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January 28, 2025
There’s a term for Trump’s political style: authoritarian populism
An Austrian electoral victory by a party with Nazi roots. The “anti-terrorist” prosecution of an Indian writer for decade-old criticisms of the Hindu nationalist governing party. MAGA.
Reading global political headlines over the past decade, Míriam Juan-Torres González and her colleagues at UC Berkeley’s Othering & Belonging Institute (OBI) saw a pattern. Around the world, politicians were fearmongering, scapegoating marginalized groups for a host of societal problems, and chipping away at democratic norms, like persecuting journalists, in the process.
Internally, researchers at OBI’s Democracy and Belonging Forum began trying to label this phenomenon so they could understand how such leaders operate and eventually, figure out how to prevent their consolidation of power.
The pattern coalesced into a hybrid style of politics that they termed “authoritarian populism.” It didn’t fit neatly into pre-existing academic boxes — authoritarian practices were occurring in mostly democratic states, for example — so Juan-Torres set out to outline the strategies and motivations common among this increasingly popular breed of world leaders, who use populist rhetoric while stoking nativism and aggrandizing their own power.
The resulting paper from OBI, published in late 2024, helps define “authoritarian populism” so readers can see it at play on the global stage. It’s important, Juan-Torres said, because “words and ideas have power; they can frame our understanding of what is and what ought to be done.”
Defining authoritarianism
In academic literature, Juan-Torres said that pure authoritarianism often refers to a regime type; it describes the way leaders govern. Authoritarians consolidate power so that they, as the executive branch, have sweeping authority. They often suppress political opposition, spread disinformation, fuel political violence and turn historically independent institutions into political actors that will help achieve their agenda.
They typically use coercion to achieve these goals rather than by mustering popular support. Often, authoritarians like Vladimir Putin justify their grip on power by fanning the flames of emotionally charged topics and scapegoating marginalized groups. (Russia’s discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community is an example.)
One difference between an authoritarian government and a fascist or totalitarian one, the paper explains, is that an authoritarian government doesn’t require rabid citizen participation — a drastic example would be Hitler Youth programs in Nazi Germany — and instead leaves room for some private life that is not controlled by the government.
The problem with applying the authoritarian label willy-nilly today, Juan-Torres said, is that authoritarian practices like torture or mass surveillance have long happened in states that are otherwise democratic, with relatively free and fair elections. That discrepancy added to the OBI team’s desire to find a new way of describing modern political trends.
The Memo: Trump knocks over the guardrails, deepening Democratic panic
President Trump is pressing full steam ahead with an agenda Democrats worry has an increasingly autocratic bent.
But right now, there’s not much they can do about it.
News emerged late Monday afternoon that the Justice Department was firing more than a dozen officials who had been part of the attempt to prosecute Trump, led by former special counsel Jack Smith.
That move, apparently spearheaded by Trump’s acting attorney general, James McHenry, looked to critics like the latest attempt by the president to take vengeance on his enemies, reward his friends and kick away the guardrails of civil society.
In his first week back in office, Trump has pardoned almost all the people convicted of Jan. 6-related offenses, while commuting the sentences of a handful of others. The total of more than 1,500 people includes several convicted of seditious conspiracy and a larger number found guilty of violent attacks upon police officers.
Trump’s administration has also removed roughly 17 inspectors general from their roles overseeing government departments; removed security details from former government officials who have crossed him; and instructed the attorney general to root out anything he deems to be political bias in work conducted during former President Biden’s administration.
It’s enough to magnify the chill many Democrats felt at the possibility of Trump resuming power.
Biden, while still a candidate, warned about “ultra-MAGA Republicans” whom he portrayed as a danger to American political norms.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris held her final rally of the campaign at the Ellipse, near the White House, aiming to remind voters of Trump’s conduct in and around the 2021 Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
Former President Obama warned during the campaign that Trump “sees power as nothing more than a means to his ends.”
None of it kept Trump from winning a second term, and with a better performance than in either of his two previous presidential campaigns.
Democrats have very little leverage to prevent Trump from enacting his agenda, given that there are GOP majorities in the Senate and the House, and that the Supreme Court has a 6-3 conservative majority, thanks in part to the three justices Trump nominated in his first term.
Latin America will not put up with Trump’s new Monroe Doctrine
Latin America will not put up with Trump’s new Monroe Doctrine
On Sunday, tensions escalated between President Trump and Colombian President Gustavo Petro after the latter refused to accept deportation flights on U.S. military planes. Although the Colombian government routinely receives deportation flights from the U.S., it seems that the decision came after it was reported that migrants on similar flights to other countries in the region were handcuffed and forced to endure inhumane conditions.
Trump did not respond kindly to the Colombian government’s refusal. He took to his social media site Truth Social to deride Petro as a “socialist” who is “unpopular amongst his people” stating that the refusal constituted a “national security threat.” He said he would retaliate by sanctioning members of the Colombian government and imposing a 25 percent tariff on goods from Colombia, which is one of America’s largest trading partners in the region. The White House quickly released an official statement in which “Colombia” was misspelled as “Columbia.”
Petro proved to be a formidable adversary for Trump’s social media battle, responding with posts on X deriding the inhumane conditions that migrants faced on deportation flights and announcing that he would also put tariffs on goods coming from the U.S. In one particularly long post, worthy of a García Márquez novel, Petro said that while he finds traveling to the U.S. boring, he does like American writers like Walt Whitman and admires the history of the American working class, but will quit looking toward the north and open up to the rest of the world.
On Sunday night, an agreement seems to have been reached between the Trump administration and Colombia that would lift the proposed sanctions and tariffs in exchange for resuming deportation flights between the two countries, leading both sides to release statements claiming victory. But the spat reveals some issues that the administration will continue to face when implementing its “America First” foreign policy in Latin America.
By treating the countries of the region as if they were still banana republics that would bend over backward to fulfill the U.S. government’s wishes, Trump gravely underestimates their power as a united bloc. According to the United Nations, the region constitutes 21.3 percent of U.S. foreign trade, equal to over $1 trillion. That is not a small number. If the region consciously decided to look towards other trading partners, the U.S. economy would feel the effects, and not just in coffee prices.
Trump’s saber-rattling with Mexico, Colombia and Panama will most likely lead these countries to fortify their relationships with China and Russia. Brazil, the giant of Latin America, is a founding member of the BRICS alliance and has shown that it is possible to successfully break free from U.S. economic dependency. Before Trump’s inauguration, Colombian officials were already looking at ways to join that alliance, and now there is an even greater sense of urgency.
January 20, 2025
The broligarchs have a vision for the new Trump term. It’s darker than you think.
The broligarchs have a vision for the new Trump term. It’s darker than you think.
The broligarchs have a vision for the new Trump term. It’s darker than you think.
There’s a dominant narrative in the media about why tech billionaires are sucking up to Donald Trump: Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos, all of whom have descended on the nation’s capital for the presidential inauguration, either happily support or have largely acquiesced to Trump because they think he’ll offer lower taxes and friendlier regulations. In other words, it’s just about protecting their own selfish business interests.
That narrative is not exactly wrong — Trump has in fact promised massive tax cuts for billionaires — but it leaves out the deeper, darker forces at work here. For the tech bros — or as some say, the broligarchs — this is about much more than just maintaining and growing their riches. It’s about ideology. An ideology inspired by science fiction and fantasy.
An ideology that says they are supermen, and supermen should not be subject to rules, because they’re doing something incredibly important: remaking the world in their image.
It’s this ideology that makes MAGA a godsend for the broligarchs, who include Musk, Zuck, and Bezos as well as the venture capitalists Peter Thiel and Marc Andreessen. That’s because MAGA is all about granting unchecked power to the powerful.
“It’s a sense of complete impunity — including impunity to the laws of nature,” Brooke Harrington, a professor of economic sociology at Dartmouth College who studies the behavior of the ultra-rich, told me. “They reject constraint in all of its forms.”
As Harrington has noted, Trump is the perfect avatar for that worldview. He’s a man who incited an attempted coup, who got convicted on 34 felony counts and still won reelection, who notoriously said in reference to sexual assault, “When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.”
Key takeaways as Donald Trump is sworn in as 47th US president
The broligarchs have a vision for the new Trump term. It’s darker than you think.
The broligarchs have a vision for the new Trump term. It’s darker than you think.
Donald Trump has taken the oath of office to become the 47th president of the United States, returning to the White House four years after he left it in defeat.
In his inaugural speech on Monday, Trump, 78, took an aggressive posture, using his podium in the US Capitol Rotunda to blast his predecessor, outgoing Democratic President Joe Biden.
He also framed himself as a victim of government “weaponisation”, taking jabs at what he called a “radical and corrupt establishment”.
“My recent election is a mandate to completely and totally reverse a horrible betrayal,” Trump said. “From this moment on, America’s decline is over.”
This was Trump’s second presidency, after he served in the White House from 2017 to 2021.
But the Trump who returned to the presidency on Monday was a Trump who appeared more confident than in his first term, as he announced his intention to sign a stream of executive actions from his first moments in office.
“ With these actions, we will begin the complete restoration of America and the revolution of common sense. It’s all about common sense,” he said, citing a new pro-business energy policy and a crackdown on irregular migration as two of his first actions.
‘My arrest was unjustified’: released Palestinians decry their imprisonment
The broligarchs have a vision for the new Trump term. It’s darker than you think.
MLK Day at King’s Atlanta congregation features daughter’s warning about anti-woke rhetoric
In the dead of night on Sunday, after hours of waiting, a white bus carrying dozens of Palestinian prisoners, released in exchange for three Israeli hostages handed over by Hamas to Israel, arrived at Fawakeh square in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
A group of young men had climbed on to the vehicle, waving Palestinian and Hamas flags. Disembarking from the coach were mostly women and many minors, the majority of whom were detained after 7 October 2023.
Many said they had been arrested just for writing a social media post; others for taking part in protests against the massacre of civilians in Gaza.
