/news/ - Current News

>In one message, Epstein said one of his apparent victims "spent hours at my house" with Trump.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/epstein-trump-emails-estate-oversight-committee_n_69148e46e4b0c2898bed24f0

WASHINGTON ― The late sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein suggested to confidants that President Donald Trump knew about his criminal activity, according to email messages made public Wednesday.

Trump “knew about the girls,” Epstein wrote in one of the three emails released by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.

The emails, culled from thousands of documents obtained from a committee subpoena to the Epstein estate, have previously not been made public, the Democrats said. The messages undermine the president’s efforts to downplay his relationship with Epstein, who died in prison in 2019 while facing federal charges related to sex trafficking minors.

In another of the messages, from 2011, Epstein tells Ghislaine Maxwell, his partner in crime, that Trump is the “dog that hasn’t barked” because he’d spent time with someone whose name is redacted as “VICTIM.”

“i want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump,” Epstein wrote. ”[VICTIM] spent hours at my house with him,, he has never once been mentioned.”

At the time, Epstein had already been convicted in Florida of felony solicitation of prostitution following an investigation that discovered Epstein and his accomplice grooming underage girls for sexual abuse by recruiting them to work as massage therapists at Epstein’s home in Palm Beach, Florida. Epstein struck a deal with federal prosecutors, who agreed not to press federal charges in exchange for Epstein’s guilty plea to state charges.

Democrats are furious after folding like a lawn chair as they got substantively nothing from the protracted Democrat Shutdown except for now holding the record for longest shutdown
https://thehill.com/newsletters/morning-report/5599865-house-democrats-oppose-spending/
Democrats rage as funding bill heads to House

Democrats from both chambers of Congress and differing wings of the party are furious after eight Senate Democrats voted with Republicans to advance a measure to reopen the government.

The Senate passed the spending bill Monday night, and House leaders said they would vote on it as early as 4 p.m. on Wednesday. President Trump said he would “abide by the deal” once it reaches his desk.

House Democrats are widely expected to oppose the bill, while a few moderate members may buck the party and vote for it. Republicans will be operating with an ultranarrow majority to get it to Trump for a signature.

The agreement has also reignited a debate among Democrats over the party’s direction and the right leaders to chart the path forward, with several progressive House members and those running next year calling for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to be replaced.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) released a statement declaring his opposition to the agreement before it passed a procedural vote on Sunday. The House will return from an extended two-month recess to vote on the measure.

“We will not support spending legislation advanced by Senate Republicans that fails to extend Affordable Care Act tax credits,” Jeffries said. “We will fight the GOP bill in the House of Representatives, where Mike Johnson will be compelled to end the seven week Republican taxpayer-funded vacation.”

The Hill’s Mike Lillis and Sudiksha Kochi report tensions are boiling over within the Democratic Party, just a week after the party was riding high off its sweeping success in last Tuesday’s elections.

https://stateline.org/2025/11/12/congress-pushes-hemp-crackdown-after-pressure-from-states-marijuana-industry/

A provision significantly limiting the sale of intoxicating hemp products made its way into legislation to reopen the federal government just a day before the Senate approved the bill. Its inclusion follows years of pressure from states and the marijuana industry.

While states continue to expand access to legal marijuana, a separate market of hemp-derived intoxicants has blossomed. The products, from drinks to gummies, are sold in gas stations and smoke shops. Critics say some companies have exploited a legal loophole from 2018 to manufacture products that get people high — without the safety regulations and taxes facing the legal marijuana industry.

That’s led dozens of states to limit or ban certain intoxicating hemp products. Most states also have pushed for federal changes, though some farm states worry the pending federal bill — which the House is expected to vote on as soon as today — goes too far.

A bipartisan group of 39 state attorneys general recently urged Congress to clarify the federal definition of hemp, arguing that the underregulated industry threatens public health and undermines law enforcement.

Texas lawmakers this year approved a strict ban on intoxicating hemp, but that measure was vetoed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. The governor raised constitutional concerns because federal law allowed the products, but he then issued an executive order increasing state agency regulations, including age restrictions.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/12/politics/epstein-files-discharge-petition-next-steps

Adelita Grijalva’s swearing in on Wednesday will make her Democrats’ newest member in the US House of Representatives, but it’ll also officially set in motion lawmakers’ effort to force a vote on a measure the White House has fought for months: a bill to compel the release of the Jeffrey Epstein case files.

After her 4 p.m. swearing in, Grijalva is expected to provide the 218th – and final – signature needed on the discharge petition to force such a vote and, in turn, trigger a number of procedural steps before the House can vote on a bill compelling the files’ release.

As a refresher, a discharge petition is a critical tool at rank-and-file members’ disposal. Under the arcane procedure, if 218 members of the House – a majority of all 435 districts – sign one, they can force a floor vote in the chamber on anything — even if leadership opposes it. Such an effort rarely succeeds.

Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky has joined with Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California to spearhead this particular discharge petition, but while Grijalva will provide the decisive signature, the effort faces a number of hurdles — and the bill is unlikely to become law.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/republicans-demand-tougher-abortion-restrictions-extend-obamacare-fund-rcna243206
Senate Republicans say they’re open to extending a pot of Affordable Care Act funds that will expire at the end of the year — but only if Democrats acquiesce to stricter abortion restrictions on insurance plans.

The demand presents a significant hurdle to reaching a bipartisan deal to extend ACA funding designed to avoid major premium hikes next year for more than 20 million Americans, as Democrats are adamant that existing abortion guardrails under Obamacare are sufficient.

If the funds are not extended by the end of the year, some people insured under Obamacare could see their bills rise by thousands of dollars per month, raising concerns that millions will choose to go uninsured.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said there will be a negotiation about an extension after the government reopens. He said one condition will be stricter rules pertaining to the Hyde amendment, which bars federal funding from being used for abortion.

To satisfy Democratic demands to comply with the Hyde amendment when Obamacare passed in 2010, the law does not allow federal funds to cover abortions. Some states allow people insured under Obamacare to access abortion coverage using state or other funding. Republicans want to change that.

“That’s what we’re going to negotiate,” Thune told reporters before the Senate passed the bill to end the government shutdown. “A one-year extension along the lines of what [Democrats] are suggesting, and without Hyde protections — there’s just not even, doesn’t even get close.”

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-pardons-rudy-giuliani-key-figures-involved-efforts/story?id=127367541

President Donald Trump issued a sweeping pardon to key figures allegedly involved in the plan to arrange an alternate slate of electors and "expose voting fraud" during the 2020 election, according to U.S. Pardon Attorney Ed Martin.

Trump pardoned high-profile individuals allegedly involved in his attempt to overturn the election, including Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Boris Epshteyn, John Eastman and Mark Meadows -- and 72 other individuals allegedly associated with the effort to challenge the 2020 election results.

