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      Robert F Kennedy Jr instructed CDC to change stance on vaccine and autism

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      Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, said in an interview with the New York Times that he personally instructed the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to change its longstanding position that vaccines do not cause autism.Countering decades of science showing vaccines to be safe, the US public health agency’s website was changed to say: “The claim ‘vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism.”In the interview, Kennedy said that while the large-scale epidemiological studies of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine had found no link to autism, and that studies of the mercury-based preservative thimerosal had also shown no link, there are gaps in the vaccine safety science.“The whole thing about ‘vaccines have been tested and there’s been this determination made’, is just a lie,” Kennedy said in his first interview with a major print publication.Public health experts, doctors and scientists have decried the update as the kind of misinformation the CDC has fought for decades as it promoted the use of life-saving childhood vaccines both in the US and abroad.Notably, the largest US county’s health department issued a statement Friday saying “there is no new evidence to support” the CDC website’s change pertaining to vaccines and autism – and the statement added that the modification is “not accurate”.“For more than 25 years, researchers around the world have rigorously examined whether vaccines cause autism,” the statement from the Los Angeles county health department said. “Over 40 high-quality studies involving more than 5.6 million children have found no link between any routine childhood vaccine and autism. This conclusion is supported by leading health authorities, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the California Department of Public Health, the World Health Organization, and leading research institutions.“The increase in autism diagnoses reflects improved screening, broader diagnostic criteria, and greater awareness – not a link to vaccines. The spread of this harmful myth stigmatizes members of the autism community and their families.” More

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      US transportation department unveils first female-modeled crash test dummy

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      The transportation department has unveiled a first crash test dummy in the US modeled specifically on female anatomy, a move officials say is meant to close decades of safety gaps in vehicle testing.Sean Duffy, the US transportation secretary, unveiled the THOR-05F, an advanced female design for a crash-test dummy with upgraded technical specifications. According to the transportation department, the dummy will be incorporated into federal vehicle crash testing once a final rule is published.Although men make up the majority of annual car-crash victims, women are more likely to die in collisions of comparable severity. Women are also 73% more likely than men to sustain serious injuries in a crash, according to studies. In addition, they face a higher risk of specific trauma, including pelvis and liver injuries.Despite the risks women face, the dummy used in the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s five-star crash tests is still a model designed in 1978: the Hybrid III, based on a 5ft 9in, 171lb man.Compared with the Hybrid III, the THOR-05F, which is described as more “durable, accurate and lifelike”, is equipped with over 150 sensors and can gather three times as many injury measurements as current dummies. It also represents a significant shift from the long-used Hybrid III, which has been the standard in crash testing for years.While the Hybrid III dummy assesses risk of skull fracture only, the Thor-05F can assess risk of skull fracture, brain injury and facial fractures. Additionally, with the Hybrid III only being able to bend in one direction – forward and backward, the Thor-05F can bend forward and backward, side-to-side and twist.Other differences include the spine area; while the Hybrid III has a rigid spine, the Thor-05F has a more life-like flexibility, allowing the dummy to sit slouched or erect and can measure forces in the lower spine. Additionally, unlike the Hybrid III which has no abdominal or pelvis sensors, the THOR-05F is able to measure pressure to assess risk to internal organs, as well as pelvis and hip forces from seatbelt and vehicle contact. Moreover, while the Hybrid III has no arm sensors, the new dummy is able to measure forces in upper and lower arms.“Its shape and response in a crash are based on female bodies, which will ultimately enable better assessment of brain, thorax, abdominal, pelvic and lower leg injury risk for small female occupants,” the transportation department said.Hailing the new dummy, Duffy said: “After years of delays, our team has worked hard over the last eight months to finalize the details for this new, state of the art female crash test dummy. Under the leadership of President Trump, this department will continue to put the safety of American families – including women – first.”Similarly, the National Highway Traffic Safety administrator, Jonathan Morrison, said: “This is a long overdue step toward the full adoption of this new dummy for use in our safety ratings and Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.”Additionally, the US senators Deb Fischer of Nebraska and Tammy Duckworth of Illinois – both co-sponsors of the She Drives Act, which seeks to improve vehicle safety testing – welcomed the announcement.“It’s far past time to make these testing standards permanent, which will help save thousands of lives and make America’s roads safer for all drivers,” Fischer said, with Duckworth adding: “Any progress here is good because there’s simply no good reason why women are more likely to be injured or die in car crashes.”Thursday’s unveiling follows other countries that have adopted improved, female-specific crash test dummies over the years including Australia and Sweden. More

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      New Mexico now offers free childcare for all. Here’s how parents and teachers made it happen