Latifa Misha’sha, 34, was one of the 90 prisoners freed on Sunday on the first day of the ceasefire deal aimed at ending the 15-month war in Gaza.
As soon as she emerged from the bus, she hugged her brother Basil, in tears, without saying anything for minutes.
“She was so skinny,” Basil says. “In those 20 months she has lost over 6 or more kilograms of her weight. She had been arrested on November 2023 for posting a picture supporting Gaza on Instagram.”
She was charged with incitement, like many arrested after October 2023, when Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped 250 people, triggering the recent conflict.
Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners are to be released under the terms of the first phase of the ceasefire, in exchange for 33 Israeli hostages.
Under the first phase of the ceasefire deal reached between Israel and Hamas, which is scheduled to last 42 days, the militant group has agreed to release 33 hostages including children, women (including soldiers) and men over 50, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli jails.
MLK Day at King’s Atlanta congregation features daughter’s warning about anti-woke rhetoric
MLK Day at King’s Atlanta congregation features daughter’s warning about anti-woke rhetoric
ATLANTA (AP) — A massive 70-member choir belted out “Hallelujah” at a Martin Luther King Jr. Day service Monday at his former congregation in Atlanta, followed by a stern message from his youngest daughter warning against anti-woke rhetoric.
The service at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta was among the most prominent commemorations of King that played out across the country Monday. At the front of the church’s stage, seven people held large signs proclaiming “JUSTICE”, “FREEDOM” and “DEMOCRACY.”
“We are living in a time when anti-woke rhetoric has become a weapon to divide us and distract us from the real issues of injustice,” King’s daughter, the Rev. Bernice King, said. “To be woke is to be aware of oppression and commitment to justice.”
The MLK holiday was half of the nation’s double-duty Monday: the inauguration of Donald Trump, who heads back to the White House, created mixed feelings on King’s day for civil rights leaders who have opposed Trump’s rhetoric and stances on race and civil rights.
The keynote speaker at Ebenezer then made a reference to Trump, saying he had heard “that somebody had won a mandate.”
“I don’t care who you are, if you win 60% of the vote, you never win a mandate to violate justice,” said Bishop William Barber II, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign. “You never win a mandate to hurt people.”
But in Washington, in a speech after taking the oath of office, Trump noted the significance of the King holiday.
“In his honor, we will strive together to make his dream a reality,” Trump said.
Ebenezer is where King was baptized as a child and ordained at 19 years old. He became the congregation’s co-pastor in 1960 alongside his father, Rev. Martin Luther King Sr. He remained in that role until his death, and his funeral was held at the church. The church is now part of the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park & Preservation District.
How Trump has already changed the world
How Trump has already changed the world
Donald Trump has only just been sworn in as the 47th president but the global impact of his second term is already being felt.
From Jerusalem to Kyiv to London to Ottawa, his election victory and the anticipation of a new Trump agenda has changed the calculations of world leaders - with some far-reaching consequences.
In the lead-up to the handover of power in Washington, our correspondents dissected these changes in the regions where they were.
Middle East - ceasefire deal in Gaza
By international editor Jeremy Bowen
Donald Trump has made an impact on the Middle East even before he sits down in the Oval Office to start his second term as president.
He cut through the delaying tactics that Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in alliance with his ultra-nationalist coalition partners, had used to avoid accepting the ceasefire deal that Trump's predecessor Joe Biden put on the negotiating table last May.
American pressure on Hamas and other Palestinian groups is a given. Under Biden, pressure on Israel was the lever that was never pulled. Trump starts his second term claiming credit, with reasonable justification, for getting the ceasefire deal in Gaza over the line. He can bask in some glory.
UK - a secret 'mini cabinet'
By Laura Kuenssberg, presenter, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg
Trump and his team are different this time round, more prepared, with a more aggressive agenda perhaps, but his delight in keeping the world guessing seems undimmed. It's this uncertainty accompanying Trump that the British political establishment in Whitehall and Westminster finds so shocking.
How can the UK prepare for what it can't yet know?
A small group of senior ministers has been trying.
There have been series of secret "mini-cabinet" meetings, with the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, the Chancellor Rachel Reeves, the Foreign Secretary David Lammy, and the Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds "trying to plan for what might come", according to one source.
One insider tells me there hasn't been too much preparation for multiple specific scenarios because "you'd drive yourself crazy" trying to guess Trump's next steps. But another source says various papers have been prepared to be presented to the wider Cabinet.
I'm told the focus has been "looking for opportunities" rather than panicking about whether Trump might follow through on some of his more outlandish statements, such as annexing Canada.
January 13, 2025
Among America’s “Low-Information Voters”
Monica Sheppard lives in Rome, Georgia, where she runs a bee-themed arts-and-crafts shop. Rome is a right-leaning town in the rural, poor, and intensely conservative northwest corner of the state. Education rates are low, and mainstream news does not easily take root. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who became the district’s congresswoman in 2021, was elected in part because, for many voters, identifying with the QAnon conspiracy theory, as she’d recently done, was less troubling than identifying with the Times. Sheppard, who is fifty-seven, is an occasional Times reader, but she has plenty of friends in the area who do not share her news-reading habits or her mostly liberal views. And, despite what Sheppard calls the “brick-wall-head-beating of it all,” she often engages with them over political issues online. “I guess I’m just fascinated by how people think,” she told me.
Recently, Sheppard showed me one of many Facebook posts that have concerned her. A friend named Scott had shared a meme from a Facebook page called The Absolute Truth, which takes scattershot aim at science, liberals, the media, Bill Gates, Stephen Hawking, and the TV show “The View,” among other things. Its ethos is neatly outlined in one of its posts: “You get used to it, I don’t even see the news anymore. All I see is false flag, psyop, bullshit.” The meme that he posted showed an image of a Chili’s storefront. “Another major American franchise bites the dust,” it read. Scott added in his post, “I saw on U tube that 10 other big chain restaurants are on the endangered list including Fudruckers, Krystal, Red lobster, and others you know!” Some commenters noted other “major American” restaurant chains on the brink of collapse, and others made mocking reference to Joe Biden’s economic policy (“Build back better you know”), which they seemed to hold responsible for the closings. Still other commenters pointed ominously to larger forces at play. “A BIG reset is coming,” one woman wrote.
Transforming Lagos into Africa’s Dubai: Akintola Oladejo’s vision for Nigerian real estate
Akintola Oladejo, the visionary CEO of Prestigious Homes Limited, is on a mission to transform Nigeria’s real estate sector into a powerhouse that rivals the likes of Dubai and Singapore. With projects in Lagos’s most commercially viable areas – from Banana Island, which mirrors Dubai’s Palm Jumeirah, to Victoria Island with its similarities to Business Bay, and Lekki resembling Dubai Marina – Oladejo is building a legacy. With a diverse background in engineering, banking, and oil and gas, Oladejo brings a unique blend of skills and a deep-seated passion for construction to his ambitious projects. His goal is not only to provide a luxurious home alternative to Dubai but also to offer high-yield investments that appeal to both Nigerians looking to invest back home and non-Nigerians eager to participate in one of Africa’s biggest economies.
Turning passion into reality
Oladejo’s journey from a part-time real estate enthusiast to a full-time developer illustrates his dedication and vision. “Transitioning to full-time real estate was not as difficult as I expected because of my prior experience and passion for the work,” he reveals. Despite facing the challenges of building a structured business and assembling a competent local team, his extensive experience and fervor for construction smoothed the path. His story is one of resilience and steadfast commitment to excellence.
Opinion: Good riddance, Justin Trudeau
Venezuela latest: Maduro sworn in for third term as global backlash and sanctions mount
Venezuela latest: Maduro sworn in for third term as global backlash and sanctions mount
Watching Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announce that he was quitting on a chilly Monday morning in Ottawa, I was reminded of the moment when battered prize fighter, Roberto Duran, raised his hands in a boxing ring and said: “No mas [No more].”
It was a merciful and predictable denouement to an unexpected political career that had begun with promise and expectations and has ended engulfed by rejection and recriminations.
“I’m a fighter,” the soon-to-be-ex-prime minister said.
Clearly, the fight had drained out of Trudeau after some of his closest allies in cabinet abandoned him, and the party that once celebrated his youthful exuberance now considered the Liberal boy wonder a loser and a liability.
Faithful readers know of my longstanding antipathy and, at times, disgust of a prime minister who struck me, from the first, as a dauphin whose hollow acts of performative nonsense were a trite substitute for conviction and intelligence.
But much of the international press was smitten by Trudeau’s craven persona and empty antics, heralding him as a shining antidote to United States President-elect Donald Trump’s politics of anger and grievance.
Venezuela latest: Maduro sworn in for third term as global backlash and sanctions mount
Venezuela latest: Maduro sworn in for third term as global backlash and sanctions mount
Venezuela latest: Maduro sworn in for third term as global backlash and sanctions mount
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was sworn in for a third six-year term Friday despite international condemnation of his recent reelection as illegitimate, as his administration grows increasingly brazen in cracking down on opponents.
The country’s legislative palace, where he was sworn in, was heavily guarded by police, military and intelligence officers. Crowds of people, many sporting pro-Maduro T-shirts, gathered in adjacent streets and a nearby plaza.
Here’s the latest:
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Biden defends decision to avoid tougher sanctions on Venezuela’s energy sector
U.S. President Joe Biden defended his decision not to toughen sanctions on Venezuela’s energy sector, saying he was worried it could have created an opening to be filled by Iranian oil.
Despite sanctioning a number of Maduro officials, the administration did not end a license it granted oil giant Chevron to export Venezuelan oil to the U.S. That license has significantly boosted oil production, and state coffers, as a result.
Asked about criticism that his sanctions did not go far enough, Biden said of additional energy sanctions on Venezuela.
“That’s still being investigated in terms of what impact it would have and whether or not it would just be replaced by Iran or any other,” he said, adding that if he had more time before he leaves office on Jan. 20 he might have made that decision in the future.
