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    ‘Deeply ashamed’ Larry Summers steps back from public life over Epstein links

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    The Harvard professor and economist Larry Summers said he would be stepping back from public life after documents released by the House oversight committee revealed email exchanges between Summers and the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who called himself Summers’ “wing man”.Politico reported on Monday that Summers, a former treasury secretary, expressed deep regret for past messages with Epstein.“I am deeply ashamed of my actions and recognize the pain they have caused,” he told Politico in a statement.“I take full responsibility for my misguided decision to continue communicating with Mr Epstein. While continuing to fulfill my teaching obligations, I will be stepping back from public commitments as one part of my broader effort to rebuild trust and repair relationships with the people closest to me.”The left-leaning thinktank Center for American Progress told the Guardian that Summers is ending his position as “distinguished senior fellow”.His comments come after lawmakers on both sides of the aisle urged companies and institutions to cut ties with Summers. Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren told CNN that Summers should be held accountable for his years-long relationship with Epstein.Besides Summers, the emails released last week revealed how Epstein maintained contact with other business executives, reporters, academics and political players despite his 2008 guilty plea for soliciting prostitution from an underage girl.“For decades, Larry Summers has demonstrated his attraction to serving the wealthy and well-connected, but his willingness to cozy up to a convicted sex offender demonstrates monumentally bad judgment,” Warren said to CNN.“If he had so little ability to distance himself from Jeffrey Epstein even after all that was publicly known about Epstein’s sex offenses involving underage girls, then Summers cannot be trusted to advise our nation’s politicians, policymakers and institutions – or teach a generation of students at Harvard or anywhere else.”A senior Trump administration official told Politico that institutions should end their association with Summers, given the relationship he had with Epstein, who referred to himself in one November 2018 message as Summers’ “wing man”.“It’s shocking that Larry Summers remains a paid contributor to Bloomberg News, on the board of OpenAI and tenured at Harvard,” the anonymous source told Politico. “What more revelations about him and his “wing man” will it take for institutions to cut him loose? The British government immediately sacked their ambassador to the US over much less.”Summers did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Guardian.Summers is now the subject of a new investigation that Donald Trump started last week. The US president instructed attorney general Pam Bondi to launch an inquiry into several Democrats and institutions after their names appeared in the latest tranche of documents, which included emails that seemed to suggest Trump himself might have known about Epstein’s conduct.The exchanges, from 2013 to early 2019, showed Summers and Epstein sharing personal views about politics and relationships. Summers lost his position as president at Harvard in 2006 after making sexist comments about female academics, and the emails released last week have reignited debates about his relationship with the late sex offender.“I’m trying to figure why [the] American elite think if u murder your baby by beating and abandonment it must be irrelevant to your admission to Harvard,” Summers wrote to Epstein in a 2017 email. “But hit on a few women 10 years ago and can’t work at a network or think tank. DO NOT REPEAT THIS INSIGHT.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionSummers added: “I observed that half of the IQ In [the] world was possessed by women without mentioning they are more than 51% of population.”Other emails reveal Summers approached Epstein for romantic advice. In November 2018, Summers seemed to forward an email from a woman to ask for Epstein’s advice on when to write back.“Think no response for a while probably appropriate,” Summers wrote. Epstein replied: “she’s already beginning to sound needy 🙂 nice.”Summers reiterated his regret to the Harvard Crimson last week.“I have great regrets in my life,” he wrote. “As I have said before, my association with Jeffrey Epstein was a major error of judgment.”The college newspaper also reported that Harvard professors were outraged by the revelations made by the trove of emails released last week.“The cozy friendship between Epstein and Summers on display in the emails is disgusting and disgraceful,” statistics professor Joseph K Blitzstein told the Crimson.The relationship between Summers and Epstein was previously reported by the Wall Street Journal in 2023. According to the outlet, in 2014, Summers had asked Epstein for advice on getting $1m in funding for his wife’s poetry project. More

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      Trump news at a glance: in a U-turn, president tells Republicans to vote to release Epstein files