The pardon, which Trump appears to have signed on Friday, covers each of the president's co-defendants who were charged in Georgia for a sweeping scheme to overturn election results.

The senate has reached a deal and the shutdown is ending tonight. Republicans are folding like lawn chars.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/11/09/government-funding-deal-on-track-to-advance-sunday-night-00644110
Senate reaches deal on ending the shutdown

Senators have reached a deal to end the government shutdown.

The agreement, which was negotiated in part by Sens. Angus King, Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan as well as GOP senators, has “more than enough” members of the Senate Democratic Caucus to advance, according to two people granted anonymity to disclose the terms.

Senate Republicans are expected to support the agreement.

The Senate is poised to vote later Sunday night to advance the House-passed stopgap, which will later become the vehicle for the larger funding deal.

That vote would tee up consideration later this week of a legislative package that would fund the Department of Agriculture and the FDA, the Department of Veterans Affairs and military construction projects, and the operations of Congress, for the full fiscal year — the product of months of bipartisan, bicameral negotiations. All other agencies would be funded through Jan. 30, according to text of a continuing resolution released Sunday.

As part of Democrats’ agreement to end the shutdown, Senate Majority Leader John Thune is promising Senate Democrats a vote in December to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies that are due to expire at the end of the year short of Congressional action. Democrats will also get to determine what extension bill gets a vote.

The government-opening agreement also guarantees that federal employees laid off during the shutdown are re-hired and gives federal employees backpay.

> Thread theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xhy3G7-2fcY

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/social-media-erupts-far-left-163050898.html

> Social media erupts after far-left mayor gives victory speech in foreign language: 'Humiliating'

Newly re-elected Minneapolis Democratic Mayor Jacob Frey is facing backlash from conservatives for giving a victory speech in Somali and saying that Minneapolis welcomes Somalians.

In a video of the speech posted online, Frey can be seen leading chants in Somali as the crowd responds and applauds.

Popular conservative influencer Paul Szypula ripped into the progressive mayor, writing, "The pandering here is insane."

"Mayor Jacob Frey, as he won reelection, spoke almost a minute in Somalia then said Minneapolis belongs to Somalia," said Szypula.

In a second round of nonpartisan ranked-choice voting, Frey narrowly defeated a challenge from socialist Minneapolis state Sen. Omar Fateh. Fateh is the first Somali American and first Muslim to serve in the state Senate.

Fateh had the backing of the Twin Cities' chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America and "Squad" member Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., who represents Minneapolis in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, former Vice President Kamala Harris' running mate last year who is up for re-election next year, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., endorsed Frey's campaign this year.

BBC execs resign because the network was releasing cheap fakes of Donald Trump's speeches. The chair of BBC News acknowledged these cheap fakes and apologized after the executives tendered their resignations
https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5598221-bbc-chair-apologizes-donald-trump-edit/
BBC chair apologies for ‘error in judgment’ in Trump speech edit

The chair of the BBC is apologizing for the way the broadcaster edited a video of President Trump speaking to a crowd of his supporters on Jan. 6, 2021 in Washington D.C. before the attack on the Capitol that day.

Criticisms of the edit, which have led to the resignations of both BBC Director-General Tim Davie and the CEO of BBC News, Deborah Turness, has “also prompted further reflection by the BBC,” Chair Samir Shah wrote in a letter to British lawmakers this week.

“The conclusion of that deliberation is that we accept that the way the speech was edited did give the impression of a direct call for violent action. The BBC would like to apologise for that error of judgement,” Shah said.

The video in question, shown as part of a BBC documentary and highlighted in reporting by The Telegraph, depicts Trump saying “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.”

A complete video and transcript of the president’s remarks shows him urging his supporters to “peacefully and patriotically” march to the Capitol.

Trump has celebrated the resignation of Davie and Turness and has ridiculed the BBC over the edit, alleging the episode is evidence of bias against him.

“I will personally ensure that the BBC continues to take the necessary actions in the future to ensure the BBC retains the trust and confidence of the public we serve,” Shah wrote in his letter. “There is an increasing need for the public to be informed in a way that is impartial, truthful and is based on evidence they can trust. That is the sacred job of the BBC.”

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/417620

The United States is advancing a plan to build a large military base in the Gaza envelope, the Shomrim news website reported, citing Israeli officials who were exposed to the plan.

According to the report, the base is intended to be used by the international forces who will operate in the Gaza Strip to enforce the ceasefire and is expected to house thousands of servicemembers.

The cost of construction is estimated at half a billion dollars, and the Americans have begun examining possible locations in the area for the base. The initiative is being advanced in cooperation with the Government of Israel and the IDF.

At the moment, the US military presence in Israel is relatively limited, consisting of 200 soldiers operating out of the US Central Command Civil Military Coordination Center (CMCC) in Kiryat Gat.

However, according to reports, the CMCC is expected to take full control of the humanitarian aid distribution system in Gaza, a process that was previously carried out under Israeli supervision.

The Israeli Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories' (COGAT) role is expected to be significantly limited.

President Donald Trump said the U.S. economy is strong and insisted polls showing Americans are feeling economic pain are "fake" during an interview on Fox News that aired on Monday night.

Trump said bad news about the economy amounted to a "con job by the Democrats," adding Democrats "feed" major news network anchors with the message the economy is bad and then "every anchor" does "exactly what they say."

"I'll never forget, they used a word like 'manufactured,'" Trump said in the interview. "You remember the word 'manufacture'? It's a 'manufactured' economy. Nobody uses that word. Every anchor broke in 'manufactured.' They do exactly what they say. It's such a rigged system."

The U.S. economy grew at an annualized rate of 3.8% in the second quarter in the government's final estimate, besting a 3.3% rate issued in its second estimate and far exceeding a 3% initial estimate. But consumer prices rose 3% in September compared to a year ago, with inflation at its highest level since January, the most-recent government data showed. The inflation reading came in lower than economists' expectations.

Trump defended his handling of the economy, saying that costs are "way down" across the board.

"So are you ready? Costs are way down," Trump said. "Gasoline is going to be hitting $2 pretty soon, or around $2.

The average consumer price for a gallon of gas in the U.S. was $3.072 on Tuesday, according to AAA, which said the average price was $3.083 a gallon a year ago.

Trump was also pressed about a rollout by his administration for a 50-year mortgage option, something that faced criticism on social media as critics pointed out that the extended payoff timeline would mean Americans would pay more in interest than they would through the life of a shorter loan.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-downplays-economic-woes-partisan-spin-costs/story?id=127407410

> Thread theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VDuLiqCmDE

https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/11/politics/trump-domestic-talent-jobs-h1b-visas

> Trump says United States doesn’t have talented people to fill jobs domestically

President Donald Trump told Fox News in an interview that aired Tuesday night the United States doesn’t have talented workers to fill jobs needed domestically, defending the H1-B skilled worker visa program.