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      One crisp morning in 2018, Sandra Ibarra pulled on a pair of gloves to ward off the winter chill and picked up the first cardboard sign she had designed for a protest.As a recent immigrant to the United States, Ibarra was wary of attending a demonstration. But since arriving in the United States from Mexico she had had to change careers – it was difficult to recertify her licensing as an accountant in a new country and easier to begin working in childcare – and was shocked by the poor pay. Although she taught, cooked, cleaned and did the books for a small childcare center, she was earning minimum wage. A classmate at the local community college had suggested Ibarra attend the rally, and stick around afterward for a meal with Olé, a grassroots non-profit committed to organizing working-class families.She started attending weekly events with Olé, joining a growing network of mostly immigrant women who, like her, were working in childcare. “When you have one person or two people, no one listens to you. But when we have a lot that are united and working toward the same cause, that’s when they say, ‘Oh OK, what do you want?’” Ibarra said, speaking in Spanish. “We went out to the streets to march, to demand wage increases. We made banners. We went out to demand better benefits, because obviously many people like me earned very little,” she said, describing dozens of marches that she attended over the seven years she has fought for early-childhood educators.Olé similarly organized hundreds of other childcare workers across New Mexico, who have long campaigned to improve wages for early-childhood educators and access to childcare for working families. That work reached a dramatic conclusion when New Mexico’s governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham, announced earlier this year that the state would become the first in the United States to offer free childcare to all its families, regardless of income, starting 1 November. Childcare facilities that commit to paying entry-level staff a minimum of $18 an hour will receive an incentive rate from the state.The state’s efforts to improve childhood wellbeing have gained national attention since it began offering free childcare to a majority of families in 2022. But the fight to implement universal childcare began more than a decade ago – and brought together a wide coalition of childcare workers, families, lawmakers, researchers and even the Catholic church. As New Mexico rolls out its universal free childcare program, that same coalition is eyeing strategies to ensure childcare workers are paid a living wage, build out a childcare workforce and further bolster the state’s social safety net.New Mexico’s success in developing a free, universal childcare program is a crucial win for progressives at a time of sweeping federal cuts to early childhood education. Donald Trump’s signature tax and spending bill did not increase funding for the childcare and development block grant and Head Start to keep up with inflation, and eliminated preschool development grants and the Child Care Access Means Parents in Schools Program, renewing efforts to slash funding for early childhood education. It also cut $1tn in funding from Medicaid, which many low-income Americans – including nearly 30% of childcare workers – rely on for health insurance. Those particular funding losses come as Trump has announced new steps to dismantle the education department following broad layoffs.View image in fullscreen“The NM early childhood model will likely be something more states may seriously consider as federal spending on social supports is increasingly in jeopardy,” said Eric Griego, a New Mexico child welfare advocate.The roots of New Mexico’s free childcare program date back to 2008 – when advocates dreamed up a plan to pay for it. Although the state had made notable investments in child wellbeing as early as 2005, when the then lieutenant governor, Diane Denish, championed efforts to offer free pre-kindergarten to all the state’s four-year-olds, New Mexico still ranked among the worst states for child wellbeing nationwide. In 2008, the Annie E Casey Foundation ranked New Mexico dead last for child wellbeing in the United States.A handful of advocates from New Mexico Voices for Children, a local non-profit policy and research organization focused on child welfare, were attending a national conference of child welfare advocates, said Griego, the organization’s then director. They had just heard advocates from Nebraska describe how the state had used a combination of private donations and oil and gas revenues from its permanent fund to support early childhood education. “We stole the idea,” said Griego. When he and his colleagues returned to New Mexico, they began researching how to use New Mexico’s own permanent fund to implement a similar program.Quickly, they realized paying for childcare from the state’s general fund would be a heavy political lift. New Mexico’s land grant permanent fund – established upon the state’s founding in 1912 – already supported K-12 education, but authorizing a disbursement for early childhood education would require asking the legislature, and then voters, to amend the state’s constitution. Then, such a constitutional amendment would have to be approved by the US Congress and the president – a legal quirk from when New Mexico became a state.“The constitutional amendment and going after the land grant permanent fund wasn’t our first choice. But there was no will for taxes,” said Allen Sánchez, president of Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI) St Joseph’s Children, a Catholic philanthropy focused on child welfare in the state. Plus, the land grant permanent fund – which is composed of oil and gas revenues from state lands, many of which were formerly Native American or Spanish lands – was growing.In 2011, lawmakers introduced the first bill that would have used the state’s permanent fund to pay for childcare. Cynthia Nava, a Democrat and chair of the state senate’s education committee, sponsored the bill. But, even though New Mexico had strong Democratic majorities in both the state house and senate, a coalition of fiscal conservatives opposed tapping into the state’s permanent fund, Griego and Sánchez said.“Over the 10 years, it passed the House seven times. And then it would go over to the senate. And in those 10 years, we only got one hearing in the senate finance committee,” said Sánchez.But slowly, over the course of the decade, advocates and lawmakers began building political will for a constitutional amendment.New Mexico Voices for Children invited Olé, CHI St Joseph’s and other organizations to join a coalition called Invest in Kids Now focused on passing the amendment.“That was really the start of our work organizing teachers,” said Matthew Henderson, director of Olé. “But our teachers were involved from the get-go, really aggressively talking to legislators and perennially getting shot down.”Childcare workers, the vast majority of them immigrant women like Ibarra, began organizing marches, emailing their lawmakers, attending city council meetings, signing petitions, organizing the first annual Day Without Child Care and visiting the state capitol. And children and their parents began turning out at the legislature as well – including for a 1,000 Kids March beginning in 2014.When Ibarra first started meeting with lawmakers, she remembers feeling fearful and overwhelmed – both that her status as an immigrant might make her vulnerable and that she didn’t understand the complexities of the political system.