Opposition leader González: ‘I am the president-elect’
Former presidential candidate and opposition leader Edmundo González said that he represents the will of Venezuelans and declared he is the country’s president-elect.
In a video recorded from the Dominican Republic and released on social media, González thanked Venezuela’s “democratic friends” for their support, citing a new round of sanctions announced Friday by global leaders.
He said he is ready to enter the country once it is safe to do so, and called on the military to not follow “illegal” orders from Maduro.
“He has crowned himself a dictator. The people don’t support him, nor does any government that can call itself democratic,” he said.
World leaders join condemnations of Maduro after inauguration
Leaders from the Group of Seven democracies (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States of America and the High Representative of the European Union) released a joint statement condemning “lack of democratic legitimacy” of election and crackdown on dissent in Venezuela.
In Latin America, Argentina and Chile released separate statements calling Maduro’s presidency fraudulent and decrying repression by his government.
Venezuela closes its border with Brazil
Venezuela made a unilateral decision to close its border with Brazil, the Brazilian government said in a statement. The border will remain closed until Jan. 13.
Earlier Friday, Venezuela closed its border with Colombia and suspended air travel between the two nations.
JANUARY 6, 2025
Canada’s Trudeau resigns as Liberal Party leader, spelling end to time in power
Driver who exploded Cybertruck in Las Vegas railed about ‘political grievances’
Canada’s Trudeau resigns as Liberal Party leader, spelling end to time in power
TORONTO (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his resignation Monday in the face of rising discontent over his leadership, and after the abrupt departure of his finance minister signaled growing turmoil within his government.
Trudeau said it had become clear to him that he cannot “be the leader during the next elections due to internal battles.” He planned to stay on as prime minister until a new leader of the Liberal Party is chosen.
“I don’t easily back down faced with a fight, especially a very important one for our party and the country. But I do this job because the interests of Canadians and the well being of democracy is something that I hold dear,” he said.
An official familiar with the matter said Parliament, which had been due to resume Jan. 27, will be suspended until March 24. The timing will allow for a Liberal Party leadership race. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the matter publicly.
How Kenya police hid killings of anti-government protesters
Driver who exploded Cybertruck in Las Vegas railed about ‘political grievances’
Canada’s Trudeau resigns as Liberal Party leader, spelling end to time in power
NAIROBI, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Nineteen-year-old Charles Owino was killed by a gunshot to the head during a day of anti-government protests near Nairobi in July, according to an autopsy report seen by Reuters.
But Kenya’s police recorded his death as a road accident, his brother said, citing the morgue logbook he was shown after he visually identified Owino's body. Reuters has not seen a copy of the logbook entry.In a separate case, police said Shaquille Obienge, 21, died in a road accident, his father told Reuters, also citing an entry in the morgue logbook.
But Obienge was shot in the neck, according to the government's own autopsy report conducted after his father visually identified his body. Obienge, who was also a protester, died the same day as Owino, in the same Nairobi suburb of Kitengela, according to the report seen by Reuters.
In Kenya, morgue logbooks record the cause of death reported by police when they bring in bodies, with public pathologists usually only performing autopsies once bodies are identified by relatives.
Nineteen-year-old Charles Owino attends a protest before being killed by a gunshot to the head during a day of anti-government demonstrations, in Kitengela, Kajiado county, Kenya, July 16, 2024.
Reuters spoke to three police officers who work in a unit deployed during protests who said that Kenyan police at times mischaracterize deaths caused by officers as “death by accident”, “mob justice” or “drownings” in morgue logs to cover their tracks. The officers requested anonymity to speak about sensitive matters.
Driver who exploded Cybertruck in Las Vegas railed about ‘political grievances’
Driver who exploded Cybertruck in Las Vegas railed about ‘political grievances’
Driver who exploded Cybertruck in Las Vegas railed about ‘political grievances’
A Bronze Star recipient who exploded a Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas wrote of “political grievances,” armed conflicts elsewhere and domestic issues in the days leading up to his suicide, officials said Friday.
The writings were found in the cellphone of Matthew Alan Livelsberger, the truck’s driver, said Sheriff Dori Koren of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department in a news conference.
In one letter, the driver of the Cybertruck said the incident was intended not as a “terrorist attack” but rather “a wake-up call,” according to police. He wrote in the letter recovered by investigators that “Americans only pay attention to spectacles and violence” and “fireworks and explosives” were best to get his point across.
In that letter, containing more than 400 words, Livelsberger wrote that he needed to “cleanse” his mind of the “brothers I’ve lost” and relieve himself of “the burden of the lives I took.” He said the US was “terminally ill and headed towards collapse.” He also expressed support for President-elect Donald Trump, Elon Musk and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
In a second, shorter letter that investigators released Friday, the writer called for action to remove Democrats from both the federal government and the military. That letter, which investigators believe also was written by Livelsberger and had fewer than 125 words, included the possibility of occupying roads and federal buildings, not ruling out the use of force.
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January 2, 2025
Power is restored to nearly all of Puerto Rico after a major blackout
BAYAMÓN, Puerto Rico — Power was restored to nearly all electrical customers across Puerto Rico on Wednesday after a sweeping blackout plunged the U.S. territory into darkness on New Year's Eve.
By Wednesday afternoon, power was back up for 98% of Puerto Rico's 1.47 million utility customers, said Luma Energy, the private company overseeing transmission and distribution of power in the archipelago. Lights returned to households as well as to Puerto Rico's hospitals, water plants and sewage facilities after the massive outage that exposed the persistent electricity problems plaguing the island.
Still, the company warned that customers could still see temporary outages in the coming days. It said full restoration across the island could take up to two days.
Man who died in Tesla Cybertruck explosion was active-duty US Army soldier, officials say
LAS VEGAS (AP) — The person who authorities believe died in the explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck packed with firework mortars and camp fuel canisters outside President-elect Donald Trump’s Las Vegas hotel was an active-duty U.S. Army soldier, three U.S. officials told The Associated Press on Thursday.
Two law enforcement officials identified the man inside the futuristic-looking pickup truck as Matthew Livelsberger. The law enforcement officials spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation.
Three U.S. officials said Livelsberger was an active-duty Army member, who spent time at the base formerly known as Fort Bragg, a massive Army base in North Carolina that is home to Army special forces command. The officials also spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose details of his service.
Trump says 'the Black people' like him because he's been 'discriminated against' in the legal system
Trump says 'the Black people' like him because he's been 'discriminated against' in the legal system
Trump says 'the Black people' like him because he's been 'discriminated against' in the legal system
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Former President Donald Trump claimed that Black people like him because he has faced discrimination in the legal system, which is something they can relate to.
"I got indicted a second time and a third time and a fourth time, and a lot of people said that that’s why the Black people like me, because they have been hurt so badly and discriminated against, and they actually viewed me as I’m being discriminated against," he said.
"I’m being indicted for you, the American people. I’m being indicted for you, the Black population. I am being indicted for a lot of different groups by sick people, these are sick, sick people," Trump said Friday night in a speech at the Black Conservative Federation's annual gala, at which he received the "Champion of Black America" award.
The Alienation of Jaime Cachua
Trump says 'the Black people' like him because he's been 'discriminated against' in the legal system
Trump says 'the Black people' like him because he's been 'discriminated against' in the legal system
His wife was spiraling into insomnia, and his children were afraid to go to school, so Jaime Cachua sought out the person he trusted most in a crisis. He sat at his kitchen table in rural Georgia across from his father-in-law, Sky Atkins, the family patriarch. Jaime, 33, hadn’t seen his own father since he was 10 months old, when he left Mexico in a car seat bound for the United States. It was Sky, 45, who had stood by Jaime at his wedding, helped him move into his first house and stayed at the hospital overnight when one of Jaime’s children was sick with pneumonia.
“We have to prepare for the worst-case scenario,” Jaime told him. “There’s a chance we could lose everything.”
“Isn’t that a bit dramatic?” Sky asked. “How? Help me understand.”
Jaime muted the football game on TV and began to explain his new reality as an undocumented immigrant after the election of Donald Trump, who had won the presidency in part by promising to deport more than 11 million people living in the country illegally.
Trump’s aides were discussing plans to build detention camps and enlist the military to carry out mass deportations beginning on Day 1. Their local Georgia congresswoman, Marjorie Taylor Greene, was saying she couldn’t “wait to see it happen.” Jaime’s best chance to become a legal U.S. resident was a new program for immigrants like himself, people who were married to U.S. citizens and had lived in the country for at least 10 years without committing any crimes. But, just a few days earlier, that program had been struck down by a Trump-appointed federal judge.
January 1, 2025
Investigators hunt for additional suspects in deadly New Orleans attack
Syria's U.S.-trained opposition fighters wait to learn of their role in a new Syria
Syria's U.S.-trained opposition fighters wait to learn of their role in a new Syria
A driver behind the wheel of a pickup truck raced into a crowd of New Orleans revelers on Bourbon Street early on New Year’s Day, killing 10 people in what the FBI is investigating as an act of terrorism.
After the vehicle stopped, the driver emerged from the truck and opened fire on responding officers, New Orleans police said.
What we know so far:
- The latest on the attacker: The driver was killed in a firefight with police following the attack around 3:15 a.m. Wednesday. He was identified as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar.
- The vehicle was rented: The pickup truck used in the attack was rented via Turo, an app that connects drivers with vehicle owners. The company confirmed they are partnering with the FBI in the investigation.
- Sugar Bowl postponed: The attack prompted the postponement of a college football playoff quarterfinal at the nearby Superdome until Thursday. The Sugar Bowl was initially scheduled for Wendesday evening.
26 min ago
Officials insist people should feel safe in New Orleans even as they seek additional suspects
By The Associated PressShare
Officials say residents and visitors should feel safe in New Orleans even as they have repeatedly acknowledged that they are aggressively seeking additional possible suspects in the attack.
During a news conference, Gov. Jeff Landry bristled at a question about how officials were confident that Jabbar did not act alone, saying, “Why would we tell you?”