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      Donald Trump has told his fellow Republicans in Congress to vote for the release of files related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, in a sudden reversal of his earlier position.The US president’s post on his Truth Social website came after the House speaker, Mike Johnson, said previously that he believed a vote on releasing justice department documents in the Epstein case should help put to rest allegations “that he [Trump] has something to do with it”.Late on Sunday, Trump wrote on his social media platform: “House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files because we have nothing to hide.“And it’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics in order to deflect from the Great Success of the Republican Party,” he added.Trump’s surprise reversal on releasing Epstein filesThe White House has struggled to contain suspicion within Trump’s usually loyal Make America Great Again (Maga) base that the administration is hiding details of Epstein’s crimes to protect the rich elite with whom the financier associated, including Trump.Despite continued releases of files by Republicans this year, including a cache of more than 20,000 pages that were published last week, pressure has grown to disclose more information from Epstein’s estate, as well as FBI investigation documents.The US House of Representatives is expected to vote on the legislation regarding the release of more Epstein files this week, possibly as soon as Tuesday.Read the full storyUN security council votes to endorse Trump’s Gaza planThe resolution, passed by a vote of 13-0 with abstentions by China and Russia, charted “a new course in the Middle East for Israelis and Palestinians and all the people of the region alike”, the US envoy to the UN, Mike Waltz, told the council chamber.The price of passing a resolution was vague language which left many issues uncertain. It gives overall oversight authority to a “board of peace” chaired by Trump, but of uncertain membership.Read the full storyUS will label supposed Venezuelan drug cartel ‘headed by Maduro’ as terrorist organizationThe US has said it will designate a putative Venezuelan drug cartel allegedly led by Nicolás Maduro as a foreign terrorist organization, as the Trump administration sent more mixed messages over its crusade against Venezuela’s authoritarian leader.The move to target the already proscribed group, the Cartel de los Soles (Cartel of the Suns), was announced by Marco Rubio on Sunday.Read the full storyUS judge finds evidence of ‘government misconduct’ in federal case against ComeyA US judge on Monday found evidence of “government misconduct” in how a prosecutor aligned with Donald Trump secured criminal charges against former FBI director James Comey and ordered that grand jury materials be turned over to Comey’s defense team.Last week, prosecutors were ordered to produce a trove of materials from the investigation, with the court saying it was concerned that the US justice department’s position on Comey had been to “indict first and investigate later”.Read the full storyTrump has ‘blurred’ line between military and politics, ex-officers warnWith months of escalation between US cities and the Trump administration amid the deployment of national guard troops, former military officials released a report on Monday about the risks of politicizing the country’s armed forces.The report warns that increasing domestic military deployments, such as using national guard troops for immigration enforcement in the US, and removing senior military officers and legal advisers have made the armed forces appear to serve partisan agendas.Read the full storyCharlotte, North Carolina, reels as 81 people arrested in immigration raidsMany communities in Charlotte, North Carolina, were reeling after federal Customs and Border Protection teams descended on the city at the weekend and arrested at least 81 people – while normally-thriving immigrant enclaves and business districts came to a standstill. Federal agents were deployed in what the Department of Homeland Security, the parent agency of Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), calls Operation Charlotte’s Web, sparking protests.Read the full storyTrump signals he may soon meet with Zohran MamdaniThe president told reporters that New York City’s mayor-elect “would like to meet with us”, adding, “we’ll work something out” despite trading sharp words for each other previously.“He would like to come to Washington and meet, and we’ll work something out,” Trump said late on Sunday, referring to Mamdani, the 34-year-old Democratic socialist and former state assemblymember who won the New York City mayoral election earlier this month. “We want to see everything work out well for New York.”Read the full storyNew international student enrollments in US plunge this year, data showsThe number of international students enrolling in US colleges and universities plunged this year as the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown on higher education began to bite, data released on Monday reveals.Read the full storySupreme court to review Trump policy of limiting asylum claims at borderThe US supreme court agreed on Monday to hear a defense by the Trump administration of the government’s authority to limit the processing of asylum claims at ports of entry along the US-Mexico border.The court took up the administration’s appeal of a lower court’s determination that the “metering” policy, under which US immigration officials could stop asylum seekers at the border and decline to process their claims, violated federal law.Read the full storyWhat else happened today:

      In the underworld of accelerationist neo-Nazis, where talk of attacks against western governments are commonplace, the spread of illegal weapons manuals and tradecraft on drone warfare are proliferating. Experts say, in some cases, that classes are being taught online with the input of leadership from proscribed terrorist groups with links to Russian intelligence.

      A powerful atmospheric river weather system has mostly moved through California but not before causing at least six deaths and dousing much of the state.

      Eswatini has confirmed for the first time that it had received more than $5m from the United Statesto accept dozens of people expelled under Washington’s aggressive mass deportation drive.

      Lawyers for Lisa Cook, the Federal Reserve governor, called Trump administration allegations of mortgage fraud against her “baseless” on Monday and accused the administration of “cherry-picking” discrepancies to bolster their claims.
      Catching up? Here’s what happened Sunday 16 November.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion More

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      Why are US border agents in Charlotte, and are they allowed to operate there?