Pressed by Fox News’ Laura Ingraham on whether his administration would reduce H1-B visas over concerns it would depress wages for American workers, Trump told Ingraham, “I agree — but you also do have to bring in talent.”

When the Fox host responded, “We have plenty of talented people here,” Trump replied, “No, you don’t, no you don’t … you don’t have certain talents, and people have to learn. You can’t take people off an unemployment line and say, ‘I’m going to put you into a factory where we’re going to make missiles.’”

The president pointed to the September ICE raid of a Georgia Hyundai facility, which saw authorities arrest and deport hundreds of South Korean contractors over their immigration status, as evidence of the country’s need for skilled foreign workers.

https://www.thetimes.com/article/b1681efe-06d3-459b-8a2a-8d352c4eb20d?shareToken=0ff4c221fec45c63a6ba21fe55449f54
The International Olympic Committee is set to announce a ban on transgender women in female competition early next year after a science-based review of evidence about permanent physical advantages of being born male.

The IOC’s guidance to Olympic sports has until now been that transgender women can compete with reduced testosterone levels but leaves it up to individual sports to decide. That is now set to change under its new president, Kirsty Coventry, who has promised to protect the female category.

The committee’s medical and scientific director, Dr Jane Thornton, last week presented to IOC members at a meeting in Lausanne the initial findings of a science-based review into transgender athletes and competitors with differences of sexual development (DSD) competing in female sport.

Sources said the presentation by Thornton, a Canadian former Olympic rower, stated that scientific evidence showed there were physical advantages to being born male that remained with athletes, including those who had taken treatment to reduce testosterone levels.
“It was a very scientific, factual and unemotional presentation which quite clearly laid out the evidence,” one source said. Another IOC insider said there had been hugely positive feedback from IOC members about the presentation.

It is understood the IOC is likely to announce its new policy early in the new year, possibly around the IOC session at the Milan-Cortina winter Olympics in early February.

https://www.newsweek.com/panic-on-us-aircraft-carrier-island-after-us-venezuela-strikes-report-10975598
Tension is rapidly growing in the Caribbean country of Trinidad and Tobago after a U.S. newspaper reported that the U.S. was poised to strike military targets in Venezuela, as the U.S. military buildup in the region continues.

The Miami Herald wrote on Friday that the Trump administration had decided to attack military installations inside Venezuela, information it said it obtained from sources with knowledge of the situation.

According to these same sources, the strikes, which they claimed would be the latest escalation in the president’s campaign against the Soles drug cartel, could “come at any moment”—whether that is a matter of days or even hours.

However, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has flatly denied the Miami Herald’s story.

Why It Matters

President Donald Trump has recently increased pressure on Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro to curb the flow of drugs from the country into the U.S. Over the past several weeks, the U.S. military has conducted a number of strikes on boats in the Caribbean Sea which the Trump administration said it suspected of smuggling narcotics, killing more than 60 people.

Maduro has accused Trump of trying to topple his government and seeking a regime change in Venezuela, which in recent years has suffered an economic collapse and is still in the midst of a socioeconomic and political crisis.

Trump, on the other hand, has accused Maduro of being the leader of a drug-trafficking organization—an accusation that the Venezuelan leader has repeatedly denied.

https://thehill.com/newsletters/5601265-federal-thc-ban-send-hemp-companies-scrambling/

The Senate late Monday passed a funding package that would reopen the government and fund the Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration. Tucked into the funding bill is a provision that would re-criminalize many of the intoxicating hemp-derived products that were legalized by the 2018 Farm Bill.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) waged a last-minute fight to try to keep the provision out, threatening to drag out the process of debating the underlying bill until he got a vote on an amendment to strip the language.
He got the vote on Monday; Paul and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) were the only Republicans who voted in favor.
“The bill, as it now stands, overrides the regulatory frameworks of several states, cancels the collective decisions of hemp consumers and destroys the livelihoods of hemp farmers,” Paul said on the floor ahead of the vote. “And it couldn’t come at a worse time for America’s farmers. Times are tough for our farmers.”

Kristi Noem reportedly tried to buy 10 engineless Spirit Airlines planes that airline didn’t own

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/08/kristi-noem-spirit-airlines-planes

The secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Kristi Noem, reportedly authorized the purchase of Spirit Airlines jets before discovering the airline didn’t actually own the planes – and that the aircraft lacked engines.

The bizarre anecdote was contained in a Wall Street Journal report released on Friday, which recounted how Noem and Corey Lewandowski – who managed Donald Trump’s first winning presidential campaign – had recently arranged to buy 10 Boeing 737 aircraft from Spirit Airlines. People familiar with the situation told the paper that the two intended to use the jets to expand deportation flights – and for personal travel.

Those sources also claimed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials had cautioned them that buying planes would be far more expensive than simply expanding existing flight contracts.

Complicating matters further, Spirit, which filed for bankruptcy protection for the second time, in August, did not own the jets and their engines would have had to be bought separately. The plan has since been paused, according to the Journal.

Meanwhile, Democrats on the House appropriations committee said in October that during this fall’s record-long government shutdown, the DHS had already acquired two Gulfstream jets for $200m.

“It has come to our attention that, in the midst of a government shutdown, the United States Coast Guard entered into a sole source contract with Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation to procure two new G700 luxury jets to support travel for you and the deputy secretary, at a cost to the taxpayer of $200m,” Democratic representatives Rosa DeLauro and Lauren Underwood wrote in a letter to the DHS.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ghislaine-maxwell-prison-emails-minimum-security-bryan-texas-rcna242218
Within days of her arrival at a Texas prison camp in early August, Ghislaine Maxwell gushed in emails to her friends and family over the cleanliness and safety of her new surroundings.

“The institution is run in an orderly fashion which makes for a safer more comfortable environment for all people concerned, inmates and guards alike,” wrote Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for recruiting minors to be sexually abused by her longtime confidant, the wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Maxwell’s unexpected move to the all-women’s Federal Prison Camp Bryan, which houses inmates convicted of nonviolent offenses and white-collar crimes in dormitory-style quarters, drew immediate condemnation from current and former federal Bureau of Prisons employees. They said it was very unusual for prisoners with sex offenses on their records to be incarcerated in such an unconstrained setting, indicating Maxwell was receiving preferential treatment.

Maxwell, 63, had been in a low-security federal correctional institution in Tallahassee, Florida, following her conviction in December 2021 on federal sex trafficking charges. FCI Tallahassee is more restrictive than a camp like FPC Bryan, where inmates have access to work programs, recreation and other activities and are often serving shorter sentences. Maxwell was moved days after meeting with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche in July.

