Epstein Story Explosion, Israel’s Syrian Intervention Mess, Japan’s Far-Right Copies Western Populists, And Trump’s Continued U(kraine)-turn

A detailed recount mixed with meme comedy to mark our times at Week 28 of 2025 featuring source material from Gundam Gquuuuuux, Jentry Chau Vs The Underworld, Star Trek Lower Decks, and Hailey’s On It

Jul 20, 2025

The Trump Show: Series 2 - When Donny Writes To Jeffrey

Kicking off the week with an awkward and hilarious moment, Trump handed Chelsea the Club World Cup trophy and then stood there as the players waited to raise the trophy. FIFA president Gianni Infantino had to drag the president out of the shot so the team could officially celebrate. It came after the president was mercilessly booed by football (soccer) fans as he entered the stadium and later presented the awards, and we later learned that Trump would keep the original Club World Cup trophy while Chelsea was given a replica. In a rebuke of Trump’s claims, Biden told the NYT that he orally granted all the pardons and commutations issued during the end of his term, which were then recorded with an autopen. Despite having a neo-Nazi meltdown last week, multiple US agencies, including the Department of Defense, are using Grok as part of a deal with one of Elon Musk’s companies. On education, 24 states sued the Trump administration over freezing funding for after-school and summer programs, before the Supreme Court gave the regime a green light to dismantle the Education Department. In New York, recent Democratic primary loser Andrew Cuomo announced he is still in the race, but as an independent third-party candidate against Zohran Mamdani. According to a memo obtained by the Washington Post, ICE has declared that millions of undocumented immigrants are no longer eligible for bond hearings, allowing officers to hold immigrants who entered the country illegally “for the duration of their removal proceedings.” Meanwhile, it was revealed that hundreds of detainees at “Aligator Alcatraz” were people with no criminal record, and they were locked up in hellish conditions that constitute numerous human rights abuses.

The Jeffrey Epstein saga is still lingering in Washington, with Democrats of the House Judiciary Committee demanding Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel testify during a hearing. In response to the recent controversies, Pam Bondi told NBC News that “Our memo speaks for itself,” adding she is not resigning anytime soon. In a break from Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson called for details of the Epstein case to be released, including allowing Epstein’s associate Ghislaine Maxwell to testify before Congress. However, the moral outrage by House Republicans was slightly undermined when they moved to block Democratic efforts to force the release of Epstein files, twice within 24 hours. Wired then dropped a bombshell on the metadata from the FBI’s Jeffrey Epstein video, reporting that the amount of time edited out was not just one minute, but nearly three minutes. Before Senate Republicans advanced Trump’s rescissions bill to scale back many programs, the White House agreed to exempt PEPFAR, the program established under the George W Bush administration to fight AIDS, from foreign aid cuts. During former national security adviser Mike Waltz’s confirmation hearing for UN Ambassador, Democrats berated him for not expressing regret over his involvement in Signalgate and accused the man of lying. In other headlines, hardline conservatives in the House revolted and tanked a procedural vote over the GENIUS Act and two other crypto bills which took the president to intervene and calm it down, Trump released nearly half of the National Guard troops dispatched to LA, the government began investigating the University of Michigan over foreign funding, Trump sued the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in order to oust some of its board members, and Trump accused Senator Adam Schiff of alleged mortgage fraud.

Engaging in serious Jedi mind-tricking, Trump disavowed “PAST supporters” who believed the "Jeffrey Epstein Hoax" on a post in Truth Social, claiming it is a new “SCAM” by the Democrats despite pushing the conspiracies around it for years. It comes as Trump has deflected the Epstein issue by blaming the Democrats, claiming it was the work of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and former FBI Director James Comey. Hours later, Maurene Comey, the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey and prosecutor for the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY), was abruptly fired. She worked on the prosecution against Sean “Diddy” Combs, as well as cases surrounding Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. In a series of damaging moves to the US, the Washington Post covered the DOJ’s actions in hitting states with broad requests for voter rolls and election data, which raises fears of potential interference before the 2026 midterms, while NPR reported the Trump regime was withholding $140 million budgeted for fighting fentanyl. Then, there is the downright unforgivable. The Trump regime destroyed nearly 500 metric tons of emergency food, which could feed 1.5 million starving children for a week, at a cost of an estimated $130,000 to American taxpayers. We also learned NOAA was developing a way to predict extreme rainfall caused by climate change in different communities, then the Trump government axed it, making the deaths in the recent Texas flash floods more tragic. Concerning all the best people, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth lashed out at a DOGE official during a tense Pentagon confrontation, while an NIH official was fired amid a probe over a contract that was used to potentially hire his spouse.

