US news

Subterms

    More stories

    • 125 Shares45 Views

      in US Politics

      The banality of evil: how Epstein’s powerful friends normalised him

      by

      He got by with a little help from his friends. From British royalty to White House alumni, from a Silicon Valley investor to a leftwing academic, connections and influence were the ultimate currency for Jeffrey Epstein.Yet none appeared to challenge Epstein over his horrific crimes. If silence is complicity, the casual disdain of the elite circles he moved in spoke volumes.Emails released this week by the House of Representatives’ oversight committee revealed how Epstein maintained contact with business executives, reporters, academics and political players despite his 2008 guilty plea for soliciting prostitution from an underage girl.Epstein’s death – he was charged with sex trafficking in 2019 and killed himself in prison a month later – has long been a magnet for conspiracy theories but the documents expose a reality less about a shadowy cabal and more about a system of power that operates in plain sight, indifferent to conviction or consequence.Spanning 2009 to 2019, Epstein’s short, choppy emails laden with spelling and grammatical errors do little to implicate his contacts – including Donald Trump – in any criminal activities. But they do show some acquaintances supporting him during legal troubles while others sought introductions or advice on everything from dating to oil prices.Their bantering, frivolous tone implies that Epstein would have felt still welcome as a member of polite society, receiving no social incentive to change his ways. Far from being ostracised as a sex offender, he was normalised.In several messages in 2018, he advised longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon on his political tour of Europe that year. Bannon forwarded Epstein a news clip that described the German media as “underestimating” Bannon and saying he was “As Dangerous as Ever”.“luv it,” Epstein responded.Epstein wrote that he’d just spoken to “one of the country leaders that we discussed” and that “we should lay out a strategy plan. . how much fun.”Several months later, Epstein sent some advice: “If you are going to play here , you’ll have to spend time, europe by remote doesn’t work.”“its doable but time consuming,” Epstein continued in a follow-up email, “there are many leaders of countries we can organize for you to have one on ones.” Bannon replied: “Agree 100% How do I do that???”When physicist Lawrence Krauss faced sexual harassment allegations, he emailed Epstein for advice on how to handle a journalist’s inquiry. After asking whether Krauss had had sex with the person in question, Epstein advised him not to reply to the journalist.Larry Summers, who was treasury secretary under Bill Clinton and later president of Harvard University, discussed his interactions with a woman and Epstein offered coaching on his response, writing: “you reacted well.. annoyed shows caring. , no whining showed strentgh.”In another email, Summers opined: “I’m trying to figure why American elite think if u murder your baby by beating and abandonment it must be irrelevant to your admission to Harvard, but hit on a few women 10 years ago and can’t work at a network or think tank. DO NOT REPEAT THIS INSIGHT.”In a further message, Summers asked: “How is life among the lucrative and louche?” Epstein replied: “When we meet I will endeavor to mesmerize you with stories of D.C. so wild !!!”Summers was not the only Democrat in Epstein’s orbit. Kathryn Ruemmler, a former White House counsel under Barack Obama, sent a message to him calling Trump “so gross”. A portion of that message was redacted, but Epstein replied: “worse in real life and upclose.”In other emails with Ruemmler, Epstein detailed a whirlwind of well-known people he appears to have been meeting, hosting or speaking with that week, including an ambassador, a tech giant, foreign business people, academics and a film director. “you are a welcome guest at any,” he wrote.In one message, Ruemmler expressed apparent contempt for the people of New Jersey as she planned a road trip to New York: “Think I am going to drive. I will then stop to pee and get gas at a rest stop on the New Jersey turnpike, will observe all of the people there who are at least 100 pounds overweight, will have a mild panic attack as a result of the observation, and will then decide that I am not eating another bite of food for the rest of my life out of fear that I will end up like one of these people.”The documents also cast significant doubt on the former prince Andrew’s official account of his relationship with Epstein and his accusers. An email from March 2011 shows continued contact four months after Andrew later publicly claimed to have ended the relationship. In a message to Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell regarding allegations, Andrew wrote: “I can’t take any more of this my end.”Another email appears to