NBC News has reviewed emails Maxwell sent during her first few months at FPC Bryan, which were obtained by the House Judiciary Committee. The emails describe Maxwell’s relief at being in a calmer facility without violence, where staff was polite and the food was better. "My situation is improved by being at Bryan," she wrote in one email.

>Gregory Bovino was called out by a judge only two days earlier for lying about being assaulted by a protester

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/08/border-patrol-gregory-bovino-chicago

A border patrol chief claimed on Saturday that his agents came under fire in Chicago while conducting immigration enforcement operations, just two days after a federal judge said that he had lied to her about having been struck by a rock during a previous confrontation with protesters in the city.

Gregory Bovino, the border patrol chief and frequent Fox News guest who has become the face of the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts, said on social media that his agents had been “shot at”, and subjected to “vehicular assaults, physical assaults, impeding, violent mobs, vehicular blockades”, for a number of hours.

In a written statement, the Department of Homeland Security said that border patrol agents were “conducting immigration enforcement operations near 26th Street and Kedzie Avenue in Chicago, Illinois, when an unknown male driving a black Jeep fired shots at agents and fled the scene”.

The agency said that the “Chicago Police Department was called for assistance and cleared the scene. The shooter and vehicle remain at large, and this is a dynamic situation.”

Chicago police said they responded but found no signs of anyone having been struck by gunfire where the alleged shooting took place. “There are no reports of anyone struck by gunfire,” the Chicago police said in a statement.

According to the police, one officer was in good condition after being struck by a vehicle during the operation, and the driver was ticketed.

>No video evidence has yet surfaced of the alleged shooting, but social media clips and news photographs did show heavily armed agents in camouflage, including Bovino, confronting protesters, deploying tear gas and detaining people in the city’s Little Village neighborhood.

> 11/11/2025
Happy Veterans’ Day
> Top Headline
Poor Tucker Carlson…
> https://www.christianpost.com/news/tucker-carlson-draws-scorn-for-new-details-over-demon-attack.html
> Main Headlines
Dems want pragmatic ruthlessness.
> https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ar-AA1QdfE7
“Showdown 2026”
> https://www.the-express.com/news/190252
> More News
I’m not for it: Trump wants to drill off California shores.
> https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-plan-would-open-california-to-offshore-oil-drilling/ar-AA1Qbfkg
The No.1 country song in USA is AI-made. (Red Text)
> https://www.barrons.com/news/ai-country-song-rollicks-to-the-top-of-us-sales-chart-7fe99e8a
Noah’s Ark, found?!?
> https://www.the-express.com/news/190115
There you have it.

YouTuber Tyler Oliveira said he will not release his documentary about India’s poop-throwing festival. He posted this on his X account two hours ago. Oliveira said he was doxxed and threatened by thousands of Indians after he filmed the event. He said people also targeted his family, turning his life “into a living hell." The festival he filmed is called the Gorehabba cow-dung festival, celebrated in Gumatapura village in Karnataka after Diwali.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us-streamers/tyler-oliveira-cancels-his-india-cow-dung-throwing-festival-documentary-after-growing-threats-and-massive-backlash/articleshow/125147011.cms

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/07/supreme-court-same-sex-marriage

The US supreme court on Friday is considering taking up a case that could challenge the legality of same-sex marriage across the country.

Hours after ruling that Donald Trump’s administration can block transgender and non-binary people from selecting passport sex markers that align with their gender identity, the justices are holding their first conference on the Davis v Ermold case. While their deliberations are typically kept private, the court may announce whether it will take the case as early as Monday.

The case involves Kim Davis, a former Kentucky county clerk who, in 2015, became a cause celebre for religious opposition to same-sex marriage after the US supreme court legalized the practice in the Obergefell v Hodges case. Davis repeatedly refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples and, at the height of her fame, was even briefly jailed for contempt of court.

Two men, David Ermold and David Moore, sued Davis after she refused to give them a marriage license. After a trial, a jury awarded the couple $100,000 in damages. Davis appealed that decision, arguing that her conduct was protected by the first amendment’s guarantee of free exercise of religion.

The US court of appeals for the sixth circuit, however, rejected that argument in March of this year. Because Davis was operating within her capacity as a government official, she was not entitled to first amendment protections, the judges ruled.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryroeloffs/2025/11/06/more-than-1-million-jobs-have-been-cut-this-year-report-says/

Private and public employers cut 153,074 jobs in October, according to a report from career services firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a 183% increase from the month before and a 175% spike over the same month last year.

More than 1 million jobs have been cut so far this year, up 65% from the 664,839 announced in the first 10 months of 2024 and 44% more than cuts made in all of 2024.

The government, responsible for more than 300,000 job losses, remains the sector with the most cuts this year, followed by the technology, warehousing, retail and service sectors.

Job cuts have surpassed 1 million in a year only four other times in the last 32 years: 2001 (when the dot-com bubble burst), 2008 and 2009 (in the midst of the Great Recession) and 2020 (when the COVID pandemic struck).

Andrew Challenger, chief revenue officer and labor expert for Challenger, Gray & Christmas, blamed the adoption of artificial intelligence, federal budget cuts, lower customer and corporate spending and rising costs for the job cuts announced in October.

Last month brought the highest number of job cuts for any October since 2003, when large layoffs were announced in the telecommunications sector as cell phones gained wide adoption.

Abandoning all pretense of wanting to help Americans in need or being forced to cut funding to food programs by law, Donald Trump has gone mask off and has taken the audacious step of actively working to prevent Americans from receiving SNAP benefits in defiance of a court order mandating the program be funded in full.
This occurs after Donald Trump's record breaking government shutdown (having broken his previous record) drags into it's 38th day

https://apnews.com/article/snap-food-government-shutdown-trump-a807e9f0c0a7213e203c074553dc1f9b

BOSTON (AP) — President Donald Trump ’s administration asked a federal appeals court Friday to block a judge’s order that it distribute November’s full monthly SNAP food benefits amid a U.S. government shutdown, even as at least some states said they were moving quickly to get the money to people.

The judge gave the Trump administration until Friday to make the payments through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. But the administration asked the appeals court to suspend any court orders requiring it to spend more money than is available in a contingency fund, and instead allow it to continue with planned partial SNAP payments for the month.

The court filing came even as the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a memo to states that it’s working to make funds available Friday for full monthly SNAP benefits.

California and Wisconsin said some SNAP recipients already received their full November payments overnight on Thursday.

“Food benefits are now beginning to flow back to California families,” Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement. A spokesperson for Democratic Gov. Tony Evers of Wisconsin also confirmed that full SNAP payments had gone through.