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      What is happening in Charlotte? North Carolina’s largest city is reeling from a series of immigration raids that have arrested more than 100 people, leading to alarm and protests.US Customs and Border Protection has called it Operation Charlotte’s Web, and border agents have been seen near churches, apartment complexes and stores. Greg Bovino, a hardline Border Patrol chief who has led agents in a similar effort in Chicago and Los Angeles, has also been spotted.Over the weekend, Bovino – known for posting highly stylized videos of enforcement actions – touted his work on X. “From border towns to the Queen City, our agents go where the mission calls,” he said, referring to Charlotte.Josh Stein, the governor of North Carolina, has criticized the crackdown as simply “stoking fear”.Why are we seeing more border agents in US cities?Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which encompasses the Border Patrol, is about 60,000 agents strong – making it the largest law enforcement agency in the country.The department has long had the authority to conduct patrols further inland, but it has until recently been highly uncommon to see agents stray far from the south-western border. During Donald Trump’s second term, however, agents have become ubiquitous foot soldiers in the administration’s mass deportation agenda.Under a 1946 statute, Border Patrol agents have the ability to conduct warrantless searches within a “reasonable distance” – or up to 100 miles – from any international boundaries. Those boundaries include international land borders as well as coastlines – so in effect, their range encapsulates most US major cities, including LA, New York and Washington DC. Cities such as Chicago falls within this 100-mile zone, because the Great Lakes are considered a maritime boundary.Nearly two-thirds of the US population lives within the zone.Can Border Patrol operate in places such as Charlotte that are not near the border? The short answer is yes.That’s according to Deborah Anthony, a professor of legal studies at the University of Illinois Springfield with an expertise in constitutional law and the legality of Border Patrol operations. She clarifies that within 100 miles of an international border or US coastline, Border Patrol operates with expanded authority that other law enforcement agencies do not have. Within that perimeter, agents can run immigration checkpoints that require every motorist to stop, even without reasonable suspicion, and can board buses, for example, for immigration inquiries.But once agents are outside the 100-mile perimeter, Border Patrol loses those exemptions and must follow the same constitutional limits as any other law enforcement agency. For instance, agents cannot indiscriminately stop cars or pedestrians or set up checkpoints.They also cannot detain or question people without reasonable suspicion of an immigration violation. To arrest or detain someone, Border Patrol agents would need probable cause, just like any other law enforcement agency. Therefore, if agents in Charlotte conduct stops, detain people without cause, or operate checkpoints inland without reasonable suspicion, that is technically a violation of the constitution.“I think that their presence in Charlotte is something that the community should pay close attention to, because whether they’re operating legally depends on the specifics of how things are playing out,” Anthony said.Who is Greg Bovino, the border chief in charge of these efforts? Until recently, he was an unheralded regional Border Patrol agent from southern California. But since the summer, Bovino, 55, has become the face of the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts in cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and now Charlotte.View image in fullscreenBovino, a 29-year Border Patrol veteran who formally headed the El Centro sector in southern California, has frequently broadcast his operations in social media videos that resembles action films.Bovino is not without controversy: he has come under fire for making misleading statements about immigration raids, and Border Patrol operations in Chicago and Los Angeles have triggered lawsuits over the use of force, including widespread deployment of chemical agents.Last month, a federal judge ordered Bovino to regularly appear in court with updates about operations in the city, an effort to create more oversight over the Trump administration’s militarized immigration crackdown. Bovino was also ordered to get a body camera and complete training on the use of a body camera.In August, the New York Times reported that two undocumented people died trying to flee from Bovino’s agents. A Mexican farm worker fell from a greenhouse and a Guatemalan day laborer was hit by a vehicle following a raid at a Home Depot.What does Border Patrol say about the scope of its operations? In response to questions from the Guardian about Border Patrol’s operations in Charlotte, DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said: “While the US Border Patrol primarily operates within 100 air miles of the border, the legal framework provided by the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), title 8, title 19 of the US Code, and other laws allows them to operate anywhere in the United States.”She added: “Their ability to operate nationwide ensures Border Patrol can enforce immigration laws, combat smuggling and address national security threats anywhere in the United States, and that immigration enforcement is not limited to border regions when individuals who evade detection at the border can still be apprehended.”Lawyers and human rights advocates, however, have said that the agents, who are trained to block illegal entries, drug smugglers and human traffickers at the country’s borders, may be ill-suited to conduct civil immigration enforcement in urban communities.“The Border Patrol is certainly quite cavalier, and has been very aggressive historically as it goes about its enforcement responsibilities,” César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, a law professor at Ohio State University, previously told the Guardian.Robert Tait and the Associated Press contributed reporting More

