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July 18, 2025 
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Good morning. We’re covering Trump’s order to release some Epstein court records and the fallout from sectarian violence in Syria.
Plus, panic-buying K-beauty products.
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| Doug Mills/The New York Times |
Trump authorized the release of some Epstein records
President Trump said yesterday on social media that he was authorizing the release of “any and all Grand Jury Testimony, subject to Court approval,” in the Jeffrey Epstein investigation. Trump cited “the ridiculous amount of publicity” surrounding the case. Here’s the latest.
Trump’s move is unlikely to satisfy critics within his own MAGA movement, who were outraged this week when his administration reversed course on promises to release more details about the federal investigation into the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender, who died in 2019. They want the release of all Justice Department files on Epstein, not just grand jury testimony.
Shortly before Trump’s announcement, House Republicans — under pressure from Democrats and their own angry constituents — broke with Trump and agreed to set up a potential vote calling on the Justice Department to release material from its Epstein investigation. The measure, a nonbinding resolution, has not been scheduled for a vote and it’s unclear if it could muster enough support to pass.
The issue was holding up the House’s final passage of legislation to claw back $9 billion in congressionally approved spending. Voting was still in progress when this briefing was sent.
Context: Epstein died by suicide in prison while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. He was connected to many rich and powerful people, and many on both the right and the left suspect that some were involved in his criminal activity. Trump was friendly with Epstein for at least 15 years. Here’s what we know.
A deeper look: Trump calls it the “Jeffrey Epstein Hoax.” Here’s what his supporters say.
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| Syrian security personnel in the city of Sweida on Wednesday. Bakr Alkasem/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
Syrians surveyed the damage after a spasm of violence
More than 500 people have been killed in the sectarian violence that has consumed the province of Sweida in southern Syria since Sunday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Our reporters spoke to 33-year-old Hossam, who barricaded himself inside his house for days as clashes between government forces and militias of the Druse minority raged around him. Hossam, who is Druse, drove around yesterday to survey the damage. Wherever he went, there was blood in the streets, smashed windows and the smell of death.
The violence in Sweida drew in Syria’s neighbor Israel, which has a sizable Druse minority population. After the Israeli military carried out airstrikes on Damascus, President Ahmed al-Shara of Syria accused Israel yesterday of seeking to sow “chaos” in the country.
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| A polling station in London last year. Carl Court/Getty Images |
The U.K. plans to lower the voting age to 16
The British government said yesterday that it would allow 16- and 17-year-olds to vote. The plan has been described as Britain’s largest expansion of voting rights in decades.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour government announced the initiative in a policy paper, saying the move would address declining trust in British institutions and renew democracy. Paul Holmes, a Conservative Party lawmaker, described the plan as a “brazen attempt by the Labour Party, whose unpopularity is scaring them into making major constitutional changes without consultation.” Here’s what to know.
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| A funeral in Kut, Iraq, yesterday. Alaa Al-Marjani/Reuters |
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| Hugo Ekitike, right, during a match in April. Kirill Kudryavtsev/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
- Soccer: Liverpool is moving ahead in negotiations with Frankfurt for the transfer of Hugo Ekitike.
- Tennis: Aryna Sabalenka withdrew from the Canadian Open, citing fatigue.
- Cycling: Samuele Privitera, 19, died after a crash at the Giro della Valle d’Aosta.
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| Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters |
Sales of Korean beauty products are booming in the U.S. Fans say the products offer good value for money and are often lighter and less abrasive than those in the U.S. So when Trump threatened 25 percent tariffs on South Korea’s exports, it set off panic buying. Some consumers are buying a year’s worth of Korean mascara.
Lives lived: Connie Francis, who ruled the charts in the late 1950s and early ’60s with songs like “Who’s Sorry Now” and “Don’t Break the Heart That Loves You,” died at 87.
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| Camille McOuat for The New York Times |
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| Portrait by Hulton Archive, via Getty Images |
It’s always a great time to read Jane Austen
Jane Austen, whose 250th birthday is being celebrated this year, wrote six complete novels and died without seeing her own extraordinary success. But few authors have had such an enduring afterlife.
You can read Austen’s novels for their intricately arranged marriage plots, for their sly humor, for what they say about women and the financial arrangements that underpinned their search for husbands, for their vivid representation of a particular stratum of English life at a particular time. For my colleague Sarah Lyall, there’s no one like her using comic observation to alleviate a vexing situation. Read Sarah’s guide to the essential Jane Austen.
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| Nico Schinco for The New York Times |
Make: This may be quite simply the best tomato sandwich you’ll ever have.
Watch: “