> 11/6/2025
The first time I ever started a new thread because the old one was too successful… Feels Goodman…
> Top Headlines
Don’t let the door hit ya where the Good Lord split ya!
> https://apnews.com/fd95c18815fdabdaabaf26b8c2f0bafc
Wielded immense power for decades!
> https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/us/politics/nancy-pelosi-house-retire.html?unlocked_article_code=1.zE8.k9wV.HzGW_viCiRTe&smid=url-share
Is going to step down for a “new generation” (read: Mamdani…)
> https://www.sfgate.com/article/21143684.php

> Main Headline
Musk Makes More Money, Man - awarded 1 Trillion dollars!
> https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/business/elon-musk-tesla-pay-vote.html?unlocked_article_code=1.zE8.X9ul.66Oc5Shei8cd&smid=url-share

> More News
Medical emergency in the White House - from the picture Trump just stands there.
> https://www.the-sun.com/news/15452648
So much for antiNannyState Conservatives… Texas to ban tranny shows.
> https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/appeals-court-lets-texas-enforce-185339565.html
Self-driving taxi runs over beloved neighborhood cat.
> https://metro.co.uk/2025/11/06/robotaxi-runs-kills-popular-cat-greeted-people-a-corner-shop-24633938/
Astronauts trapped in Space because of “Mystery Object”!
> https://metro.co.uk/2025/11/06/astronauts-stranded-space-capsule-struck-mystery-object-24632143/

It’s usually Space Junk, r-right?!

Military plans to fire artillery over California freeway on Saturday
Laurel Rosenhall, John Ismay and Zolan Kanno-Youngs report. Not adding to the headline that the freeway was CLOSED for this.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/18/us/artillery-interstate-5-marines.html

The Marines fired 155-millimeter artillery shells over a major freeway in Southern California on Saturday as part of a demonstration at Camp Pendleton to celebrate the Marine Corps’ 250th anniversary.

Looking for an excuse to be in the media a constantly outraged Democrat, Gov. Gavin Newsom experienced further outrage late Friday night after his office had been informed days earlier that the celebration would not involve firing munitions across Interstate 5, a heavily traveled corridor between Los Angeles and San Diego.

This is literally the worst thing since five minutes ago when we complained about the last worst thing ever. Newsom continued to be ridiculous claiming:
"This is a profoundly absurd show of force that could put Californians directly in harm's way," Newsom said in a statement to The New York Times.
Which is ridiculous since this is nothing new.
"M777 artillery pieces have historically been fired during routine training from land-based artillery firing points west of I-5 into impact areas east of the interstate within existing safety protocols and without the need to close the route," Dreibelbis said. He called the test firings an "established and safe practice" as a rehearsal for Saturday's event.

NEW ORLEANS — Immigration officials have deported a father living in Alabama to Laos despite a federal court order blocking his removal from the U.S. on the grounds he has a claim to citizenship, the man’s attorneys said Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick last week ordered U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to keep Chanthila “Shawn” Souvannarath, 44, in the United States while he presented what the judge called his “substantial claim of U.S. citizenship,” court records show. He was born in a refugee camp in Thailand but was granted lawful permanent residence in the U.S. before his first birthday, according to court filings.

But Souvannarath on Sunday messaged his wife on WhatsApp and told her he was in Dongmakkhai, Laos, according to a screenshot she shared with The Associated Press. The message ends with “love y’all.”

“It is very unfortunate, especially for the children that we have together,” Beatrice Souvannarath told AP.

Emails, phone calls and text messages sent to ICE and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security were not immediately returned.

The ACLU of Louisiana, which is representing Souvannarath, called the deportation a “stunning violation of a federal court order.” Before his deportation, Souvannarath had been detained at a newly opened ICE facility at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.

“ICE just ignored a federal court order and tore yet another family apart,” said Alanah Odoms, executive director for the ACLU of Louisiana, in a statement. “This administration has shown it will ignore the courts, ignore the Constitution and ignore the law to pursue its mass deportation agenda, even if it means destroying the lives of American citizens.”

>https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/28/man-deported-to-laos-despite-court-order-blocking-his-removal-attorneys-say-00626802

President Donald Trump's new plan to purchase additional beef from Argentina to lower prices for consumers in the United States has sparked backlash from critics and alarm from some American producers—as the administration already faces questions and criticism for its recent $20 billion bailout of the South American nation.

Meriwether Farms, a beef producer based in Wyoming that said it supports and loves Trump, described the plan as an "absolute betrayal to the American cattle rancher" in an X post Monday. "The continued manipulation and betrayal by the very people who claim to support them [cattle ranchers], needs to end immediately," the producer said.

Newsweek reached out to the White House for comment.

Trump is acutely aware of voters’ concerns about inflation, a key issue that helped to deliver him the White House in the 2024 election—and one that could hurt him in next year’s midterms if the cost of living remains a problem under his leadership.

The announcement also came as the Trump White House has sought to help ally Javier Milei, the libertarian president of Argentina, avert an economic crisis in his country with a $20 billion bailout, a move that has sparked criticism from American farmers and some within his own MAGA movement.

>https://www.newsweek.com/argentina-beef-trump-plan-sparks-fury-bailout-10908176

A measles investigation amid a large, ongoing outbreak at the Arizona-Utah border has hit a roadblock as the first probable case identified in the Salt Lake City area refuses to work with health officials, the local health department reported this week.

There have been over 150 cases collectively across the two states, mostly in northwestern Mohave County, Arizona, and the southwest health district of Utah, in the past two months. Both areas have abysmally low vaccination rates: In Mohave County, only 78.4 percent of kindergartners in the 2024–2025 school year were vaccinated against measles, according to state records. In the southwest district of Utah, only 80.7 percent of kindergartners in the 2024–2025 school year had records of measles vaccination. Public health experts say vaccination coverage of 95 percent is necessary to keep the disease from spreading in a community.

While the outbreak has largely exploded along the border, cases are also creeping to the north, toward Salt Lake County, which encompasses the city. Utah County, which sits just south of Salt Lake County, has identified eight cases, including a new case reported today.

>https://arstechnica.com/health/2025/10/measles-outbreak-investigation-in-utah-blocked-by-patient-who-refuses-to-talk/

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ced6np51532o
Parts of the White House's East Wing have been demolished, as construction begins on US President Donald Trump's new ballroom.

Construction crews on Monday tore down massive chunks of a covered entryway and windows in the East Wing, which Trump said is being "fully modernised".

The president previously said that his $250m (£186m) White House ballroom addition would be "near" the existing structure but would not change it.

"It won't interfere with the current building. It won't be. It'll be near it but not touching it - and pays total respect to the existing building, which I'm the biggest fan of," Trump said in July. "It's my favourite. It's my favourite place. I love it."

Trump announced the construction in a social media post, saying "ground has been broken" on the "much-needed" ballroom space.

"For more than 150 years, every President has dreamt about having a Ballroom at the White House to accommodate people for grand parties, State Visits, etc," he wrote.