corroborate the famous photograph of Andrew with accuser Virginia Giuffre. Epstein wrote: “Yes, she was on my plane and yes, she had her photo taken with Andrew, as many of my employees have.” This stands in contrast with the prince’s public speculation during a 2019 interview that the photograph may have been faked.Journalist Michael Wolff appears in numerous exchanges, often acting as an informal adviser to Epstein regarding his relationship with Trump. In 2015, Wolff advised Epstein to “let him [Trump] hang himself” if Trump were asked about their relationship during a CNN appearance, suggesting that any denial from Trump would give Epstein “valuable PR and political currency”.Shortly before the 2016 election, Wolff wrote to Epstein: “There’s an opportunity to come forward this week and talk about Trump in such a way that could garner you great sympathy and help finish him. Interested?”The emails show that Epstein’s role in his network went far beyond social pleasantries. He was treated as a trusted consigliere, a fixer whose judgment on matters of politics, scandal and personal life was actively sought by the powerful.He even sought to shape foreign policy. In the run-up to Trump’s 2018 bilateral meeting with Vladimir Putin, Epstein proposed that Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, might benefit from his own insights into the then-US president.“I think you might suggest to Putin that Lavrov can get insight on talking to me,” Epstein wrote in an email to Thorbjørn Jagland, the former Norwegian prime minister who was at the helm of the Council of Europe at the time.Epstein went on to claim that he had previously discussed Trump with Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s ambassador to the UN, before Churkin’s death in 2017. “Churkin was great,” Epstein wrote. “He understood Trump after our conversations. It is not complex. He must be seen to get something – it’s that simple.”In January 2010, biotech venture capitalist Boris Nikolic was attending the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and Epstein emailed to ask: “any fun?” Nikolic replied that he had met “your friend” Bill Clinton, as well as then-French president Nicolas Sarkozy and “your other friend”, Andrew, “as he has some questions re microsoft”.But then Nikolic said he was getting sick of meetings. Later, he wrote Epstein that “it would be blast that you are here”. He mentioned flirting with a 22-year-old woman and wrote that “It turns out she is with her husand. Did not have chance to check him out. But as we concluded, anything good is rented ;)”.In emails with Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, an Emirati businessman, Epstein complimented Bannon, saying in 2018 that “We have become friends you will like him”.“Trump doesn’t like him,” responded Sulayem.A year earlier, Sulayem had asked Epstein about an event where it appeared Trump would be in attendance, asking: “Do you think it will be possible to shake hand with trump.”“Call to discuss,” Epstein wrote back.The list of associates was wide and varied. In 2011, Epstein asked the publicist Peggy Siegal to contact media entrepreneur Arianna Huffington to “champion the dangers of false allegations” and investigate accuser Virginia Giuffre. Siegal called the request “moronic”.In a 2015 email, Epstein offered Noam Chomsky, a linguist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and political activist, use of his New York and New Mexico residences. Their exchange also covered topics such as currency collapses and behavioral science.The artist Andres Serrano discussed the 2016 election with him, writing that he was so “disgusted by the outrage over ‘grab them by the pussy’ that I may give him my sympathy vote”.Epstein was also in touch with Peter Thiel, a Silicon Valley investor and ally of JD Vance. Epstein sent Thiel an email in 2014 saying “that was fun , see you in 3 weeks”. Four years later, Epstein asked if Thiel was enjoying Los Angeles, and, after Thiel said he could not complain, replied “Dec visit me Caribbean”. It is unclear whether Thiel ever responded.The secrets of Epstein’s inbox do not reveal an overarching conspiracy but paints a more sobering picture: a world where immense wealth, privileged access and proximity to power can insulate individuals from accountability and consequences. For those inside the circle, the rules of the outside world do not apply.Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House judiciary committee, said: “This is a guy who I believe gave huge donations to colleges and universities, including Harvard and MIT, and those kinds of gifts can buy you a lot of currency and access in different elite circles.“People will want to know to what extent all of these different actors understood what was going on. It may be that the people he interacted with at MIT or Harvard did not have the same level of awareness as Prince Andrew or Donald Trump did but everybody should be asked to tell what they knew.” More