“Now I feel calmer. I can go with my family. I’ve gone with my son and my husband. And we’ve spoken with several legislators, requesting their support for better benefits. And they listen to us. Even the children have participated,” she said. “I’ve participated in many events where I’m less afraid to speak out, because I know I’ve learned a lot here [through Olé].”Over time, organizing with Olé helped her learn how to ask for salary raises, return to school for an associate’s degree in early childhood education and develop the confidence to lobby her legislators for policy changes. Today, Ibarra is the assistant director of a five-star early childhood center in Albuquerque.In 2016, St Joseph’s began running an ad campaign to educate New Mexicans on the prevalence of child poverty in the state. Modeled after the state tourism agency’s “New Mexico True” campaign, the “New Mexico Truth” ads proclaimed “This is New Mexico. Where you can discover your inner child and uncover severe childhood poverty.”At the same time, the dynamics of the state legislature began changing. In 2018, a majority of Democrats elected to the state’s house were women; two years later, women won the majority of seats in the chamber. And a growing number of those women were former teachers – like Natalie Figueroa, Debra Sariñana and Joy Garratt – single or working mothers – such as Georgene Louis, Liz Thomson and Micaela Cadena – or activists – like Angelica Rubio, Kristina Ortez and Linda Serrato.“When you get Kristina Ortez, who has two school-age children, and you have Linda Serrato, who at the time was literally pregnant and had a two-year-old, that changes the dynamics,” said Javier Martínez, today the speaker of New Mexico’s house of representatives, who began organizing around immigrant rights and childcare as an activist at the Partnership for Community Action in the early 2000s. He himself ran for office in 2014 out of a desire to see New Mexico implement free childcare, and recalls more working-class candidates and moms running for office after Trump was elected to his first term in 2016.In 2020, when all New Mexico state senators were up for re-election, that working-class coalition recruited a new class of progressive Democrats to run against the fiscal conservatives in the primary election. “We recruited candidates, we ran their campaigns, and we took out four of the five of what were the corporate Democrats,” said Griego.“And then the door was open,” said Sánchez.A few weeks later, in January 2021, New Mexico Democrats once again introduced a bill to amend the state constitution to fund early childhood education. That spring, the state house passed the amendment 44-23 and the Senate 26-16.Sánchez knew it had attracted statewide attention when the local newspaper, the Albuquerque Journal, asked gubernatorial candidates to weigh in on whether they supported the constitutional amendment in the 2022 election. “They made it a litmus test,” he said. “And that was good for us, because it elevated it.” The constitutional amendment went to the voters in the November election – and passed in a landslide, with 70.3% voting in favor.“New Mexico in many ways has been treated like a colony for a long time,” said Martínez. “One of the arguments we made on the constitutional amendment for many years is that this is the people’s money.”“But there was still the problem of Congress,” said Sánchez. He credits state senator Martin Heinrich for carrying it over the finish line and Regis Pecos, the executive director of the All Pueblo Council of Governors – a tribal leadership organization for the 20 pueblos of New Mexico and Texas – who encouraged Native American voters to write to their senators in support of the amendment.The then US Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, then added the constitutional amendment to the 2022 omnibus package. “And then he told the Republicans this is not up for debate because these people shouldn’t even have to be here” appealing a century-old law, said Sánchez. That package passed, and on 23 December 2022 Joe Biden signed the constitutional amendment into law.To start, New Mexico made childcare free for families earning up to 400% of the federal poverty level, or about $124,000 for a family of four. That meant about half of New Mexico’s children now qualified.Then, on 8 September this year, Governor Lujan Grisham announced in an executive order that New Mexico would begin offering free childcare to all families, regardless of income, on 1 November.Many New Mexicans were jubilant: sharing with local media that the announcement had convinced some to remain in the state and given them hope of saving for future expenses.But Republicans emphasized that the executive order must be codified in law to remain in effect after Lujan Grisham’s term ends next year.In the meantime, advocates, like Ibarra, are still organizing to recommend a fair pay scale for early-childhood educators.View image in fullscreen“We celebrated, but we knew that work would continue,” said Ibarra, who joined organizers from Olé in meeting with the state’s early childhood education and care department ahead of the universal program’s rollout. She said current salaries of about $18 an hour are not enough for someone with a degree, or for a single mother with a child.A career ladder and pay scale could be key to attracting more workers to the childcare field, and creating high-quality, local childcare centers. “We have a labor shortage in this area,” said Griego, who noted the situation was especially dire in rural areas.“I certainly want to see a system for New Mexicans, by New Mexicans, that treats kids, workers, its educators with the utmost respect, and that most importantly takes care of our kids,” said Martinez, who noted that private equity firms were starting to take over childcare centers because operating facilities that receive state contracts is a lucrative source of revenue. “I’ll be watching closely to ensure that in fact this doesn’t become a for-profit business venture for some out-of-state corporation.”Although they are aware of the continued work ahead to create a fair early-childhood educational system, advocates have been buoyed up by the success of the state’s constitutional amendment. The land grant trust, which has grown to $65bn, is predicted to double by 2032, Sánchez said. With that funding, advocates are “looking at universal health insurance coverage for every resident in the state” next and planning to use the same playbook to secure that policy, he said.Policies like that, which prioritize using state funds to support working-class New Mexicans, are key to childcare workers like Ibarra, and the communities they serve.“All the work we’ve done is for the teachers,” said Ibarra, “but above all for the families.” More

