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Category: Politics

Trump employs authoritarian icons as his image glowers down from federal buildings

Trump employs authoritarian icons as his image glowers down from federal buildings

Philip Kennicott writes: Most of the buildings in the Depression-era Federal Triangle development have an irregular geometry. The Federal Trade Commission office, known as the Apex Building, is a right-angled triangle with its sharpest point rounded off. The Ronald Reagan Building, added in 1998, looks a bit like a stumpy meat cleaver. And the Justice Department building, named for the slain senator, former attorney general and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, is a four-sided polygon with corners beveled flat. It…

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U.S. plans online portal allowing hate speech and terrorist propaganda to be spread across Europe

U.S. plans online portal allowing hate speech and terrorist propaganda to be spread across Europe

Reuters reports: The U.S. State Department is developing an online portal that will enable people in Europe and elsewhere to see content banned by their governments including alleged hate speech and terrorist propaganda, a move Washington views as a way to counter censorship, three sources familiar with the plan said. The site will be hosted at “freedom.gov,” the sources said. One source said officials had discussed including a virtual private network function to make a user’s traffic appear to originate…

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After prior attempt to enter U.S. illegally, convicted far-right agitator from UK is welcomed in Washington

After prior attempt to enter U.S. illegally, convicted far-right agitator from UK is welcomed in Washington

First stop in the USA, meeting up with the legend that is @GenFlynn 🇬🇧 đŸ€đŸ» đŸ‡ș🇾 pic.twitter.com/Gf1Lw0EENs — Tommy Robinson 🇬🇧 (@TRobinsonNewEra) February 19, 2026 The i Paper reports: Tommy Robinson has travelled to America – despite a reported travel ban and tough border controls on travellers with criminal convictions. In a series of videos and posts on X, the far-right activist, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, said he had “landed in the United States of America” and that…

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RFK Jr. once led legal fight against Monsanto’s glyphosate. Now he supports Trump’s push to boost its production

RFK Jr. once led legal fight against Monsanto’s glyphosate. Now he supports Trump’s push to boost its production

The New York Times reports: President Trump issued an executive order late Wednesday aimed at spurring the domestic production of glyphosate, a widely used weedkiller that has figured in health lawsuits. The move immediately set off alarms among supporters of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement, and appeared to put Mr. Kennedy in an awkward position. Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Roundup, which has been the target of tens of thousands of lawsuits that…

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Outrage won’t rescue us from the Epstein abyss. Disclosure and accountability must

Outrage won’t rescue us from the Epstein abyss. Disclosure and accountability must

John Hiner writes: There is a force tearing at the fabric of America, and it has nothing to do with red or blue. More accurately, it is a void – a black hole of unaccountability surrounding the horrors of Jeffrey Epstein’s network of recruiters, groomers and abusers of children. You don’t need a political philosophy or a moral compass to know where to stand on this. The behavior was monstrous. Crimes were committed. Lives were shattered. And yet, in the…

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Allegations in Epstein files may amount to ‘crimes against humanity,’ UN experts say

Allegations in Epstein files may amount to ‘crimes against humanity,’ UN experts say

Reuters reports: Millions of files related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein suggest the existence of a “global criminal enterprise” that carried out acts meeting the legal threshold of crimes against humanity, according to a panel of independent experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council. The experts said crimes outlined in documents released by the U.S. Justice Department were committed against a backdrop of supremacist beliefs, racism, corruption and extreme misogyny. The crimes, they said, showed a…

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The price of admission to Epstein’s world: silence

The price of admission to Epstein’s world: silence

Lisa Miller reports: When Jeffrey Epstein said “massage” in the years after he got out of jail in 2009, what did his friends and associates think he meant? Epstein had been convicted in a Florida court of sex crimes with minors in 2008. His method, reported in The New York Times at the time, had been to recruit girls as young as 14 to his home and persuade them to undress and massage him. Then he would force them to…

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After my ICE arrest, I learned one crucial way to respond to trauma. We can all take part

After my ICE arrest, I learned one crucial way to respond to trauma. We can all take part

RĂŒmeysa ÖztĂŒrk writes: It started off as a normal Tuesday. On 25 March 2025 I reviewed applications from university students applying for a summer research position at my lab. I told friends I would bring pastries from Harvard Square for the Friday dinner we were planning. I finalized my schedule for an upcoming child development conference. I worked on my dissertation proposal. The day was busy but not unusual – until I left home after quickly dressing for an iftar…

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DHS opens a billion-dollar purchasing agreement with Palantir