    • 238 Shares47 Views

      in US Politics

      Trump news at a glance: Marjorie Taylor Greene raises fears for her safety as row with Donald Trump escalates

      by

      Marjorie Taylor Greene, a longtime Republican ally who previously fiercely defended Donald Trump and his Maga movement, said on Saturday she had been contacted by private security firms “with warnings for my safety” after Trump announced on Friday he was withdrawing his support for and endorsement of the Georgia representative.In a post on X, Greene said that “a hot bed of threats against me are being fueled and egged on by the most powerful man in the world”, without referring to Trump by name, adding it was “the man I supported and helped get elected”.In a later post on X, Greene posted a chart of rising average grocery bills, calling it “the ultimate warning to all of my Republican colleagues” and equating cost-of-living pressures to a vote in Congress over the release of further Epstein files next week.Marjorie Taylor Greene says she’s had ‘warnings’ after posts by TrumpThe dispute between Greene and Trump, simmering for months, has broken out into the open as the once solid Maga supporter has found herself opposing Trump on a series of issues, including US military aid to Israel, the government shutdown and the so-called “Epstein files”.“Marjorie ‘Traitor’ Green is a disgrace to our GREAT REPUBLICAN PARTY!” Trump fumed on social media, a day after ending his support for Greene, calling her “Wacky Marjorie” and saying he would endorse a challenger against her in the next midterm election “if the right person runs”.The war of words between the congresswoman and Trump has become increasingly bitter primarily over the release of government-held documents relating to Jeffrey Epstein, which Greene supports. The House speaker, Mike Johnson, is expected to hold a vote next week on releasing the entirety of unclassified communications and documents.Read the full storySteve Bannon advised Epstein for years, texts showHundreds of texts over almost a year show Maga influencer Steve Bannon and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein workshopping legal and media strategies to protect Epstein from the legal and publicity quagmire that enveloped him in the last year of his life.The texts, released by the House oversight committee on Wednesday, show that as early as June 2018 the pair were devising responses to the gathering storm of public outrage about Epstein’s criminal history, his favorable treatment by the justice system, and his friendships with powerful figures in business, politics and academia.Bannon conspiratorially described the renewed scrutiny of Epstein as a “sophisticated op”, and over time he counseled Epstein in his adversarial responses to media outlets, the justice system and his victims.Read the full storyICE begins sweep in Charlotte, North CarolinaFederal immigration officers on Saturday began a sweep through Charlotte, the largest city in North Carolina, officials confirmed.Local media reports said that one location targeted by masked federal agents was a church in east Charlotte, where an arrest was made while about 15 to 20 church members were doing yard work on the property.“Right now, everybody is scared. Everybody,” the pastor at the church told the Charlotte Observer.The mayor, Vi Lyles, said these actions “are causing unnecessary fear and uncertainty”.Read the full story‘Trump is inconsistent with Christian principles’Justin Douglas, a minister who studied at a Christian university founded by the conservative pastor and televangelist Jerry Falwell, is running for the US Congress – as a Democrat.He is among about 30 Christian white clergy – pastors, seminary students and other faith leaders – known to be potential Democratic candidates in next year’s midterm elections, including a dozen who are already in the race.Douglas, 41, based in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, is among a new generation of the Christian left aiming to change that narrative by ensuring that the Democratic brand is not associated with only college-educated urbanites, but can also connect with white working-class churchgoers.Read the full storyWhat else happened today:

      The justice department replaced pardons posted online that bore strikingly similar copies of Trump’s signature with others that varied. It comes after the Trump administration tried to undermine pardons issued under Joe Biden that were in many cases signed by autopen – a longstanding White House practice.

      Donald Trump reverted to his familiar “threat of tariffs” as he leaned on Thailand to recommit to a ceasefire with Cambodia. Thailand last week suspended its participation in the ceasefire, accusing Cambodia of laying fresh landmines along the border.

      Experts say New York mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s selection of Lina Khan, the former Federal Trade Commission chair, for his transition team acts as a warning to private equity firms in the state that have raised rents and monopolized local healthcare industries.
      Catching up? Here’s what happened on Friday 14 November 2025. More

    • 113 Shares45 Views

      in US Politics

      Federal immigration officers begin sweep in Charlotte, North Carolina

      by

      Federal immigration officers on Saturday began a sweep through Charlotte, the largest city in North Carolina, federal officials confirmed.Local media reports said that among the locations targeted by masked federal agents was a church in east Charlotte, where an arrest was made while about 15 to 20 church members were doing yard work on the property.The pastor at the church, who did not want to identify himself or his church, told the Charlotte Observer that agents reportedly asked no questions and showed no identification before taking the man away. The man’s wife and child were inside the church at the time, said the pastor.“Right now, everybody is scared. Everybody,” he said. “One of these guys with immigration, he said he was going to arrest one of the other guys in the church. He pushed him.”Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant homeland security secretary, said in a statement to the Associated Press that federal agents “are surging DHS law enforcement to Charlotte to ensure Americans are safe and public safety threats are removed”.“Americans should be able to live without fear of violent criminal illegal aliens hurting them, their families, or their neighbors,” McLaughlin added.Local officials including the mayor, Vi Lyles, criticized such actions, saying in a statement that they “are causing unnecessary fear and uncertainty”.“We want people in Charlotte and Mecklenburg county to know we stand with all residents who simply want to go about their lives,” the statement said.In another interaction with federal agents in east Charlotte, two workers were hanging Christmas lights in Rheba Hamilton’s front yard when two Customs and Border Protection agents walked up.One tried to speak to the workers in Spanish, she said. They did not respond, and the agents left without making arrests.“This is real disconcerting, but the main thing is we’ve got two human beings in my yard trying to make a living. They’ve broken no laws, and that’s what concerns me,” said Hamilton, 73, who recorded the encounter on her cellphone.Hamilton said that the agents were “looking for easy pickings. There was nobody here with TV cameras, nobody here protesting, there’s just two guys working in a yard and an old white lady with white hair sitting on her porch drinking her coffee.”Willy Aceituno, a 46-year-old Honduran-born US citizen, said he was on his way to work Saturday when he saw “a lot of Latinos running”, chased by “a lot of border patrol agents”.Aceituno said he was stopped twice by agents. During the second encounter, he said, he was forced from his vehicle by agents who broke the window of his vehicle.“I told them: ‘I’m an American citizen,’” he told the Associated Press. “They wanted to know where I was born, or they didn’t believe I was an American citizen.” Aceituno said he was taken to a border patrol vehicle and later released after showing documents proving his citizenship.Rumors of an impending sweep in the area have been circulating for days after the county sheriff, Garry McFadden, said that two federal officials had told him customs agents would be arriving soon.Paola Garcia of Camino, a bilingual non-profit serving families in Charlotte, said she and her colleagues had observed an increase in stops since Friday.“Basically what we’re seeing is that there have been lots of people being pulled over,” Garcia said.Businesses in the area, including a local Latin American bakery, had closed before the raids, said city council member JD Mazuera Arias.“This is customs and border patrol. We are not a border city, nor are we a border state. So why are they here?” he said. “This is a gross violation of constitutional rights for not only immigrants but for US citizens.”Democratic governor Josh Stein said on Friday that the vast majority of people detained in such operations have no criminal convictions, and some are citizens. Stein urged people to record any “inappropriate behavior” and notify local law enforcement.But Mecklenburg county Republican party chair Kyle Kirby said Democratic officials “have abandoned their duty to uphold law and order” and are “demonizing the brave men and women of federal law enforcement”.“Let us be clear: President Trump was given a mandate in the 2024 election to secure our borders,” Kirby said in a statement. “Individuals who are in this country legally have nothing to fear.”The raids on Charlotte come three months after the Trump administration identified the city as an example of a Democratic-led city that was not doing enough to protect citizens, following the fatal stabbing of Ukrainian immigrant Iryna Zarutska aboard a Charlotte light-rail train.The sweeps follow a pattern of similar immigration enforcement operations across the US, including in Los Angeles, Chicago, Portland and New York City.The east Charlotte church where the raid took place on Saturday said it was suspending services and yard work until congregants felt safe to gather again, 15-year-old Miguel Vazquez told the Charlotte Observer.“We thought church was safe and nothing gonna happen,” Vazquez said. “But it did happen.” More