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      in Elections

      Trump’s DoJ investigating unfounded claims Venezuela helped steal 2020 election

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      Federal investigators have been interviewing multiple people who are pushing unfounded claims that Venezuela helped steal the 2020 election from Donald Trump, the Guardian has learned.Two promoters of the conspiracy theory have repeatedly briefed the US attorney for the district of Puerto Rico, W Stephen Muldrow, and have shared witnesses and documents with officials, according to four sources. Muldrow declined to comment.In addition to the Puerto Rico talks, people pushing the conspiracy have been interviewed by federal investigators for a federal taskforce in Tampa which is looking at Venezuelan drug trafficking and money laundering, four sources told the Guardian. The US attorney’s office in Tampa declined to comment.An investigation of this sort underscores how Trump’s justice department is becoming a major weapon in the president’s efforts to rewrite the history of his 2020 loss – while potentially strengthening the administration’s case for military action against Venezuela.While there were a variety of conspiracy theories that helped fuel Donald Trump’s 2020 “Stop the Steal” movement – dead voters, stolen, fraudulent or forged ballots, and secret computer servers in Germany – the purported influence of Venezuela was always a central claim. It asserted that electronic voting in the US was secretly controlled by the impoverished regime, both by President Nicolás Maduro and his deceased predecessor Hugo Chávez.Not only was it bizarre on its face, but a judge in Delaware ruled it false in 2023, and Fox News, Newsmax and OAN later paid a total of hundreds of millions in total damages in defamation claims. At heart, the theory was that Smartmatic, which had the contract for electronic voting machines in Los Angeles, and Dominion, which ran voting in many other parts of the country, had been created or influenced by Venezuela to fix elections.The revival of the claim appears to bind together two themes: Trump’s consistent “rigged election” complaints, and his antagonism to Venezuela’s socialist regime.With a military buildup in the Caribbean and increased sabre-rattling from the Trump administration towards Maduro, the unfounded election-rigging theories could provide another rationale for military action against Maduro.‘Very receptive’How could a discredited conspiracy theory, be investigated as a plausible case by the US justice department five years after it first bubbled up?The story starts with two unique characters who claim to have been pursuing the election claims for years: Gary Berntsen and Martin Rodil. They have become sources for the Trump camp and ultimately for investigators and have promoted two major allegations about Venezuela, as the reporters Seth Hettena and Jonathan Larsen have written on Substack.The first theme links Tren de Aragua, the street gang Trump has designated as a terrorist organization, closer to Maduro. The other major theme Berntsen and Rodil promoted was the old voting conspiracy and the allegations that Venezuela helped rig elections worldwide.Berntsen is a former CIA case officer who came to the public eye even before writing a book in 2006 about his hunt for Osama bin Laden. “A formidable guy, a warrior, no question,” said one former official who knew him.Berntsen projects the plainspoken demeanor of an expert with field experience battling an intransigent bureaucracy. He is also a fierce champion of Trump and of an invasion of Venezuela.“I don’t dabble in conspiracy theories,” Berntsen wrote in a message to the Guardian. “I spent my life defending our country and constitution. I led many major operations and investigations and saved many lives.”He added: “The Department of Justice and FBI and key White House Staff are investigating and coordinating efforts to defend our system and charge those guilty of Stealing Elections and violating other laws accountable for their actions.”Rodil is a Venezuelan expatriate based in Washington, and says he has been a consultant to US law enforcement investigating Venezuelan crime for 20 years. A close associate of his said he specializes in recruiting Venezuelan informants and witnesses for US cases.The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists reported in 2022 that Rodil was under investigation in Spain for extorting three Venezuelans there, trying to get money in exchange for influencing US authorities on cases. It is unclear what happened to that case.Rodil told the Guardian it was false, and said those who accused him were charged in the US.Even before Trump’s return to office earlier this year, the sources say Berntsen and Rodil have been feeding information, documents and witnesses about the voting claims to Muldrow, the US attorney out of Puerto Rico and to an organized crime taskforce called Panama Express, or Panex, which is based out of Tampa.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionSources familiar with the relationship between Muldrow, Berntsen and Rodil say there has been extensive cooperation on the matter. “They work together. Muldrow has been very receptive,” one of the sources said of the voting allegations. That source said there had been multiple briefings in Puerto Rico.Muldrow is one of the few US attorneys to have kept a job after Trump took over the White House. First appointed by Trump in 2019, he stayed in office during Biden’s term. He is a staunch Republican and Trump supporter, say two people who know him. Muldrow spent a good portion of his career in Tampa, and one source who knows him says he has a good working relationship with Pam Bondi, the current Trump US attorney general. She was the Florida state AG while Muldrow was based in the Tampa US attorney’s office.Several sources said Muldrow had turned over information to the Panex taskforce which used to focus primarily on the drug flow from Colombia but was now targeting Venezuela as well.This is now the taskforce working directly with Rodil and Berntsen, they say.In response to detailed questions, Muldrow emailed the Guardian: “In accordance with Department of Justice policies, I am not able to provide you with a comment.”Rodil told the Guardian that allegations involving so-called election integrity issues were incidental to conversations with Muldrow, rather than the central point of the briefings. He protested that while one witness talked about Smartmatic and election integrity, that was not the substance of Muldrow’s interest, and he said Muldrow only heard a portion of the evidence involving faked election results.Berntsen wrote in a message to the Guardian that “indictments are going to be released in the near future,” and said he and his colleagues believe that “your goal is to discredit the claims against Smartmatic and Dominion, the entities linked to a massive criminal cartel that stole US elections and elections worldwide.”‘Trump knows they need to be stopped’Ralph Pezzullo, the co-author of Berntsen’s 2006 book, is a true believer in the conspiracy theories Berntsen and Rodil are promoting now.In September, Pezzullo published an e-book called Stolen Elections: the Takedown of Democracies Worldwide, which described the Venezuela conspiracy theories, and is based on the accounts of Berntsen and Modil and witnesses they introduced to Pezzulo.Pezzullo wrote that the US voting was a “system created in Venezuela – and still electronically linked to Venezuela – that is designed to steal elections by remotely altering results”.Pezzullo said he too had spoken to Muldrow about the allegations. Pezzullo told the Guardian that his phone call with Muldrow was set up by Berntsen and claimed Muldrow assured him that the claims of election fraud were correct.“They’ve been attacking the US with the election machines and with the drugs,” Pezullo said, of Venezuela. “Trump knows they need to be stopped.” More

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      in US Politics

      World awaits fresh Epstein cache – but could Trump officials block full release?

