By Rashard Rose, CNN

(CNN) — Top Justice Department leaders said in a court filing Tuesday they expect to release the department’s Jeffrey Epstein-related files “in the near term.”

Attorney General Pam Bondi, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton told two federal judges the department could not “provide a specific date” for when it would complete its review of the files.

The update comes as the Justice Department faces enormous pressure to release all of its files after Congress passed a law in November – with near-unanimous support – giving the department a December 19, 2025, deadline to do so. Epstein, the convicted sex offender who was accused of abusing dozens of underage girls, died by suicide in 2019.

The filing, a letter sent to Judges Richard Berman and Paul Engelmayer in the Southern District of New York, is the latest update from the Justice Department as it continues to review and release materials.

The officials wrote in the letter that “the Department has reviewed millions of pages of materials” along with video and audio recordings and has made “substantial progress” in identifying documents and completing redactions to protect victims.

“The Department is not able to provide a specific date at this time and cautions that its ongoing processes, including its quality control checks and document management system preparations, may require additional efforts to ensure the protection of victim identifying information while complying with the broad demands of the Act,” the letter said.

The letter said DOJ efforts have included “manual review by hundreds of Department attorneys, agents and others” who have “dedicated days and weeks” to the effort. CNN previously reported on the department’s scramble to review documents, asking for career prosecutors in Florida to volunteer over the winter holidays to help redact the documents.

The files are made up of papers, videos, photographs and audio files that live within the FBI’s main electronic case management system and largely originate from the FBI’s two major investigations into Epstein, in Florida and New York, spanning decades. A July 2025 FBI memo said that the department had uncovered “more than 300 gigabytes of data and physical evidence” during a review of the investigative materials.

The Justice Department earlier this month said it had released 12,285 documents — less than 1% — of its Epstein-related files, with more than 2 million documents still in review.

A CNN poll conducted by SSRS between January 9-12 found that few Americans are satisfied with the amount of evidence released in the Epstein case, with most saying they believe the government is intentionally holding back information.

A two-thirds majority of Americans said the federal government is intentionally holding back some information about the Epstein case that should be released, while just 16% said the government is making an effort to release all information possible. The remainder said they haven’t heard enough about the case to say.

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By Jessie Yeung, Gawon Bae, CNN

Seoul, South Korea (CNN) — It all started with a designer handbag. Then two, then a luxury necklace, and more.

Now, it’s ending in jail time for South Korea’s former first lady.

Kim Keon Hee, the wife of disgraced (and also jailed) former President Yoon Suk Yeol, was sentenced to one year and eight months in prison on Wednesday for bribery –– in just one of three criminal trials she is facing. Both prosecutors and Kim’s team can appeal the ruling.

The court found Kim guilty of accepting bribes from the controversial religious sect Unification Church, including a Chanel bag and a Graff diamond necklace. But it found her not guilty of stock manipulation and conspiring with her husband to receive free public opinion polls, citing lack of sufficient evidence and expired statute of limitations – and also cleared her for receiving a second Chanel bag.

Prosecutors had estimated that the stocks, bribes and polls altogether were worth 1.15 billion Korean won (about $813,000).

Kim “misused her status as a means of pursuing profit … The defendant was unable to refuse the expensive luxury items provided in connection with special favor, and was thirsty to receive and decorate herself with them,” said Seoul District Court Judge Woo In-seong in the ruling.

However, Woo added, Kim had not asked for the gifts, did not relay any requests from the church to her husband, and is now “self-reflecting” on her actions.

It’s the latest blow to the former first couple, both of whom have repeatedly denied wrongdoing, though Kim has admitted receiving the Chanel bags from the Unification Church.

Yoon is on trial for insurrection over his brief declaration of martial law in 2024, as well as a number of other allegations. But his wife has been embroiled in scandal for far longer –– with the stock manipulation accusations related to a car dealership going back more than a decade.

She was arrested last August by a special counsel, with prosecutors requesting 15 years in prison for the various crimes the court ruled on Wednesday.

“Kim Keon Hee used her status as president’s spouse to easily receive money and expensive goods, and widely intervened in various personnel appointments and nominations,” said Min Joong-ki, who led the special counsel team, on December 29 after concluding its 180-day investigation.

The leader of the Unification Church, also known as the Moonies, which began in South Korea and has spread worldwide, is also on trial over the bribes.

Long list of scandals

From the start, Kim wasn’t your typical first lady.

She had worked in the art industry, having founded her own exhibition agency, when she married Yoon in 2012. At the time, he was still a prosecutor and had yet to enter politics.

Kim maintained a high profile as first lady, often wearing stylish outfits on overseas presidential trips that won her both praise and criticism back home. That set her apart from other South Korean first ladies – who traditionally were viewed as humble, behind-the-scenes figures.