According to Oliver Darcy’s Status, the WSJ was working on a story highlighting the president’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. The rumor ville suggests the Journal has a copy of a birthday card or note written by Trump to Epstein, which the White House really does not want it to be released. By Thursday evening, the WSJ dropped the bombshell. Ghislaine Maxwell prepared a special gift of letters from Epstein’s friends to celebrate the disgraced financier’s 50th birthday, and one of them is from the future president himself. The note was styled as an imaginary conversation between Trump and Epstein, written in the third person, which concluded: “A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.” Trump denied writing the letter and drawing a picture of what appeared to be the framed outline of a naked woman decorating the lines of typewritten text, calling it a fake story. In response, Trump said he will sue the Wall Street Journal for the story, which comes after a failed attempt to suppress the story with the paper’s top executives. He then directed AG Pam Bondi to release relevant grand jury transcripts related to the Epstein case. Earlier in the day, Trump’s White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt rejected the notion of a special counsel looking into the Epstein case. The Trump regime handed over the nation’s entire Medicaid enrollee data, including addresses and ethnicities, to ICE for their efforts in tracking down illegal immigrants. Regarding the president’s health, Trump underwent a medical exam for the swelling in his legs and bruising hands, which was later diagnosed as chronic venous insufficiency. In the Senate, Republicans passed Trump's foreign aid and public broadcasting clawback bill on Thursday morning. Meanwhile, the House experienced the lower chamber's longest vote in history for the second time in two weeks, as House Speaker Mike Johnson held votes open for hours while persuading his colleagues to support a resolution setting the terms of debate on several measures. Hours later, the House overwhelmingly passed the GENIUS Act, which marks the first-ever major legislative overhaul of cryptocurrency regulations. Delivering the crypto lobby a significant victory, the bill will create new rules for stablecoins, which maintain a relative value by tying them to an asset like the US dollar. Regarding law and order, the DOJ now seeks a one-day sentence for the officer involved in the raid that killed Breonna Taylor despite him facing life in prison, the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced Emil Bove and Jeanine Pirro to a full Senate vote despite protests by Democrats, and a federal judge ruled Trump’s firing of the FTC commissioner as illegal. CBS announced The Late Show With Stephen Colbert is ending in May 2026, two days after Colbert openly criticized his company, Paramount, for settling with President Donald Trump over a “60 Minutes” story, and was seen by many as a secret capitulation to the president.

Early Friday, the House voted to send the rescissions package to Trump’s desk, which will lead to dramatic cuts to NPR, PBS, and foreign aid proposed by DOGE. In the White House, Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law, calling it an "exciting new frontier" for the crypto industry. Outrage and disbelief bubbled among liberal circles after the abrupt decision to cancel The Late Show next year, with Democratic politicians condemning CBS for capitulating to Trump, and the Writers’ Guild of America urging an investigation into Paramount's move to cancel Colbert's show. Many celebrities were saddened and disappointed by the talk show’s end, with fellow late-night comic Jimmy Kimmel posting on Instagram, “Love you Stephen. F*** you and all your Sheldons CBS.” One person who was happy about the news was, unsurprisingly, Trump. He wrote on Truth Social: “I absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings.” Trying to quell the Epstein letter exposé from the WSJ, Trump decided to sue Rupert Murdoch and the paper’s publisher, filing a libel case in a Florida federal court. Moreover, AG Pam Bondi asked a federal court to release the Epstein grand jury transcripts. El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele announced that his country and Venezuela held a prisoner swap, with the Trump regime coordinating the development. In other headlines, a federal judge blocked Trump’s executive order targeting those who work for the ICC, DHS head RFK Jr rejected pandemic response measures by the WHO, and the EPA announced it will eliminate its scientific research arm.

Over the weekend, the civil servant purge continues. In the Pentagon, now-former Hegseth aide Justin Fulcher became the sixth top advisor to leave the Defense Secretary’s team. In case foreigners need one more reason not to travel to America, many travellers are now subject to a new $250 "visa integrity fee” since July 4.

Trade Off - Powell’s Job On Edge

Starting with China, the country’s June exports beat expectations as they jumped by 5.8%, while imports saw a rebound for the first time in 2025. This comes a day before China’s second-quarter GDP growth also beat forecasts as it expanded by 5.2%, but evidence of deflation has fueled calls for a stimulus or deeper reforms. According to reporting from Bloomberg, Trump has softened his confrontational tone with China in a bid to secure a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, including by focusing more on getting quick wins than solving the root causes of the Sino-US trade imbalance.