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      They are the files that America – and the world – has long waited to see: a huge cache of documents at the Department of Justice related to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, whom a judge once dubbed the “most infamous pedophile in American history”.After a law passed by Congress and signed by Trump on Wednesday, those documents must now must be released to the American public and a waiting army of journalists. Just like previous Epstein caches they are certain to include damning communications between Epstein and many rich and powerful people in his social circle.Experts interviewed by the Guardian said that the documents are certain to contain fresh revelations about Epstein and his activities and could easily embarrass or damn prominent figures in the worlds of politics, academia, finance and entertainment, including Donald Trump and many others.But at the same time, despite the legal mandate, experts warn that justice department officials could use loopholes to try to stymie a full release, using redactions or withholding crucial documents for a variety of reasons. They warned that even this release of documents could still leave many Epstein questions unanswered and would not provide a full accounting of his crimes or who he socialized and worked with.Under the law signed on Wednesday, Trump’s justice department had 30 days to disclose all files related to Epstein, among them investigative documents into the disgraced financier’s death in jail pending his sex-trafficking trial. The much-awaited disclosure would come in the wake of congressional release of tens of thousands of pages provided by Epstein’s estate.The law allows for redaction of information that could identify victims but bars authorities from redacting information – including names – solely out of concerns that it could embarrass them or harm their reputations, or listen to concerns about political sensitivity. Trump’s attorney general, Pam Bondi, said her department would “follow the law and encourage maximum transparency”.But members of Congress who heralded the law’s passage, plus Epstein victims and transparency advocates, have expressed concerns that these files will not be delivered entirely as required.A provision allowing the justice department to withhold files that could jeopardize current investigations has raised eyebrows as Bondi – at Trump’s direction – has appointed a prosecutor in New York to investigate Bill Clinton, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, and other political opponents’ with past associations with Epstein. Neither Clinton nor Hoffman have been accused of misconduct and both have publicly expressed regret for their association with Epstein.Litigation by the news website Radar Online might be the most telling with regard to the investigation exception. In April 2017, Radar Online made a public records request for Epstein investigative files – about a decade after he pleaded guilty to state-level prostitution counts.The FBI did not respond, and Radar sued in May 2017. While the agency said it would process files at a rate of 500 pages monthly, authorities have withheld about 10,000 of more than 11,000 pertinent pages – invoking the law-enforcement proceeding exemption.“The bill allows material to be withheld if it’s connected to a law enforcement investigation, which is the same issue Radar is challenging in court,” a spokesperson for Radar Online told the Guardian. “Given the newly announced investigation the whole thing could be a dud. Our lawsuit is still the best chance of transparency.”Roy Gutterman, director of the Newhouse School’s Tully Center for Free Speech at Syracuse University in New York, said it was difficult to predict what might be in these files.“No matter what is released, even the thousands upon thousands of pages of records, data and information, there will always be questions of what else is out there or what may have been sanitized for political purposes,” Gutterman said. “Lots of people are talking about transparency, but unless someone finds the smoking gun they are looking for, human nature and pure skepticism will continue to raise questions about ‘what else has not been released’.”And releasing the files is not a silver bullet for finding truth.“There are ways you can release a lot of material and still not be transparent,” Gutterman said.Spencer Kuvin, chief legal officer of GoldLaw and a lawyer for several Epstein victims, said the justice department’s documents had more potential to reveal truth than Congress’s cache. He explained: “These documents will likely be photographs, surveillance videos, investigative memoranda and any other documents and interviews conducted in the underlying litigation.”He expressed frustration and pointed to the investigation provision.“The fact that the president made Congress go through this lengthy process is offensive, because he had the power to release these materials with the stroke of a pen,” Kuvin said. “Hopefully he does not further complicate matters by having his DoJ prevent access to all the records because of his threats of continuing investigations.”Victims of Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite who was convicted of sex trafficking for luring teenage girls into his orbit, worry as well.“That is a real fear that the victims have. These victims have repeatedly been frustrated by the failures of the state and federal government in this case over the last 20 years and it is all because the people involved were either rich or politically connected,” Kuvin said. “Unfortunately, rich and powerful people protect their own even if it means they may be guilty of sex trafficking and pedophilia.”Jennifer Plotkin of Merson Law, which has represented 33 Epstein victims, also expressed wariness.“While the release of documents may potentially increase transparency, it does little to address the government’s accountability to the many victims that have come forward in the lawsuit against the FBI. The government continues to fight against the sexual abuse survivors of Jeffrey Epstein,” Plotkin said. “The FBI failed to prosecute Epstein for decades and the victims still don’t understand why.”Those who have expressed skepticism that Bondi will follow through have pointed to Trump and his administration’s waffling on Epstein matters, despite his campaign trail promise to release the files.The justice department said in July that their investigation of Epstein files “did not expose any additional third-parties to allegations of illegal wrongdoing” and that “this systematic review revealed no incriminating ‘client list’”.“We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties,” their statement also said.The departmental memo conflicted with Epstein accusers’ accounts that others took part in his abuse. Trump’s supporters, many of whom are convinced that Epstein plotted with high-profile individuals to traffic minors, were outraged, as the president vowed to disclose documents.Furor over the Epstein document stalemate proved an extensive political liability for Trump, as news reports and released documents showed that the president had a relationship with Epstein. Trump has denied wrongdoing and said their relationship soured.“It’s not news that Epstein was a member of the Mar-a-Lago club, because it’s the same club Donald Trump kicked Epstein out of for being a creep,” the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said at one point. “These stories are tired and pathetic attempts to distract from all the success of President Trump’s administration.”In reversing course to support the bill, Trump said “we have nothing to hide” and that “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’”.Asked for comment about transparency concerns related to the ongoing investigation exception, a White House spokesperson, Abigail Jackson, said: “Democrats and the media knew about Epstein’s victims for years, did nothing to help them, and Democrats even solicited donations from him AFTER he was a convicted sex offender. President Trump was calling for transparency and accountability, and is now delivering on it with thousands of pages of documents.”Democrats have pointed out that Bondi and Trump are close in expressing concern about the documents release.“This is Pam Bondi. She works for Trump. This is all a set-up. Trump fought to the end to resist release. He lost. Do I believe he’s had a real conversion? No,” Senator Peter Welch, a Vermont Democrat on the Senate judiciary committee, said, per the Hill.“He anticipated the outcome and then ordered Bondi to begin other investigations, so we’ll be seeing the justice department withholding information because it might interfere with ongoing investigations.“The concealment will continue.” More