But suspicions about her conduct had mounted even during Yoon’s run for office.

In 2021, Kim apologized for inflating her resume, vowing to “remain focused on my role as

Análisis por Stephen Collinson, CNN

El tono que el presidente Donald Trump intenta cambiar en Minnesota es el que él mismo estableció.

“Vamos a reducir la tensión un poco”, declaró Trump a Fox News el martes durante un viaje a Iowa, después de una represión en la que han muerto dos civiles y ha provocado disturbios y miedo en Minneapolis.

El presidente está intentando lograr una hazaña de escapismo político.

Una vez que su operación de deportación se volvió moralmente insostenible tras la muerte de Alex Pretti, un enfermero de cuidados intensivos que protestaba, la presión aumentó sobre la Secretaria de Seguridad Nacional, Kristi Noem, y el alto funcionario de la Patrulla Fronteriza Greg Bovino, los dos rostros principales de la empresa.

La reunión de dos horas de Trump con Noem en el Despacho Oval el lunes por la noche fue un sutil gesto de culpabilización, insinuando que Noem había cometido un error. La destitución de Bovino de Minnesota envió una señal más directa.

Pero ambos funcionarios, de carácter enérgico, actuaban bajo las políticas, la tensa atmósfera de confrontación y las expectativas de un desempeño público exagerado establecidas por el presidente, que había respaldado reiterada y públicamente el liderazgo de Noem, en particular en las reuniones del Gabinete y en otros lugares.

Desde que descendió de su escalera mecánica dorada en la Torre Trump en el verano de 2015, el ahora presidente ha esbozado una imagen sombría de una nación rehén de violadores, asesinos y personas expulsadas de manicomios antes de unirse a una invasión extranjera de Estados Unidos.

Trump ve las ciudades como infiernos distópicos de anarquía y crimen que necesitan la ética de un hombre fuerte y un poder federal brutal para ser reparadas.

En un evento en Clive, Iowa, el martes, Trump dijo que incluso los inmigrantes que ingresaron al país legalmente necesitaban demostrar que amarían a Estados Unidos, no que lo odiarían.

“Tienen que demostrar que no van a volar nuestros centros comerciales, ni nuestras granjas, ni matar gente”, indicó.

En ese contexto, no es de extrañar que sus subordinados se sintieran con la libertad de enviar agentes armados con máscaras y uniformes de estilo militar a las calles de Minneapolis y otras grandes ciudades en una demostración de poder que surgió directamente desde la cúpula.

Las imágenes han estado circulando durante semanas, y Trump no las detuvo. Y se unió a la difamación contra la primera civil de Minnesota en morir, Renee Good.

La inmigración siempre fue un ingrediente secreto que unió a Trump con su base.

Demonizar a los inmigrantes es un clásico de los populistas y una herramienta para imponer un poder personal inusual.

Las promesas de Trump de organizar deportaciones masivas siempre provocaron fuertes ovaciones en sus mítines de campaña.

El fracaso de su predecesor, Joe Biden, en asegurar la frontera entre Estados Unidos y México fue un acto de negligencia política impresionante, considerando que Trump se encontraba al acecho antes de las elecciones de 2024.

Frente a los fracasos de los demócratas, no sorprende que los votantes recurrieran a Trump para solucionar el problema.

Dado a que los estadounidenses conocían a Trump desde su primer mandato, y que nunca había ocultado sus posturas intransigentes, es lógico suponer que se esperaba un endurecimiento de la aplicación de la ley, junto con una mayor seguridad fronteriza.

Las historias de altos funcionarios sobre jóvenes víctimas de homicidios a manos de inmigrantes indocumentados, como Laken Riley, estudiante de enfermería de Georgia, son desgarradoras. Las víctimas y sus familias merecen justicia.

By Brad Lendon, CNN

(CNN) — About 1.2 million Russian troops have been killed, wounded or are missing since its invasion of Ukraine almost four years ago, a rate of casualties for a major military power not seen since World War II, a new report from a prominent international think tank says.

And the enormous human toll has secured relatively small territorial gains on the battlefield, with Russia increasing the amount of Ukrainian land under its control by just 12% since 2022, the report from Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) says.

The report calls into question assumptions in many circles, including in the White House, that a Russian victory in Ukraine is inevitable and incoming.

“Russia has the upper hand,” US President Donald Trump said in an interview with Politico last month.

“They’re much bigger. They’re much stronger… At some point, size will win,” Trump said.

But the CSIS report says Ukraine retains a significant advantage as the defensive side on the battlefield.

Kyiv’s “defense-in-depth” strategy – using trenches, anti-tank obstacles, mines and other barriers along with drones and artillery have stymied Russia’s attempt for any meaningful gains, the report says. Meanwhile, battlefield casualties favor Ukraine by a 2.5- or 2-to-1 ratio.

