The men who kept coming back
Developments
- Three million pages of new Epstein documents. Tech billionaires, Wall Street titans, Trump’s Commerce Secretary—writing casually about “harems” and “trouble,” years after Epstein’s conviction. They knew his record. It was public. Why did they stick around?
- The American president vowed to act if Iran killed protesters; now he’s demanding nuclear talks and nothing else. Europe and India close a trade deal almost two decades in the making. And a moon rocket begins a 12-hour crawl toward the first crewed lunar mission in half a century.
Features
- Who’s got the best AI? Selina Xu on America’s intelligence explosion—and China’s “dark factories.”
Books
- Why is Saudi Arabia investing so heavily in football? New from Kristian Coates Ulrichsen: Kingdom of Football: Saudi Arabia and the Remaking of World Soccer.
Music
- Why can’t Tinariwen play in the U.S.A.?
- & New tracks from them x Sulafa Elyas, Snail Mail, Makthaverskan, Cardinals, & Pullman.
+ Weather report
- La Niña fades, El Niño builds …
Developments
The nature of the network
On Friday, the Justice Department released nearly three million pages of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, the financier and convicted sex offender who died by suicide in a Manhattan jail in 2019. The files contain emails, calendars, testimony, and photographs spanning decades. They name some of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful men—tech billionaires, Wall Street titans, a sitting cabinet secretary, an already notorious British ex-prince.
The immediate story is familiar: Powerful people who claimed distance from Epstein turn out to have been close to him. Elon Musk, who wrote last year that Epstein “tried to get me to go to his island and I REFUSED,” emailed Epstein in 2012 asking, “What day/night will be the wildest party on your island?” Howard Lutnick, now U.S. Commerce Secretary, who said a mid-2000s visit to Epstein’s mansion so revolted him that he vowed never to see the man again, arranged a Christmas trip to Epstein’s island with his wife and children in 2012. Andrew Farkas, a New York real estate mogul, told investors his relationship with Epstein was “purely business”; emails show him writing to Epstein in 2018, “I love you... xoxo.”
The denials were false—but the documents suggest something more than hypocrisy. They show a partial view of the way Epstein’s network actually operated—not as a social circle, but as a system.
How did it work?
- Shared language, shared understanding. The emails assume mutual comprehension. Richard Branson, the British billionaire behind the Virgin Group, wrote to Epstein in 2013: “Any time you’re in the area would love to see you. As long as you bring your harem!” Steve Tisch, co-owner of the New York Giants, asked Epstein whether he could “expect ‘trouble’” at a late-night invitation to Epstein’s mansion. Musk asked about the “wildest party.” This is coded but casual—the language of people who don’t need to spell out what they’re discussing.
- Epstein as broker. The documents show a mechanism. Tisch met a young woman through one of Epstein’s assistants; he later asked another woman whether she was “pro or civilian?” Epstein offered to invite “an unnamed Russian woman” to join Tisch at his mansion. Epstein provided a similar offer to then–Prince Andrew. Staff infrastructure supported the introductions. The service was legible to those who used it.
- Epstein as intelligence service. Epstein tracked Leon Black’s girlfriend—Black is the founder of Apollo Global Management—and discussed putting her under surveillance. Black, who paid Epstein US$170 million over the years, wasn’t on these emails—but his lawyer was copied on some of them. A financier surveilling his biggest client’s romantic life suggests a role that exceeds tax advice.
- The conviction changed nothing. Epstein pleaded guilty to state prostitution charges in Florida in 2008 and registered as a sex offender. Nearly every relationship documented in Friday’s release continued afterward. Musk’s “wildest party” email: November 2012. Lutnick’s family island trip: December 2012. Branson’s “harem” email: 2013. Farkas’s “I love you”: 2018. Peter Thiel’s investment firm accepted US$40 million from Epstein; the two corresponded until at least 2018, when Epstein urged him: “Visit me in Caribbean.” The conviction was public. But it appears not to have weakened the network.
- Intentional proximity. One victim, who testified to investigators in 2007 that Epstein had sexually abused her on his island, said she encountered Sergey Brin, the co-founder of Google, and his then-fiancée, Anne Wojcicki, during her time there. Epstein didn’t keep his social life and his abuse in separate compartments. He even made victims listen to his phone calls with powerful people. He displayed photographs of famous friends where victims would see them. This could have been intimidation—showing those he was exploiting who protected him. But it also meant the visitors saw the victims.
So what kind of system was this? The documents don’t resolve that question. But they do narrow the possibilities.
A social circle dissolves when a member becomes a convicted sex offender. This one didn’t. A business relationship requires mutual benefit; Epstein provided something, but he also gathered information—tracking girlfriends, copying lawyers, keeping records. The shared language in the emails suggests an understood transaction. The visibility to victims suggests the visibility was part of the point.
One reading: Epstein operated a system of mutual exposure. The emails, the photographs, the witnesses created a web of shared implication. Membership in the network meant evidence of membership existed. The conviction didn’t break the system because the system’s logic was never about discretion—it was about everyone knowing what everyone else had done.
But that reading may be too tidy. The documents are fragmentary; they show correspondence, not intent. Many of the men named insist they never knew about Epstein’s crimes, and nothing released Friday proves otherwise.
The documents do show this, though: powerful, influential men with high-stakes public careers; writing casually about “harems” and “trouble”; visiting the island of a—let’s put this in italics—registered sex offender; maintaining relationships for years after his conviction; and generating a record they apparently believed would never surface. Somehow, rationally or irrationally, they felt protected.
Meanwhile
- Finally, Europe and India. On Tuesday, Brussels and New Delhi announced their largest trade agreement ever—a deal covering 2 billion people and a quarter of global GDP, nearly two decades in the making. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called it “the mother of all deals.” India gets tariff reductions no other trading partner has received. The European Union expects to double its exports to India by 2032. But the deal still needs approval from the EU Council, the European Parliament, and India’s domestic process. The European Parliament referred the EU’s Mercosur deal—which Von der Leyen announced with similar fanfare—to the European Court of Justice on January 21, delaying ratification indefinitely. … See “‘The mother of all deals’.”
- An ultimatum without a threshold. U.S. President Donald Trump promised to intervene if Iran “violently kills” protesters or executes them en masse. Iran’s security forces crushed the protests—activists estimate more than 6,000 dead, with some reports suggesting the toll could exceed 30,000. The mass executions didn’t come. And on Wednesday, Trump shifted: “Hopefully Iran will quickly ’Come to the Table’ and negotiate a fair and equitable deal—NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS,” he wrote, warning the next attack would be “far worse” than June’s strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. He didn’t mention the protesters. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Friday that Iran is ready for “fair” talks—but not “under the shadow of threats.” The Iranian rial hit a record low of 1.6 million to the U.S. dollar. The grievances that drove Iranians into the streets haven’t eased. The regime has reasserted control. And Trump’s red line has become something vaguer: "Time is running out." … See “‘A massive Armada’.”
- Moonbound. On January 17, NASA’s Artemis II rocket began its journey to the launch pad—an 11-million-pound stack crawling four miles at less than one mile per hour, taking nearly 12 hours to reach Launch Complex 39B at Kennedy Space Center. Artemis II will carry four astronauts: NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with the Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. If all goes well after a wet dress rehearsal—a full fueling and countdown test—on February 2, they’ll lift off as early as February 8 for a 10-day mission around the Moon and back—the first crewed lunar flight in more than 50 years. They won’t land; that’s a job for Artemis III. But they will loop behind the far side, where Earth disappears from view and parts of the surface have never been seen by human eyes. For a few hours, their only view will be cratered gray on one side and the deep black of space on the other.
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