US politics

US politics

The United States will focus on exerting economic rather than military pressure on Venezuela over the next two months as it continues to pursue sanctioned Venezuelan oil, according to a Reuters news agency report citing an unnamed US official. The White House has ordered the military to focus almost exclusively on enforcing a quarantine' of Venezuelan oil, the Reuters report said, even as the US continues to apply military pressure in the region.

US deputy secretary of state Christopher Landau spoke to Palau president Surangel Whipps in a call on Tuesday about transferring third-country nationals to Palau, the two sides said in separate statements, after Palau's lawmakers rejected a previous request from Washington on the matter earlier this year. President Donald Trump's immigration policies, including his administration's deportation drive, have been broadly condemned by human rights advocates over concerns about due process.

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

The bill, sponsored by Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Rep. Maria Salazar (R-FL), sought to speed up the removal of troubling online content: non-consensual intimate imagery (NCII). The spread of NCII is a serious problem, as is digitally altered NCII, sometimes called "deepfakes." That's why 48 states have specific laws criminalizing the distribution of NCII, in addition to the long-existing defamation, harassment, and extortion

A federal judge said the Trump administration can move ahead with a $100,000 fee on new H-1B visa applications, providing a setback for US technology companies that rely on hiring skilled foreign workers. US District Judge Beryl Howell said in a ruling Tuesday that President Donald Trump's effort to radically increase the cost of the popular visa is lawful. The decision gives a boost to the administration's campaign to restrict immigration and push demand for US workers.

Homicides in America decreased by 19.8% this year, according to crime analyst Jeff Asher. He wrote on Substack on Monday that his research is based primarily on the Real-Time Crime Index, which collects monthly crime data from 570 law enforcement agencies nationwide. Asher said 2025 will be the third straight year murders have dropped at a record pace, after there was a 15% decline in homicides in 2024.

PG&E and Alameda County Fire officials say more investigation is needed to determine if residents should have been told to leave. The fact that a house blew up and people were injured means they absolutely should have been told. These spokespeople mean "did we follow our flawed process that said no need to notify despite the risk, or did we not follow our good enough process that should have notified people?" As such, they completely lose track of their real responsibility, our safety.

"Sabre, who goes by Bottleneckloser on Instagram, recently posted side-by-side photos of herself on X depicting her pre- and post-transition. "God I love estrogen," she wrote. Almost three weeks later, Mace shared the post to her official X account and wrote, "Estrogen doesn't love you." She also shared the post on her personal X account and wrote, "Can we get @RobertKennedyJr on this? NO way is this healthy."

The Takings Clause is a part of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, and it says that if the government wants to take away someone's private property, they have to do it in a way that's fair. Most of us grew up hearing adults say that life isn't fair. And they're right-it isn't. Neither is an authority forcing you to give up your property for whatever they think is fair.

I'm losing everything.

Every year around this time, the noise starts to drop. The pace eases a bit. Families gather, neighbors reconnect, and people who disagree on just about everything still manage to pass plates across the same table. Something about late November into December nudges us toward reflection. Whatever you call it holiday spirit, cultural memory, or just a pause in the chaos it's real. And in a country this divided, it might be the reminder we need most.

Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said on Tuesday that guard members, as they have in other deployments in large cities, will be tasked with supporting federal law enforcement partners, including the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security. Parnell added that the national guard troops will be deployed through February. Louisiana's governor, Jeff Landry, a Republican, praised Donald Trump and the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, for coordinating the deployment and predicted the guard's presence would have a positive impact.

In anticipation of the Trump administration's major cuts to Medicaid, the Alameda Health System, which runs public hospitals and clinics throughout the East Bay, is planning to lay off nearly 300 people in January. "I think they're bowing to pressures before those pressures have actually come into play," Reilly Gardine, a clinical dietitian at Wilma Chan Highland Hospital Campus in Oakland, told KQED on Monday. "And I think they're not being creative enough in figuring out alternative ways for funding."

"In my last job, around this time of year, I would often hold a press conference to remind passengers of their rights and to remind airlines that we would be enforcing those rights," he said, explaining that those rights have been somewhat diminished in the past year because of the new presidential administration. "But you still have rights, including the right to an automatic refund that we fought to get enshrined into law," he continued, referring to how the Biden administration was able to make rules that require airlines to issue automatic refunds for significantly delayed or canceled flights.

Not so long ago, when the FBI raided Donald Trump's 126-room Palm Beach mansion and found scores of classified documents, the notion that the disgraced former president would return to the Oval Office seemed far-fetched to just about anyone paying attention. Just over three years later, Trump is president, and the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida is investigating the raid for being part of what the president's allies have branded a "grand conspiracy" against Trump.

At an inauguration-related event for President Donald Trump, Elon Musk throws a straight-armed gesture largely interpreted as a Nazi salute. In follow-up comments, Musk failed to put the controversy to rest by deriding critics and neglecting to issue an apology, leaving his intent ambiguous. Silicon Valley ❤️ MAGA Facebook decides to dispense with third-party fact checkers. Instead, it will rely completely on "Community Notes" to identify and contextualize misinformation.

The year is 2029. President Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, having spent years raging against Fox News as a propaganda organ whose very operation is illegal, has found a pressure point to control it. She enables its sale to owners who are friends of hers, and whose business depends on regulatory favors she has made a practice of doling out to allies. As the new editor in chief of Fox News, the owners install Tim Miller, a skeptic of conservatism who has never previously worked in television news.

The House of Representatives cleared the way for a massive overhaul of the federal environmental review process last Thursday, despite last-minute changes that led clean energy groups and moderate Democrats to pull their support. The Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic Development Act, or SPEED Act, overcame opposition from environmentalists and many Democrats who oppose the bill's sweeping changes to a bedrock environmental law.

I had so many obligations at that time that I couldn't quit the mines,

Axios has learned the White House has begun managing the DOJ's account on X, Axios reported in its Christmas Eve morning newsletter. The account is taking a sharper tone with a more rapid-response campaign edge. It's unclear when the White House first took over the account, but a post by the Department of Justice announcing the latest Epstein files' release on Tuesday was quick to absolve the president of any wrongdoing.