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      in US Politics

      A groundswell of activism takes hold in the US: ‘We are a bridge to the future’

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      As thousands of ICE agents storm streets, schools and emergency rooms across the country, communities are training up on their rights, recording incidents of abuse and screaming at officers to impede deportations.As opponents of LGBTQ+ rights try to erase queer history and safe spaces, residents have repainted rainbows across crosswalks paved over by officials and are organising their own record-keeping and mutual aid networks.As corporations cave to pressure from the right to abandon diversity initiatives, consumers are boycotting those behemoths, resulting in millions of dollars in lost sales and, for some companies, a reversal of course.This is what it looks like to build back power at a time when the government is trying to strip everyday Americans of their fundamental rights.Though headlines claimed people were overwhelmed and exhausted by politics in the months after Trump’s re-election, movement building can be seen in big cities and rural regions in red and blue states alike. This uprising is coming from the bottom up, led by regular people who are protecting their communities since Trump won back the White House. And they’re doing it despite the risks of arrest, surveillance or even deportation.View image in fullscreenThe resistance doesn’t look the way it did under Trump’s first term, when high-profile institutions, the media and congressional Democrats led the charge. That’s because Trump’s first victory was seen as an aberration by most liberals, said Hasan Piker, a leftwing streamer, so they resisted aggressively from the start.“This time around, the Democratic party, the establishment Democrats, are actually dropping the ball,” Piker said. “They’re not there at all in terms of the resistance. However, of course, people still want to protect their neighbors. People still want to protect their community.”The movements now are more decentralized, and the quest for a leader who can meet the moment is ongoing – or unnecessary, depending on who you ask.“A personality is never going to save us from a personality cult,” said Hunter Dunn, national spokesperson for 50501, a group that came together from online communities earlier this year. “We don’t need a better personality cult. We need on-the-ground, working people coming together and working together to uplift everyone.”Local communities fighting backTo find the pushback, look in local communities around the country.Diego Morales of Pilsen Unidos por Nuestro Orgullo (Puño) in Chicago conducts trainings for people who want to learn how to protect their neighborhoods against ICE. In the nearly 20 he’s done so far, all were at capacity, with as many as 300-400 people ready to serve as “migra watch”. Thousands of whistles have been passed out at bars, coffee shops and libraries to alert others when ICE is in the area. Businesses are putting up signs that ICE isn’t welcome. In the immigrant-heavy Pilsen neighborhood, Morales said, people spotted ICE vehicles last month and “organically, a massive caravan of us chased them out of the neighborhood”. When so many eyes are on them, it’s harder to round people up, he said.“We’re really blessed in the city of Chicago that the overwhelming majority of people in the city understand what is going on, understand the cruelty of it and want to do something about it,” Morales said.In Fernandina Beach, Florida, retired federal employees Mike and Gayle Kersten started a local chapter of Indivisible, the nationwide progressive organization with thousands of local iterations, after Trump won in 2024.Their south-eastern corner of Florida is red, but the Kerstens said they had found friends and allies – including some Republicans who had joined their protests – who were fed up with the administration. At the city’s first No Kings rally in June, about 300 people turned up. By the second No Kings protest in October, there were more than 1,000. Nationwide, about 7 million people attended No Kings rallies last month – making it the biggest single-day protest in US history.“That has actually been our tipping point,” Gayle said. “That’s where we’re seeing people, they’re being consistent. We meet people in the grocery store and they’re like, what can we do?”This year’s protests have “already reached deeper into Trump country than at almost any point during the first Trump administration”, Harvard’s Crowd Counting Consortium recently wrote. A wider range of counties have also held protests, and the number of counties with at least one anti-Trump protest “has risen markedly during his second term”.View image in fullscreenAlong with marching and doing rights trainings, people are pushing back with their wallets. Earlier in the year, protesters targeted Tesla over Elon Musk’s role in slashing the government, and company stocks fell 13% in the first three months of the year. Afterwards, Trump displayed Tesla vehicles on the White House’s south portico, which some critics likened to a car showroom. An ongoing boycott against Target after the company pulled back its diversity initiatives has led to stocks plummeting 33% with a $20bn loss in shareholder value.When Disney took the late-night host Jimmy Kimmel off the air over comments he made following the murder of Charlie Kirk in September, Nelini Stamp, director of strategy at the Working Families party, helped put together a toolkit that explained how to cancel a Disney subscription.The simple, instructive strategy was effective. The Wall Street Journal reported that customers ditched Disney+ and Hulu at double the normal rates in September. Even Disney’s most devout fans joined the cause, creating videos and songs that went viral on social media.Disney brought Kimmel back to the air within days. Economic non-cooperation “can go widespread”, Stamp said: “People can do it from their homes.”View image in fullscreenRegular people are also flexing their electoral power. Across all 50 states, more people have signed up with the progressive non-profit Run for Something since Trump won last year than they did in the entirety of his first term, said Amanda Litman, the organization’s co-founder. About 80% of those who have signed up are under age 40. Since some Senate Democrats sided with Republicans to end the shutdown, 1,200 more people have signed up, bringing the total since Trump’s 2024 win to nearly 75,000.Many of the people who sign up say they’re done waiting their turn, and they’re sick of the “same old people, literally and figuratively”, Litman said.