But a Louisiana State Police bulletin obtained by The Associated Press and circulated among law enforcement contained a possible clue. The document said surveillance footage captured three men and a woman placing one of multiple improvised explosive devices.
Advertisement35 min ago
Truck used in attack was rented using Turo app, company says
By HOLLY RAMERShare
The pickup truck used in the attack was rented via Turo, an app that connects drivers, known as “guests,” with vehicle owners, known as “hosts,” according to Steve Webb, the company’s vice president of communications.
“We are heartbroken to learn that one of our host’s vehicles was involved in this awful incident,” Webb said in an email. “We are actively partnering with the FBI. We are not currently aware of anything in this guest’s background that would have identified him as a trust and safety threat to us at the time of the reservation.”
Syria's U.S.-trained opposition fighters wait to learn of their role in a new Syria
Syria's U.S.-trained opposition fighters wait to learn of their role in a new Syria
Syria's U.S.-trained opposition fighters wait to learn of their role in a new Syria
AL-TANF GARRISON, Syria — When Salim Turki al-Anteri took his opposition forces into battle against regime troops in southern Syria this month, it was against his own former tank unit.
Drawing on his past U.S. military training and his hopes for a united Syria, the commander ordered his forces to fire artillery warning shots, intended to persuade regime soldiers to abandon their tanks and leave the battlefield.
"We didn't want to kill any soldiers," he says of the battle on Dec. 7, a day before Damascus fell.
"We aimed to the left and to the right, and then closer to them," he says. "We didn't follow them because we knew that if we followed them, we would have to kill them."
Unlike many military commanders who were regime loyalists, most ordinary soldiers were conscripts who'd been given no choice but to fight for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, he says.
"I consider all the soldiers my sons," he says. And he considered the tanks they fought in equipment to be safeguarded for the country's army — whatever shape it may take in a post-Assad Syria.Anteri, a colonel and the commander of the Syrian Free Army, a small, U.S.-trained opposition force before the fall of the Syrian regime, spoke with NPR at his base next to a remote U.S. military outpost in southern Syria. He defected from the Syrian army to join the opposition eight years ago.
Now his unit is among dozens of former opposition groups that will have to be knitted together into new Syrian security forces. Anteri, who commands about 600 fighters, says he is waiting to see what role in the new security forces his group will be given by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which led the coalition that drove Assad from power.
The U.S. has had an uneasy role in this key region
Al-Tanf, originally a U.S. special forces base, has played a key role in training Syrian opposition fighters, including Anteri's. It lies about 200 miles from Syria's capital Damascus, on the main Damascus-Baghdad highway. Abandoned regime tanks lie by the side of the road. Nearby are cast-off Syrian army uniforms, tossed aside by fleeing soldiers as Assad fell.
Jimmy Carter's enduring diplomatic legacy: ANALYSIS
A generous description of former President Jimmy Carter's foreign policy track record during his four tumultuous years in the White House would be one defined by peaks and valleys.
There were highlights. Many see Carter's role in brokering the Camp David Accords, a revolutionary set of treaties between Israel and Egypt that would forever change the diplomatic landscape of the Middle East, as the foreign policy apex of his presidency.
But there were also stinging failures, including the Iran hostage crisis -- a 444-day chapter of Carter's term during which 53 American diplomats and private citizens were held captive inside the U.S. embassy in Tehran.
However, historians and analysts say understanding Carter's true impact requires looking far beyond the relatively short time he spent as leader of the free world, and that the former president -- once rejected as a failure -- has wielded an outsize influence on international affairs that will reverberate for years to come.
'Fairness not force'
When Carter left the White House in 1981, it was under a cloud of failure. In the wake of his punishing defeat by Ronald Reagan, Carter told one of his biographers that he was hopelessly distraught and wanted nothing more than to lie low in his native Georgia.
25 things we think will happen in 2025
For the sixth year in a row, the staff of Future Perfect convened in December to make predictions about major events in the year to come. Will Congress pass a tariff bill that makes President-elect Donald Trump happy? Will the H5N1 bird flu become an honest-to-god pandemic? Will the war in Ukraine stop? Will a major sports figure get caught up in a gambling scandal?
It’s fun to make predictions about the future, which is part of the reason why we do it so often. But this isn’t just blind guessing. Each prediction comes with a probability attached to it. That gives you a sense of our confidence (high in the case of, say, Charli XCX’s Grammy chances, less so in the case of Iran’s nuclear plans). And don’t make the same mistake that people seem to make every presidential cycle. Even a probability as high as 75 percent or 80 percent doesn’t mean we’re sure something will happen. Rather, it means we think that if we made four or five predictions, we’d expect three or four of them to come true, respectively.
And as we have every year, we’ll be keeping track of how our predictions fared over the course of 2025, and report back to you at the end of December. You can check out how we did in 2024 here. And we’ve done something new this year in partnering with the prediction platform Metaculus. You can check it out here to see how the community there came down on a number of our predictions — and even compete in a prize pool — and click on the individual questions with links to go directly to them on Metaculus. We’ve also added the Metaculus community’s aggregated forecasts as of December 31 for the questions they’ve taken on. —Bryan Walsh
The United States
Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign was perhaps the most pro-tariff of any candidate since William McKinley: He promised 60 percent taxes on imports from China, and 10 percent on everywhere else.
In victory he’s only gotten bolder, calling for 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico, in flagrant violation of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, a free trade deal made by some past president named Donald Trump.
December 30, 2024
Former President Jimmy Carter dies at 100
Former President Jimmy Carter, a man who redefined what a post-presidency could be, died Sunday. He was 100.
His son, Chip Carter confirmed that the former president died at his home in Plains about 3:45 p.m.
Carter, who lived longer than any other U.S. president, entered home hospice care in Plains, Georgia in February 2023 after a series of short hospital stays.
The only Georgian ever elected to the White House, Carter left office after a single term that was highlighted by forging peace between Israel and Egypt, but was overshadowed by the Iran hostage crisis. In the decades after, his reputation grew through his and wife Rosalynn Carter’s work at the Carter Center in Atlanta and his philanthropic causes such as Habitat for Humanity.
“People will be celebrating Jimmy Carter for hundreds of years. His reputation is only going to grow,” Rice University history professor Douglas Brinkley wrote in his book “The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter.”
In 2024, artificial intelligence was all about putting AI tools to work
If 2023 was a year of wonder about artificial intelligence, 2024 was the year to try to get that wonder to do something useful without breaking the bank.
There was a “shift from putting out models to actually building products,” said Arvind Narayanan, a Princeton University computer science professor and co-author of the new book “AI Snake Oil: What Artificial Intelligence Can Do, What It Can’t, and How to Tell The Difference.”
The first 100 million or so people who experimented with ChatGPT upon its release two years ago actively sought out the chatbot, finding it amazingly helpful at some tasks or laughably mediocre at others.
Now such generative AI technology is baked into an increasing number of technology services whether we’re looking for it or not — for instance, through the AI-generated answers in Google search results or new AI techniques in photo editing tools.
Joe Rogan, 'Hawk Tuah' and the rise of conservative-leaning online spaces in 2024
Joe Rogan, 'Hawk Tuah' and the rise of conservative-leaning online spaces in 2024
There’s the manosphere and the Zynternet and the salt right. And then there are the Barstool conservatives and the dudebros.
These are the terms that have emerged in recent years to describe a sensibility that has taken hold online, culminating with its ascension as arguably the mainstream social media aesthetic of 2024: traditionally masculine, increasingly conservative-leaning and disapproving of (or at least uninterested in) “woke” culture.
It was a year in which podcaster Joe Rogan became a central part of the presidential election, and the biggest meme centered around a then-anonymous young woman’s off-the-cuff sex joke that turned her into a social media personality. One of the internet’s biggest platforms, X, removed many of its guardrails as its owner, Elon Musk, fully embraced Donald Trump’s run for president. And one of the most popular products this year — the nicotine-packed Zyn pouch — became the addiction of choice for many of America’s young men.
And it was a year of masculinity punctuated by Trump’s election win. Jess Maddox, an assistant professor of digital media technology at the University of Alabama, said this year’s renewed cultural focus on traditional masculinity is reminiscent of the reactionary shift that occurred after Trump’s 2016 election. Though his 2024 victory injected renewed vigor into these sentiments, she said these spaces have been burgeoning for years.
December 27, 2024
Israel strikes Houthi targets in Yemen's capital. WHO chief says he was nearby
Israel strikes Houthi targets in Yemen's capital. WHO chief says he was nearby
Israel strikes Houthi targets in Yemen's capital. WHO chief says he was nearby
JERUSALEM — A new round of Israeli airstrikes in Yemen on Thursday targeted the Houthi rebel-held capital and multiple ports, while the World Health Organization's director-general said the bombardment occurred nearby as he prepared to board a flight in Sanaa, with a crew member injured.
"The air traffic control tower, the departure lounge — just a few meters from where we were — and the runway were damaged," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on the social media platform X.
He added that he and U.N. colleagues were safe. "We will need to wait for the damage to the airport to be repaired before we can leave," he said, without mentioning the source of the bombardment.
U.N. spokesperson Stephanie Tremblay later said the injured person was with the U.N. Humanitarian Air Service.
At least three people were later reported killed and dozens injured in the airport strike. The U.N. team members left the airport and were "safe and sound" in Sanaa while the injured crew member was being treated at a hospital, she said.
‘Modern slavery’: Trapped in Iraq, Nigerian women cry out for help
Israel strikes Houthi targets in Yemen's capital. WHO chief says he was nearby
Israel strikes Houthi targets in Yemen's capital. WHO chief says he was nearby
Sometimes when the pain hits, Agnes* has to pause for several seconds to ride out the excruciating wave. It feels like someone has tied a rope to her insides and is pulling and twisting it, the 27-year-old Nigerian domestic worker says, making it hard to bend or stand up straight.
