pelespirit

And it isn’t only on the left that this trend can be seen. By the same token, localities that saw greater participation during the 2009 Tea Party protests also witnessed more Republican support during the 2010 midterms, one study finds. This shows the outsize impact a single protester can have, the study’s authors say. That’s because having one more attender at a demonstration rallies more support for a political cause than acquiring one more vote during an election does.

According to the often-cited 3.5% rule, if 3.5% of a population protests against a regime, the regime will fail. Developed by political scientists Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan, who researched civil resistance campaigns from 1900 to 2006, the rule has seen renewed interest in leftist circles recently, especially with No Kings protests attracting historic numbers.

In another assault on reproductive rights by the Trump administration, the US Department of Veterans Affairs sent out a memo on Monday announcing that it will no longer provide abortion or abortion counseling.

This change stems from a Department of Justice legal opinion on December 18 that reinstated exclusions on abortions and abortion counseling that the Biden administration had removed in 2022. That Biden-era ruling expanded abortion access for veterans in cases of rape, incest, or threats to life and health, even in states with bans.

The DOJ cited a rule the VA proposed in August that argued Biden demonstrated federal overreach by expanding abortion access just months after the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. But, according to the VA, Biden’s decision forced taxpayer funding for abortion.

“Pregnant Veterans and VA beneficiaries deserve to have access to world-class reproductive care when they need it most,” Denis McDonough, Biden’s Secretary of Veterans Affairs, said in 2022, calling it “a patient safety decision.”

This month Australia imposed a social media ban for children under 16. New York joins states like California and Minnesota that have similar social media laws.

The New York law includes platforms that offer "addictive feeds," auto play or infinite scroll, according to the legislation. The law applies to conduct occurring partly or wholly in New York but not when the platform is accessed by users physically outside the state.

It allows the state's attorney general to bring legal action and seek civil penalties of up $5,000 per violation of the law. Hochul compared the social media labels to warnings on other products like tobacco, where they communicate the risk of cancer, or plastic packaging, where they warn of the risk of suffocation for small children.

The Center’s website also already reflects the name change—but quibblers might note that the site’s actual domain does not. It remains “kennedy-center.org”. There’s a reason for this: the domains “trumpkennedycenter.org” and “trumpkennedycenter.com” are already taken. They’re owned by comedian and scriptwriter Toby Morton, who has written for South Park and Mad TV. In his downtime, Morton has made a habit of acquiring official-sounding domains for satirical purposes: he already owns around 50 such sites, including nancymace26.com (“I don’t legislate, I litigate grudges”) and mtg2026.org (“Building a whiter tomorrow!”).

Morton told the Washington Post that he has something similar planned for these domains: “[They will] absolutely reflect the absurdity of the moment,” he promised. In a moment of clairvoyance, he purchased them earlier this year after Trump announced that he was firing the Center’s entire board. (“We will soon announce a new Board,” the President wrote on Truth Social at the time, adding that the new board would feature “an amazing Chairman, DONALD J. TRUMP!”)

A US Department of Defense official speaking on condition of anonymity told the Associated Press that the United States worked with Nigeria to conduct the bombing, and that the government of Nigerian President Bola Tinubu—who is a Muslim—approved the attacks.

“The crisis in Nigeria is not a holy war against Christianity,” Atkinson continued. “Instead, it’s a devastating cocktail of poverty, climate-driven land disputes, and radical ideologies that prey on everyone and not just any distinct group.”

In addition to Nigeria, Trump—who says he deserves a Nobel Peace Prize—since 2017 has also ordered the bombing of Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen, as well as boats allegedly transporting drugs in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean. Trump has also deployed warships and thousands of US troops near Venezuela, which could become the next country attacked by a president who campaigned on a platform of “peace through strength.”

The Trump administration has ordered nearly 30 ambassadors in embassies around the world to return to the United States within weeks, a move that would leave a large gap in the American diplomatic corps even as President Trump has said he wants to resolve conflicts through diplomacy.

Many of the ambassadors were told in recent days to leave their posts by mid-January. They are all foreign service officers who had been appointed to their positions by the Biden administration and confirmed by the Senate. A standard tour is three to four years.

The union representing career diplomats said this was the first time that such a mass recall had taken place of career diplomats serving as ambassadors or chiefs of mission.

An unofficial list circulated among diplomats on Monday. It showed ambassadors being recalled from every part of the world, with about a dozen being told to leave posts in sub-Saharan Africa. Several diplomats said the list was fairly accurate.

US authorities have discovered more than a million more documents potentially related to the late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein that they plan to release in the coming days and weeks, officials say.

The FBI and federal prosecutors in New York informed the Department of Justice (DoJ) of the discovery.

"We have lawyers working around the clock to review and make the legally required redactions to protect victims, and we will release the documents as soon as possible," the DoJ said on Wednesday.

The department said it could take "a few more weeks" before all the files are released. The DoJ has been under scrutiny after not releasing all Epstein files by 19 December, the deadline mandated under a new law.

A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from enforcing a March presidential memorandum to revoke the security clearance of prominent Washington attorney Mark Zaid, ruling that the order — which also targeted 14 other individuals — could not be applied to him.

The decision marked the administration’s second legal setback on Tuesday, after the Supreme Court declined to allow Trump to deploy National Guard troops in the Chicago area, capping a first year in office in which President Donald Trump’s efforts to impose a sweeping agenda and pursue retribution against political adversaries have been repeatedly slowed by the courts.

U.S. District Judge Amir Ali in Washington granted Zaid’s request for a preliminary injunction, after he sued the Trump administration in May over the revocation of his security clearance. Zaid’s request called it an act of “improper political retribution” that jeopardized his ability to continue representing clients in sensitive national security cases.

A federal judge has blocked a new Texas law aimed at shielding minors from inappropriate online content from taking effect as scheduled on Jan. 1, ruling that it likely violates First Amendment free speech rights.

U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman said in a 20-page ruling that the Computer & Communications Industry Association, which filed a lawsuit against the legislation enacted this year, is likely to succeed at trial. But Pitman also made clear that the intent of the legislation, Senate Bill 2420, was sound.

"(T)he Court recognizes the broad support for protecting children when they use apps," Pitman wrote. "But the means to achieve that end must be consistent with the First Amendment."

Under SB 2024, app stores would be required to verify users' age before they can create an account. It also says that minors' account must be affiliated with a parent’s account and that a parent must consent before a minor can download or make purchases through the use of an app.

The first 4 paragraphs:

I have no idea if you know who I am, but I was asked to deliver this year’s alternative Christmas message (which I’ve heard is a big deal) so I hope you do, but if not I host what you call a chatshow (we call it a talkshow) in what you call the colonies, I think? I honestly have no idea what’s going on over there.

I do know what’s going on over here though, and I can tell you that, from a fascism perspective, this has been a really great year. Tyranny is booming over here.

You may have read in your colourful newspapers that my country’s president would like to shut me up – because I don’t adore him in the way he likes to be adored. The American government made a threat against me and the company I work for, and all of a sudden we were off the air. But then, you know what happened? A Christmas miracle happened. Well, it was September. It was a September miracle. But the holiday does seem to come earlier and earlier every year, doesn’t it?

Millions and millions of people stood up and said: “No, this is not acceptable.” People who never watched my show, people who were on record saying they hate my show spoke out, they marched. They did this all to support the right to a free expression of speech – and because so many people spoke out, we came back. Our show came back stronger than ever. We won, the president lost – and now I’m back on the air every night, givin’ the most powerful politician on Earth a right, and richly deserved, bollocking. That’s a word, right – I used it properly?