US politics

US politics

Minnesota, we've been through a lot,

No longer confined to the partisans and activists, the fierce backlash against Donald Trump's immigration crackdown has begun to break out across American culture, spanning the worlds of business, sports and entertainment.Bruce Springsteen released a new song Wednesday that slammed "Trump's federal thugs." OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman told employees that "what's happening with ICE is going too far," referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Either Director Gabbard believes there was a legitimate foreign intelligence nexus in which case she is in clear violation of her obligation under the law to keep the intelligence committees fully and currently informed' of relevant national security concerns or she is once again demonstrating her utter lack of fitness for the office that she holds by injecting the nonpartisan intelligence community she is supposed to be leading into a domestic political stunt designed to legitimize conspiracy theories that undermine our democracy.

We've had political assassinations. We had a multi-fatality school shooting, and now the largest immigration crackdown in American history has all happened in Minneapolis in the last eight months,

As far as the agitators, that said, I want to reiterate and make very clearI want to make it clear. ICE and CBP officers are performing their duties in a challenging environment under tremendous circumstances, but they're trying to do with professionalism. If they don't, they'll be dealt with. Like any other federal agency, we have standards of conduct. There are sworn law enforcement officers working tirelessly to enforce our countries border security, immigration laws, protecting the interests of our country.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem appeared before a bank of television cameras in Washington, D.C., on Saturday night to blame the man who had been shot to death by federal agents in Minneapolis that morning for his own death, claiming without evidence that he had intended "to kill law enforcement" and had been "brandishing" a weapon. Behind her stood the commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, Rodney Scott, sending a silent message of unity.

Hundreds of preventable fatalities and more than 13 million metric tons of climate pollution would be avoided by 2045 if Congress passed legislation that answered advocates' long- time demand to require state DOTs to set declining annual fatality targets - and reallocate highway money to safety projects if they don't meet those goals, according to a new analysis from Evergreen Action.

Warren writes that she is worried OpenAI "has committed to more than a trillion dollars in spending despite not yet turning a profit" and "appears to be seeking government assistance should it prove unable to pay its bills."

BREAKINGBREAKING, Tom Homan, Trump's Border Czar, has been speaking from Minnesota, where he was sent to replace in wake of two killings of US citizens by immigration enforcement officers. Homan was sent by Trump to replace Greg Bovino, the top border patrol official sent to the state as part of a massive enforcement operation that has sparked widespread protests.

The Senate is expected to vote today on a $1.6 trillion six-bill package to fund the government. But Democrats say they will block the funding package, which includes money for the Department of Homeland Security, until there are major reforms to how immigration agents operate in the U.S. Without a deal, a partial government shutdown begins at the end of the day tomorrow.

The violent federal occupation of Minneapolis - and the subsequent killings of two residents at the hands of immigration agents - began with a vlog. Nick Shirley, a roving 23-year-old with a smartphone and a taste for outrage, made a YouTube video with unfounded allegations of fraud at daycares operated by the local Somali American community. Like so much partisan media in history, he was trying to rile up the right-wing base. But he was also playing to another audience: the algorithm.

Now, in a letter sent to the Department of Justice (DOJ), representatives for the USIP's fired board and employees argue that the administration is violating a court-issued stay by making physical changes to the building and, to their understanding, moving ahead with new agreements. Specifically, the letter asks for information on whether the State Department has signed an agreement to use the building for the "Board of Peace," a new international organization under the personal lifetime control of President Donald Trump that seeks to oversee the reconstruction of Gaza.

The DOE issued a Request for Information (RFI) on Wednesday, seeking responses from states that may be interested in hosting the campuses, which will operate a "full‑cycle nuclear ecosystem." In practice, this means these sites will be expected to provide facilities for atomic waste reprocessing and disposal, in addition to fuel fabrication and enrichment. They may also serve as locations for nuclear reactors and co‑located datacenters powered by them.

Now that he's president again, Trump is pushing the federal government to back up those bogus claims. On Wednesday, the FBI served a search warrant at the election headquarters of Fulton County, Georgia, which includes most of Atlanta, seeking ballots from the 2020 election. That follows Trump's comments earlier this month when he suggested during a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that charges related to the election were imminent.

Following the second shooting death of a Minneapolis citizen by federal immigration officers, Bovino was taken out of Minnesota and reassigned to his old Customs and Border Protection position as chief patrol agent in El Centro, California. The Atlantic's Nick Miroff reported earlier this week that Bovino is essentially losing his job as he is expected to retire soon. That remains to be seen, but this much is true: He has effectively been erased from a leadership role in Trump's immigration crackdown.

There are very few scenarios where J.D. Vance is not the Republican nominee for president in 2028. Donald Trump has flirted with illegally running for a third term, but he will be, at the time of the next election, 82 years old. He is very unpopular. While seizing the Republican nomination for a fourth consecutive time is not out of the realm of possibility for a politician as brazen and corrupt as he is, it is, at this point, highly unlikely.

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.

But logistical consistency, like coherence and gravitas, does not characterize the new NDS. It is a document that supposedly nests within the National Security Strategy, explaining at greater length the implications of overall policy for the armed forces. The 2026 version does not do that. Rather, it restates some of the basic priorities of the Trump administration but for the most part confines itself to flattery of the president, insults, and bombast.