Agnes’s ordeal started in March in the Iraqi city of Basra when her boss raped her at gunpoint. She fell pregnant, and the man then forced her to undergo a painful abortion. It was so difficult, Agnes said, that she could not sit for three days. Since then, the severe abdominal pains won’t go away, and there’s no one to take her to a hospital.
“I just want to go home and treat myself, but I can’t do that,” Agnes said on a phone call from Basra, where she is holed up in a hostel belonging to the recruiting firm that hired her from Nigeria last year. “The man has refused to pay my salary. I don’t know if I am pregnant, but I have not seen my menstruation since then. I just want to go home and check myself and see what’s happening inside me,” she added, her voice breaking.
In states that ban abortion, social safety net programs often fail families
Israel strikes Houthi targets in Yemen's capital. WHO chief says he was nearby
In states that ban abortion, social safety net programs often fail families
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Taylor Cagnacci moved from California to Tennessee with hopes of starting a new chapter in a state that touts a low cost of living and natural beauty.
But she’s infuriated by Tennessee’s meager social services, which leave her and many other moms struggling in a state where abortion is banned with limited exceptions.
“I was going to have my child no matter what, but for other women, that’s kind of a crappy situation that they put you in,” said Cagnacci, a 29-year-old Kingsport mom who relies on Medicaid and a federally funded nutrition program. “You have to have your child. But where’s the assistance afterward?”
Tennessee has a porous safety net for mothers and young children, recent research and an analysis by The Associated Press found. It’s unknown how many women in the state have given birth because they didn’t have access to abortion, but it is clear that from the time a Tennessee woman gets pregnant, she faces greater obstacles to a healthy pregnancy, a healthy child and a financially stable family than the average American mom.
December 20, 2024
Alabama profits off prisoners safe enough to work at McDonald’s, deems them too dangerous for parole
Alabama profits off prisoners safe enough to work at McDonald’s, deems them too dangerous for parole
Alabama profits off prisoners safe enough to work at McDonald’s, deems them too dangerous for parole
DADEVILLE, Ala. (AP) — A storm was looming when the inmate serving 20 years for armed robbery was assigned to transport fellow prisoners to their jobs at private manufacturers supplying goods to companies like Home Depot and Wayfair. It didn’t matter that Jake Jones once had escaped or that he had failed two drug and alcohol tests while in lockup — he was unsupervised and technically in charge.
By the time Jones was driving back to the work release center with six other incarcerated workers, it was pelting rain.
Jones had a reputation for driving fast and some of his passengers said he was racing along the country road, jamming to music in his earbuds. Suddenly, the transport van hit a dip and swerved on the wet pavement, slamming into a tree.
Two men died after being thrown out of the van. And Jones, who was critically hurt and slumped over the blaring horn, had to be cut out of the vehicle. As the other men staggered into the storm to flag down help, they wondered: Why would the Alabama Department of Corrections place their lives in Jones’ hands?
Pregnant Kentucky woman cited for street camping while in labor
Alabama profits off prisoners safe enough to work at McDonald’s, deems them too dangerous for parole
Alabama profits off prisoners safe enough to work at McDonald’s, deems them too dangerous for parole
The head of Louisville Metro Police Department’s Downtown Area Patrol approached a pregnant woman standing beside a bare mattress beneath an overpass in downtown Louisville at 9 a.m. on a rainy day in late September.
Body camera footage obtained by Kentucky Public Radio shows that as Lt. Caleb Stewart walked closer, the woman yelled, “I might be going into labor, is that okay?”
Her water had broken, she said. “I’m leaking out,” she told him. She grabbed a blanket and a few personal effects as a bright orange city dump truck pulled up to remove the makeshift bed.
The woman had no phone. She said her husband went to call an ambulance, so Stewart called one for her. But as she walked toward the street to wait for help, Stewart yelled at her to stop.
“Am I being detained?” she asked.
“Yes, you’re being detained,” he shouted. “You’re being detained because you’re unlawfully camping.”
Stewart was enforcing a new state law that bans street camping — essentially, a person may not sleep, intend to sleep, or set up camp on undesignated public property like sidewalks or underneath overpasses. He has issued the majority of the citations for unlawful camping in Louisville.
Macron swears in angry exchange with residents of cyclone-hit Mayotte
Alabama profits off prisoners safe enough to work at McDonald’s, deems them too dangerous for parole
Shutdown threat looms after stop-gap spending bill fails on House floor
MAMOUDZOU, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Angry residents of a Mayotte neighbourhood damaged by Cyclone Chido heckled French President Emmanuel Macron, who replied they would be in "deeper shit" without France as he toured the Indian Ocean archipelago.
Nearly a week after the storm hit, the lack of potable water was testing nerves in France's poorest overseas territory.
"Seven days and you're not able to give water to the population!" one man shouted at Macron.
"Don't set people against each other. If you set people against each other, we're screwed," Macron told the crowd in the Pamandzi neighbourhood on Thursday night.
"You are happy to be in France. If it wasn't for France, you would be in way deeper shit, 10,000 times more, there is no place in the Indian Ocean where people receive more help."
In the past, Macron has often got in trouble with off-the-cuff remarks in public that he says are meant to "tell it like it is" but have often come across as insensitive or condescending to many French people and contributed to his sharp drop in popularity over his seven years as president.
Back home, opposition lawmakers pounced on the comments on Friday.
"I don't think the president is exactly finding the right words of comfort for our Mayotte compatriots, who, with this kind of expression, always have the feeling of being treated differently," Sebastien Chenu, a lawmaker from the far-right National Rally (RN), said.
Hard-left lawmaker Eric Coquerel said Macron's comment was "completely undignified".
Shutdown threat looms after stop-gap spending bill fails on House floor
Shutdown threat looms after stop-gap spending bill fails on House floor
President-elect Donald Trump hasn't been sworn in yet but he's already running Washington again in his familiar style of upheaval and intraparty drama, which has Congress careening towards a government shutdown at midnight Friday.
House Republicans were unable to pass a stop-gap funding measure Thursday that they crafted in response to Trump's demands. That proposal replaced an original, bipartisan deal that died Wednesday after Trump and his top advisors came out against it.
The bill, which was drafted without consultation with Democrats, failed with 235 members voting against the bill, including 38 Republicans. The measure needed a two-thirds majority to pass under expedited procedures.
What we know about North Korean troops fighting Russia's war
North Korean forces in Russia have sustained their first casualties, according to Kyiv and Washington.
At least 100 North Korean soldiers have been killed since entering combat early this month, South Korean MP Lee Sung-kwon said, citing Seoul's spy agency.
Ukraine intelligence said 30 North Korean soldiers died or were injured while fighting in Kursk in mid-December. Pentagon officials also confirmed there had been casualties but did not provide a figure.
The Pentagon said that it appeared the soldiers were being used in infantry roles around the Kursk border region, which Moscow has been trying to recapture from Ukraine - meaning it's possible that North Korean troops have not been deployed across the border in Ukraine.
This news comes nearly two months after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and South Korean officials accused Pyongyang of deploying troops to support Russia’s invasion.
But little information has emerged since then, and Moscow and Pyongyang have not responded directly to these reports.
Estimates of troop numbers have ranged from about 11,000 - a Pentagon calculation - to as many as 100,000, according to unnamed sources quoted in Bloomberg news.
At first, their lack of battlefield experience was given as a key reason why they might be assigned non-combat roles. But that assumption was re-evaluated after the US and Ukraine said that North Korean troops had engaged in combat with Ukrainian soldiers.
So what do we know about the role of North Korean troops in Russia's war?
Guns are silent, but war lingers for Ogaden’s former women rebel fighters
Mogadishu, Somalia – Hinda Aden and her fellow rebel fighters were trekking through the grasslands of Ethiopia’s Ogaden region under the cover of night, to avoid the enemy’s gaze, when they saw headlights approaching in the distance.
“We knew who it was – that’s when we started running,” Hinda says about that fateful August 2006 night – the first time she found herself on the front lines of a decades-long war that had raged in Ethiopia’s far east.
With each step, the then-22-year-old ventured deeper into the bush, as Ethiopian military vehicles pursued her team of Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) rebels through the dark.
The ONLF, which formed in 1984, was a social and political movement that transitioned into an armed group in the 1990s, as it battled against the Ethiopian army with the goal of achieving self-determination for ethnic Somalis living in Ogaden.
Hinda joined the rebellion in 2002 at age 18. Four years later she was pushing through the grassland, gun in hand, while the Ethiopian army pursued the ONLF by land and air.
“I saw flashes coming from the [military] planes, that’s when I knew they were taking [surveillance] pictures of us and likely feeding it back to the ground forces trying to capture us,” Hinda says.
The rebels tried hiding among the trees, but knew they’d soon be found. “All I could do was clutch my AK-47 tighter and keep moving.”
Her company, which numbered about 100 that night, including Hinda and four other female fighters, evaded their enemy. By sunrise, they had lost their pursuers – or so they thought.
As they walked in the scorching sun through the rural countryside of Qorahay province – sparsely populated as many civilians had fled the ongoing conflict – they came face to face with soldiers.
“We encountered Ethiopian troops but this time there was no cover. So we had no choice but to fight them head-on right there in the open,” Hinda says. “They even had tanks but it didn’t deter me. I was ready to be martyred that day.”
As the two sides clashed, gunfire and blasts gripped the air and shells struck the soil around them. Once the smoke cleared, several of Hinda’s comrades lay dead, including three fellow female rebels.
December 20, 2024
Alabama profits off prisoners safe enough to work at McDonald’s, deems them too dangerous for parole
Alabama profits off prisoners safe enough to work at McDonald’s, deems them too dangerous for parole
Alabama profits off prisoners safe enough to work at McDonald’s, deems them too dangerous for parole
DADEVILLE, Ala. (AP) — A storm was looming when the inmate serving 20 years for armed robbery was assigned to transport fellow prisoners to their jobs at private manufacturers supplying goods to companies like Home Depot and Wayfair. It didn’t matter that Jake Jones once had escaped or that he had failed two drug and alcohol tests while in lockup — he was unsupervised and technically in charge.
