United States | News & Politics

WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers seeking to force the release of files related to the sex trafficking investigation into Jeffrey Epstein are predicting a big win in the House this week with a “deluge of Republicans” voting for their bill and bucking the GOP leadership and President Donald Trump, who for months have disparaged their effort.

The bill would force the Justice Department to release all files and communications related to Epstein, as well as any information about the investigation into his death in federal prison. Information about Epstein’s victims or ongoing federal investigations would be allowed to be redacted.

“There could be 100 or more” votes from Republicans, said Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., among the lawmakers discussing the legislation on Sunday news show appearances. “I’m hoping to get a veto-proof majority on this legislation when it comes up for a vote.”

Under President Trump, an agency intended to keep Americans safe has diverted resources from combating child abuse, trafficking and terrorism.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/39081380

Jon Queally
Nov 15, 2025

Echoing recent viral comments by music superstar Billie Eilish, Maine Democratic candidate for US Senate Graham Planter is also arguing that the existence of billionaires cannot be justified in a world where working-class people with multiple jobs still cannot afford the basic necessities of life.

In video clip posted Friday of a campaign event in the northern town of Caribou from last month, Platner rails against the “structures” of an economy in which billionaires with vast personal fortunes use their wealth to bend government—including the tax code—to conform to their interests while working people are left increasingly locked out of controlling their own destinies, both materially and politically.

OVER THE PAST FEW MONTHS, the United States has embarked on a controversial maritime campaign in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific targeting small Venezuelan and Colombian vessels alleged to be engaged in drug smuggling. Under an asserted “narcoterrorist” deterrence operation, the United States has thus far carried out nineteen lethal strikes on small boats in international waters, killing at least seventy-six people, all undertaken without the transparency, oversight, or legal foundation that normally governs the use of American force.

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To begin with, Venezuela is not small, not simple, and not susceptible to quick, low-cost military outcomes. In geographic and demographic terms alone, Venezuela is enormous. It covers roughly 882,000 square kilometers, making it substantially larger than Ukraine (579,000 sq km) or Texas (696,000 sq km). Its population—estimated to be above 31 million people—is roughly equivalent to current wartime Ukraine and modern Texas. It is a country of sprawling mountains, dense cities, jungles, and industrial corridors where military infrastructure sits interlaced with civilian life. Caracas, Maracaibo, Valencia, and other urban centers are not “surgical strike zones”—they are vast megacities where any attempt to dismantle regime capabilities from the air risks substantial civilian casualties and cascading regional effects.

"Healthcare is becoming unsustainable under Trump," says one progressive politician running for US Senate. "Medicare for All would fix it."

Video. Federal officials confirmed that immigration enforcement surged in Charlotte, North Carolina, as Border Patrol agents made multiple arrests. Local resident Willy Aceituno said he saw agents chasing people and was twice stopped himself, with officers breaking his car window and throwing him to the ground

Growing divide within GOP and right-wing media over Epstein threatens to split apart Trump’s coalition

"None of this would have been possible without everyday New Yorkers willing to spare $5, $10, or $20 to help build a government that will deliver for working people," said the mayor-elect.

A convicted Ponzi schemer whose 24-year prison term was commuted by president Donald Trump in 2021 now faces as much as 50 years behind bars for an investor fraud that took place after his clemency. Article content

Eliyahu “Eli” Weinstein, 51, faces sentencing Friday in federal court in Trenton, N.J., after being convicted of defrauding more than 150 investors out of US$41 million. Investors believed their money was going to COVID-19 masks, baby formula and first-aid kits bound for Ukraine, but it actually went to gambling, real estate and luxury watches.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/38529080

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/38529078

originally published 10/4/25

[A video podcast about Cuba, hosted on the PeerTube server CuddlyTube, from the podcast team Cuba Analysis Podcast]

In July 2023, the CubaAnalysisPodcast sat down with Johana Tablada, then Deputy Director General for the United States at Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In the interview, Tablada describes the key features of US-Cuba relations, past and present, clarifies how the US blockade functions, explains its economic and human toll, and lists the impacts of Cuba’s inclusion on the US State Sponsors of Terrorism List. Tablada responds to US claims to champion human rights, while imposing unprecedented sanctions and pressuring countries to cut ties with Cuban medical missions worldwide.

The Justice Department posted pardons online bearing identical copies of President Donald Trump’s signature before quietly correcting them this week after what the agency called a “technical error.”

The replacements came after online commenters seized on striking similarities in the president’s signature across a series of pardons dated Nov. 7, including those granted to former New York Mets player Darryl Strawberry, former Tennessee House speaker Glen Casada and former New York police sergeant Michael McMahon. In fact, the signatures on several pardons initially uploaded to the Justice Department’s website were identical, two forensic document experts confirmed to The Associated Press.