    • 175 Shares51 Views

      in US Politics

      Marjorie Taylor Greene says she’s had ‘warnings for my safety’ after posts by Trump

      by

      Marjorie Taylor Greene, a longtime Republican ally who previously fiercely defended Donald Trump and his Maga movement, said on Saturday she had been contacted by private security firms “with warnings for my safety” after Trump announced on Friday he was withdrawing his support for and endorsement of the Georgia representative.In a post on X, Greene said that “a hot bed of threats against me are being fueled and egged on by the most powerful man in the world”, without referring to Trump by name, adding it was “the man I supported and helped get elected”.Greene said that “aggressive rhetoric attacking me has historically led to death threats and multiple convictions of men who were radicalized by the same type rhetoric being directed at me right now. This time by the President of the United States.”Greene did not specify any threats against her that had been received by security firms, but said that “as a woman I take threats from men seriously. I now have a small understanding of the fear and pressure the women, who are victims of Jeffrey Epstein and his cabal, must feel.”The post is the latest in an increasingly bitter war of words with Trump, primarily over the release of government-held documents relating to Jeffrey Epstein, which Greene supports. The House speaker, Mike Johnson, is expected to hold a vote next week to decide whether to release the entirety of unclassified communications and documents.“Marjorie ‘Traitor’ Green is a disgrace to our GREAT REPUBLICAN PARTY!” Trump fumed on social media, a day after ending his support for Greene, calling her “Wacky Marjorie” and saying he would endorse a challenger against her in the next midterm election “if the right person runs”.Earlier on Saturday, Greene posted on X that she never thought she would be in the position of “fighting to release the Epstein files, defending women who were victims of rape, and fighting to expose the web of rich powerful elites would have caused this, but here we are”.The dispute between Greene and Trump, simmering for months, has broken out into the open as the once solid Maga supporter has found herself opposing Trump on a series of issues, including US military aid to Israel, the government shutdown and the so-called “Epstein files”.That has led Trump to accuse Greene of going “Far Left” as she offered a series of dissenting opinions against the Maga mainstream. Trump wrote that all he had witnessed from Greene in recent months was “COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN!” adding: “I can’t take a ranting Lunatic’s call every day.”Greene said she had supported Trump “with too much of my precious time, too much of my own money, and fought harder for him even when almost all other Republicans turned their back and denounced him”. Greene added: “I don’t worship or serve Donald Trump.”Trump has indulged flame wars before with otherwise loyal political allies, including Elon Musk, only to make up after a cooling-off period. Like Musk, Greene’s newfound opposition appears rooted in what both see as a dilution of Trump’s “Americas first” political philosophy, including grappling with foreign peacemaking projects.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe trajectory of Greene’s dissatisfaction dates to at least May, when she announced she wouldn’t run for a Senate seat and attacked Republican donors and consultants who feared she couldn’t win. She later said she wouldn’t run for Georgia governor and attacked what she said was a political “good ole boy” system in the state.She sided with Maga dissenters, including Tucker Carlson, in June over possible US efforts at regime change in Iran.But as the Epstein files controversy heated up in recent months, she placed herself in opposition to the administration’s reluctance to release the documents and videos in full. In September, she said she wanted to expose the “Epstein rape and pedophile network” and asked people to remember she is “not suicidal” should something happen to her.Earlier this month, Greene sharply criticized her party during an appearance on The View, describing the Republican-controlled Congress as “an embarrassment” for not being in session for more than a month and saying she’d grown “really tired of the pissing contest in Washington DC between the men”.Asked whether she planned on becoming a Democrat, she said both political parties had failed and called for women to step in and steer the country. “Our red-white-and-blue flag is just being ripped to shreds,” she said. “And I think it takes women of maturity to sew it back together.” More