By the time Jones was driving back to the work release center with six other incarcerated workers, it was pelting rain.
Jones had a reputation for driving fast and some of his passengers said he was racing along the country road, jamming to music in his earbuds. Suddenly, the transport van hit a dip and swerved on the wet pavement, slamming into a tree.
Two men died after being thrown out of the van. And Jones, who was critically hurt and slumped over the blaring horn, had to be cut out of the vehicle. As the other men staggered into the storm to flag down help, they wondered: Why would the Alabama Department of Corrections place their lives in Jones’ hands?
Pregnant Kentucky woman cited for street camping while in labor
Alabama profits off prisoners safe enough to work at McDonald’s, deems them too dangerous for parole
Alabama profits off prisoners safe enough to work at McDonald’s, deems them too dangerous for parole
The head of Louisville Metro Police Department’s Downtown Area Patrol approached a pregnant woman standing beside a bare mattress beneath an overpass in downtown Louisville at 9 a.m. on a rainy day in late September.
Body camera footage obtained by Kentucky Public Radio shows that as Lt. Caleb Stewart walked closer, the woman yelled, “I might be going into labor, is that okay?”
Her water had broken, she said. “I’m leaking out,” she told him. She grabbed a blanket and a few personal effects as a bright orange city dump truck pulled up to remove the makeshift bed.
The woman had no phone. She said her husband went to call an ambulance, so Stewart called one for her. But as she walked toward the street to wait for help, Stewart yelled at her to stop.
“Am I being detained?” she asked.
“Yes, you’re being detained,” he shouted. “You’re being detained because you’re unlawfully camping.”
Stewart was enforcing a new state law that bans street camping — essentially, a person may not sleep, intend to sleep, or set up camp on undesignated public property like sidewalks or underneath overpasses. He has issued the majority of the citations for unlawful camping in Louisville.
Macron swears in angry exchange with residents of cyclone-hit Mayotte
Alabama profits off prisoners safe enough to work at McDonald’s, deems them too dangerous for parole
Shutdown threat looms after stop-gap spending bill fails on House floor
MAMOUDZOU, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Angry residents of a Mayotte neighbourhood damaged by Cyclone Chido heckled French President Emmanuel Macron, who replied they would be in "deeper shit" without France as he toured the Indian Ocean archipelago.
Nearly a week after the storm hit, the lack of potable water was testing nerves in France's poorest overseas territory.
"Seven days and you're not able to give water to the population!" one man shouted at Macron.
"Don't set people against each other. If you set people against each other, we're screwed," Macron told the crowd in the Pamandzi neighbourhood on Thursday night.
"You are happy to be in France. If it wasn't for France, you would be in way deeper shit, 10,000 times more, there is no place in the Indian Ocean where people receive more help."
In the past, Macron has often got in trouble with off-the-cuff remarks in public that he says are meant to "tell it like it is" but have often come across as insensitive or condescending to many French people and contributed to his sharp drop in popularity over his seven years as president.
Back home, opposition lawmakers pounced on the comments on Friday.
"I don't think the president is exactly finding the right words of comfort for our Mayotte compatriots, who, with this kind of expression, always have the feeling of being treated differently," Sebastien Chenu, a lawmaker from the far-right National Rally (RN), said.
Hard-left lawmaker Eric Coquerel said Macron's comment was "completely undignified".
Shutdown threat looms after stop-gap spending bill fails on House floor
Shutdown threat looms after stop-gap spending bill fails on House floor
President-elect Donald Trump hasn't been sworn in yet but he's already running Washington again in his familiar style of upheaval and intraparty drama, which has Congress careening towards a government shutdown at midnight Friday.
House Republicans were unable to pass a stop-gap funding measure Thursday that they crafted in response to Trump's demands. That proposal replaced an original, bipartisan deal that died Wednesday after Trump and his top advisors came out against it.
The bill, which was drafted without consultation with Democrats, failed with 235 members voting against the bill, including 38 Republicans. The measure needed a two-thirds majority to pass under expedited procedures.
What we know about North Korean troops fighting Russia's war
North Korean forces in Russia have sustained their first casualties, according to Kyiv and Washington.
At least 100 North Korean soldiers have been killed since entering combat early this month, South Korean MP Lee Sung-kwon said, citing Seoul's spy agency.
Ukraine intelligence said 30 North Korean soldiers died or were injured while fighting in Kursk in mid-December. Pentagon officials also confirmed there had been casualties but did not provide a figure.
The Pentagon said that it appeared the soldiers were being used in infantry roles around the Kursk border region, which Moscow has been trying to recapture from Ukraine - meaning it's possible that North Korean troops have not been deployed across the border in Ukraine.
This news comes nearly two months after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and South Korean officials accused Pyongyang of deploying troops to support Russia’s invasion.
But little information has emerged since then, and Moscow and Pyongyang have not responded directly to these reports.
Estimates of troop numbers have ranged from about 11,000 - a Pentagon calculation - to as many as 100,000, according to unnamed sources quoted in Bloomberg news.
At first, their lack of battlefield experience was given as a key reason why they might be assigned non-combat roles. But that assumption was re-evaluated after the US and Ukraine said that North Korean troops had engaged in combat with Ukrainian soldiers.
So what do we know about the role of North Korean troops in Russia's war?
Guns are silent, but war lingers for Ogaden’s former women rebel fighters
Mogadishu, Somalia – Hinda Aden and her fellow rebel fighters were trekking through the grasslands of Ethiopia’s Ogaden region under the cover of night, to avoid the enemy’s gaze, when they saw headlights approaching in the distance.
“We knew who it was – that’s when we started running,” Hinda says about that fateful August 2006 night – the first time she found herself on the front lines of a decades-long war that had raged in Ethiopia’s far east.
With each step, the then-22-year-old ventured deeper into the bush, as Ethiopian military vehicles pursued her team of Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) rebels through the dark.
The ONLF, which formed in 1984, was a social and political movement that transitioned into an armed group in the 1990s, as it battled against the Ethiopian army with the goal of achieving self-determination for ethnic Somalis living in Ogaden.
Hinda joined the rebellion in 2002 at age 18. Four years later she was pushing through the grassland, gun in hand, while the Ethiopian army pursued the ONLF by land and air.
“I saw flashes coming from the [military] planes, that’s when I knew they were taking [surveillance] pictures of us and likely feeding it back to the ground forces trying to capture us,” Hinda says.
The rebels tried hiding among the trees, but knew they’d soon be found. “All I could do was clutch my AK-47 tighter and keep moving.”
Her company, which numbered about 100 that night, including Hinda and four other female fighters, evaded their enemy. By sunrise, they had lost their pursuers – or so they thought.
As they walked in the scorching sun through the rural countryside of Qorahay province – sparsely populated as many civilians had fled the ongoing conflict – they came face to face with soldiers.
“We encountered Ethiopian troops but this time there was no cover. So we had no choice but to fight them head-on right there in the open,” Hinda says. “They even had tanks but it didn’t deter me. I was ready to be martyred that day.”
As the two sides clashed, gunfire and blasts gripped the air and shells struck the soil around them. Once the smoke cleared, several of Hinda’s comrades lay dead, including three fellow female rebels.
December 19, 2024
DOGE vs. DEI: Republicans’ promise to purge government diversity initiatives could be wide-ranging
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the two billionaires tasked with slashing government waste, are expected to recommend an agency-wide purge of spending on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives, three sources familiar with their plans told CNN.
That could include eliminating entire divisions involving DEI in agencies across the government, such as the Office of Equal Employment Opportunity, Diversity & Inclusion at the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity Policy at the Department of Defense.
“Anything having to do with DEI will be gone,” said one of the people familiar with the plans for President-elect Donald Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency, adding that Republicans in all branches of the incoming government are on board. “Everyone is committed to working together and rooting it out.”
Musk and Ramaswamy have made no secret of their disdain for DEI. Musk called it “just another word for racism” earlier this year.
“An efficient government has no place for DEI bloat. Time to DOGE it,” Ramaswamy posted last month.
Among DOGE’s first recommendations for action could be rescinding Biden-era executive orders related to DEI, according to one of the people familiar with DOGE discussions.
Appeals court removes prosecutor Fani Willis from Georgia election case against Trump and others
ATLANTA (AP) — A state appeals court on Thursday removed Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from the Georgia election interference case against Donald Trump and others but did not dismiss the indictment, leaving the future of the prosecution uncertain.
Citing an “appearance of impropriety” by Willis that might not typically warrant such a removal, the court said in a 2-1 ruling that “this is the rare case in which disqualification is mandated and no other remedy will suffice to restore public confidence in the integrity of these proceedings.”
The case against Trump and more than a dozen others had already been largely stalled for months while the Georgia Court of Appeals considered the pretrial appeal.
The 2-1 ruling by an appeals court panel means it will be up to the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia to find another prosecutor to take over the case and to decide whether to continue to pursue it, though that could be delayed if Willis decides to appeal to the state Supreme Court and that court agrees to take the case. A trial judge in March had allowed Willis to stay on the case.
Trump details sweeping changes he’ll carry out on day one and beyond in an exclusive interview
President-elect Donald Trump vowed to make immediate and sweeping changes after he takes office on Jan. 20, such as pardons for those convicted in the attack on the U.S. Capitol, and said he wants to find a legislative solution to keep Dreamers in the country legally.
In an interview with Kristen Welker, moderator of NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” Trump also said he’ll work to extend the tax cuts passed in his first term. He said he will not seek to impose restrictions on abortion pills. He plans to deport millions of undocumented immigrants and try to end birthright citizenship. And he said the pardons for Jan. 6 rioters will happen on day one, arguing many have endured overly harsh treatment in prison.
“These people are living in hell,” he said.
Trump’s first postelection network television interview took place Friday at Trump Tower in Manhattan, where he spoke for more than an hour about policy plans Americans can expect in his next term.
Trump said he would fulfill a campaign promise to levy tariffs on imports from America’s biggest trading partners. In a noteworthy moment, he conceded uncertainty when Welker asked if he could “guarantee American families won’t pay more” as a result of his plan.