Within hours of the online speculation, the administration replaced copies of the pardons with new ones that did not feature identical signatures. It insisted Trump, who mercilessly mocked his predecessor’s use of an autopen, had originally signed all the Nov. 7 pardons himself and blamed “technical” and staffing issues for the error, which has no bearing on the validity of the clemency actions.

What they thought was the bedrock protection of naturalization now feels more like quicksand.

Some are worried that if they leave the country, they will have difficulties when trying to return, fearful because of accounts of naturalized citizens being questioned or detained by U.S. border agents. They wonder: Do they need to lock down their phones to protect their privacy? Others are hesitant about moving around within the country, after stories like that of a U.S. citizen accused of being here illegally and detained even after his mother produced his birth certificate.

There has been no evidence of an uptick in denaturalizations so far in this Trump administration. Yet that hasn’t assuaged some. Sesay said he doesn’t travel domestically anymore without his passport, despite having a REAL ID with its federally mandated, stringent identity requirements.

“Here’s what the story is. I had an MRI. The doctor said it was the best result he has ever seen as a doctor. That’s it.” Trump said. “But, I had an MRI as part of my standard, yearly—or, I think they do it every two years. But I have the physical every year. But the result was outstanding.”

“Was it your brain, or … ?” the reporter asked.

“I have no idea what they analyzed, but whatever they analyzed, they analyzed it well,” the president said.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/39029271

By Cathleen Gutekanst
Nov 15, 2025

Thousands of Chicago-area residents have undergone training in how to respond quickly to ICE raids as part of Rapid Response teams. These people are out on the street, blowing whistles and honking horns when they see ICE and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents, and warning those in danger to seek cover. Rapid Responders also take regular shifts walking children to school so that their parents do not have to risk an ICE abduction at the drop-off site. Responders stand at nearby school corners to reassure school children that someone is there to protect them, to document what ICE does, and to seek help, if necessary.

The now numerous Rapid Response group networks in both the city of Chicago and the surrounding suburbs operate mostly with the guidance of ICIRR. The immigrant rights coalition notifies groups and individuals in its “Eyes on ICE” text chain, and conducts Zoom training sessions for those seeking to become Rapid Responders in their neighborhoods. The ICIRR hotline offers help in 13 languages — including Spanish, Polish, and Urdu.

In 2023, Torres and his colleague Timnit Gebru coined the acronym TESCREAL to describe a constellation of ideologies — Transhumanism, Extropianism, Singularitarianism, Cosmism, Rationalism, Effective Altruism, Longtermism.

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All of these people also embody the same kind of discriminatory attitudes that animated the eugenics movement of the twentieth century. Elon Musk has warned about global population decline, but if you look closely at some of his tweets, it seems that he’s more explicitly worried about white populations declining. Several months ago, someone tweeted that the white demographic globally is about eight percent of the world population, and Musk’s reply to this was something to the effect of “and declining fast.” There is very much a racial component to his anxiety about not just immigration, but population decline. Musk basically thinks that white people are superior, and hence it would be very bad for the future of humanity and post-humanity if the white population were to decline.

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There are two essential things for people to understand about what’s happening in Silicon Valley. One is that the TESCREAL worldview is ubiquitous. It’s the water these people swim in and the air they breathe. So you just cannot understand what’s going on in Silicon Valley, especially with respect to the race to build AGI, without some understanding of transhumanism, longtermism, and all of these TESCREAL ideologies.

The second really important thing for people to understand is that a key component of the utopian vision at the heart of TESCREALism is a pro-extinctionist stance. Utopia looks like a world in which post-humans, not humans, are the ones who rule the world. When Peter Thiel hesitated, he was just channeling this pro-extinctionist component of the TESCREAL worldview. It’s not humanity, it’s post-humanity that is going to ultimately go out and colonize space, that’s going to run the show.

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The rationalist community is very influential in Silicon Valley, and what the rationalist community basically tells its members is that once you’ve mastered this or that theory within the field of decision theory, once you’ve mastered the patterns of thought that are optimally rational, you then have direct access to fundamental truths about what the future ought to look like. And because rationality provides a universal and objective perspective on the world, you don’t need anyone else’s perspective. That is exactly how these billionaires in Silicon Valley are thinking about our collective future.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.today/post/41803220

As the Trump administration searches for more space to detain immigrants, it is approaching Washington tribes to see if they will participate.

The Nisqually Tribal Council said in a statement Friday evening it learned that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been talking to one of its staff members without consulting the council.

The council said it also discovered ICE has been reaching out to other tribal governments and cities in Washington in an attempt to secure detention space.

For its part, the Nisqually Indian Tribe, whose reservation lies east of Olympia and which has a 288-bed correctional facility built in part with federal funds, is telling ICE no, according to the council.

“The Nisqually people are not in favor of, nor will the tribal council allow, the detention of individuals by ICE on our reservation or in our facilities,” said Tribal Chair E.K. Choke in the statement.

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The gravity and extent of the damage being done to our constitutionally-guaranteed rights and freedoms by this administration is mind-boggling, says constitutional law professor Kim Wehle.