From the [music] New York Times, it's

the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford.

Today's Monday, December 22nd. Here's

what we're covering.

The Justice Department is under intense

scrutiny for its partial release of the

Epstein files. It put thousands of pages

of photographs and documents up online

on Friday before the deadline set by

Congress. But some lawmakers say the

department didn't release enough.

They're flouting the spirit and the

letter of the law, and I won't be

satisfied until the survivors are

satisfied.

Republican representative Thomas Massie,

who helped push for the law that

demanded the release, criticized how

heavily redacted the files were. In one

case, a 100 plus page document was

entirely blacked out. and Massie echoed

what some of Epstein's victims told the

Times that they feel disappointed and

frustrated that the department didn't

release more.

The key documents that our law

basically said needed to be released were not

released. It's not about the timeline,

it's about the selective concealment.

Massie said that he and Democratic

Congressman Ro K Connor are drafting a

resolution to hold Attorney General Pam

Bondi in contempt and impose a fine on

her for every day that she's not

releasing these documents.

You're talking about a million or so

pages of documents. Virtually all of

them contain victim information. The

Justice Department, meanwhile, says it's

working to comply, but that it's a huge

undertaking, especially to make sure no

survivors information is exposed. Deputy

Attorney General Todd Blanch argued that

protecting that info outweighed any

deadline. He also said that the

department was not redacting any

mentions of President Trump from the

files as it continues to release them.

One picture of Trump had been deleted

and then republished over the weekend.

[music]

In all, there were no major revelations

in the new documents, but the pictures

reinforced the broad range of famous

people in Epstein's orbit. From rock

stars like Michael Jackson and Mick

Jagger to legendary news anchor Walter

Kankite and former President Bill

Clinton. [music]

In a significant escalation of its

pressure campaign on Venezuela, the US

moved to intercept two oil tankers in

the Caribbean over the weekend. The

Coast Guard boarded one ship on

Saturday. When it tried to stop the

second, several US officials tell the

Times that that boat fled heading

northeast back into the Atlantic Ocean

as it sent out dozens of distress

signals. The vessel is called the Bella

1 and it's part of a ghost fleet. Ships

that move oil from Venezuela, Russia,

and Iran in violation of sanctions. They

often disguise where they're traveling

and file false paperwork. Officials say

American authorities have a warrant to

seize the Bella 1 because of its past

involvement with Iran. Trump

administration officials have said the

boarding operations are part of an

effort to weaken Nicholas Maduro's

government, which they say is using oil

money to fund cartel operations.

Venezuela's denounced the move as theft

and hijacking, and Maduro's ordered his

country's navy to escort tankers in

Venezuelan waters. Both ships this

weekend seem to be out of range of that

kind of support. The fear of more

seizures could deter tankers from

traveling to Venezuela. According to a

site that monitors global shipping,

some vessels that appear to have been heading

there have recently turned around.

[music]

And last update on the administration in

the new year, Health Secretary Robert F.

Kennedy Jr. is poised to make a seismic

shift in the childhood vaccine schedule.

He's been a longtime skeptic of

immunizations and he's expected to

announce that American kids should

receive fewer of them instead following

a schedule that's used in Denmark.

would mean skipping seven shots that are

currently recommended. Those for RSV

which is the leading cause of infant

hospitalizations in the US as well as

influenza, rotoirus, chickenpox,

menitis, and hepatitis A and B.

Officials in Denmark say they're baffled

because their medical system is very

different from the one in the US.

Denmark's population is the size of

Wisconsin and they have universal

healthcare. The US vaccination schedule,

meanwhile, is tailored for America's

large and diverse population and patchy

health care system. An official at

Denmark's equivalent of the CDC told the

Times, quote, "It's not at all fair to

say, look at Denmark, unless you can

match the other characteristics of

Denmark." A wholesale revision of the

vaccination schedule could affect

whether private insurance and government

assistance programs will cover the shots

for kids. And many public health experts

worry that a change could also further

erode Americans confidence in

immunizations.

There have been measles and whooping

cough outbreaks in multiple states

already because of dropping vaccination

rates.

In Canada, authorities are grappling

with a threat that used to be rare in

the country, gun violence.

We have breaking news [music] this hour.

Police are investigating a double

shooting near Kill and Rogers Road.

Toronto police are also investigating a

shooting in North York,

though it remains far lower there than

in the US. In recent years, there's

been a spike in gang shootings in and around

Toronto, for example. Stray bullets

have hit and killed children, and police say

that they are seizing illegal guns at an

unprecedented rate. And in almost every

case, those guns originated in the US.

In Ontario, for example, officials say

more than 90% of handguns recovered at

crime scenes last year were smuggled

across Canada's southern border. They

believe the actual figure is even

higher, but many guns have been tampered

with to make them untraceable.

Canada has far stricter gun laws than

the US. It's virtually impossible to

legally buy or transfer a handgun there.

That's made smuggling extremely

lucrative. One police superintendent

told the Times that a handgun bought in

the US for about 500 bucks can sell

for more than $4,000 in Canada. Smugglers

have sent guns up north in commercial

vehicles, stashed them on boats, and

even loaded them up on drones to ferry

across the border.

[music]

And finally,

the absolute Mayhem outside the Whimo

Depot. Here

in San Francisco this weekend, there was

self-driving car chaos.

The Whimos are crazy.

There's like a massive traffic jam

caused by them.

A power outage hit the city on Saturday,

leaving tens of thousands of households

without electricity. It also took down

the Whimos.

All the self-driving cars are tripping

right now.

[laughter]

They're just stuck in the middle of the

street.

The robot taxis stopped at darkened

traffic signals, blocking cars and

angering the human drivers that got

blocked in. No injuries or accidents

were reported, but social media lit up

with videos of stalled cars. And tow

truck drivers said they spent hours

working overnight into Sunday towing

Whimos. The malfunction was a bit of a

headscratcher since Whimo and other

self-driving car companies design their

vehicles to keep working even if they

lose access to wireless networks or when

they run across a traffic light with no

power. Whimo said in a statement that

the sheer scale of the outage was a

factor in the disruption and the company

[music] restored service by last night.

[music] Those are the headlines. Today

on the daily, how the construction of a

massive factory in Arizona is the case

study in the difficulty of bringing

manufacturing [music] back to the US.

You can listen to that in the New York

Times app or wherever you get your

podcasts. I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be

back [music] tomorrow.