“For us, it’s really making sure that the people who march understand that the next step is to run, that this is as much a part of the process as protesting, as boycotting, as being present,” she said.Where are elected Democrats?This swell of grassroots energy comes as many Democrats in Washington are wavering.When Democratic members of Congress shut down the government to force the Republicans in control to extend subsidies for healthcare in October, many people were surprised. Elected Democrats in Washington had struggled all year to stand up to Trump, given Republicans’ grip on Congress and the White House.But it ended in a way many on the left feared: with some of them voting with Republicans, gaining minimal assurances that their priorities would even be discussed. Some elected Democrats and many activist groups now want Democratic leaders to step down, saying they squandered a rare opportunity.“This shit is why people don’t trust the Democratic Party,” Litman wrote on Bluesky.When activists and leaders of progressive organizations were asked how elected Democrats were doing, they said it depended on which Democrat. While some defected in the shutdown fight, some have launched their own tours to rally the left – like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Some show up at immigration detention facilities, seeking to provide oversight of their constituents.Piker, the commentator, said the Maryland senator Chris Van Hollen showed the power of leading by example when he traveled to El Salvador to advocate for his constituent Kilmar Ábrego García, who had been erroneously deported to a prison there. Members of Congress can command media attention and shift focus in the direction of change, Piker said.View image in fullscreen“I think the accelerant in this process was an elected representative coming out, making a big fuss about a very consequential injustice that was taking place, and then even put himself, his body, on the line to a certain degree,” Piker said.State and local Democrats are notching more tangible wins. A central feature for the resistance has become beating Trump in the courts as he continues to test the judicial system. Twenty-three Democratic state attorneys general are taking up this fight, meeting regularly to strategize on which lawsuits to file and sharing resources on dozens of lawsuits that have stalled or stopped Trump’s overreach, Arizona’s attorney general, Kris Mayes, said. One case went before the US supreme court this month, with the attorneys general arguing that Trump didn’t have the power to impose tariffs. The justices seemed skeptical of Trump’s arguments.Mayes has signed on to 30 lawsuits with her colleagues in other states, estimating that the value of the lawsuits is $1.5bn saved for Arizona, including funding for Meals on Wheels, Head Start and drug-trafficking prevention. Of the suits she’s joined, 80% have won a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction. In many instances, the Trump administration then has given up the fight, she said.“We feel as though we are a bridge to the future to get us through what is going to someday be looked upon as one of the most dangerous times in American history,” Mayes said. “We feel like we’re a bridge to get us to the other side of this, which is really 2026 and 2028 ultimately.”Preparing for the long haulSo where does the fight go from here? Hahrie Han, a political scientist at Johns Hopkins University and a 2025 MacArthur fellow, warned that organizing thus far had mostly engaged like-minded people. The next step must include organizing in places where people may not agree. There’s also a need to supply more opportunities for people to get involved, and to help people learn to organize themselves for what their needs are, she said.“Even when you invite people out to engage in a kind of mass public activity, like a protest, the strategy around that protest is outsourced to professionals,” Han said. “So what we’re doing is essentially asking people to outsource their outrage, like give us your body, give us your name on this petition, give us your $5, and then let the professionals decide what they’re going to do with it. Which is different from situations where you invite people into communities of belonging and then ask them to strategize about their own solutions.”View image in fullscreenThe Kerstens, who run an Indivisible chapter in Florida, describe their membership as “in training”: learning how to best advocate for what they want to see, working on electoral goals, trying to provide ways to get involved.There’s also a need to channel energy into long-term action, experts say. Street protests can be fickle, Han said – they became a hallmark of political organizing in the late 2010s, but their energy can be prone to fading away.The Montgomery bus boycott, the legendary civil rights protest in which Black people refrained from using city buses in Montgomery, Alabama, to protest against segregation, lasted more than a year. Some campaigns take time to achieve results, and they require extensive infrastructure and mass participation.Winning within a few days, like with the Disney boycott, is not the norm, Stamp, of the Working Families party, noted. “It shouldn’t just be the goal, like, we got to win this week,” she said. “Some of these things are a marathon, not a sprint, and we always have to remember that.” More