He said the project is being privately funded by "many generous Patriots". Their identities are unclear still as the White House has not released any names of who might be funding it.

The White House has served as the historic home of the US president for two centuries. The East Wing was constructed in 1902 and was last modified in 1942.

From the south side of the building, the BBC saw several large pieces of construction equipment - some adorned with US flags - near the East Wing.

Trump wrote in his post that the East Wing was "completely separate" from the White House, though it is attached to the main structure.

The covered entryway, which spans much of the East Wing's south side, appeared to be being gutted, with concrete debris and metal cables clearly visible from several hundred meters.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/11/06/heritage-foundation-tucker-carlson/
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/06/heritage-foundation-tucker-carlson-nick-fuentes

The leader of the conservative thinktank behind Project 2025 apologized for supporting a white nationalist amid turmoil on the right over the mainstreaming of extremist ideology, but is resisting calls to resign.

Kevin Roberts, the president of the Heritage Foundation, previously defended the former Fox host Tucker Carlson for having Hitler fan Nick Fuentes on his podcast without pushing back on his white supremacist views.

In leaked footage of a Heritage town hall from Wednesday, staffers largely said Roberts’s decision to align the thinktank with Fuentes was a mistake. “I made a mistake and I let you down and I let down this institution. Period. Full Stop,” he told Heritage staff.

https://www.theblaze.com/news/former-capitol-police-officer-a-forensic-match-for-jan-6-pipe-bomber-sources-say
The FBI, which failed to solve the case in nearly five years of investigation but indicated that it was closing in after Blaze News brought its investigation to intelligence sources, was feet from the Falls Church address of the pipe bomb suspect days after Jan. 6, according to the Blaze News investigation.

Former FBI Special Agent Kyle Seraphin realized Friday that he was doing surveillance next door to the woman now suspected of being the Jan. 6 pipe bomber.

“The FBI put us one door away from the pipe bomber within days of January 6, and we were deliberately pulled away for no logical or logically investigative reason,” Seraphin told Blaze News Friday. “And everything about that tells me that they were involved in a cover-up and have been since day one.

Elections for school boards and public service commissions aren’t as sexy as a governor’s race, but they matter — and Democrats swept them everywhere.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/wildest-democratic-victories-may-not-031729940


WASHINGTON – Everyone knows the headlines from Tuesday night’s Democratic sweep in the 2025 elections — governor’s races in New Jersey and Virginia, a big redistricting referendum in California, Zohran Mamdani’s historic win in the New York City mayoral race.

But some of the party’s most astounding wins played out down lower on ballots, and they won’t get as much national attention. These were races for things like school boards, city councils, state legislative seats and an obscure public service commission. They may not sound as sexy as a governor’s race, but these are the elections most connected to local communities and reflective of how regular people are feeling there.

Here’s a look at some of Democrats’ wildest wins at the local level.

>School boards

There were lots of school board elections on Tuesday, in red and blue states like Pennsylvania, Washington, Kansas, Idaho, Colorado and Texas.

School boards are almost always elected in nonpartisan races. But candidates’ endorsements give voters a sense of their policy positions and their alignment with parties, and school boards have been dragged into ugly culture wars in recent years. That’s largely due to the far-right group, Moms for Liberty, aggressively recruiting its members to run for seats on school boards around the country to enact anti-LGBTQ+ policies in schools.

Two of Tuesday’s school board elections were in Bucks County, Pa., which was considered “ground zero” for right-wing groups’ takeover of school boards in 2021. A few years ago, conservatives on these boards in Pennbridge and Central Bucks districts were using their roles to pass policies targeting LGBTQ+ students and banning books.

https://apnews.com/article/serbia-kushner-trump-tower-special-law-69b8c6f0969b30b3911875c841f323b9

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbian lawmakers on Friday passed a special law clearing the way for a controversial real estate project that would be financed by an investment company linked to Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner despite widespread public opposition and legal hurdles.

The project seeks to redevelop a landmark military complex in central Belgrade that was partially destroyed in a NATO bombing campaign in 1999, turning it into a luxury compound with a high-rise hotel, offices and shops.

The special bill was approved with a 130-40 vote in the 250-member parliament after days of heated parliamentary debate and street protests by opponents.

Serbia’s government last year stripped the complex of its protected status and signed a 99-year-lease agreement with Kushner-related Affinity Global Development, based in the U.S. But the project stalled after Serbia’s organized crime prosecutors launched an investigation into whether documents used to remove that status were forged.

While the pro-Trump populist government of President Aleksandar Vucic says the project would boost both the economy and ties with the current U.S. administration, the plan has met fierce opposition from experts because of the building’s architectural significance — and because it is seen a symbol of resistance to the U.S.-led NATO bombing, widely viewed in the Balkan country as an unjust “aggression.”

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/5580613-pentagon-national-guard-quick-reaction-force-us-cities-trump-agenda/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/10/30/pentagon-national-guard-quick-reaction-force/

A top US military official has ordered the national guards of all 50 US states, the District of Columbia and US territories to form “quick reaction forces” trained in “riot control”, including use of batons, body shields, Tasers and pepper spray, according to an internal Pentagon directive reviewed by the Guardian.

The memo, signed on 8 October by Maj Gen Ronald Burkett, the director of operations for the Pentagon’s national guard bureau, sets thresholds for the size of the quick reaction force to be trained in each state, with most states required to train 500 national guard members, for a total of 23,500 troops nationwide.

As authority, Burkett cited Donald Trump’s August executive order that deployed the guard to fight crime in Washington DC. The same order required the secretary of defense to create “a standing National Guard quick reaction force … available for rapid nationwide deployment” in “quelling civil disturbances”.

https://www.npr.org/2025/11/06/g-s1-96437/trump-immigration-judges-fired

For three immigration judges, the day took a similar turn.

Kyra Lilien, who was hired in 2023, was presiding in a courtroom in Concord, Calif., in July when she paused the hearing of an immigrant seeking asylum to read an email.

"I told them that we were not going to have a hearing because I had just been fired," Lilien said. Present in the court was a court interpreter and an attorney for the Department of Homeland Security. "They asked me if I was joking."

Anam Petit, who was hired as an immigration judge in 2023 after a career in immigrant defense, was sitting on the bench in her courtroom in Virginia's Annandale Immigration Court in September. It was her two-year anniversary in the position and she was between hearings when she got the email.
"My voice was shaking. My hands were shaking. My mind was racing. And I gave the decision and I dismissed everyone without mentioning anything," Petit said. One decision that day was to deny asylum, and the other was a partial denial, each for a different member of one immigrant family, she recalled.

Tania Nemer was hired as a judge at the Cleveland immigration court in 2023. She had about 30 or 40 immigrants, a DHS attorney and staff in her court one morning in February. She had just finished explaining rights and responsibilities to the group when her door opened and her manager asked her to come with him. She was later escorted out of the building.

