https://www.politico.com/news/2026/08/20/democrats-probes-trump-mineral-deals-01041695
Friday, August 21, 2026
Dems sharpen attack on post-midterm target: Trump’s mineral deals - POLITICO
The Trump administration has doled out billions for mining and critical mineral processing companies. Democrats are eager to win back Congress and turn up the oversight screws, investigating any ties to Trump family members...
Trump picks Dr. Heidi Overton as his FDA nominee : NPR
When Overton worked at the conservative America First Policy Institute, she wrote papers opposing gender-affirming care for minors. She also has questioned the safety of medication abortion and suggested the FDA was wrong to allow it to be prescribed via telehealth.
On Aug 10, President Trump issued a controversial executive order pushing to change the childhood vaccine schedule, and dredging up debunked theories linking vaccines to autism. Speaking at the press conference, Overton called Trump's order "a historic action."…
https://www.npr.org/2026/08/20/nx-s1-5939549/heidi-overton-fda-commissioner-trump-senate-nomination
‘Starve the beast’? The $40tn cost of Republicans’ false promises to cut spending
The enormous US debt under Trump will hobble the next Democratic administration – just as the GOP planned…
Republicans have never been punished politically for their dismal stewardship of the budget…
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/aug/20/us-national-debt-republicans
Man suffered brain injury and severe bruising after ICE arrest, records show
A man in Virginia was hospitalized with a brain injury and severe bruising all over his face after he was arrested by US immigration agents, according to his lawyers, who shared photos and medical records with the Guardian.
José Mejía Hernández, 45, was walking to a bus stop in Arlington on the morning of 11 August when two agents got out of an unmarked vehicle and started chasing him, according to one of his lawyers, Margaret Hellerstein. The man recalled being hit by some kind of stun gun, but did not remember what happened after that, only waking up hours later in the hospital, Hellerstein said...
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/20/ice-arrest-brain-injury-virginia
Firefighters sound alarm as US faces critical staffing shortage: ‘We don’t have enough people’
Firefighters describe being pushed to limit by a brutal wildfire season, with key leadership roles going unfilled…
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/19/us-firefighters-staffing-shortage
Invasive carp get closer to Lake Michigan as project to halt their spread is ordered to stop
… but the US Army Corp of Engineers ordered a stop work order without explanation...
Trump Ordered to Release Billions in Resilience Grants for Disadvantaged Communities – Mother Jones
The administration, which shed a quarter of its EPA workers, now says the agency lacks the money and staff to implement the grant program...
Trump plan to allow drilling near US world heritage site sparks alarm
Administration’s plan to scrap drilling-free buffer zone around New Mexico site prompts scrutiny from Unesco…
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/20/trump-oil-drilling-world-heritage-site-new-mexico
North Korea fires 10 missiles day after Trump curtails South Korea joint drills
Launches, detected by South Korea and Japan, came after US scaled back exercises with South Korea in apparent overture to Kim Jong-un…
Religious groups ask judge to consider contempt over undercover ICE operation - POLITICO
It’s the latest moment of tension between President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts and religious institutions. In addition to the potential violation of a court order, the alleged incursion on a house of worship cuts against the administration’s message that any infringement on religious freedom — such as the anti-ICE protest that disrupted services in Minnesota — would be met with severe criminal consequences...
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/08/20/immigration-enforcement-churches-contempt
Zuckerberg lied about concern for child safety, Meta whistleblower testifies
One of his motivations for first tackling the issue inside the company was seeing how his own teenage daughter was treated on Instagram. He said she received unwanted sexual advances and photos of male genitals as well as misogynistic insults. Later, she told her father that reporting these abuses through Instagram’s established processes was either ineffective or not possible.
Béjar said that he started conducting surveys of teen’s experiences on Instagram. He found that 51% of users said “yes” to having had bad or harmful experiences within the previous seven days. Of those users, the content was taken down only 0.02% of the time, according to his testimony...
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/aug/19/meta-safety-trial-whistleblower-testimony
Crypto bank part-owned by Trump family offers depositors way to ‘gain favor’ with White House, experts say
Democrats have called World Liberty Trust Company a stark example of corruption but officials claim there is no insider dealing…
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/20/crypto-bank-world-liberty-trust-company-trump
Census report on noncitizen voting has ties to Trump group : NPR
"This analysis is laughable. Census data cannot reliably be matched to voter data," David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation & Research, said in a text exchange with NPR. "That said, it's good to see the president admit these numbers are so small that they couldn't have changed the outcome in 2020."…
https://www.npr.org/2026/08/19/nx-s1-5938799/trump-census-bureau-noncitizen-voting
The Freedom Caucus is having a brutal primary run - POLITICO
“What Wyomingites were not and still are not is extremists,” Short told POLITICO, arguing that by pushing an “extremist agenda” in the state, the local Freedom Caucus tried to “usher in a national-driven agenda that really does not have a home in Wyoming.
And I think the voters of Wyoming responded resoundingly last night in saying, ‘not up in here.’”…
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/08/19/freedom-caucus-struggles-primaries-01042990
White House faces questions over security clearance for top Trump aide Natalie Harp
Norm Eisen, a former White House ethics tsar, said: “It is shocking that an aide who has potential exposure to the nation’s most sensitive secrets reportedly went without a security clearance for so long. Treating access to confidences as a casual job perk is an outrageous way to handle our national security.”…
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/20/natalie-harp-security-clearance
They escaped south-east Asia’s scam compounds. Then they realised they were still trapped
Emmanuel*, 27, from Liberia, is one of them. He traveled to Cambodia after being offered what he believed was a legitimate graphic design job. Instead, he says, he was driven to a compound in the jungle, his passport and phone were confiscated and he was ordered to defraud Americans and Europeans through online scams.
When he refused, he was threatened with the “dark room”, a punishment cell where workers were beaten and tortured. Armed guards surrounded the compound to prevent escape.
“There was no way out. I was cut off from the outside world,” he says. “I watched people being beaten so badly for not working.”…
The system meant to protect ICE detainees has collapsed
Detainees and their families tell NPR that in the very worst cases the absence of transparency and accountability, and the subsequent failure to adhere to mandated grievance guidelines, is one of the leading factors for the record number of deaths in detention — at least 53 since the start of President Trump's second term...
https://www.npr.org/2026/08/20/nx-s1-5850361/grievance-ice-detention-immigrants
Trump nominates abortion opponent Heidi Overton to be head of FDA
Overton has said that Congress should strictly regulate abortion drug mifepristone ‘to protect women and children’…
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/19/heidi-overton-fda-commissioner-nomination
US gross national debt tops $40tn for first time
Earlier on Wednesday, the US treasury announced it would double its buyback of government debt after the bond market balked at ongoing inflation and continued conflict between the US and Iran. Though the move doesn’t increase the debt, it highlights the growing struggle the US is having in attracting investors to help take on its debt...
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/19/us-debt-40-trillion
Website behind widely shared fake election polls run by 21-year-old
A 21-year-old recent college graduate was behind an anonymous website that put out widely shared fake election polling in Wisconsin, Nevada and California, the Guardian can reveal...
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/20/fake-polling-website-median-strategies
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Click Older Posts above to see more.