Pulling out of a decades-long trade deal, Trump imposed 17% additional tariffs on Mexican tomatoes, which could substantially impact food prices in the US. On Tuesday, US inflation figures show prices heated up in June, showing signs of Trump’s trade war beginning to take effect on American consumers. Trump then announced a trade deal with Indonesia, with Jakarta paying a 19% tariff on exports to the US, and they will be purchasing American energy and Boeing jets. According to administration officials and reports on early Wednesday, Trump has drafted a letter firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell and asked about it during a meeting with GOP lawmakers. However, in a TACO moment, Trump then said it is “highly unlikely” that he would fire Powell. Then, making a new story by himself, Trump criticized the stupid president who appointed Powell to the Fed Chair role, forgetting that the person who did that was him! Over the weekend, the FT reported that Trump has escalated his demands in trade talks with Europe, demanding a 15-20% tariff in any trade deal with the EU.

Above the mainland United States, Canada’s PM Mark Carney said, “There’s not a lot of evidence right now” that his country can get a trade deal with the US without imposing tariffs. A day later, Carney imposed 25% tariffs on steel exports that contain steel melted and poured in China. Pushing his effort to further crack down on cheap and foreign steel entering the Canadian market, the Canadian PM also tightened “tariff rate quota” levels for steel products made in countries without a free trade agreement in Canada, essentially limiting producers from those countries from shipping steel products worth half of last year’s levels without tariffs. Above that level, a 50% tariff will apply.

Middle East War Watch - Breakout Conflict In Syria

As the week began, a feud broke out between the Israeli government and its military over plans to construct a “humanitarian city” within Gaza. The plan was roundly criticized as potential ethnic cleansing, including by Israel’s former PM Ehud Olmert, who described it as creating a “concentration camp” if actualized. UN rapporteur Francesca Albanese, who was recently hit by US sanctions, vowed that she will never be silenced and praised the 30-nation meeting aimed at ending the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Adding new jeopardy for Netanyahu’s far-right government, the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism (UTJ) party it would quit the coalition over a long-running dispute relating to the country’s new conscription bill. Turning to other parts of the Middle East, European countries gave Iran a deadline of August 29 to contain its nuclear programme, or they would see sanctions reinstated. Meanwhile, Israel was launching attacks against the Syrian military.

On Wednesday, at least 20 Palestinians were killed at an aid distribution site run by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). In a blow to Netanyahu’s rule, a second ultra-Orthodox party named Shas announced it is quitting the coalition as well, citing military conscription for religious students as a reason. Continuing their meeting in Bogota, Colombia, the Hague Group announced they will pursue accountability concerning Israeli abuses in Gaza by preventing the transfer of weapons to Israel and other methods. Meanwhile, Israel launched an unprecedented escalation in its attacks against Syria, attacking the country’s capital, Damascus, on the third day of attacks. An Israeli missile struck near the Syrian presidential palace, as well as the compound housing Syria’s defense ministry. Syrian state media reported that at least three people were dead and 34 more injured, while authorities called it a “flagrant assault,” as footage emerged that the Israeli military also attacked Syrian government forces in the Sweida province in southern Syria. Israel says it took action to protect the country’s Druse minority, following days of deadly clashes between the ethnic group’s armed forces with Bedouin tribes and government forces, killing hundreds of people. Amid the threat by Israel that it would ramp up attacks on Syrian government forces if they didn’t back off from hurting the Druze, Syrian authorities announced that a ceasefire was reached in Sweida with local leaders. At the same time, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio added that all parties have taken “specific steps that will bring this troubling and horrifying situation to an end tonight.”

The Guardian revealed on Thursday that Europe’s largest missiles group, MBDA, is selling key components for bombs that were shipped to Israel and were used to kill civilians, including children. An Israeli airstrike landed on the Holy Family Church, the only Catholic church in the Gaza Strip. Before his death, Pope Francis called the church daily at 8 pm to check on how everyone was doing. The incident sparked international outrage, to the extent that Netanyahu called Pope Francis the day after to discuss what had happened. Israel said the strike that killed three people was “an accident,” as Trump urged Israeli authorities to investigate the incident. Despite the ceasefire within Syria, an Israeli airstrike hits Sweida city, as tribal fights between the Druze and Bedouins continued. Syrian government forces said they were resending troops to the region after settling a deal with some Druze communities to restore order and stability. International condemnation soon followed, especially by parties such as China and the US, which both opposed Israel’s actions earlier in the week. On Friday, Axios revealed that the head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency visited Washington this week, with spy chief David Barnea telling White House envoy Steve Witkoff that Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Libya are interested in taking deals to move Palestinians out of Gaza.