DHS opens a billion-dollar purchasing agreement with Palantir

Wired reports: The Department of Homeland Security struck a $1 billion purchasing agreement with Palantir last week, further reinforcing the software company’s role in the federal agency that oversees the nation’s immigration enforcement. According to contracting documents published last week, the blanket purchase agreement (BPA) awarded “is to provide Palantir commercial software licenses, maintenance, and implementation services department wide.” The agreement simplifies how DHS buys software from Palantir, allowing DHS agencies like Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and…

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How a CIA-trained Afghan commando brought America’s shadow war to Washington

How a CIA-trained Afghan commando brought America’s shadow war to Washington

Tam Hussein writes: On the eve of Thanksgiving last year, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan who had once served alongside U.S. Special Forces, drove across the United States and opened fire on two National Guard members posted near the White House, killing one and critically wounding another. Authorities described the attack as an ambush. Lakanwal himself was injured during the shootout and taken to hospital. He is now facing a first-degree murder charge with the death penalty on the cards….

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Trump moves much closer to a major war against Iran

Trump moves much closer to a major war against Iran

Axios reports: The Trump administration is closer to a major war in the Middle East than most Americans realize. It could begin very soon. Why it matters: A U.S. military operation in Iran would likely be a massive, weeks-long campaign that would look more like full-fledged war than last month’s pinpoint operation in Venezuela, sources say. The sources noted it would likely be a joint U.S.-Israeli campaign that’s much broader in scope — and more existential for the regime — than the Israeli-led…

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A third of Americans now identify or sympathize with Christian nationalism, survey finds

A third of Americans now identify or sympathize with Christian nationalism, survey finds

Axios reports: Christian nationalism is now deeply entrenched inside today’s Republican Party, according to a sweeping 50-state survey. Why it matters: The once-fringe ideology holds that the U.S. was founded as a Christian nation and should be governed according to strict Christian values, even as the country becomes less religious and more racially diverse. The divide reflects a broader clash over whether America’s future is pluralistic or rooted in a singular religious-national identity. By the numbers: About one-third of Americans qualify as Christian nationalism “adherents” or…

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Billionaires’ low taxes are becoming a problem for the economy

Billionaires’ low taxes are becoming a problem for the economy

In the Wall Street Journal, Carol Ryan writes: [D]ebate about how much tax billionaires pay is likely to grow as America’s fiscal situation deteriorates and its wealth gap widens. Data from the Federal Reserve shows that only the richest 1% of households have grown their share of overall U.S. wealth since 1990. Their share hit a record 32% in the third quarter of 2025, equivalent to $54.8 trillion. Gains made by the billionaire class, the very top 0.1% of households…

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Amid mass ICE arrests, Trump pardon recipient Juan Orlando HernĂĄndez treated like royalty

Amid mass ICE arrests, Trump pardon recipient Juan Orlando HernĂĄndez treated like royalty

By Keri Blakinger This story was originally published by ProPublica For months, President Donald Trump has railed against Latin American narcoterrorists flooding the United States with “lethal poison.” He has used the scourge of drug trafficking as a rationale for dozens of military strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean, which have left more than 140 people dead. Last month, Trump cheered a military assault by U.S. forces that captured Venezuelan President NicolĂĄs Maduro and…

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The ‘most massive attack on free speech’ is happening right now, and the Twitter Files crew is mighty quiet

The ‘most massive attack on free speech’ is happening right now, and the Twitter Files crew is mighty quiet

Mike Masnick writes: For the last five years, we had to endure an endless, breathless parade of hyperbole regarding the so-called “censorship industrial complex.” We were told, repeatedly and at high volume, that the Biden administration flagging content for review by social media companies constituted a tyrannical overthrow of the First Amendment. In the Missouri v. Biden (later Murthy v. Missouri) case, Judge Terry Doughty—in a ruling that seemed to consist entirely of Twitter threads pasted into a judicial ruling—declared…

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Hassett says Fed staff should be ‘disciplined’ for revealing how much Trump’s tariffs cost Americans

Hassett says Fed staff should be ‘disciplined’ for revealing how much Trump’s tariffs cost Americans

Politico reports: White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett on Wednesday said staffers at the New York Federal Reserve should be punished for producing research that found most of President Donald Trump’s tariffs are being paid by U.S. firms and consumers. Hassett on CNBC called the paper, co-authored by four people including the New York Fed’s head of labor and product markets, “an embarrassment” and “the worst paper I’ve ever seen in the history of the Federal Reserve System.” “The people…

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