Politics

Last month, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Cummings, who found the government violated the agreement, ordered the release of more than 600 immigrants on bond, which the appeals court paused. Roughly 450 remain in custody, attorneys say.

In the 2-1 opinion, the appeals court said Cummings overstepped his authority on the blanket release of the detainees without assessing each case individually. The consent decree “carefully maps out what the district judge can or cannot order” to balance enforcement and public safety, according to the opinion. But the ruling also said the Trump administration wrongly categorized all immigrant arrestees as subject to mandatory detention.

Plaintiffs’ attorneys said they were disheartened by the ruling but glad the court upheld the extension of the agreement, which among other things requires ICE to show documentation for each arrest it makes. Federal judges elsewhere including in Colorado have also ruled to limit warrantless arrests.

Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration diverted more than $35 million in taxpayer funds — an amount far greater than previously known — as part of a brazen agenda last year to defeat two ballot amendments he staunchly opposed, a Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times investigation has found.

Much of the state money was intended to assist needy Floridians, including children. Instead, it paid for political consultants, lawyers and thousands of advertisements that helped DeSantis and his supporters win at the ballot box.

The ads purchased with the diverted money blanketed TV, social media and radio stations in the weeks before the election. They defended Florida’s six-week abortion ban and made exaggerated claims about the dangers of marijuana without mentioning that both were the subject of ballot amendments last fall.

Along the way, the governor’s administration bent state spending laws and obscured millions in government spending, records and interviews show.

House Democrats released a selection of photos from the estate of Jeffrey Epstein on Friday, including some of Donald Trump, Bill Clinton and the former Prince Andrew.

The 19 photos released by Democratic lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee were a small part of more than 95,000 they received from the estate of Epstein, who died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting sex trafficking charges. The photos released Friday were separate from the case files that the Department of Justice is now compelled to release.

The photos were released without captions or context and included a black-and-white image of Trump alongside six women whose faces were blacked out. The committee did not say why their faces were blacked out.

Link to pics: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/fq3vn18ltfd83re8ggtle/AHYB3CbERvyT38o_vHllVx4?rlkey=tz5pq4zr9i6nofkpi2g7l5vne&e=3&st=z46l8nor&dl=0

US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order aimed at blocking states from enforcing their own artificial intelligence (AI) regulations.

"We want to have one central source of approval," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday.

It will give the Trump administration tools to push back on the most "onerous" state rules, said White House AI adviser David Sacks. The government will not oppose AI regulations around children's safety, he added.

The move marks a win for technology giants who have called for US-wide AI legislation as it could have a major impact on America's goal of leading the fast-developing industry.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation is asking a federal court to stop Trump’s White House ballroom project until it goes through comprehensive design reviews and public comments and wins approval from Congress.

The National Trust argues that Trump, by fast-tracking the project, has committed multiple violations of the Administrative Procedures Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, while also exceeding his constitutional authority by not seeking congressional approval for a project of this scale.

Trump, a Republican, already has bypassed the federal government’s usual building practices and historical reviews when he razed the East Wing of the White House. He recently added another architectural firm for a ballroom that itself would be nearly twice the size of the White House before the East Wing’s demolition.

The Department of Justice is seeking to obtain voting materials from the 2020 presidential election in Fulton County, Georgia — the same county where President Donald Trump was criminally charged in connection with a scheme to overturn the state’s election results.

DOJ’s Civil Rights Division sued the Fulton County clerk of courts Friday, asking for the county to provide “all used and void ballots, stubs of all ballots, signature envelopes, and corresponding envelope digital files” from the 2020 presidential election.

The lawsuit, which comes after Republicans on Georgia’s election board subpoenaed Fulton County for the same records earlier this year, marks a significant heightening of Trump’s ongoing falsely held belief that voting in Georgia during the 2020 election was illegitimate.

Indiana Republicans have defied intense pressure from President Donald Trump by rejecting his demands that they pass a voting map meant to favour their party in next year's midterm elections.

In one of the most conservative states in the US, 21 Republicans in the Senate joined all 10 Democrats to torpedo the redistricting plan by a vote of 31-19. The new map passed the House last week.

If it had cleared the legislature, Republicans could have flipped the only two Democratic-held congressional seats in the state.

Trump's call for Republican state leaders to redraw maps and help the party keep its congressional majority in Washington next year has triggered gerrymandering battles nationwide.

Editor's Note: This was on the front page. They took it down pretty quickly, but thankfully I got a screenshot. WTF is "Some say..." There was nothing in the article about threats and/or which party was doing the threats.

The US has imposed fresh sanctions on six more ships said to be carrying Venezuelan oil, a day after seizing a tanker off the country's coast.

Sanctions have also been placed on some of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's relatives and businesses associated with what Washington calls his illegitimate regime.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters the seized vessel, called the Skipper, had been involved in "illicit oil shipping" and would be taken to an American port.