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      Trump has ‘blurred’ line between military and politics, ex-officers warn

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      With months of escalation between US cities and the Trump administration amid the deployment of national guard troops, former military officials released a report on Monday about the risks of politicizing the nation’s armed forces.The report warns that increasing domestic military deployments, such as using national guard troops for immigration enforcement in the US, and removing senior military officers and legal advisers have made the armed forces appear to serve partisan agendas.“The use of troops, bases, and ceremonies in partisan settings has blurred the line between military service and political messaging, eroding morale and public trust in the military’s apolitical character,” the report reads.The report, The Perils of Politicizing the US Military, was authored by six former service secretaries and retired four-star admirals and generals, including former army secretary Louis Caldera, former air force secretary Deborah Lee James, former navy secretary Sean O’Keefe, retired navy admiral Steve Abbot, retired coast guard admiral Thad Allen, and retired army general George Casey.The white paper comes as the Trump administration continues to battle the courts over deploying the national guard in Portland. In Washington DC, where the president has more control over the guard than in states, troops were ordered to remain there through at least February.After sending troops to the nation’s capital, Trump sent others to Chicago and threatened to send more to other Democratic-run cities such as San Francisco and New York.Meanwhile, months of upheaval at the defense department have been a hallmark of Pete Hegseth’s tenure. Last month, Hegseth, the US defense secretary, abruptly fired the navy chief of staff. In May, he ordered the military to cut 20% of its four-star generals and admirals, while Hegseth and Trump have fired more than half a dozen top generals since January.The Trump administration has also fired the only two women serving as four-star officers. In February, Hegseth also fired air force general CQ Brown Jr, the chair of the joint chiefs of staff and the second Black man to serve in that role.Monday’s report warns about the consequences of such efforts, most acutely the “erosion of the armed forces’ apolitical character”.“When service members, senior leaders, or military symbols are perceived as aligned with political agendas, the public begins to see the institution as partisan rather than national – and once eroded, that trust is difficult to rebuild,” reads the report. “This loss of trust makes it harder to recruit across the political spectrum, harder to retain talent, and harder to reassure allies and deter adversaries abroad.”Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate armed services committee, urged members of Congress last month to put a halt to Trump’s efforts to deploy national guard troops in US cities without the consent of local leaders, as well as to consider the implications such actions will have for trust in the military.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“Congress has the Constitutional authority and moral obligation to stop this,” Reed said in a statement. “We are not powerless. We control the purse. We have oversight authority. We can pass legislation. And we must act now.”Reed called on lawmakers to pass legislation that requires the administration to publicly explain to and notify Congress when it removes senior generals or admirals, as well as measures that would “establish clear standards requiring congressional approval for domestic military deployments except in genuine emergencies”.The report by former military leaders outlines similar recommendations to Congress, calling on lawmakers to require “clear justification and post-action review of significant domestic deployments and high-level personnel changes”. More

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      Lawyers for Fed governor accuse Trump administration of ‘cherry-picking’ facts in fraud case

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      Lawyers for Lisa Cook, the Federal Reserve governor, called Trump administration allegations of mortgage fraud against her “baseless” on Monday and accused the administration of “cherry-picking” discrepancies to bolster their claims.After accusing Cook of misrepresenting multiple residences as her primary residence to get a better mortgage rate, Donald Trump briefly fired Cook from her role as a Fed governor and as one of 12 voting members of the Federal Reserve board that sets interest rates. The supreme court reinstated her back into her position and will be hearing arguments over Cook’s removal in January.In the letter, addressed to Pam Bondi, the US attorney general, and Edward Martin, the deputy attorney general, Abbe Lowell, Cook’s lawyer, outlined for the first time Cook’s detailed defense against the accusations. Lowell said that the dispute involves three of Cook’s properties: a home in Ann Arbor, Michigan, a condo in Atlanta, Georgia and a home in Cambridge, Massachusetts.Lowell said Cook’s primary residence is in Ann Arbor, where she has been a professor at Michigan State University since 2005. While she has been on unpaid leave from the position as she serves on the Fed board, she intends to return to Ann Arbor once her post ends, the letter said.Cook was raised in Milledgeville, Georgia – a town outside of Atlanta. In 2021, Cook purchased a condo in Atlanta to have a place that is close to her family. Though one line on the mortgage application for the property lists it as a primary residence, Lowell argues that it was clearly “inadvertent” and was an “isolated notation”.Any proof of criminal wrongdoing must show that Cook had intentionally misrepresented the property to defraud lenders. But other loan documents show Cook said the home was a vacation home, and nowhere else did she say it was her primary residency. In annual financial disclosures, Cook has listed the condo accurately as a “personal residence”, Lowell writes.For her home in Cambridge, which Cook purchased before she moved to Ann Arbor, Lowell writes that she has consistently listed the home as a second home and rental property for mortgage documents.In his letter, Lowell specifically calls out William Pulte, a Trump ally and director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), for using his role to help target Trump’s political enemies. Pulte has also targeted Letitia James, New York’s attorney general, and Democratic Senator Adam Schiff, two vocal critics of Trump, for similar accusations of mortgage fraud.“The complete package of Governor Cook’s materials clearly demonstrate that this does not amount to the type of criminal wrongdoing that Director Pulte and the president state it to be,” Lowell writes. “Governor Cook’s loan documents made clear her intended uses and, therefore, were not submitted with an intent to mislead the lender or anyone else.”Lowell also said that while Pulte said that anyone, Republican or Democrat, should be held accountable for mortgage fraud, recent reporting has found that four members of Trump’s cabinet, including Scott Bessent, the treasury secretary, also had similar discrepancies on their mortgage documents.“His actions undercut his words. If one seemingly facial contradiction about several property documents were the basis for the mortgage fraud he claims, then one would expect that he would have made referrals to [the justice department] based on the same types of documents about others who appear to have similar or analogous primary residences for more than one home,” Lowell writes. “Yet, director Pulte has ignored many of those allegations”. More