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December 13, 2024
Black denomination upholds stance against same-sex marriage. A gay pastor in its ranks seeks change
When the African Methodist Episcopal Church, arguably the world’s largest independent Black Protestant denomination, held its quadrennial General Conference in Ohio in August, among the agenda items was an issue that the Rev. Jennifer S. Leath had labored over for two decades: same-sex marriage.
Leath, 43, self-identifies as “quare” — terminology designed to capture both her same-sex attraction and intellectual heritage as a “blackqueer womanist” thinker. She was a 23-year-old future seminarian when a voice vote was taken in 2004, making participation in same-sex marriages or unions punishable according to official AME church law.
The move was widely seen as a response to the Episcopal Church’s election of the Rev. V. Gene Robinson as its first openly gay bishop the year prior.
Since then, marriage equality has become the law of the land. And now Leath is at the forefront of a fight within her own denomination on whether it should moderate its stance.
Trump just said groceries prices "might be very hard to achieve"
New YorkCNN —
President-elect Donald Trump says Americans not being able to afford groceries will be a relic of the past.
“They’re going to be affording their groceries very soon,” he said Thursday before ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange, where he was honored as Time’s “Person of the Year.”
Americans paid 22% more for groceries last month compared to when Trump left office in January 2021, per November Consumer Price Index data released earlier this week. And, compared to February 2020, before the pandemic, Americans paid 27% more for groceries in November.
Trump mentioned “an old woman” who went to a grocery store intending to buy three apples. “She put them down on the counter, and she looked and she saw the price, and she said, ‘Would you excuse me?’ And she walked one of the apples back to the refrigerator,” he said.
Democrats’ problem with working-class voters is bigger than free trade
Democrats’ problem with working-class voters is bigger than free trade
Democrats have lost ground with the working class for a simple reason: They became “globalist shills.” Under Bill Clinton’s leadership, the party enacted the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and normalized trade relations with China, policies that had devastating consequences for the American worker. Barack Obama had a chance to chart a different course, but sought the Trans-Pacific Partnership and failed to renegotiate NAFTA. Such betrayals — and a wrenching experience of economic decline — pushed many working-class voters toward a Republican Party that gave voice to their contempt for liberal elites.
Or so goes one prominent explanation of the Democrats’ difficulties with working-class voters. This narrative has been in wide circulation for years, if not decades, but it attracted renewed attention after Donald Trump won a second term on the back of a multiracial, working-class coalition. (There’s no universal definition of who counts as a “working-class voter,” but for this piece, voters without college degrees serve as a reasonable proxy, even as the demographic includes a tiny minority of wealthy individuals.)
In a recent post on X, the labor economist Arin Dube argued that “30 years of evidence” showed that “free trade policy” had led “many working class voters to abandon Democratic Party.” The political writer John Ganz endorsed a similar perspective, suggesting that Clinton’s free trade policies had caused “the industrial base of the United States” to disappear and that this inevitably cost the party in the Midwest.
December 12, 2024
An Assassination and an Acquittal: Can Eric Adams Navigate New York’s Turmoil?
A subway rider chokes a belligerent fellow passenger on the floor of an uptown F train, leading to his death. A hooded gunman kills the CEO of a multibillion-dollar health insurance company on a midtown sidewalk. The two New York cases had little in common, other than generating fear, controversy, and thousands of headlines. They’d occurred 18 months apart. Yet here they were coming to dramatic conclusions just two hours apart, and with major ramifications for Mayor Eric Adams.
At a City Hall press conference, his police commissioner praised her department’s pursuit of the man who, it’s alleged, fatally shot Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare. “NYPD investigators combed through thousands of hours of video, followed up on hundreds of tips, and processed every bit of forensic evidence, DNA, fingerprints, IP addresses, and so much more to tighten the net,” Jessica Tisch said at a City Hall press conference. “We deployed drones, K-9 units, and scuba divers. We leveraged the domain awareness system, Argus cameras, and conducted aviation canvasses.”
Which sounded highly impressive. Had New York’s cops uncovered the name of the alleged shooter on their own? Well, no. Had they determined how he traveled, during the course of five days, from the city to Altoona, Pennsylvania, where he had just been arrested? Nope. Had police themselves spotted Luigi Mangione and cornered him? Actually, a McDonald’s employee was the one to raise the alarm.
Homeland Security shares new details of mysterious drone flights over New Jersey
The large mysterious drones reported flying over parts of New Jersey in recent weeks appear to avoid detection by traditional methods such as helicopter and radio, according to a state lawmaker briefed Wednesday by the Department of Homeland Security.
In a post on the social media platform X, Assemblywoman Dawn Fantasia described the drones as up to 6 feet in diameter and sometimes traveling with their lights switched off. The Morris County Republican was among several state and local lawmakers who met with state police and Homeland Security officials to discuss the spate of sightings that range from the New York City area through New Jersey and westward into parts of Pennsylvania, including over Philadelphia.
The devices do not appear to be being flown by hobbyists, Fantasia wrote.
Dozens of mysterious nighttime flights started last month and have raised growing concern among residents and officials. Part of the worry stems from the flying objects initially being spotted near the Picatinny Arsenal, a U.S. military research and manufacturing facility; and over President-elect Donald Trump’s golf course in Bedminster. Drones are legal in New Jersey for recreational and commercial use, but they are subject to local and Federal Aviation Administration regulations and flight restrictions. Operators must be FAA certified.
North Carolina GOP lawmakers enact a law eroding the Democratic governor's powers
RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina lawmakers on Wednesday enacted a law over the governor's veto that would diminish the powers afforded to his successor and other other Democratic statewide winners in the Nov. 5 elections.
In a 72-46 vote, the Republican-dominated House overrode Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper's veto a week after the GOP-controlled Senate voted to do the same.
Like during the Senate vote, opponents to the power-shifting bill sat in the gallery and disrupted the chambers' floor proceedings. More than 150 people gathered on the third floor — more than the House gallery could seat. They chanted "shame" as the override vote completed and continued to yell as they were escorted out.
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December 10, 2024
Police say UnitedHealthcare's CEO was likely killed with a ghost gun. What are they?
Police say UnitedHealthcare's CEO was likely killed with a ghost gun. What are they?
Luigi Mangione, the suspect charged in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, was carrying a "ghost gun" at the time of his arrest, authorities said.
The 26-year-old was "in possession of a ghost gun that had the capability of firing a 9 millimeter round" when he was arrested in Altoona, Penn., on Monday, New York Police Department (NYPD) Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said at a press briefing.
The NYPD said the gun, which is "consistent with the weapon used in the murder," may have been made on a 3D printer.
"I have no tolerance, nor should anyone, for one man using an illegal ghost gun to murder someone because he thinks his opinion matters most," Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said on Monday.
Nikki Giovanni, poet and literary celebrity, has died at 81
Police say UnitedHealthcare's CEO was likely killed with a ghost gun. What are they?
NEW YORK (AP) — Nikki Giovanni, the poet, author, educator and public speaker who went from borrowing money to release her first book to spending decades as a literary celebrity who shared blunt and conversational takes on everything from racism and love to space travel and mortality, has died. She was 81.
Giovanni, subject of the prize-winning 2023 documentary “Going to Mars,” died Monday with her lifelong partner, Virginia “Ginney” Fowler, by her side, according to a statement from friend and author Renée Watson.
“We will forever feel blessed to have shared a legacy and love with our dear cousin,” said Allison (Pat) Ragan, Giovanni’s cousin, in a statement on behalf of the family.
The author of more than 25 books, Giovanni was a born confessor and performer whom fans came to know well from her work, readings and other live appearances and her years on the faculty of Virginia Tech, among other schools. Poetry collections such as “Black Judgement” and “Black Feeling Black Talk” sold thousands of copies, led to invitations from “The Tonight Show” and other television programs and made her popular enough to fill a 3,000-seat concert hall at Lincoln Center for a celebration of her 30th birthday.
Assad’s fall is huge blow for Putin, highlighting fragility of his own rule
Assad’s fall is huge blow for Putin, highlighting fragility of his own rule
The world now knows the colors of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s parachute: the Russian tricolor.
Assad’s flight to Moscow following the swift collapse of his regime means more than just the loss of a client state for the Kremlin.
The fall of the House of Assad deals a major blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aspirations as a Middle East power broker – and raises new questions about the fragility of his own regime.
Putin’s opponents are already cheering.
“Minus one dictator and ally of Putin,” wrote prominent Russian opposition activist Ilya Yashin on X, posting a photo of an Assad banner in flames.
“Putin has thrown Assad under the bus to prolong his war in Ukraine,” commented former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba. “His resources are scarce, and he is not as strong as he pretends.”
For observers of Russia’s war on Ukraine, Assad’s departure raises some striking historical parallels.
Assad now joins a onetime Ukrainian counterpart in exile: Former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych fled Ukraine for Russia in 2014 after weeks of street protests that culminated in a bloody crackdown.
December 5, 2024
District of Columbia says Amazon secretly stopped fast deliveries to 2 predominantly Black ZIP codes
The District of Columbia sued Amazon on Wednesday, alleging the company secretly stopped providing its fastest delivery service to residents of two predominantly Black neighborhoods while still charging millions of dollars for a membership that promises the benefit.
The complaint filed in District of Columbia Superior Court revolves around Amazon’s Prime membership, which costs consumers $139 per year or $14.99 per month for fast deliveries — including one-day, two-day and same-day shipments — along with other enhancements.
In mid-2022, the lawsuit alleges, the Seattle-based online retailer imposed what it called a delivery “exclusion” on two low-income ZIP codes in the district — 20019 and 20020 — and began relying exclusively on third-party delivery services such as UPS and the U.S. Postal Service, rather than its own delivery systems.
Amazon says it made the change based on concerns about driver safety.
“There have been specific and targeted acts against drivers delivering Amazon packages” in the two ZIP codes and the company made the change to “put the safety of delivery drivers first,” Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said in a prepared statement.