By Saturday, the US Envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, said Israel and Syria had agreed to a ceasefire. However, sectarian clashes continued to erupt, with Syria’s interim president Ahmad al-Sharaa blaming “armed groups from Sweida” for reigniting the conflict. In Gaza, at least 32 Palestinians were killed while collecting aid near a GHF site, after Israeli troops fired on crowds seeking food. On Sunday, the Gaza Health Ministry reported that more than 70 people were killed while waiting for humanitarian aid across the Strip.

Voterama 2025 - Japan’s High Brow Senate Election

On Sunday, Japan held its Upper House elections to vote for who will represent them in the House of Councillors. Based on Japan’s political system, half of the Senate is up for grabs, which is 124 seats out of the existing 248 seats. Out of the 124 seats, 75 are elected via electoral districts and 50 are chosen through proportional representation. Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru’s deeply unpopular Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its partner Komeito hope to maintain their majority coming into the election, even though polls repeatedly show the incumbent will likely lose the majority. Rising inflation, stagnant wages, and a weak yen have plagued the LDP since it lost the country’s Lower House majority last year, forcing it to form the first minority government in 30 years. Trying to shake itself out of massive unpopularity due to recent scandals, the LDP has embraced TikTok to get its message out to voters. Throughout the campaign, the LDP has prioritized urban voters over their rural counterparts, which presents a significant opportunity for the ultraconservative Sanseito party to gain votes amid a growing rice crisis in Japan.

Coming into the election, far-right Japanese parties are expecting to see gains in seats in the next Senate. Born on YouTube and based its campaign on a “Japanese first” platform, Sanseito’s party leader Sohei Kamiya told Reuters he has drawn the “bold political style” from US President Donald Trump. Kamiya’s message has attracted voters frustrated with a weak economy and currency that has lured record numbers of tourists, hence creating further inflation that has troubled many Japanese citizens. Although the election staples, such as inflation, jobs, and defense, are repeatedly mentioned by politicians, there has been a rise in anti-immigrant messaging. Conservative parties like Sanseito, which has vowed to ban low-skilled economic immigrants, while mainstream parties like the LDP’s leader (and Japan’s leader) Shigeru Ishiba unveiled a new government taskforce to combat “crimes and disorderly conduct” by foreign nationals while pursuing a “zero illegal foreigners” policy. In the days leading up to the election, Sanseito was rocked by suspicions of Russian interference, following one of its candidates accepting an interview with Russian state TV.

After the voting ended, Japan’s national broadcaster NHK said the ruling bloc would likely lose its majority in the Upper House. Exit polls show the LDP is likely to secure only roughly 32-51 seats, far under the 50 seats needed for a majority. With the fresh loss, Ishibia’s agenda and trade talks with the US stand weakened by domestic political backlash. Ishibia said he would accept the “harsh result,” insisting he is staying on as PM despite declining confidence among voters and his party. By 6 am the next Monday local time, the LDP only got 39 seats, the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party (CDP) got 21 seats, while Sanseito has stunningly obtained 13 seats.

The Odd News Out - Britain’s Afghan Coverup Fiasco

An accidental data leak from the UK Ministry of Defense back in February 2022 has led to £7 billion of taxpayers’ cash spent on a mitigation scheme that offered almost 24,000 Afghans asylum in the country. The Afghan Response Route (ARR) was hastily created after a list of thousands of Afghan names and other personal details was leaked while an official was attempting to verify applications for sanctuary in Britain under the Afghanistan resettlement and assistance policy (Arap). More than 18,000 Afghans who were on the list worked with British forces before the Taliban retook Afghanistan, and it put more than 100,000 Afghans at risk. After the Rishi Sunak government discovered the breach in 2023, they imposed a “super injunction” in August that year to keep the bombshell a secret. It was feared that publicity of the story would provide the Taliban a “kill list,” especially since one person who obtained the information threatened to publish it on Facebook. Under the “super injunction,” the first and longest one yet from the British government, journalists were banned from disclosing anything about it, including the existence of the injunction. By the end of 2023, the AAR scheme was set up to evacuate Afghans to the UK.