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      US unveils World Cup visa system but warns fans could still be denied entry

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      The Trump administration on Monday unveiled a new fast-track visa system for the millions of visitors expected to come to the US for the 2026 World Cup, but said fans could still be denied entry to the country despite holding tickets.The Fifa prioritized appointment scheduling system, announced at the White House on Monday, will push World Cup ticket-holders to the front of the line for visa interviews. However, secretary of state Marco Rubio made clear that expedited processing does not mean automatic entry.“Your ticket is not a visa. It doesn’t guarantee admission to the US,” Rubio said. “It guarantees you an expedited appointment. You’re still going to go through the same vetting. We’re going to do the same vetting as anybody else would get. The only difference here is we’re moving them up in the queue.”The warning suggests non-American citizens within the roughly million people who have already bought tickets could find themselves barred from entering the country despite holding valid match passes and securing faster appointment slots.Fifa president Gianni Infantino said World Cup officials would eventually sell up to 6 to 7 million tickets and told reporters in the Oval Office “we’ll have between five and 10 million people coming to America from all over the world”.So far, most demand has been domestic: the US, Mexico and Canada will be co-hosting the tournament next June and make up the majority of ticket holders. But Fifa said people from 212 different countries and territories have also already bought their tickets.To handle the surge in applications, Rubio said the state department has deployed more than 400 additional consular officers worldwide, in some cases doubling embassy staff. The measures have already slashed visa wait times from up to a year to 60 days or less in approximately 80% of countries, according to Rubio.“In places, for example, like Brazil and Argentina, you would have [had] over a year to get an appointment. Now you can get [one] in less than two months,” Rubio said.Separately, Trump threatened to relocate matches from host cities he deems problematic, singling out Seattle and its new democratic socialist mayor. The city is scheduled to host six games.“If we think there’s going to be the sign of any trouble, I would ask [Fifa president] Gianni [Infantino] move that to a different city. We have a lot of cities that would love to have it,” Trump said. “If we think there’s a problem in Seattle where you have a very, very liberal-slash-communist mayor … we’re going to move the event to some place where it’s going to be appreciated and safe.”The president said he would be willing to deploy the national guard to Los Angeles, another host city, citing concerns with crime and demanding California officials request federal assistance immediately.“I would love to send in [the] national guard, or whoever’s necessary to help them,” Trump said. “If there’s even a hint of a problem, we want to get in there before the problem. We want to make it totally safe for [Infantino] and Fifa and all the great people that are going to be there.”Trump called the tournament a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” for the country. The US previously hosted the World Cup in 1994. The 2026 edition kicks off in the summer, and will be the first to feature 48 teams, expanded from the traditional 32. More

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      Acting Fema head resigns after furor over handling of deadly Texas flooding