“We made the deliberate choice to adjust our operations, including delivery routes and times, for the sole reason of protecting the safety of drivers,” Nantel said. “The claims made by the attorney general, that our business practices are somehow discriminatory or deceptive, are categorically false.”
The District of Columbia’s attorney general’s office alleged the company never told Prime members in the two ZIP codes about the change even though they experienced slower deliveries as a result. Amazon also did not tell new customers about the exclusions when they signed up for Prime memberships, the lawsuit says.
Amnesty International accuses Israel of genocide in Gaza, which Israel strongly denies
CAIRO — Amnesty International accused Israel of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip during its war with Hamas, saying it has sought to deliberately destroy Palestinians by mounting deadly attacks, demolishing vital infrastructure and preventing the delivery of food, medicine and other aid.
The human rights group released a report Thursday in the Middle East that said such actions could not be justified by Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack into Israel, which ignited the war, or the presence of militants in civilian areas. Amnesty said the United States and other allies of Israel could be complicit in genocide, and called on them to halt arms shipments.
"Our damning findings must serve as a wake-up call to the international community: this is genocide. It must stop now," Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International, said in the report.
Israel, which was founded in the aftermath of the Holocaust, has adamantly rejected genocide allegations against it as an antisemitic "blood libel." It is challenging such allegations at the International Court of Justice, and it has rejected the International Criminal Court's accusations that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister committed war crimes in Gaza.
I listened to hours of Trump’s FBI pick on Steve Bannon’s podcast. Oh boy.
I listened to hours of Trump’s FBI pick on Steve Bannon’s podcast. Oh boy.
Kash Patel, Donald Trump’s pick to direct the Federal Bureau of Intelligence, has never served in the FBI. But he has hosted Steve Bannon’s podcast.
Patel is a contributor at Real America’s Voice, the right-wing news network that produces Bannon’s show War Room, and has long appeared as a guest on the show. After top Trump adviser Bannon was imprisoned for four months earlier this year — on charges of contempt of Congress after he refused to comply with a January 6 Committee subpoena — Patel stepped up to serve as an occasional guest host.
To try and understand Patel better, I listened to every episode and clip tagged with “Kash Patel” on the War Room website — and a few others that Bannon’s team missed. The overwhelming impression is that Patel is a man whose entire worldview revolves around paranoid conspiracy theories — specifically, conspiracies against both America and Trump, which for him are one and the same. It’s a specific kind of obsession that reminds me of the FBI’s first director: J. Edgar Hoover, a man who infamously abused his power to persecute political enemies.
December 3, 2024
What is GivingTuesday? How to donate on the annual day of charitable giving
Since it started as a hashtag in 2012, GivingTuesday, the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, has become one of the biggest fundraising days of the year for nonprofits in the U.S.
In 2022 and 2023, GivingTuesday raised $3.1 billion for chartitable organizations, according to estimates from GivingTuesday.
This year, GivingTuesday is on Dec. 3. Melinda French Gates announced plans to match up to $1 million in gifts to two nonprofit organizations to help spur more gifts on the day.
The #GivingTuesday hashtag started as a project of the 92nd Street Y in New York in 2012 and became an independent organization in 2020. It’s grown into a worldwide network of local organizations that promote giving in their communities, often on different dates that have local relevance, like holidays.
Now, GivingTuesday, the nonprofit, also convenes researchers working on topics about everyday giving. It also collects data from a wide range of sources like payment processors, crowdfunding sites, employee giving software and institutions that offer donor-advised funds, a kind of charitable giving account.
California Is a Sanctuary State. How Much Will That Protect Immigrants From Trump's Deportation Plan
Throughout the 2024 campaign, President-elect Donald Trump promised mass deportations as part of his immigration policy, a strategy he says will include declaring a national emergency and deploying the U.S. military. While these promises have received significant media attention, immigration analysts say that Trump is actually more likely to lean on local police and sheriffs.
Since the Nov. 5 election, California officials have vowed to push back against the Trump administration. “I can promise to the undocumented community in California that I and my team have been thinking about you for months and the harm that might come from a Trump administration 2.0,” state Attorney General Rob Bonta said at a press conference in San Francisco two days after the election. “We have planned for you. We have prepared for you.”
Multiple cities in California, including San Francisco, Oakland and San José, have in place what are commonly called “sanctuary laws”: policies designed to protect immigrants from deportation by limiting law enforcement cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). And other cities are bolstering local protections in anticipation of Trump’s pledge of mass deportations. In Los Angeles, city officials unanimously passed a sanctuary ordinance on Nov. 19, and in the Bay Area, Redwood City is currently debating a similar move.
As the clock ticks down to a second Trump term, what do we know about existing sanctuary laws in cities like San Francisco, along with policies at the state level? And what are some ways these policies do — and do not — protect immigrants from deportation?
6 Reasons Why Joe Biden Pardoned Hunter Biden
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Publicly, Joe Biden never wavered. Privately, those close to him believed that the President would eventually intervene and end the federal prosecutions against his son.
Sunday evening’s surprise announcement of a sweeping pardon for Hunter Biden sent Washington ablaze with outrage. Talk turned to what this about-face would mean for the President’s legacy, the impact it might have on the Justice Department’s already battered credibility, and whether President-elect Donald Trump, himself a convicted felon, would accept the pardon as the final word. It all felt very loud, very urgent—and, to some, very predictable.
Yet, when you take a look at Biden’s choice—making use of a power guaranteed in the Constitution with very few limits—it starts to make some sense.
Yes, Biden flip-flopped on a pretty absolute pledge not to exercise the right to spare his son. Yes, it flies in the face of Democrats’ long-standing criticism about Trump, that no one should be above the law regardless of ties to the Oval Office.
And, yes, this is going to dog Biden’s final weeks in office in ways that could distract from his urgent work to build a legacy after a half-century in public life.
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Is the battle for Aleppo part of Syria’s war?
Is the battle for Aleppo part of Syria’s war?
The surprise assault on the Syrian city of Aleppo by opposition forces on Wednesday appears to have caught the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad and his allies, as well as much of the world, off guard.
Currently, as the Syrian and Russian air forces pound opposition forces in northwest Syria, the brutal conflict that many had hoped had frozen since a ceasefire deal in 2020 is showing every sign of reigniting.
Yes.
Syria’s revolution of 2011 failed to topple the country’s leader, Bashar al-Assad.
He leaned on the support of his allies, Russia, Iran and the Lebanese group Hezbollah, who joined his forces in trying to put down the uprising.
The fighting drew in both existing regional armed groups, such as ISIL (ISIS) and al-Qaeda – who established linkages to groups in Syria – and created new factions such as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), who led last week’s attack on Aleppo.
November 30, 2024
Emboldened ‘manosphere’ accelerates threats and demeaning language toward women after US election
Emboldened ‘manosphere’ accelerates threats and demeaning language toward women after US election
Emboldened ‘manosphere’ accelerates threats and demeaning language toward women after US election
CHICAGO (AP) — In the days after the presidential election, Sadie Perez began carrying pepper spray with her around campus. Her mom also ordered her and her sister a self-defense kit that included keychain spikes, a hidden knife key and a personal alarm.
It’s a response to an emboldened fringe of right-wing “manosphere” influencers who have seized on Republican Donald Trump ’s presidential win to justify and amplify misogynistic derision and threats online. Many have appropriated a 1960s abortion rights rallying cry, declaring “Your body, my choice” at women online and on college campuses.
For many women, the words represent a worrying harbinger of what might lie ahead as some men perceive the election results as a rebuke of reproductive rights and women’s rights.
“The fact that I feel like I have to carry around pepper spray like this is sad,” said Perez, a 19-year-old political science student in Wisconsin. “Women want and deserve to feel safe.”
The deep historical forces that explain Trump’s win
Emboldened ‘manosphere’ accelerates threats and demeaning language toward women after US election
Emboldened ‘manosphere’ accelerates threats and demeaning language toward women after US election
In the days since the sweeping Republican victory in the US election, which gave the party control of the presidency, the Senate and the House, commentators have analysed and dissected the relative merits of the main protagonists – Kamala Harris and Donald Trump – in minute detail. Much has been said about their personalities and the words they have spoken; little about the impersonal social forces that push complex human societies to the brink of collapse – and sometimes beyond. That’s a mistake: in order to understand the roots of our current crisis, and possible ways out of it, it’s precisely these tectonic forces we need to focus on.
The research team I lead studies cycles of political integration and disintegration over the past 5,000 years. We have found that societies, organised as states, can experience significant periods of peace and stability lasting, roughly, a century or so. Inevitably, though, they then enter periods of social unrest and political breakdown. Think of the end of the Roman empire, the English civil war or the Russian Revolution. To date, we have amassed data on hundreds of historical states as they slid into crisis, and then emerged from it.
So we’re in a good position to identify just those impersonal social forces that foment unrest and fragmentation, and we’ve found three common factors: popular immiseration, elite overproduction and state breakdown.
Retailers urge buyers to shop before Trump's tariffs hit
Emboldened ‘manosphere’ accelerates threats and demeaning language toward women after US election
Retailers urge buyers to shop before Trump's tariffs hit
Retailers small and large are urging their customers to buy their merchandise before President-elect Trump's tariff plans become a reality.
Why it matters: As Americans gear up for the holiday shopping season, the looming threat of tariffs has imbued their to-buy lists with a sense of urgency. Higher tariffs typically mean higher prices for consumers.
Driving the news: Trump announced a slate of forthcoming tariffs earlier this week targeting the U.S.' top three trading partners — China, Mexico and Canada.
- Trump promised to impose a a 25% tariff on all goods coming from Canada and Mexico, as well as a 10% tariff on imports from China "above any additional Tariffs."
- Tariffs were one of Trump's cornerstone campaign pledges. He previously floated the possibility of imposing 10% or 20% tariffs on all imports, as well as a 60% tariff on all Chinese imports.