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      Trump news at a glance: president says Democrats should be arrested for ‘seditious behavior’, drawing outrage

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      Donald Trump called for the arrest of a group of Democratic lawmakers he accused of engaging in “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH”.The president’s remarks, issued on his Truth Social platform on Thursday morning, came after the legislators posted a video in which they told active service members they should refuse illegal orders.In another post, he wrote: “This is really bad, and Dangerous to our Country. Their words cannot be allowed to stand. SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR FROM TRAITORS!!! LOCK THEM UP??? President DJT.” In a third post, he added: “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” He also reposted a statement that said: “HANG THEM GEORGE WASHINGTON WOULD!!”Following Trump’s statements on Thursday, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, Democratic whip Katherine Clark and Democratic caucus chair Pete Aguilar released a joint statement condemning the remarks.“Donald Trump must immediately delete these unhinged social media posts and recant his violent rhetoric before he gets someone killed,” the statement added.The White House walked back the president’s comments later Thursday, saying Trump does not want to see Democratic members of Congress executed.Democrats condemn Trump for saying they should be punished ‘by death’“Political violence has no place in America,” Democratic leaders wrote in a statement following Trump’s posts on Truth Social. “Representatives Jason Crow, Chris DeLuzio, Maggie Goodlander and Chrissy Houlahan and Senators Mark Kelly and Elissa Slotkin all served our country with tremendous patriotism and distinction. We unequivocally condemn Donald Trump’s disgusting and dangerous death threats against members of Congress, and call on House Republicans to forcefully do the same.”The Democratic leaders also said that they had been in contact with the House sergeant at arms and the United States Capitol police “to ensure the safety of these members and their families”.Read the full storyZelenskyy to negotiate with Trump over US-Russia peace dealUkrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he will negotiate with Donald Trump on a US-backed peace plan that called on Kyiv to make painful concessions in order to end the Kremlin’s invasion of his country.Zelenskyy’s office on Thursday confirmed that he had received the draft peace plan, which was prepared by US and Russian officials, and that he would speak with Trump in the coming days about “existing diplomatic opportunities and the main points that are necessary for peace”.“We agreed to work on the points of the plan so that it would bring a worthy end to the war,” Zelenskyy’s office said in a statement.Read the full storyDrill, baby, drill (off California and Florida)The Trump administration on Thursday announced new oil and gas drilling off California’s and Florida’s coasts, setting the stage for a political showdown – including with Sunshine state Republicans who have largely opposed petroleum development in the Gulf of Mexico.This announcement comes as the US petroleum industry, despite contending with low crude prices, has been pushing for an entree to additional offshore drilling areas.Read the full storyCDC website now reflects RFK Jr’s belief in link between vaccines and autismA Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website has been changed to reflect the belief of Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health and human services secretary, that there is a link between vaccines and autism, a view flatly contradicted by experts and scientifically validated studies.Public health and autism specialists roundly condemned the alteration to the CDC’s “vaccine safety” webpage, after it was changed to read: “The statement ‘Vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim.”Read the full storyJudge halts Trump’s deployment of national guard to Washington DCUS district judge Jia Cobb, an appointee of former president Joe Biden, temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deploying national guard troops to enforce the law in the nation’s capital without approval from its mayor.Cobb paused her ruling until 11 December to allow the Trump administration to appeal.Read the full storyJustice department investigates handling of Adam Schiff’s mortgage fraud caseThe justice department is investigating how two Trump allies handled the investigation into whether California senator, Adam Schiff, committed mortgage fraud, according to a copy of a subpoena obtained by the Guardian and a person familiar with the matter.The office of the deputy attorney general Todd Blanche is overseeing the inquiry, which appears to have developed as an offshoot of the main case into Schiff – a notable development since the justice department is essentially investigating activities of two close allies of the president.Read the full storyTrump officials reveal plan to roll back Endangered Species Act protectionsThe Trump administration presented a new plan to roll back regulations in the Endangered Species Act (ESA), a move experts fear will accelerate the extinction crisis if adopted.The proposedchanges would allow the federal government more power to weigh economic impact against habitat designations, remove safeguards against future events – including the impacts from the climate crisis – and rescind the “blanket rule” that automatically grants threatened species the same protections as those designated as endangered.Read the full storyRepublicans warn Bondi: don’t bury the Epstein filesThe passage of the the Epstein Files Transparency Act marked a rare moment of bipartisan support in an otherwise ideologically fractured Congress as it now sets a 30-day deadline for the release of Department of Justice files related to the actions of convicted sex offender of minors and financier Jeffrey Epstein.“People who feel very strongly about this will feel like they’ve been duped” if the justice department claims “we can’t release anything because of an active investigation,” said Republican senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.Read the full storyElizabeth Warren calls for inquiry into Trump’s ballroom fundingThe US senator from Massachusetts said that the next independent Department of Justice “should investigate” the private donations that have funded the construction of the new White House ballroom.Warren – who is the top Democrat on the Senate banking committee – told the Guardian in a statement that the ballroom could be “a golden crime scene” and urged the next administration to “follow the money” to uncover “whether any crimes were committed” in its financing.Read the full storyDonald Trump and JD Vance snubbed for Dick Cheney’s funeralThe president and vice-president were not invited to former vice-president Dick Cheney’s funeral, which took place on Thursday, according to a White House official familiar with the matter.Cheney, the former US vice-president to George W Bush and a Republican defense hawk who became a fierce critic of the current US president, died earlier this month at the age of 84.Read the full storyWhat else happened today:

      Fears of a growing bubble around the artificial intelligence frenzy resurfaced on Thursday as leading US stock markets fell, less than 24 hours after strong results from chipmaker Nvidia sparked a rally.

      Connie Chan, a progressive lawmaker who serves on the San Francisco board of supervisors, has entered the race to succeed the former US House speaker Nancy Pelosi next year.

      Mahmoud Khalil, the Palestinian activist who participated in protests at Columbia University and was detained by Ice earlier this year, has filed a lawsuit demanding the Trump administration release its communications with anti-Palestinian groups he says contributed to his March arrest and efforts to detain him.

      The White House issued a full-throated defense of Donald Trump’s reference to a Bloomberg News correspondent as a “piggy” on Thursday, claiming without evidence that the president “calls out fake news when he sees it and gets frustrated with reporters who spread false information”.

      Democratic congressman Ro Khanna has a warning for anyone in the Trump administration who would impede Epstein files release: comply or face the consequences.

      “President Trump is the biggest con job in American history,” Nancy Pelosi, the US speaker emerita, told reporters on Thursday while criticizing his anti-climate agenda. That follows Trump telling the UN general assembly in September that the climate crisis was “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world”.

      The White House under Gerald Ford tried to block a landmark Senate report that disclosed the CIA’s role in assassination attempts against foreign leaders and ultimately led to a radical overhaul in how the agency was held to account, documents released to mark the 50th anniversary of the report’s publication reveal.
      Catching up? Here’s what happened Wednesday, 19 November. More