United States | News & Politics

New York Rep. Nydia Velázquez — a trailblazer known by the nickname “La Luchadora” or the fighter — announced Thursday that she will retire next year after more than three decades in Congress.

Velázquez, 72, is the second long-serving New York Democrat to say she’ll step aside after Rep. Jerry Nadler, 78, announced in September that he’d exit at the end of his current term.

A federal judge has ordered the release of 16 people detained by immigration officials during an FBI-led raid at a rural Idaho racetrack last month.

U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill ruled Wednesday that keeping the migrants jailed without bond violated their due process rights, and he ordered that they be released while they wait for their immigration cases to be resolved. Many of them have lived in the U.S. for decades and lacked any criminal history, Winmill noted. Some are married to U.S. citizens or have children who are U.S. citizens, according to court documents.

Federal judges on Thursday upheld several U.S. House districts that North Carolina Republicans drew in 2023 that helped the GOP gain additional seats the following year. They rejected accusations the lines unlawfully fractured and packed Black voters to weaken their voting power.

The order by three judges — all of whom were nominated to the bench by GOP presidents — didn’t rule on changes made last month to the 1st Congressional District that are designed to unseat Democratic Rep. Don Davis in 2026.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.today/post/42152985

Frame by frame, six photos released by federal investigators on Thursday graphically captured horrifying images of ill-fated Flight 2976 as it turned into a deadly fireball along a Kentucky airport runway.

The chilling sequence first shows an engine coming loose from the UPS cargo plane during takeoff. The engine pops off the plane as fire erupts in the next image, followed by the blazing engine catapulting off the stricken plane. The final images show the plane ablaze as it gets airborne, leaving behind trails of smoke.

Ricardo Vaz
November 19, 2025

Over the years, Western media have endorsed Washington’s Venezuela regime-change efforts at every turn, from cheerleading coup attempts to whitewashing deadly sanctions (FAIR.org, 6/13/22, 6/4/21, 1/22/20). Now, with a possible military operation that could have disastrous consequences, corporate outlets are making little effort to hold the US government accountable. Rather, they are unsurprisingly ceding the floor to the warmongers.

Despite Washington ominously amassing naval assets and issuing overt threats against Caracas, Western journalists often talk of “tensions” between the two countries (Fox, 11/17/25; ABC, 11/18/25), or even a “showdown” (Wall Street Journal, 10/9/25; Washington Post, 10/25/25). This is conceptually similar to the framing of Israel’s genocide in Gaza as a “conflict” with Hamas (FAIR.org, 12/8/23), except in this case the media does not have an equivalent of October 7 to rationalize all the atrocities by the US and its allies.

https://archive.ph/zqwG3

I appeared on Piers Morgan's show today with MAGA hacks who, for the first time, couldn't spin, lie, or shamelessly obfuscate for Trump, because they know he's in the Epstein Files, and he's stuck.

In the video above, I present my 3.5-minute case. I also added another segment where I mention the 4 leaks that Trump and MAGA can’t plug when it comes to the Epstein files, no matter how much they retract or keep hidden from the public.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/39243232

Israeli airstrikes kill at least 33 Palestinians in a series of attacks on Gaza City and Khan Younis yesterday, as Israel continues to flagrantly violate the ceasefire agreement. Israeli forces push westward into Gaza City, exclusive Drop Site footage shows. U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff’s summit with Hamas mediator Khalil al-Hayya is canceled. U.S. diplomat visits imprisoned Palestinian American teenager Mohammed Zaher Ibrahim and confirms that he appears to have been tortured. Security footage shows settlers attacking a Christian Palestinian village in the West Bank. Epstein claimed he aided former Israeli PM Ehud Barak in his 2019 attempt at a political comeback, Jacobin reports. NYC Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani announces he will retain Jessica Tisch as NYPD commissioner, confirms a meeting with Trump at the White House on Friday, and publicly discourages City Council member Chi Ossé’s primary challenge to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee met with Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard at the U.S. Embassy in July, the NYT reports. A federal court removes restrictions on immigration authorities in Chicago, reversing a lower court ruling. Insurance plans to punish hospitals that use out-of-network doctors, according to a report from The Lever. U.S. President Donald Trump turns his eyes to Sudan after meeting with Saudi crown prince. The U.S. is pushing a Ukraine peace plan.

Two months after Charlie Kirk’s assassination, a government-backed campaign has led to firings, suspensions, investigations and other action against more than 600 people. Republican officials have endorsed the punishments, saying that those who glorify violence should be removed from positions of trust.

By Raphael Satter and AJ Vicens

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/39241477

Two months after Charlie Kirk’s assassination, a government-backed campaign has led to firings, suspensions, investigations and other action against more than 600 people. Republican officials have endorsed the punishments, saying that those who glorify violence should be removed from positions of trust.

By Raphael Satter and AJ Vicens

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/30445295

Suddenly, drivers find themselves pulled over — often for reasons cited such as speeding, failure to signal, the wrong window tint or even a dangling air freshener blocking the view. They are then aggressively questioned and searched, with no inkling that the roads they drove put them on law enforcement’s radar.

Only solution is going to be to ban the automated license plate scanners; otherwise this is going to keep on happening.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A judge has dismissed a Trump administration legal challenge to New York policies that block immigration officials from arresting people at state courthouses, saying the federal government can’t force states to cooperate with those enforcement efforts.

U.S. District Judge Mae D’Agostino late Monday granted New York’s motion to dismiss the government’s lawsuit, one of several legal actions from the Republican administration targeting state and local policies over immigration enforcement.