    • 225 Shares36 Views

      in US Politics

      ‘Trump is inconsistent with Christian principles’: why the Democratic party is seeing a rise of white clergy candidates

      by

      He grew up on a farm in Indiana, the son of a factory worker and eldest of five children. He studied at Liberty, a Christian university founded by the conservative pastor and televangelist Jerry Falwell, and recalls wearing a T-shirt expressing opposition to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.Two decades later, Justin Douglas is running for the US Congress – as a Democrat.He is among around 30 Christian white clergy – pastors, seminary students and other faith leaders – known to be potential Democratic candidates in next year’s midterm elections, including a dozen who are already in the race. While stressing the separation of church and state, many say that on a personal level their faith is calling them into the political arena.The trend marks a break from a traditional racial divide. Whereas Black pastors who run for office are typically Democrats, their white counterparts are usually Republicans, reflecting the strength of the religious right and the party’s dominance among evangelical voters.Douglas, 41, based in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, is among a new generation of the Christian left aiming to change that narrative by ensuring that the Democratic brand is not associated with only college-educated urbanites, but can also connect with white working-class churchgoers.“We’ve seen Democrats time and time again sell out working-class people and we’ve seen Democrats time and time again look like liberal elitists who are looking down on people who think going to church on Sunday is a core part of their life,” said Douglas, who has been in ministry for more than 20 years. “Some people might feel judged for that.“But I also think the stereotypes of Republicans being pro-faith are bullshit too. We’re seeing a current administration bastardise faith almost every day. They used the Lord’s Prayer in a propaganda video for what they’re now calling the Department of War. That should have had every single evangelical’s bells and whistles and alarms going off in their head: this is sacrilegious.“But unfortunately, sometimes, when you’re in it, you can’t see it and it takes somebody who has an ability to communicate to that audience, to help show that you’re being manipulated.”For decades, many white Christians were not partisan and often voted Democratic, especially in the south. But by the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Democratic party’s identity was shifting toward civil rights, feminism and secular liberalism. Many white conservative Christians felt increasingly alienated from the party they had long inhabited.The racial divide can in part be traced to the mid-1970s when the Internal Revenue Service began removing tax-exempt status from private schools that discriminated by race. Conservative Christian leaders such as Jerry Falwell saw this as federal overreach and seized on abortion as an issue that could be framed in religious and political terms.Falwell’s organisation the Moral Majority used abortion as a broader symbol of moral decline alongside feminism, sex education and gay rights. His followers then felt betrayed when Jimmy Carter, the first evangelical Christian to occupy the White House, failed to pursue their priorities.View image in fullscreenThey defected to Republican Ronald Reagan, and, by the end of the 1980s, white evangelicals had become one of the most consistently Republican voting blocs, even as Black churchgoers remained loyal to Democrats. That has persisted over the past decade under Donald Trump, seen by critics as vulgar and unchristian but by supporters as a blunt instrument to defend a church under siege by a godless liberal culture.Whereas Carter earned 60% of the white evangelical vote in 1976, fellow Democrat Hillary Clinton gained only a 16% share in 2016. It was a troubling realignment that caught the eye of Doug Pagitt, a pastor and executive director of the progressive Christian group Vote Common Good.He said: “That’s not natural. That’s not just a policy change. There was something more significant going on. It’s been a two-sided effort. Republicans have oriented themselves primarily around religious voter identity and Democrats have set aside religious voter identity, including the fact that in 1992 Democrats removed from the voter access file the category of religious identity.”Pagitt said Charlie Kirk’s organisation Turning Point USA was vital in turning out young Christian voters for Trump last year: “The difference couldn’t be more stark, which is why white clergy running for office is such a big deal when they’re running as Democrats in Iowa, in Arkansas, in Pennsylvania, in California.”Trump’s first election was the trigger for a new wave of white clergy to overcome fears of being seen as partisan and run for elected office. Pagitt added: “After 2016 and 2018, a whole lot of people started thinking: ‘Hey, maybe running for office is something we should actually do.’“Few people are surprised when Raphael Warnock says: ‘I’m a working pastor at Ebenezer Baptist church.’ He comes from the Martin Luther King tradition, from that pulpit, and it made sense: people are like: ‘Yeah, of course a Black clergyman’s going to run as a Democrat.’ But when a white woman pastor in Iowa says, ‘I’m going to run as a Democrat,’ it’s a real statement. It’s taken some of these people a little while to get comfortable with the fact that they are going to be partisan.”Vote Common Good was founded in response to a schism created by the election of Trump, which left many religious people feeling “politically homeless”. The group operates as a “dating service”, connecting these voters with Democrats and non-Maga Republicans. The group will spend time in 50 congressional districts this year helping candidates meet faith voters and leaders in their districts.Douglas is a county commissioner looking to unseat Republican Scott Perry in Pennsylvania’s 10th district. But he was previously the lead pastor of a growing church that allowed LGBTQ+ individuals to participate fully in its community; over the course of a year, this developed into a huge bone of contention and in 2019 Douglas eventually lost his licence. He had to find a new house and go from one job to three jobs including driving an Uber and CrossFit coaching. He started a new church that is still operating today.Douglas recalls: “I paid the price for standing with the LGBTQ+ people. I would do it again. It taught me that doing what’s right is often costly but always necessary, and everyone deserves to be safe, respected and fully included. That’s not a religious belief. It’s a human belief that I have.”James Talarico, a Texas state representative and a 36-year-old part-time seminary student who has amassed a sizable social media following – has become an unlikely standard-bearer in the Democrats’ 2026 Senate primary.In a series of social media posts, he deploys scripture to champion the poor and vulnerable while castigating Republicans for what he casts as their drift towards Christian nationalism and corporate interests. He asked in one: “Instead of posting the Ten Commandments in every classroom, why don’t they post, ‘Money is the root of all evil’ in every boardroom?”View image in fullscreenIn Iowa, state representative Sarah Trone Garriott, an Evangelical Lutheran pastor, is seeking her party’s nod to challenge Republican incumbent Zach Nunn in what is already billed as one of the nation’s marquee congressional races.In Arkansas, Robb Ryerse, a Christian pastor and former Republican, is mounting a challenge to representative Steve Womack, adopting the slogan “Faith, Family & Freedom” – rhetoric more commonly found in Republican campaign literature.Ryerse, 50, from Springdale, Arkansas, said: “I joke sometimes that the two people who have changed my life more than any others are Jesus and Donald Trump, for very different reasons. Donald Trump is absolutely inconsistent with Christian principles of love and compassion, justice, looking out for the poor, meeting the needs of the marginalised.“But Donald Trump has also used and been used by so many evangelical leaders who want political power. He has used them to validate him to their followers and they have used him to further their agenda, which has been a Christian nationalist culture war on the United States, which I think is bad for both the church and for the country.”White clergy are deciding to run for office, Ryerse believes, in part as a response to the rise of Christian nationalism and the reality that, according to a Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) survey, Trump won 85% of the white evangelical vote in last year’s presidential election.Ryerse said: “We realise, hey, our churches and the people in our churches have been duped by this guy and so rather than hope someone else will clean up the problem, what we’ve seen is a lot of pastors respond with, you know what, I’m going to jump in and I’m going to be a part of the solution.“On a more positive note, there’s also that notion we need to do something for the common good. There’s so much alignment between what I believe personally is good for my neighbour, what it means to love my neighbour, and how that aligns with what public policy ought to be.” More