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      The acting administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) is leaving the agency, a senior Trump administration official said on Monday.David Richardson resigned after only a brief stint leading the agency amid a furor over his responsiveness, especially during the catastrophic flooding in Texas during the summer that swept away a children’s camp and killed more than 130 people.The Trump administration has been vocal about wanting to dismantle Fema and the Washington Post was first to report on Monday that Richardson had handed in his resignation after six months doing the job.Richardson’s departure was confirmed by an unnamed official, according to Reuters, and is taking place while the Atlantic hurricane season is still under way.He is a former US Marine Corps officer and becomes the second Fema head to leave or be fired since May. Richardson has been accused of keeping a low profile during the deadly Texas flash floods in July. He had already baffled staff in June when he said he was unaware the country had a hurricane season.His staff later insisted that the comment had been meant as a joke, an explanation greeted with skepticism by former Fema personnel.The Trump administration official familiar with Richardson’s departure gave no reasons for the Fema chief stepping down.In a statement, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)– which has overall responsibility for Fema – said Richardson would be returning to “the private sector” and would be replaced by the agency’s chief of staff, Karen Evans, from the beginning of next month.Evans would oversee a radical overhaul of Fema, as set out in a forthcoming report from a review council set up by the White House for that purpose, the statement said.The spokesperson praised Richardson for “[leading] Fema through the 2025 hurricane season, delivering historic funding to North Carolina, Texas, Florida, New Mexico and Alaska, and overseeing a comprehensive review that identified and eliminated serious governmental waste and inefficiency, while refocusing the agency to deliver swift resources to Americans in crisis.“We anticipate the forthcoming release of the Fema Review Council’s final report, which will inform this administration’s ongoing efforts to fundamentally restructure Fema, transforming it from its current form into a streamlined, mission-focused disaster-response force. Starting December 1, Fema Chief of Staff Karen Evans will step into this important role.”Richardson’s predecessor was fired in May, after pushing back against Trump administration efforts to dismantle the agency.Donald Trump has said he wants to greatly reduce the size of Fema, which is the agency currently responsible for preparing for and responding to natural disasters in the US, although the president has said state governments can handle many of the federal agency’s functions.Richardson’s abrupt departure is an ignominious end for an official who told staff when he first arrived in May that he would “run right over” anyone who resists changes and that all decisions must go through him.“I, and I alone in Fema, speak for Fema,” he said at the time. Fema has lost about 2,500 employees since January through buyouts, firings and other incentives for staff to quit, reducing its overall size to about 23,350, according to a September Government Accountability Office report.The cuts are part of Trump’s broader push to cut the cost and size of the federal civilian workforce.Reuters contributed reporting More

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      Protests in Charlotte as aggressive immigration arrests continue

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      Aggressive arrests by federal immigration agents continued in Charlotte on Monday after a weekend sweep in which authorities said they detained a total of at least 130 people in North Carolina’s largest city, as protests picked up.North Carolina’s governor, Josh Stein, on Monday warned that the crackdown was simply “stoking fear” and resulting in severe disruption.The Trump administration on Saturday sent border patrol agents to Charlotte to enhance operations by Customs and Immigration Enforcement.The White House has argued that its latest focus on the Democratic-run city of about 950,000 people is an effort to combat crime but the enforcement has been met with fierce objections from local leaders – amid declining crime rates in the city.Many residents were additionally outraged when there was a flurry of reported encounters with immigration agents near churches, apartment complexes and stores over the weekend, chasing and arresting people as part of anti-immigration measures but which included some US citizens.“We’ve seen masked, heavily armed agents in paramilitary garb driving unmarked cars, targeting American citizens based on their skin color, racially profiling and picking up random people in parking lots and off of our sidewalks,” Stein, a Democrat, said in a video statement late on Sunday.“This is not making us safer. It’s stoking fear and dividing our community.”Similarly, Charlotte mayor Vi Lyles said on Monday that she is “deeply concerned with many of the videos I’ve seen,” adding: “I urge all agencies operating here to conduct their work with respect for those values.“We are actively working with our partners to determine what more we can do to support our community while working within complicated legal boundaries,” Lyles continued.Over the weekend, a coalition of Muslim-American groups led by the Council on American-Islamic Relations issued a public warning to residents, saying: “We urge all our community members to stay safe during these times, especially as mosques and community spaces may be targeted.“Our city is strengthened by families who contribute to its neighborhoods, schools, businesses, and houses of worship. Charlotte, and North Carolina as a whole, has long been shaped by newcomers, and we refuse to allow anyone, local or national, to use xenophobia or Islamophobia to divide us or make our neighbors feel unsafe,” the coalition added.The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that border patrol officers had arrested “over 130 illegal aliens who have all broken” immigration laws.The agency said the records of those arrested included gang membership, aggravated assault, shoplifting and other crimes, but it did not say how many of such cases had resulted in convictions, how many people had been facing charges or any other details.Stein acknowledged that it was a stressful time, but he called on residents to stay peaceful. If people see something they feel is wrong, they should record it and report it to local law enforcement, the governor said.The homeland security department, which oversees Customs and Border Protection (CBP), has said it is focusing on North Carolina because of so-called sanctuary policies, which limit cooperation between local authorities and immigration agents.Meanwhile, North Carolina’s Republican party hailed the operations, with chairperson Jason Simmons saying: “Border Patrol is in Charlotte for one reason: the need is real.”He went on to point the blame at Democrats, saying: “When local Democrats – who control all aspects of local government – refuse to enforce the law, federal agencies have no choice but to step in and protect this community. This is no political stunt.”North Carolina’s Democratic representative Deborah Ross pushed back against claims that the operations are being conducted for the sake of public safety, saying: “The Trump administration is sowing fear in our communities. They are targeting people based on the color of their skin and the languages they speak. This is not public safety.”Echoing Ross was Roy Cooper, the state’s former Democratic governor who said: “Randomly sweeping up people based on what they look like, including American citizens and those with no criminal records, risks leaving violent criminals at large while hurting families and the economy.”Several North Carolina county jails honor “detainers”, or requests from federal officials to hold an arrested immigrant until agents can take custody of them. But Mecklenburg county, which includes Charlotte, does not.Also, the city’s police department does not help with immigration enforcement. The DHS alleged that about 1,400 detainers across North Carolina had not been honored and claimed this was putting the public at risk.US courts have repeatedly upheld the legality of sanctuary laws.On Saturday, some normally bustling commercial districts were described as being at a standstill as shoppers stayed home to avoid possible encounters with ICE or border patrol agents seeking undocumented residents to arrest.Manolo Betancur, owner of Manolo’s Bakery, a Latino-run bakery operating in Charlotte since 1997, closed his business temporarily because he said immigration enforcement officers were targeting customers.Some welcomed the Trump administration’s effort, however, including the Mecklenburg county Republican party chairman, Kyle Kirby, who said in a post on Saturday that the county GOP “stands with the rule of law – and with every Charlottean’s safety first”.The Associated Press contributed reporting More