Caracas has described it as an act of "international piracy".

The Gold Card scheme promises US residency in "record time" and will require a $1m fee which is "evidence that the individual will substantially benefit the United States", the programme's website said.

Businesses sponsoring employees are required to pay $2m, along with additional fees. A "platinum" version of the card that offers special tax breaks will also be available soon for $5m, the website said.

Extra fees to the government may be charged depending on each applicant's circumstances, the site said. Individuals are also required to pay a non-refundable $15,000 processing fee before their application is reviewed.

A federal judge in Maryland ordered Kilmar Abrego Garcia freed from immigration detention on Thursday while his legal challenge against his deportation moves forward, handing a major victory to the immigrant whose wrongful deportation to a notorious prison in El Salvador made him a flashpoint in the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ruled that Immigration and Customs Enforcement must let Abrego Garcia go immediately.

“Since Abrego Garcia’s return from wrongful detention in El Salvador, he has been re-detained, again without lawful authority,” the judge wrote. “For this reason, the Court will GRANT Abrego Garcia’s Petition for immediate release from ICE custody.”

Andrew Stettner, an unemployment insurance expert at The Century Foundation (TCF) noted that new unemployment claims are now at their highest level since early September (2025).

“These totals don’t include an additional 12,732 former federal workers who are also now relying on unemployment benefits, as the number of federal workers on UI has stayed at levels not seen since the pandemic, even after the government shutdown has ended,” Stettner said.

“This disappointing news comes on the heels of other troubling labor market data,” he continued, pointing to private-sector payroll figures showing the US economy lost 32,000 jobs in November. “With hiring still so weak, it is no surprise that the percentage of workers feeling confident enough to quit their job dropped to its lowest level since the beginning of the pandemic in April 2020. In fact, our polling shows that 27% of Americans said they took on a ‘second job, side hustle, or gig work’ in the past year to help make ends meet.”

Senior Democratic lawmakers and at least one Republican have condemned Wednesday’s seizure of a Venezuelan oil tanker off the nation’s coast, with one saying Donald Trump is “sleepwalking us into a war with Venezuela”.

There is growing, at least somewhat bipartisan unease in Washington over the administration’s escalating military posture in the region. Trump has accused Venezuela of facilitating drug trafficking, and increased the US military presence in the Caribbean to a level not seen in decades. The administration has also conducted a campaign of bombings of alleged drug boats, killing more than 80 people so far.

Trump confirmed the tanker seizure shortly after it occurred, telling reporters: “We’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela – large tanker, very large, largest one ever seized, actually.” When asked what would happen to the oil, Trump responded: “We keep the oil, I guess!”

The tenants just wanted to talk to their landlord.

Dozens of residents from across the country gathered Monday at the Capital Realty Group offices in Spring Valley, New York, hoping to set up a meeting with the real estate company’s president, Moshe Eichler.

These individuals were part of a first-of-its-kind nationwide tenants union, representing residents of more than 1,500 affordable housing units across nine properties in six states, including Colorado. But the landlord, they say, won’t recognize their union or negotiate.

As the group of 70 began a news conference outside the office, they were met by a strange sight: Dozens of people arrived to counter their protest, video provided by union organizers shows. These men, most of whom appeared to be Hispanic, carried Israeli flags and signs about combating antisemitism. They admitted to an interpreter that they didn’t know why they were there, the translator told The Denver Post.

The new poll starkly illustrates how Trump has struggled to hold onto political wins since his return to office. Even border security — an issue on which his approval remains relatively high — has declined in recent months.

But in Wednesday's ruling, he said the materials could now be released because of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which was signed into law by US President Donald Trump last month.

The law requires the justice department to release investigative material related to Epstein by 19 December, including unclassified records, documents and communications.

It also allows the department to withhold files that involve active criminal investigations or raise privacy concerns.

The Trump administration must stop deploying the California National Guard in Los Angeles and return control of the troops to the state, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco granted a preliminary injunction sought by California officials who opposed President Donald Trump’s extraordinary move to use state Guard troops without the governor’s approval to further his immigration enforcement efforts. But he also put the decision on hold until Monday.

California argued that conditions in Los Angeles had changed since Trump first took command of the troops and deployed them in June. The administration initially called up more than 4,000 California National Guard troops, but that number had dropped to several hundred by late October, with only a 100 or so troops remaining in the Los Angeles area.

But the Republican administration extended the deployment until February while also trying to use California Guard members in Portland, Oregon as part of its effort to send the military into Democratic-run cities despite fierce resistance from mayors and governors.

A senior Democratic senator is calling for an investigation into potential insider trading by fossil-fuel billionaires close to the Trump administration, after a Guardian investigation raised questions about an unusual share buying spree.