In a blow to yet another right wing /news/ shill narrative, Donald Trump has officially declared he will block SNAP benefits despite a court order mandating he fund the program.
This announcement, coupled with his continued acknowledgement that Senate Republicans can and should use the nuclear option to end the shutdown right now, has left right wing shills scrambling for new talking points. It has also led to their all but abandoning the topic of the shutdown on /news/ over the last few days, a stark reversal from their previous campaign to make it the sole topic discussed on this board.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/04/snap-trump-food-shutdown.html

President Donald Trump on Tuesday suggested that the United States would not pay any SNAP benefits during the government shutdown, contradicting a court filing a day earlier by his administration.

Trump said that the benefits, which help feed 42 million Americans, will resume only after Democrats in Congress agree to pass a stopgap funding bill that would reopen the government.

The administration on Monday told a federal judge in Rhode Island that it would pay half of the costs of the SNAP benefits for November.

Trump on Tuesday said in a Truth Social post, “SNAP BENEFITS, which increased by Billions and Billions of Dollars (MANY FOLD!) during Crooked Joe Biden’s disastrous term in office (Due to the fact that they were haphazardly ‘handed’ to anyone for the asking, as opposed to just those in need, which is the purpose of SNAP!), will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before!”

The White House, when asked by CNBC for clarification on Trump’s statement given the court filing Monday, said, “Refer you to the President’s truth.”

https://apnews.com/article/sandwich-throwing-trial-justice-department-a2776c568a1ea4b8ce5b6af606669b63

WASHINGTON — The D.C. man accused of assaulting a U.S. Border Patrol agent with a Subway sandwich was found not guilty by a jury Thursday, the culmination of a three-month criminal case that was both an absurd spectacle and a deeply serious clash over protest and prosecution in the Trump era.

Sean Dunn, a 37-year-old Air Force veteran and former Justice Department paralegal, faced up to a year in jail for hurling what became known as the hoagie heard around the world. His acquittal following a two-day trial amounts to a rebuke of President Donald Trump’s immigration and crime crackdown in Washington, as well as another embarrassing legal setback for Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for D.C., whom he appointed.

Viral video from Aug. 10 showed Dunn shouting at the Border Patrol agent, Gregory Lairmore, before heaving a sandwich at his chest, running away and getting arrested after a brief foot chase. With anger brewing across the city over Trump’s takeover of city policing and deployment of the National Guard, Dunn quickly grew into a footlong folk hero and symbol of anti-Trump resistance.

Pirro’s office initially pursued a felony assault charge against Dunn, but a grand jury rebuffed prosecutors by declining to return an indictment. Eager to project the president’s tough-on-protest image, Pirro declined to drop the case and proceeded with a less serious misdemeanor charge that resulted in this week’s trial.

Prosecutors were gambling that jurors in liberal Washington would find that Dunn’s actions amounted to an “assault,” even though he was being widely celebrated and the case mocked as a joke.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/michigan-state-caught-mandating-dei-123027678.html

Despite pledging to eliminate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) mandates, Michigan State University (MSU) is still requiring education students to take a race-based course, according to internal documents obtained by Young Americans for Freedom (YAF).

The documents show that the course, TE 101: “Social Foundations of Justice and Equity in Education,” is a three-credit requirement for teacher preparation students.

According to the Fall 2025 syllabus, students are required to read We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom by Bettina Love.

“In We Want To Do More Than Survive, Dr. Bettina L. Love brings her experiences as a Black queer educator, student, researcher, and community member to name the historical and dynamic systems of oppression that profit from the suffering of children of color,” the book’s introduction reads. “In particular, Love discusses the necessity to dismantle the educational survival complex that many students and teachers enact in order to survive the violent and harmful practices of the United States education system.”

The syllabus states that the course “explores the ways social inequalities, systems, and structures affect schooling,” according to YAF.

Following recent algorithm updates, there's a massive wave of banned accounts on ElonX, and anyone can be affected, doesn't matter if new or old accounts, if free or paid or with/without OldTweetDeck.
Oddly enough, this happened shortly after (((New York))).

https://twistedvoxel.com/massive-ban-wave-targets-oldtweetdeck-users-following-xs-crackdown-on-third-party-access/

Are you affected? Me has had two accounts, they're gone, feels like beeing blind and deaf, just like a NPC

>Gregory Bovino was called out by a judge only two days earlier for lying about being assaulted by a protester

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/08/border-patrol-gregory-bovino-chicago

A border patrol chief claimed on Saturday that his agents came under fire in Chicago while conducting immigration enforcement operations, just two days after a federal judge said that he had lied to her about having been struck by a rock during a previous confrontation with protesters in the city.

Gregory Bovino, the border patrol chief and frequent Fox News guest who has become the face of the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts, said on social media that his agents had been “shot at”, and subjected to “vehicular assaults, physical assaults, impeding, violent mobs, vehicular blockades”, for a number of hours.

In a written statement, the Department of Homeland Security said that border patrol agents were “conducting immigration enforcement operations near 26th Street and Kedzie Avenue in Chicago, Illinois, when an unknown male driving a black Jeep fired shots at agents and fled the scene”.

The agency said that the “Chicago Police Department was called for assistance and cleared the scene. The shooter and vehicle remain at large, and this is a dynamic situation.”

Chicago police said they responded but found no signs of anyone having been struck by gunfire where the alleged shooting took place. “There are no reports of anyone struck by gunfire,” the Chicago police said in a statement.

According to the police, one officer was in good condition after being struck by a vehicle during the operation, and the driver was ticketed.

>No video evidence has yet surfaced of the alleged shooting, but social media clips and news photographs did show heavily armed agents in camouflage, including Bovino, confronting protesters, deploying tear gas and detaining people in the city’s Little Village neighborhood.

https://www.fox5dc.com/news/democrats-sweep-three-major-races-virginia-house-delegates

It was a big night for Democrats in Virginia.

Not only did the Democratic candidates sweep the state's three major races — governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general — the party also picked up 13 seats in the House of Delegates, giving them a hefty majority of 64-35, with one race remaining undecided.
The blue wave

Dig deeper:

This is a significant expansion of the Democrats' power in the state House, taking their previously slim 51-49 majority up.

Virginia typically swings between Democrats and Republicans, and the outcomes often serves as a bellwether to determine the electorate's mood going into the next election.

https://apnews.com/article/irs-direct-file-not-available-2026-04f2d0c31bec80b55d122a0e76e08c36
IRS Direct File, the electronic system for filing tax returns for free, will not be offered next year, the Trump administration has confirmed.

An email sent Monday from IRS official Cynthia Noe to state comptrollers that participate in the Direct File program said that “IRS Direct File will not be available in Filing Season 2026. No launch date has been set for the future.”