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      What are the Jeffrey Epstein files, and will more be released?

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      Tens of thousands of documents have been released by members of Congress related to Jeffrey Epstein, the child sexual abuser, that shed light on his communications with and about powerful people, including the president.Last week, Democratic members of Congress released three emails pertaining to Trump and Epstein, then Republican members released more than 20,000 emails.But the issue is not over – and more documents could be coming soon.Trump has now reversed course on releasing the files, calling on the US House to vote on Tuesday to force the justice department to release more Epstein documents. He has previously fought against the idea and referred to the issue as the “Epstein hoax”.While campaigning, Trump said he would release the so-called “Epstein files”, the documents about criminal investigations into his former friend, who died in jail by hanging in 2019. But since taking office, Trump has appeared to have broken that promise, rankling ardent Maga allies who have spent years calling for the documents’ release.Epstein knew powerful people of all political persuasions and counted them as friends. Releasing the documents has become a rallying cry to reveal more details about Epstein, including how he made his money, and the extent of involvement by those who supported him in his criminal activity, especially those with wealth and political sway.Earlier in July, the US justice department said it would not be releasing more documents, saying it could harm victims and insisting there was not a “client list”.The refusal to release documents has roiled the right, with some Republicans pushing strongly to compel the files to be public as others downplayed the issue or sided with Trump. Democrats have seized on the schism, calling for Congress to compel the release of the documents and calling out Trump’s hypocrisy.What are the ‘files’? What kinds of documents?The federal government has a “truckload” of documents from and about Epstein related to his criminal cases, according to reported comments of Pam Bondi, the US attorney general. This includes his flight logs for private planes and contacts, which is sometimes referred to as his “black book” – which has already been publicly posted online.A memo released by the justice department in July said the agency searched through its databases, hard drives and physical areas to find Epstein-related information, locating “more than 300 gigabytes of data and physical evidence”.Within those files were images and videos of Epstein and his victims, some of whom are minors, and more than 10,000 downloaded videos and images of “illegal child sex abuse material and other pornography”.Some documents related to Epstein are under court-ordered seals. For instance, a federal judge this week denied a request from the justice department to unseal grand jury transcripts in a south Florida criminal investigation. Some of those that were once sealed have been unsealed, including some unsealed in early 2024 that identified names of people included in depositions and motions who previously were listed as John Does.“Much of the material is subject to court-ordered sealing,” the justice department memo said. “Only a fraction of this material would have been aired publicly had Epstein gone to trial, as the seal served only to protect victims and did not expose any additional third parties to allegations of illegal wrongdoing.”There are also serious concerns about identifying victims if some documents are released. The department said Epstein had harmed more than 1,000 victims, some minors, all of whom “suffered unique trauma”.“Sensitive information relating to these victims is intertwined throughout the materials. This includes specific details such as victim names and likenesses, physical descriptions, places of birth, associates, and employment history,” the memo said.Is there a ‘client list’?In its memo, the department says there was no “client list”, despite it being a longtime claim and rallying call for those embedded in the Epstein case, especially on the right.