The Headlines
The Expanding Fallout From the Epstein Files, and Jesse Jackson Dies at 84
17 Feb 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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From The New York Times, it's The Headlines. I'm Traci Mumford. Today's Tuesday, February 17th. Here's what we're covering. Today, nuclear talks between the U.S. and Iran will kick off. And tensions are high, as both countries have been flexing their military power. I think they want to make a deal.
I don't think they want the consequences of not making a deal. They want to make a deal.
President Trump, who has sent what he's called an armada to the Middle East, has threatened airstrikes if Iran doesn't give up its nuclear ambitions. I hope they're going to be more reasonable. Iran, for its part, held live military exercises in the Strait of Hormuz yesterday, a narrow waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the ocean.
Analysts say it was an apparent show of force, meant to demonstrate that Iran would be willing to go as far as closing the strait, which is a key shipping lane for oil and gas, if it needed leverage. Last year, U.S. and Iranian officials tried to negotiate a deal around nuclear facilities, but that was unsuccessful, and the U.S.
joined an Israeli attack on Iran, sending stealth bombers to strike those nuclear sites. This time, Iranian officials have said they're willing to discuss their nuclear program, but will not budge on some of Trump's other demands, like that they stop supporting militant groups in the region.
The Times has learned that the Trump administration secretly deported nine people to Cameroon last month, even though none of them are from the Central African country. Several of the migrants told the Times they didn't know they were being sent there until they were chained, handcuffed, and put on a deportation flight out of Louisiana. One man, who had lived in the U.S.
for 15 years, said they were dropped in Cameroon, quote, like UPS packages. Nearly all of the migrants had been granted court orders preventing them from being deported to their home countries because they said they were escaping war or persecution. For the Trump administration, sending them to Cameroon appears to be a kind of workaround.
Since being deported there, most of them have been held in a compound and told they can't leave unless they agree to go back to their original countries. It's part of an increasingly common strategy by the White House to arrange third-country deportation agreements. According to a recent Senate investigation, the U.S.
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Chapter 2: What are the latest updates on U.S.-Iran nuclear talks?
He was part of Martin Luther King Jr. 's inner circle and was there when King was assassinated in 1968. Jackson then became a household name of his own, running for president twice in the 1980s, the first Black candidate to become a serious contender in a national contest.
We must never surrender. America will get better and better. Keep hope alive.
He gave galvanizing speeches at national Democratic conventions, articulating a vision for the party that drew in people of color and others who'd been marginalized. And he remained active. As recently as 2021, when he was 79 years old, he was among protesters arrested in D.C. while speaking out against voting restrictions that were being pushed by Republicans.
Over the years, Jackson also faced some personal controversies. Critics accused him of trying to seize the spotlight after King's death, and at one point he was caught on an open mic making derisive comments about Barack Obama.
His full political ambitions were never fully realized, but some historians credit Jackson with paving the way after the voting gains of the 60s to the eventual election of the country's first Black president.
One historian said, quote, you're not going to get a Nobel Prize for what Jesse Jackson did, but it took a lot of talent, initiative, energy, imagination and charisma, and he had those in full supply.
From Manhattan to Norway, from Hollywood to Dubai, The Times has been covering the escalating fallout from the release of the Epstein files, as a growing list of prominent people are facing scrutiny for their connections to the convicted sex offender.
In just the past week, the top lawyer at Goldman Sachs, who was a former White House counsel in the Obama administration, resigned from her position after the extent of her relationship with Epstein became clear. She was mentioned in more than 10,000 of the documents, calling Epstein sweetie and Uncle Jeffrey and advising him on how to respond to questions about his sex crimes.
In exchange, Epstein showered her with luxury gifts. In Norway, the former prime minister was charged with gross corruption and had several of his properties searched over accusations that he might have received gifts from Epstein. In the Middle East, the head of a giant logistics firm resigned after the files showed that he was close with Epstein for years after Epstein was convicted.
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