US politics

US politics

Kristi's doing a great job,

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. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground.

More than 50 million of the 340 million inhabitants of the United States were born abroad, according to annual data published by the US Census Bureau. About 25 million came from Latin America and the Caribbean. At more than 11 million, Mexicans are the largest group of Latin American migrants to the United States. With about 1.7 million migrants in the US, Cuba is a distant second, followed by El Salvador with 1.5 million.

I'm back on social media, I'm back in the fight, and i'm here to stay.For a quick update, 6 months ago I made the best decision of my life and married my best friend. @BellRittenhouse, I couldn't be happier. I love you beautiful.More big announcements coming soon... pic.twitter.com/7gjG3wwZgy- Kyle Rittenhouse (@rittenhouse2a) December 10, 2025

Now it's President Trump who's trying to persuade the public that the state of the economy is sound, after prices rose 3% in the 12 months ending in September and with consumers spending less on big-ticket items. Betsey Stevenson, a professor of economics at the University of Michigan, says making that argument could be a tall order in the face of rising costs for a number of goods and services.

Why the United States apparently seized a Venezuelan oil tanker. Trump, despite broaching the topic directly to media, elected not to answer who owned said tanker, or what the justification was for taking it, saying only "it was seized for a very good reason." When one reporter asked what would happen to the oil seized from said tanker, or the ship itself, Trump replied: "Well, we keep it, I guess," according to New York Times reporter Chris Cameron.

If Republicans are trying to do a solve,' what they should probably do is boost ACA subsidies for another couple years, but include a bunch of riders that transition it out and make room for larger HSAs. In other words, provide people some sort of glide path toward a new future, as opposed to a hard stop. Hard stops in American politics typically create massive political blowback, and 2026 looks like it's going to be pretty ugly for Republicans, anyway.

So we made a deal - and actually we talked to the secretary of state directly,

"Authoritarian" moves by Donald Trump's administration to ask travellers, including from Ireland, to hand over five years of social media history have been branded "a massive overreach" that would damage relations with the US.

Proposals in a consultation launched on Thursday could see GCSEs in smaller-entry subjects, including certain languages, and most A-level exams excluding maths moved onto screens by the end of the decade. Ofqual is asking for views on allowing each of the four exam boards to propose two new specifications for on-screen assessment, replacing traditional pen and paper.

"Our commitment to an enterprise rooted in respect and inclusion is appropriate and necessary," the board said. "The report requested by this proposal would not provide meaningful additional information."

If passed, the NDAA would repeal the 2019 Caesar Act, which sanctioned the Syrian government for war crimes during the country's 13-year-long civil war. It would also require the White House to issue frequent reports confirming that Syria's new government is combating Islamist fighters and upholding the rights of religious and ethnic minorities. Human rights advocates have welcomed the easing of heavy sanctions that the US and other Western countries imposed on Syria during the war.

As US military presence grows once again in Puerto Rico, old wounds resurface. The United States military is increasing its presence in Puerto Rico as the administration of US President Donald Trump prepares for a possible clash with Venezuela over alleged drug trafficking. Ten thousand troops, advanced jets, drones, and the USS Iwo Jima now sit on an island still scarred by decades of military pollution.

By the numbers: Two-thirds of Americans - including majorities of independents and many Republicans - support preserving the 14th Amendment's guarantee of citizenship to those born in the U.S., the survey found. Roughly 8 in 10 Black Protestants favor keeping birthright citizenship, and solid majorities of Hispanic Catholics and Hispanic Protestants support it as well. Even among Trump's most supportive religious constituency - white evangelical Protestants - 53% say the Constitution's guarantee should stand.

And it argued that when ICE assaults members of Congress it still must be treated as an assault on ICE unprotected by Speech and Debate. The Government respectfully asserts that any assault upon a federal officer should qualify as an act that is "clearly non-legislative" given that such an act is clearly an "illegitimate activity." And it would be clearly non-legislative whether the arrest that triggered the assault took place outside the Security Gate or inside of Delaney Hall.

Kamala Harris lost last year's US presidential election because she chased the wrong voters with the wrong message, ultimately demobilising the very base that she needed to win, according to an autopsy by a progressive grassroots advocacy group. The vice-president focused on courting moderate Republicans over motivating core Democratic working-class, young and progressive voters, a misstep compounded by her failure to break from Joe Biden on Gaza, says the report by RootsAction.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency-which handles services including citizenship applications, family immigration, adoptions, and work permits for non-citizens-started the contract with Palantir at the end of October, and is paying the data analytics company to implement "Phase 0" of a "vetting of wedding-based schemes," or "VOWS" platform, according to the federal contract, which was posted to the U.S. government website and reviewed by Fortune.

"We all know we're at the point where we must do something to correct the chronic health problems that Americans face," Rollins said. Twelve states previously adopted waiver terms. Mehmet Oz, who runs Medicare and Medicaid, said states that ban junk food will get extra funds. "As the six documents here that were signed by Secretary Rollins today would attest, there's a lot of interest in this, you get paid extra money."

His choice to employ rhetoric invoking violence, even for political grandstanding, carries real and dangerous consequences. Our foremost responsibility is to ensure that courthouse employees and every member of the public entering the Birch Building are safe and can access the justice system without fear of becoming casualties in what Mr. Ogles has described as a war' on elected officials.

The Trump administration is one of the most anti-labor administrations in modern U.S. history - it has attempted to decertify the union representation of more than 1 million federal employees. Trump has also fired key members of the National Labor Relations Board, thus rendering it largely non-functional. Moreover his administration has come out against rules requiring disabled workers all be paid at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, and it has blocked a Biden-era rule increasing the minimum wage for federal contractors.