    • 138 Shares48 Views

      in US Politics

      Questions arise over strikingly similar signatures by Trump on recent pardons

      by

      The Trump administration’s clemency drive is coming under scrutiny after the justice department this week replaced pardons posted online that bore strikingly similar copies of Trump’s signature with others that are distinctively variable.The corrections came after online commenters seized on the similarities in the president’s signature granting “full and unconditional” pardons to seven men, including to former New York Mets player Darryl Strawberry, former Tennessee House speaker Glen Casada and former New York police sergeant Michael McMahon, on 7 November.Administration officials have blamed “technical” errors and staffing issues for the apparent oversight and insisted to the Associated Press that Trump had originally signed all the pardons himself.Chad Gilmartin, a justice department spokesperson, said the “website was updated after a technical error where one of the signatures President Trump personally signed was mistakenly uploaded multiple times due to staffing issues caused by the Democrat shutdown”.“There is no story here other than the fact that President Trump signed seven pardons by hand and [the Department of Justice] posted those same seven pardons with seven unique signatures to our website,” Gilmartin said in a statement to the Associated Press, referring to the latest wave of clemency Trump has granted in recent weeks.White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson wrote in an email that Trump “signed each one of these pardons by hand as he does with all pardons”.“The media should spend their time investigating Joe Biden’s countless autopenned pardons, not covering a non-story,” she wrote.The errors come after a sustained administration campaign to undermine the validity of pardons issued by Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden that were in many cases signed by autopen. Trump has claimed that Biden was not aware of the signatures on orders and pardons bearing his name.Trump, who typically makes an elaborate show of signing executive orders with a Sharpie at afternoon press calls, has gone so far as to replace Biden’s portrait in a new “Presidential Walk of Fame” he created along the West Wing colonnade with a picture of an autopen.Asked last week whether he had considered replacing that image with a portrait, Trump responded: “No, I don’t think so.”Questions about Trump’s signature come amid a new flurry of clemency orders. Last month, Trump issued a pardon to Changpeng Zhao, later telling CBS News that he had “no idea who he is” but had been told the crypto-currency businessman was a victim of a “witch-hunt” by the Biden administration.Zhao, who is also known as “CZ”, pleaded guilty to enabling money laundering in 2023. He served four months in prison and agreed to step down as the chief executive of Binance, the crypto exchange he co-founded.“A basic axiom of handwriting identification science is that no two signatures are going to bear the exact same design features in every aspect,” Thomas Vastrick, a Florida-based handwriting expert and president of the American Society of Questioned Document Examiners, told the AP.“It’s very straightforward,” Vastrick added.Legal experts say the use of an autopen has no bearing on the validity of the pardons.“The key to pardon validity is whether the president intended to grant the pardon,” said Frank Bowman, a legal historian and professor emeritus at the University of Missouri School of Law who is writing a book on pardons. “Any re-signing is an obvious, and rather silly, effort to avoid comparison to Biden.”The pardons issued by Trump earlier this month include Casada, a disgraced former Republican speaker of the Tennessee house who was sentenced in September to three years in prison after being convicted of working with a former legislative aide to win taxpayer-funded mail business from state lawmakers who previously drove Casada from office amid a sexting scandal.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionStrawberry was convicted in the 1990s of tax evasion and drug charges. McMahon was sentenced to 18 months in prison earlier this year for his role in what a federal judge called “a campaign of transnational repression”.On Friday, Trump issued a pardon to Dan Wilson, a militia member who joined the Capitol riot on 6 January 2021, on a conviction for felony gun possession, Politico reported. Wilson, who has identified himself as a member of the Oath Keepers and Gray Ghost Partisan Rangers militia, had already been given clemency for his involvement in the riot.The justice department’s replacement of Trump’s signature on the pardon documents is unlikely to stall Republicans’ autopen trolling of Biden.Last month, Republicans in Congress released a sharp critique of Biden’s alleged “diminished faculties” and mental state during his term that ranked the Democrat’s use of the autopen among “the greatest scandals in US history”.The Republicans said their findings cast doubt on all of Biden’s actions in office and sent a letter to the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, urging a full investigation.“Senior White House officials did not know who operated the autopen and its use was not sufficiently controlled or documented to prevent abuse,” the House oversight committee found. “The committee deems void all executive actions signed by the autopen without proper, corresponding, contemporaneous, written approval traceable to the president’s own consent.”On Friday, Republicans who control the committee released a statement that characterized Trump’s potential use of an electronic signature as legitimate, which it distinguished from Biden’s.Dave Min, a California Democrat on the House oversight committee, seized on the apparent similarities in the initial version of the pardons and called for an investigation of the matter, deploying the Republican arguments against Biden in a statement to AP that “we need to better understand who is actually in charge of the White House, because Trump seems to be slipping”.The Associated Press contributed reporting More

    • 138 Shares45 Views

      in US Politics

      Judge bars Trump administration from cutting funding to University of California

      by

      The Trump administration cannot fine the University of California or summarily cut the school system’s federal funding over claims it allows antisemitism or other forms of discrimination, a federal judge ruled late on Friday in a sharply worded decision.US district judge Rita Lin in San Francisco issued a preliminary injunction barring the administration from cancelling funding to the university based on alleged discrimination without giving notice to affected faculty and conducting a hearing, among other requirements.The administration over the summer demanded the University of California, Los Angeles, pay $1.2bn to restore frozen research funding and ensure eligibility for future funding after accusing the school of allowing antisemitism on campus. UCLA was the first public university to be targeted by the administration over allegations of civil rights violations.It has also frozen or paused federal funding over similar claims against private colleges, including Columbia University.In her ruling, Lin said labor unions and other groups representing UC faculty, students and employees had provided “overwhelming evidence” that the Trump administration was “engaged in a concerted campaign to purge ‘woke’, ‘left’ and ‘socialist’ viewpoints from our country’s leading universities”.“Agency officials, as well as the president and vice-president, have repeatedly and publicly announced a playbook of initiating civil rights investigations of pre-eminent universities to justify cutting off federal funding, with the goal of bringing universities to their knees and forcing them to change their ideological tune,” Lin wrote.She added: “It is undisputed that this precise playbook is now being executed at the University of California.”At UC, which is facing a series of civil rights investigations, she found the administration had engaged in “coercive and retaliatory conduct in violation of the first amendment and 10th amendment”.Messages sent to the White House and the US Department of Justice after hours on Friday were not immediately returned. Lin’s order will remain in effect indefinitely.The president of the University of California, James B Milliken, has said the size of the UCLA fine would devastate the UC system, whose campuses are viewed as some of the top public colleges in the nation.UC is in settlement talks with the administration and is not a party to the lawsuit before Lin, who was nominated to the bench by Joe Biden, a Democrat. In a statement, the university system said it “remains committed to protecting the mission, governance and academic freedom of the university”.The administration has demanded UCLA comply with its views on gender identity and establish a process to make sure foreign students are not admitted if they are likely to engage in anti-American, anti-western or antisemitic “disruptions or harassment”, among other requirements outlined in a settlement proposal made public in October.The administration has previously struck deals with Brown University for $50m and Columbia University for $221m.Lin cited declarations by UC faculty and staff that the administration’s moves were prompting them to stop teaching or researching topics they were “afraid were too ‘left’ or ‘woke’”.Her injunction also blocks the administration from “conditioning the grant or continuance of federal funding on the UC’s agreement to any measures that would violate the rights of plaintiffs’ members under the first amendment”.She cited efforts to force the UC schools to screen international students based on “’anti-western” or “‘anti-American’” views, restrict research and teaching, or adopt specific definitions of “male” and “female” as examples of such measures.Donald Trump has decried elite colleges as overrun by liberalism and antisemitism.His administration has launched investigations of dozens of universities, claiming they have failed to end the use of racial preferences in violation of civil rights law. The Republican administration says diversity, equity and inclusion efforts discriminate against white and Asian American students. More