“There was also no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions,” the memo says. “We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”Julie K Brown, an investigative journalist with the Miami Herald who has been uncovering the Epstein case for years, said earlier this year that there was “no Jeffrey Epstein client list. Period. It’s a figment of the internet’s imagination – and a means to just slander people.”In an interview with the Atlantic, Brown said the list idea was a “red herring” that seems to have been born out of a phone directory Epstein’s girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, compiled, often referred to as the “black book”. People such as Trump and other celebrities were in the directory, but so were Epstein’s gardeners, barbers and others, Brown said.What has Trump said about the files?After Epstein’s death by suicide, Trump shared a tweet that claimed the Clintons were involved in his death. He also told reporters at the time that he had questions about whether Bill Clinton went to Epstein’s infamous island.While campaigning for the 2024 election, Trump said, when asked, that he would declassify the Epstein files, though he prioritized them below files about September 11 and the John F Kennedy assassination. “You don’t want to affect people’s lives if there’s phoney stuff in there, because there’s a lot of phoney stuff with that whole world,” he said then.Bondi said earlier this year that the justice department would be releasing a list of Epstein’s clients, telling Fox News that it was “sitting on my desk right now to review” – though she later said she was talking about case files and not a client list. The department released some information, dubbed a “first phase of files”, to rightwing influencers, though those files did not contain much new information.Trump has grown increasingly angry at those calling for the files to be released, and dismissed the entire controversy as “boring” and a “hoax”, something that “nobody cares about”.“I have had more success in 6 months than perhaps any President in our Country’s history, and all these people want to talk about, with strong prodding by the Fake News and the success starved Dems, is the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax,” he wrote on Truth Social on 16 July.On 16 November, Trump said the files should be released.“House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide, and it’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics in order to deflect from the Great Success of the Republican Party, including our recent Victory on the Democrat ‘Shutdown,’” he wrote on Truth Social.Is Trump named in the files?Yes. Trump is known to be a one-time friend of Epstein’s. His name’s inclusion in the documents does not mean he was a party to any of Epstein’s criminal activity.Documents released by Democratic members of the House oversight committee included an email from Epstein to Trump biographer Michael Wolff in which Epstein said of Trump: “Of course, he knew about the girls as he asked Ghislaine to stop.” In another, he called Trump the “dog that hasn’t barked”.Epstein emailed people about Trump regularly, usually derogatorily. “I have met some very bad people,” he wrote in one email. “None as bad as Trump. Not one decent cell in his body.”What questions could these files help answer?There are many legitimate questions that the files could shed light on about Epstein and his circle.How Epstein made his money is still of much interest, as is how he financed his extensive sex-trafficking operation. Often referred to as a financier, he had vast wealth, owning expensive real-estate including two private islands, and a private jet.Ron Wyden, the Democratic senator from Oregon who is the ranking Democrat on the Senate finance committee, told the New York Times that four major banks had “flagged more than $1.5bn in transactions – including thousands of wire transfers for the purchase and sale of artwork for rich friends, fees paid to Mr Epstein by wealthy individuals, and payments to numerous women”.Questions still swirl over potential ties to the intelligence community. Bondi told reporters: “To him being an agent, I have no knowledge about that. We can get back to you on that.” The former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett denied Epstein was an Israeli agent, a frequent claim made without evidence. “The accusation that Jeffrey Epstein somehow worked for Israel or the Mossad running a blackmail ring is categorically and totally false,” Bennett said.And suspicion over the manner of Epstein’s death is still in the mix. The justice department released an 11-hour video of jail footage in the hours before and after his death, though there seems to be almost three minutes of footage missing, leading to further scrutiny. Bondi has said that missing footage is because the Bureau of Prisons was resetting video.There is also much to be discovered on how Epstein was able to evade justice for so long. Brown, the Miami Herald reporter, told the Atlantic her “one nagging question” goes back to 2008, when the justice department decided not to fully go after Epstein after local and state authorities first were looking into his crimes.“Who were the people behind that in the beginning?” Brown said. “Because if they had done their jobs, of all these people in 2006, 2007, and 2008 – if all those people working for us, the American public, had done their jobs, we wouldn’t be sitting here right now. A lot of those victims would’ve never been victimized.” More