US Politics

This is the latest in the relentless purge of climate researchers who refuse to be co-opted by the fossil fuel industryThe Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin would no doubt have understood and even appreciated the latest attack by the Trump administration on climate researchers and their work.The National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, is to be dismantled after more than 50 years at the forefront of global research on climate science and monitoring.Professor Michael Mann is the presidential distinguished professor and director of the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media at the University of Pennsylvania, and co-author with Peter Hotez of Science Under Siege; Bob Ward is policy and communications director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science Continue reading… More

Official indicates vessel is subject to sanctions after Trump’s ‘blockade’ on sanctioned tankers in and out of VenezuelaUS Coast Guard officials said on Sunday they were tracking an oil tanker in international waters close to Venezuela, multiple unnamed US officials have told US media, marking the second such action over the weekend – and the third within the past week.What officials described as an “active pursuit” in the Caribbean Sea took place a day after the coast guard seized another vessel off the coast of Venezuela, as Washington ramps up its pressure campaign targeting the South American nation’s vital oil sector. Continue reading… More

Todd Blanche says removal of images has ‘nothing to do’ with the president, and removal of 16 photos came at request of victim advocacy groups – key US politics stories from Sunday 21 December at a glanceDeputy US attorney general Todd Blanche said on Sunday that removing photos from the Jeffrey Epstein files release, including one of Donald Trump, had “nothing to do” with the president, as the justice department restored an image it had removed a day earlier that included within it a photo of Trump.The US justice department said on Sunday it restored the image after concluding that the photograph posed no risk of public exposure to victims of the late convicted sex offender. Its unexplained removal on Saturday triggered a chorus of accusations from Democrats of political interference in favor of the president, a former friend of Epstein. Continue reading… More

Tenures end for mission chiefs in at least 29 countries, including 13 in Africa, as US reshapes its diplomatic postureThe Trump administration is recalling nearly 30 career diplomats from ambassadorial and other senior embassy posts as it moves to reshape the US diplomatic posture abroad with personnel deemed fully supportive of Donald Trump’s “America first” priorities.The chiefs of mission in at least 29 countries were informed last week that their tenures would end in January, according to two state department officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal personnel moves. Continue reading… More

Steve Witkoff says representatives share goals to stop killing, support Ukraine and end war with RussiaA White House envoy said on Sunday he held “productive and constructive” talks in Florida with Ukrainian and European representatives to end the nearly four-year war between Russia and Ukraine.Posting on social media, Steve Witkoff said the talks aimed at aligning on a shared strategic approach between Ukraine, the US and Europe. Continue reading… More

Vilma Palacios, 22, tells local outlet ‘I want my freedom back’ as she may be forced to return to HondurasA recent graduate of the LSU Health New Orleans School of Nursing has been held in an ICE processing center in Basile, Louisiana, for the past six months following her arrest by immigration agents over the summer.Vilma Palacios had just recently accepted a position at Touro Infirmary when ICE agents arrested her and transferred her to the processing center in Basile. Her detention comes amid a broader immigration crackdown under the Trump administration, including cases involving individuals with no criminal records who are seeking legal residency. Continue reading… More

Robert F Kennedy Jr is pushing a plan to block medical treatments, the latest move against bodily autonomyOn Thursday, when Robert F Kennedy Jr announced an effort to block medical treatments for transgender youth, he used the term “sex-rejecting procedures” in place of “gender-affirming care”.And where transgender advocates and healthcare providers view puberty blockers, hormones and (in rare cases) surgical interventions as suicide prevention measures, the health secretary claimed that these “procedures” will do the opposite: “rob children of their futures.”Judith Levine is a Brooklyn-based journalist, essayist and author of five books. Her Substack is Today in Fascism Continue reading… More

Why would the Trump administration choose to set aside consequences from criminals whose actions threaten the stability of the broader American economy?When Islamic State needed to move and disguise its money, it turned, US prosecutors said in 2023, to the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange: Binance. So too did al-Qaida, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas, which used the platform to help bankroll its operations in the years leading up to the 7 October attack in Israel. Binance was not accused of directly financing these groups, but prosecutors found that it knowingly allowed its exchange to function as a conduit – enabling extremist organisations to shift funds, evade scrutiny and frustrate investigations.At the centre of it all was Binance’s founder and chief executive, Changpeng Zhao. By 2024, the self-styled “king” of crypto had fallen from grace, pleading guilty to money laundering charges and entering prison, while Binance agreed to pay a record $4.3bn penalty for its role in facilitating terrorist financing. The case was hailed as a rare victory for regulators willing to take on the industry’s biggest players – and for victims of the violence linked to those financial flows. Among them were the families of US citizens killed on 7 October, who are now suing Binance in a class-action lawsuit accusing the company of “pitching itself to terrorist organisations”. Continue reading… More