    • 150 Shares54 Views

      in US Politics

      Turmoil and tensions at FDA after dramatic exit of top drug regulator

      by

      After the dramatic ousting of the top drug regulator at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) two weeks ago, officials have scrambled to find a replacement in a process that has revealed the agency’s internal cracks and tensions.It’s troubling news for a regulatory agency that has previously enjoyed a reputation for stability and consistency.On Tuesday, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the top spot at the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) would be filled by a surprising candidate.Richard Pazdur is a respected oncology expert and longtime FDA employee – that’s not the surprising part. But he reportedly turned down the position when he was approached last week, according to Pink Sheet. That’s when top leaders began searching for other candidates.“It boggles the mind,” said Peter Lurie, president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest and a former associate commissioner at the FDA. “Reversals upon reversals.”The news comes after several upheavals at the FDA.George Tidmarsh, who was only appointed as CDER director in late July, resigned in early November following accusations of retaliation against a former pharmaceutical business partner and reports of strife within the agency. Tidmarsh was accused, in an explosive lawsuit, of using his position to harm his former business partner.View image in fullscreenIn the days before his ouster, Tidmarsh had opposed a new form of rapid approval, he told Stat News. The new program, called “Commissioner’s National Priority Voucher”, promised the rapid reviews of drugs – but Tidmarsh said he questioned the legality of the plan.Tidmarsh also reportedly sparred with Vinay Prasad, simultaneously the agency’s chief medical and scientific officer and the director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), after Prasad repeatedly bypassed Tidmarsh to ask CDER employees to do work for him.The HHS did not respond to the Guardian’s questions about power struggles between Tidmarsh and Prasad, but the agency did confirm that Tidmarsh was no longer employed there.“Secretary Kennedy expects the highest ethical standards from all individuals serving under his leadership and remains committed to full transparency,” said Emily Hilliard, press secretary.Prasad himself was subject to reversals. He was forced to resign in July, but he returned unexpectedly less than a week later. FDA chief Marty Makary reportedly worked to bring him back.“Prasad has obviously been very aggressive, and he’s not been softened by the experience of getting fired – if anything he seems to feel that he has the wind at his back because he was restored,” Lurie said. “But none of it speaks well to the kind of relations between the center directors that are necessary to make the place work.”The degree of discord among top FDA officials is “very unusual”, Lurie said.Before the job was filled by Pazdur, one CDER employee told the Guardian that “I would never take it” because the position would be a “career killer” in the turnover and tumult at the agency.“Plus, I’d have Vinay Prasad bitching at me or about me non-stop,” said the employee, who asked for anonymity to protect their job.After Tidmarsh’s departure, several longtime employees said they were not interested in the position, and Sara Brenner, principal deputy commissioner at the FDA, sent an email on Friday to some CDER employees asking whether any of them wanted to apply.“The whole process of appointments at FDA in the current administration has been an enormous departure from accepted practices,” Lurie said. “The degree of upheaval at the agency is really difficult to overestimate and leaves people in the agency disconcerted.”Opening up the position to large numbers of employees “reeks of desperation” and gives the impression that FDA leaders struggled to fill the job, he said. But Pazdur has “the right qualifications”, and choosing an FDA insider might shore up confidence and morale, Lurie added.“There’s a sense among people who have worked at the agency for a while that they’re under siege by people who have come from the outside with only limited understanding of the way that FDA works and that they would be better served with somebody who actually understands the institution,” he said.Lurie notes that the pharmaceutical industry values stability at the FDA more than anything. There is a core belief in the industry – and among the public – that FDA review is valuable in order to maintain trust and safety. “Predictability from day to day is really what they want, and otherwise, everything is in upheaval,” Lurie said.The FDA has developed careful and relatively uncontroversial processes over the decades for evaluating drugs, biologics and medical devices.“But now, everything is up for grabs,” Lurie said. “Suddenly, we have people who can get their drug reviewed in a one-day meeting.”In addition to disrupting its regulatory work, the chaos at the FDA may also undermine the credibility of its experts in general, particularly as top officials within the administration continue to attack scientific expertise, Lurie said.“If the assault on government continues at the pace that it has,” he said, the idea that the government is not to be trusted “could actually become true”. More