Robert Pender and Michael Sabel, the founders and co-chairs of Venture Global, a liquefied natural gas (LNG) company headquartered in Virginia, bought more than a million shares worth almost $12m each, just days after meeting with senior Trump officials in March.

The meeting included Chris Wright, the energy secretary, who days later granted the company an export license essential for its expansion plans in Europe, the Guardian reported last week.

“Dirty oil and gas bucks are fueling the Trump Administration, which should outrage all of us. This latest reporting portrays a pattern of pay-to-play donations and favorable actions by the administration,” said Jeff Merkley, senator for Oregon and senior member of the Senate appropriations and budget committees.

Trump said he objected to taking immigrants from "hellholes like Afghanistan, Haiti, Somalia and many other countries." He added for emphasis that those places "are a disaster, right? Filthy, dirty, disgusting, ridden with crime."

So far, the public has been skeptical about Trump's economic performance. Just 33% of U.S. adults approve of Trump's handling of the economy, according to a November survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

"You don't need 37 dolls for your daughter," he told the crowd. "Two or three is nice."

"I was confused because I have a passport. I've been voting for almost 10 years. Why is this happening now?" Nel recalled in an interview with NPR. "My first thought was something is going on in terms of wanting to adjust and change who is registered to vote." An election worker raises a U.S. flag while assisting voters at a polling station in Las Vegas on Election Day, Nov. 5, 2024. earlier

Other eligible Texas voters received the same notice, though official numbers are not yet known.

Their experience underscores concerns election experts have had about the reliability of SAVE, which the Trump administration has turned into a controversial citizenship lookup tool. While the changes to SAVE have made the tool more accessible to states, the overhauled system has been widely criticized for being rolled out without public notice, congressional input or transparency about its accuracy.

President Donald Trump's administration wants the International Criminal Court to amend its founding document to ensure it does not investigate the Republican president and his top officials, a Trump administration official said, threatening new U.S. sanctions on the court if it did not.

If the court does not act on this U.S. demand and two others - dropping investigations of Israeli leaders over the Gaza war and formally ending an earlier probe of U.S. troops over their actions in Afghanistan - Washington may penalize more ICC officials and could sanction the court itself, the official said.

Two US fighter jets were tracked circling the Gulf of Venezuela on Tuesday as tensions continue to escalate between the two countries.

The F/A-18 Super Hornets appeared on flight tracking sites near Maracaibo, Venezuela's second-largest city, at around 13:00 (17:00 GMT), before circling the gulf for about 40 minutes.

A US defence official told the Associated Press the F/A-18 jets had conducted a "routine training flight" in the area.

The incident comes amid a wave of US strikes against boats in the Caribbean Sea, which the White House said were trafficking drugs to the US from Venezuela. Experts have raised questions over the legality of the strikes, which have killed more than 80 people.

The catch is that only Americans enrolled in high-deductible bronze or catastrophic plans on the ACA exchanges would be eligible for the funding, which could not be used on monthly premiums. In 2026, the average individual deductible for bronze plans is $7,476, and the average for catastrophic plans is $10,600.

Larry Levitt, executive vice president for health policy at KFF, said Tuesday that “premium payments would still more than double next year” under the GOP plan, which does not have enough support to overcome the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster.

“Healthy people could be better off in a high deductible plan with a health savings account,” Levitt noted. “People who are sick would face big premium increases or a deductible they can’t afford.”

The Education Department announced the settlement Tuesday in a lawsuit challenging former President Joe Biden’s Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) loan repayment plan. The plan has been at the center of an ongoing legal battle since last year.

The agreement would put an end to the SAVE plan, which means borrowers enrolled in the program will need to find a new, legal plan and start making payments again, according to the Education Department.

The agreement will have to be approved in court before it takes effect, the agency said. Last year, borrowers enrolled in the SAVE plan had their loans placed in forbearance, which means their payments have been on hold.

“You’re asking us to destroy the structure of government and to take away from Congress its ability to protect its idea that the government is better structured with some agencies that are independent,” Sotomayor said.

“What you’re saying is the president can do more than the law permits," Sotomayor said.

That silenced the room, and Sauer hurriedly rephrased some of his earlier arguments in favor of reversing Humphrey.

The bill, which was sent to Pritzker's desk by the state legislature last month, restricts immigration enforcement efforts outside of state courthouses and allows plaintiffs to sue for damages.

It also prohibits schools from threatening to disclose actual or perceived citizenship or immigration status of an employee, student or a person associated with a student or employee to an external party.

"With my signature today, we are protecting people and institutions that belong here in Illinois. Dropping your kid off at day care, going to the doctor, or attending your classes should not be a life-altering task," said Governor Pritzker, a Democrat, who some consider a potential 2028 presidential candidate.

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The law went into immediate effect and is in response to an aggressive immigration agenda launched by the Republican President Donald Trump targeting U.S. cities like Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City.