Russia and Ukraine do not release detailed figures for their combat casualties.

Ukrainian casualty tolls are about 500,000 to 600,000 killed – compared to Russia’s 1.2 million – wounded and missing, according to the report.

Russia has had between 275,000 and 325,000 battlefield deaths, compared to Ukraine’s 100,000 to 140,000, according to the report.

“The data suggests that Russia is hardly winning,” the authors write.

Historic combat losses

Compared to conflicts involving major powers since World War II, Moscow’s losses are staggering.

The United States lost around 57,000 troops in the Korean War and 47,000 during the Vietnam War. Russia’s losses in Ukraine are five times higher than its total losses from all Russian and Soviet wars since World War II combined, including the Afghanistan war and two Chechen wars, the report says.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte told the World Economic Forum in Switzerland earlier this month that Moscow lost 1,000 troops a day in December.

“Not seriously wounded, dead,” he said.

“In the 1980s in Afghanistan, the Soviets lost 20,000 in 10 years. Now they lose 30,000 in one month,” Rutte said.

New troops are becoming increasingly hard to find, foreign analysts say.

“Russian military losses, of those killed and wounded, now exceed sustainable recruitment and replacement rates,” James Ford, Britain’s deputy ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said in a speech last week.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has relatively little to show for the hundreds of thousands who have died since he ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

In the past two years, Russian territorial gains in some areas can be measured in just yards per day, well under half a football field, the CSIS report says.

Russia daily battlefield gains – 16 yards a day in Chasiv Yar, 25 yards a day in Kupiansk, 76 yards a day in Pokrovsk – are less than what was seen by Allied troops during the infamous Battle of the Somme in World War I, a five-month campaign in 1916 that saw a British-French force gain fewer than 90 yards a day against German defenders.

In the past two years, “Russian forces have gained less than 1.5 percent of Ukrainian territory,” the report says

By Jen Christensen, CNN

(CNN) — How a person will be diagnosed with mental illness could look significantly different in the near future.

The American Psychiatric Association announced Wednesday that it is radically reconceptualizing the main manual that clinicians use to make a mental health diagnosis. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders will get a new name, new voices shaping its content and a new approach that will add more layers to a diagnosis.

The hope is that it will turn what some call “psychiatry’s bible” into more of a guidebook to mental health disorders — one that’s more inclusive, dynamic and educational, so patients will receive more effective treatments.

How the DSM is used

A mental health disorder impacts an individual’s thoughts and behavior and can cause ongoing distress or impair their ability to function. Why someone has a particular mental health disorder can vary, stemming from a complicated mix of brain chemistry, genetics, life experience and a person’s environment.

Unlike with an infection, where doctors can use an objective blood test to pinpoint the bacteria or virus causing the problem, there are few simple tests to determine what kind of mental health disorder someone has.

So, psychiatrists created the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, commonly known as the DSM, to categorize mental health disorders, create diagnostic criteria and provide descriptive text to help professionals make an appropriate diagnosis based on their observations of a patient’s symptoms.

More than half of all people will experience a psychiatric disorder in their lifetime, research shows.

Putting a label on a mental health disorder is essential so that clinicians know how to treat a patient. The DSM is also important for practical reasons, like billing and insurance purposes.

Used by more than just psychiatrists, the DSM is considered the very foundation of how mental health issues are understood. The DSM gives patients, researchers, insurance, lawyers and others a common language to identify particular mental health issues.

The current edition, DSM-5-TR, contains more than 300 distinct mental disorders such as schizophrenia, obsessive compulsive disorder and alcohol use disorder.

While APA updates the manual regularly to reflect the most up-to-date science, the last update was 2022. Over the years, the DSM has come under heavy criticism. Some argue it’s not scientific enough, others argue it’s not specific enough, or even practical.

So, to improve the manual, the APA turned to an unlikely source for inspiration: its critics.

“The critics are loud, so it’s very hard to ignore them,” joked Dr. Maria Oquendo, chair of APA’s Future DSM Strategic Committee.

Oquendo said the APA spoke with several to get a better sense of how the DSM could be improved.

“We don’t have ownership of all the best ideas, and if they’re out there, we want to hear them,” she said.

What’s changing in the DSM

One of the first things APA said it will change is the manual’s name. Going forward, DSM will stand for Diagnostic Science Manual of Mental Disorders.

When the APA first created the DSM in the 1950s, many people were institutionalized, Oquendo said. Public policy makers who funded mental institutions wanted to keep track of the number of people with particular disorders, but in an era of deinstitutionalization, numbers aren’t as important.

To create the DSM, the APA pulls together hundreds of experts from around the world who discuss definitions and treatments. There are also field trials and tests. One of the bigger changes going forward is that the APA will invite people with a lived experience of a particular diagnosis to