Under the Starmer administration, the government plans to relocate 25,000 people, at a potential cost of £7 billion. To date, the UK government has relocated 35,245 Afghans to Britain, including 16,156 people affected by the data leak. After a two-year legal battle with the Times, the injunction has been lifted after the current Defense Minister, John Healey, ordered an independent review into the case. By the end of the review, former senior civil servant Paul Rimmer concluded that the leaked data “may not have spread nearly as widely as initially feared” and “there is little evidence of intent by the Taliban to conduct a campaign of retribution” against those on the list. As Healy confirmed and apologized for the error, he said the AAR scheme is now closed, while 600 “invitations” which were already granted to individuals and their families would be honored.

Because I’m Too Busy For Memeing: Some Other Important News From The Rest Of The World

Dateline Hong Kong, China:

During a weekly press briefing on Tuesday, Hong Kong’s Chief Executive John Lee voiced his support for the Registration of Same-sex Partnerships Bill, which proposed to recognize some legal rights of same-sex partners who were married abroad. When asked, Lee said, “The decision made by the [Court of Final Appeal] is final. The government cannot contravene the determination of the CFA and must take appropriate follow-up action.” The CE adds he will “respect” the outcome of the legislative scrutiny from the Legislative Council (LegCo, Hong Kong’s parliament). The proposed bill faces an uphill challenge before it was introduced for a first and second reading on Wednesday, facing lawmakers who were vocally against the proposed legislation, and LGBT activists who deem it conservative and vague.

Dateline Brasilia, Brazil:

In an escalation of tensions between the US and Brazil, President Lula told CNN that Trump was “not elected to be emperor of the world.” Responding to Trump’s citing of former President Jair Bolsonaro’s trial as justification for the 50% tariff threat, Lula emphasized that his predecessor “is not being judged personally. He is being judged by the acts he tried to organize a coup d’etat.” Hours later, Brazilian police raided the ex-president’s home, and Bolsonaro was ordered to wear an electronic ankle tag due to a potential flight risk concern. Bolsonaro was also ordered not to leave the country, which the ex-president claimed he “never thought of leaving Brazil.” In response, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio revoked the US visas of 8 of Brazil’s 11 supreme court judges in a bid to help Bolsonaro avoid justice.

Dateline Kyiv, Ukraine:

First scooped by Axios, Trump prepared to announce a new and "aggressive" weapons plan to Ukraine, including long-range missiles that could reach targets deep inside Russian territory. During a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Trump confirmed he would allow NATO allies to purchase air defense systems and other weapons, including Patriot missiles, for Ukraine. Aside from both Rutte and Trump praising the deal, the US President suggested he would impose 100% secondary tariffs on Russia if it does not reach a ceasefire agreement with Ukraine in 50 days, adding he is “very unhappy” with the current peace progress and “disappointed” with Putin. If Trump imposes the secondary tariffs, they would target Russia’s trading partners in an attempt to isolate Moscow in the global economy further. The US President also said the person who got him to understand that Putin was tricking him was his wife, Melania. “I go home. I tell the first lady ‘I spoke to Vladimir [Putin] today. We had a wonderful conversation.’ She said, ‘Oh really? Another city was just hit.”

If the US President’s shift towards Kyiv isn’t clear enough, the FT reported on Tuesday that Trump asked Zelensky if Ukraine could hit Moscow and St. Petersburg. Zelensky replied “absolutely” if weapons are provided, and Trump signalled his backing by arguing they should “make them [Russians] feel the pain” and push the Kremlin to the negotiating table. However, when asked by reporters on Tuesday, Trump said he does not support Ukraine having long-range missiles to attack Moscow. In an interview with BBC News’s Gary O'Donoghue, Trump repeated his disappointment at Putin, but said he is not done with him yet. In Kyiv, Ukrainian officials were still waiting for Trump to reach an agreement on weapons shipments, while praising Melania Trump for changing her husband’s stance on Putin.

Later in the week, the EU and UK imposed stricter sanctions on Russia, aimed at restricting the country’s oil and energy industry. Meanwhile, Ukraine proposed a new round of peace talks with Russia next week, with Zelensky saying he is willing to meet with Putin face-to-face.

Dateline Paris, France:

In a shocking announcement, French PM François Bayrou suggested that he may scrap two public holidays to help reduce the country’s ballooning deficit. Under the proposed plan, Easter Monday and Victory Day on May 8 will be work days, though the PM is open to other suggestions. In response, far-right National Front leader Jordan Bardella said, “Cancelling two holidays is a direct attack on our history, our roots and on working France.” Other parties on the left echo similar sentiments, and the disgraced former National Front leader Marine Le Pen threatened, “If François Bayrou does not correct his work, we will vote him down.”