The program developed during Joe Biden’s presidency was credited by users with making tax filing easy, fast and economical. However, it faced criticism from Republican lawmakers, who called it a waste of taxpayer money because free filing programs already exist (though they are difficult to use), and from commercial tax preparation companies, which have made billions from charging people to use their software.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who is also the current IRS commissioner, told reporters at the White House on Wednesday that there are “better alternatives” to Direct File. “It wasn’t used very much,” he said. “And we think that the private sector can do a better job.”

The Center for Taxpayer Rights filed a Freedom of Information Act request for IRS’ latest evaluation of the program and the report says 296,531 taxpayers submitted accepted returns for the 2025 tax season through Direct File. That’s up from the 140,803 submitted accepted returns in 2024.

Direct File was rolled out as a pilot program in 2024 after the IRS was tasked with looking into how to create a “direct file” system as part of the money it received from the Inflation Reduction Act signed into law by Biden in 2022. The Democratic administration spent tens of millions of dollars developing the program.

Last May, the agency under Biden announced that the program would be made permanent.

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5594443-vance-pushes-back-snap/

Vice President Vance on Thursday pushed back on a federal court ruling that directed the Trump administration to make full Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) payments for November, arguing the court should not be telling the president how to spend money during a government shutdown.

“It’s an absurd ruling because you have a federal judge effectively telling us what we have to do in the middle of a Democrat government shutdown,” Vance said during a roundtable with Central Asian leaders at the White House.

“What we’d like to do is for the Democrats to open up the government of course, then we can fund SNAP and we can also do a lot of other good things for the American people,” Vance said. “But in the midst of a shutdown we can’t have a federal court telling the president how he has to triage the situation.”

U.S. District Judge John McConnell earlier Thursday rejected the administration’s plan to provide partial payments without tapping additional funds, saying it failed to comply with his previous order.

The Justice Department said it would appeal the ruling, throwing the fate of SNAP benefits for millions of Americans who rely on the program into limbo.

ITT name a country that is doing ok
>>>/pol/520893733
>>>/pol/520897491
https://www.whitehouse.gov

ITT name a country that is doing ok
>>>/pol/520893733
>>>/pol/520897491
https://www.fbi.gov

U.S. hits $38 trillion in debt, after the fastest accumulation of $1 trillion outside of the pandemic

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/u-s-hits-38-trillion-in-debt-after-the-fastest-accumulation-of-1-trillion-outside-of-the-pandemic

WASHINGTON (AP) — In the midst of a federal government shutdown, the U.S. government’s gross national debt surpassed $38 trillion Wednesday, a record number that highlights the accelerating accumulation of debt on America’s balance sheet.

It’s also the fastest accumulation of a trillion dollars in debt outside of the COVID-19 pandemic — the U.S. hit $37 trillion in gross national debt in August this year.

WATCH: How debt interest is becoming a bigger problem for the U.S. government

The $38 trillion update is found in the latest Treasury Department report, which logs the nation’s daily finances.

Kent Smetters of the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Wharton Budget Model, who served in President George W. Bush’s Treasury Department, told The Associated Press that a growing debt load over time leads ultimately to higher inflation, eroding Americans’ purchasing power.

The Government Accountability Office outlines some of the impacts of rising government debt on Americans — including higher borrowing costs for things like mortgages and cars, lower wages from businesses having less money available to invest, and more expensive goods and services.

“I think a lot of people want to know that their kids and grandkids are going to be in good, decent shape in the future — that they will be able to afford a house,” Smetters said. “That additional inflation compounds” and erodes consumers’ purchasing power, he said, making it less possible for future generations to achieve home ownership goals.

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/economy/trump-inflation-treasury-tariffs-rcna241696
The Treasury Department said Monday that inflation "remained above the target of 2 percent in the third quarter," even as President Donald Trump and administration officials continue to assert that there is "no inflation."

Speaking on CBS News "60 Minutes" on Sunday, Trump said, "We have no inflation, we have no inflation."

Trump claimed that he had "already taken care of" inflation, calling 2% "the perfect inflation."

But inflation came in at 3% on an annual basis in September, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

"Food prices for both groceries (food at home) and food services (food away from home) increased moderately in the third quarter," Treasury said in a new "Economy Statement."

The statement released Monday is a regular economic update prepared for the Treasury’s Borrowing Advisory Committee.

The committee consists of nonpartisan bond market executives from firms such as Citigroup, Pimco, JPMorgan and BlackRock, and provides input to the Treasury on government debt and financing issues.

A White House spokesperson did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the Treasury statement.

One of the major drivers of food inflation was record beef prices, due in part to lower herd counts.

"We're gonna get the beef price down very quickly. It'll be very nice, just like eggs," Trump said Sunday on CBS.

Overall, the Treasury Department said that "economic growth solidified in the third quarter with steady business investment and consumer demand."

The third quarter is considered the three-month period from July 1 to Sept. 30.

CEOs of retail and food companies have noted that while consumer spending overall continues at a decent pace, lower-income consumers are faring much worse than middle and upper income Americans.

“Traffic for lower-income consumers is down double digits,” McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski told CNBC in September. “We needed to step in.”

Researchers have discovered more than 111,000 spiders thriving in what appears to be the world's biggest spiderweb, deep inside a pitch-black cave on the Albanian-Greek border.

The "extraordinary" colony consists of a colossal web in a permanently dark zone of the cavern, according to a study published Oct. 17 in the journal Subterranean Biology. The web stretches 1,140 square feet (106 square meters) along the wall of a narrow, low-ceilinged passage near the entrance of the cave. It is a patchwork of thousands of individual, funnel-shaped webs, the researchers noted.

This is the first evidence of colonial behavior in two common spider species and likely represents the largest spiderweb in the world, said study lead author István Urák, an associate professor of biology at Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania in Romania.
https://www.livescience.com/animals/spiders/worlds-biggest-spiderweb-discovered-inside-sulfur-cave-with-111-000-arachnids-living-in-pitch-black

https://www.uknip.co.uk/news/uk/uk-news/swedish-court-sparks-fury-refugee-rapist-wont-be-deported-because-assault-too-short/

Rapist of 16-Year-Old Girl Allowed to Stay Despite Conviction

A Swedish appeals court has caused uproar by ruling that Yazied Mohamed, a 19-year-old Eritrean refugee convicted of raping a 16-year-old girl, will not be deported. The shocking reason? The assault was deemed “too brief” to qualify as an “exceptionally serious offense.”

Mohamed attacked Meya Åberg in September 2024 while she was walking home through a pedestrian tunnel in Skellefteå, after missing her bus following a shift at McDonald’s. He grabbed her phone, dragged her into the tunnel, and raped her—until she managed to break free.