human Rights Action, and the Muslim Public Affairs Council.
The letter demands, quote, an immediate halt in all funding for these deadly operations until the violence, abuses, and deaths in American communities and in immigration detention centers stop. In Minnesota, faith leaders have taken a lead in countering ICE actions and demanding federal immigration agents leave the state.
Chapter 4: How is the weather impacting the ski industry in the West?
Jason Derose, NPR News.
The first phase of the ceasefire deal in Gaza is now complete. It was finished when Israel returned 15 Palestinian bodies to Gaza following the return to Israel of the last Israeli hostage's body. MPS Ayyub Atrawi has more.
The return of the last Israeli body taken in the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel closed for many, a dark chapter for the nation. But Palestinians say they continue to search for their loved ones taken by Israel in the war. Palestinian forensic doctors say bodies returned from Israel in the ceasefire exchange have shown signs of torture. Some were eventually buried in mass graves, unidentified.
Israel has not commented. Israel also continues to hold an unknown number of bodies from Gaza and hundreds of bodies from the West Bank, but they are not part of this ceasefire exchange. Under U.S. pressure to move now to the second phase of the deal, Israel says it will open Gaza's Rafah border crossing with Egypt in the coming days for Palestinians to leave or return under strict conditions.
Ayyub Al-Trawi, NPR News, Dubai.
And you're listening to NPR News. While the East Coast and the South continue to be hammered with snow and ice, much of the West is now reporting its warmest and driest winter on record. As NPR's Kirk Siegler reports, that's created challenges for the ski industry and for farming.
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Chapter 5: What are the latest updates on Catherine O'Hara's passing?
Forty million people and countless farms depend on the Colorado River, and the snowpack at its headwaters right now is at 60 percent of average. And that average factors in the last couple decades of mega-drought. The West's main water storage supply is its snowpack, and Lindsay DeFreides with the Colorado River Water District says the deficit is huge.
Between now and our peak snowpack, which usually happens in early April, we would need to see over 145 percent of average snowfall in three months to be able to make up the difference.
Bad news for water managers and the West's multi-billion dollar ski industry. Business at resorts from Colorado to historically dry Utah is way down over this time last year. Kirk Sigler, NPR News, Denver.
Catherine O'Hara has died.
Chapter 6: What is the status of Lindsey Vonn's injury before the Winter Olympics?
The Emmy Award-winning actor was known for her roles on SCTV, the TV show Schitt's Creek, and the two Home Alone films. She was 71 years old. Her agency said she died after a brief illness. O'Hara was born in Canada and gained fame through Toronto's Second City Theatre. U.S. downhill skier Lindsey Vonn injured her left knee Friday when she crashed during a race in Switzerland.
After losing control on the run, she landed in safety nets. She was able to walk after receiving medical attention but was favoring her left knee. It's not known yet if the injury will prevent her from competing in the Winter Olympics, which begins next week in Italy. I'm Dale Willman, NPR News in Washington.