House Democrats on Friday sent a letter to the attorneys representing the estate of Jeffrey Epstein requesting a copy of the so-called “birthday book” that reportedly contains a crude poem and doodle from Donald Trump in celebration of the late sex offender’s 50th birthday.

In the letter, California congressmen Ro Khanna and Robert Garcia say the contents of the book may be “essential” to congressional oversight of the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein controversy. In the letter, they ask for a “complete and unredacted” copy of the book by 10 August.

“The public deserves to know the truth and the survivors and their families deserve justice,” said Khanna, who criticized Congress for leaving Washington early without voting on his bipartisan bill to release the Epstein files.

Photographs and text by Julius Constantine Motal
Fri 25 Jul 2025 12.00 EDT

A brother is torn from his sister. A father arrives for his immigration hearing with his family, only to find that they will be leaving without him. A woman, seemingly relieved after emerging from her hearing, finds that her life is about to change when she is apprehended by federal officials waiting just outside the door.

These are just some of the moments that happened on a single day in the Jacob K Javits federal building at 26 Federal Plaza in New York City, the largest federal immigration courthouse in Manhattan.

Video from Kenny Laynez-Ambrosio, 18, puts fresh scrutiny on the harsh tactics used to reach the Trump administration’s ambitious enforcement targets

Clare Considine Fri 25 Jul 2025 13.19 EDT

Video footage of the incident captured by Laynez-Ambrosio... appears to show a group of officers in tactical gear working together to violently detain the three men*, two of whom are undocumented. They appear to use a stun gun on one man, put another in a chokehold and can be heard telling Laynez-Ambrosio: “You’ve got no rights here. You’re a migo, brother.” Afterward, agents can be heard bragging and making light of the arrests, calling the stun gun use “funny” and quipping: “You can smell that … $30,000 bonus.”

• Invidious
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• Wall Street Journal: Justice Department Told Trump in May That His Name Is Among Many in the Epstein Files

"they discovered that Donald Trump's name appeared multiple times, according to senior administration officials."

Attorney General Pam Bondi and her deputy during a routine briefing in May informed Trump that he was in the Epstein files. While it's currently unknown why his name is in the files, it is highly suspicious that his name does in fact appear multiple times in the Epstein files.

New photos and video footage unearthing close relations between Trump and Epstein has Trump frustrated with CNN.

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Despite the fact that Trump’s fearmongering was his typical hyperbole, more than 10,000 troops are deploying or have deployed to the southern border, according to U.S. Northern Command, or NORTHCOM, which oversees U.S. military activity from Mexico’s southern border up to the North Pole.

Under the direction of NORTHCOM, military personnel — including soldiers from the Fourth Infantry Division at Fort Carson in Colorado, one of the Army’s most storied combat units — have deployed under the moniker Joint Task Force-Southern Border, or JTF-SB, since March, bolstering approximately 2,500 service members who were already supporting U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s border security mission.

One-third of the U.S. border is now completely militarized due to the creation of four new national defense areas, or NDAs: sprawling extensions of U.S. military bases patrolled by troops who can detain immigrants until they can be handed over to Border Patrol agents.

(Left) Powerlines above the Columbia River move electricity from the Bonneville Dam to customers across the region in Hood River County, Oregon, on Thursday, July 25, 2024. (Right) Portrait of Farley Eaglespeaker, a member of the Nez Perce Tribe, sitting atop a fishing scaffold along the Columbia River, in Cascade Locks, Oregon on Tuesday, July 23, 2024. (Jordan Gale/Oregon Capital Chronicle)

It is a common phrase in treaties between the U.S. government and Indigenous American tribes: “Each tribe or band shall have the right to possess, occupy and use the reserve allotted to it, as long as the grass shall grow and the waters run, and the reserves shall be their own property like their horses and cattle.”

But as Angie Debo pointed out in her 1940 book “And Still the Waters Run,” grass still grows, waters still run and all the treaties have been broken by the federal government for mining, grazing, land for settlers and other reasons. Tribes are protected people under federal law even though they are sovereign nations within the United States.

Now, the Trump administration continues that federal tradition by breaking yet another treaty, this one between the feds, four Indigenous tribes and the states of Washington and Oregon. The 2023 agreement to restore fish runs is being revoked so corporations can generate electricity in the Columbia Basin. Prior to the agreement, salmon, steelhead and other native fish were being killed by hydroelectric dams along the Columbia River

For the Nez Perce Tribe, the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs this is not a minor inconvenience. Fishing – especially salmon – is a sacred right, a duty for the tribe to protect the fish which feeds the people. Removing the fish protections from the damns erases a major part of the tribe’s identity and culture.

A little understood aspect of the big, ugly bill could cause devastating problems for seniors and others.

Norman J. Ornstein
July 16, 2025

PAYGO is not a term that crosses many lips in daily discourse. But it may soon be used more widely, as its impact resonates in the aftermath of the passage of the so-called One Big Beautiful Act. While the enormous and damaging cuts in Medicaid have dominated discussion since the bill was enacted—cuts that will take millions of Americans off of health insurance, force the closure of many rural hospitals and nursing homes, and likely put enormous increased pressure on emergency rooms across the country—another shoe is soon to drop. And that is major cuts in its sister program, Medicare.

By Ayah El-Khaldi
Published date: 14 July 2025 17:06 BST

One of the most widely circulated Reddit posts under the subreddit "Israel" encapsulated the concern from pro-Israel audiences:

“Have you all seen the new Superman movie? I find it so disrespectful and distressing that a superhero created by two Jewish artists is now being used to promote anti-Israeli messages to the world… I can't understand how this was green-lit at a time like this with global antisemitism on a rise... Of course, the invaders are portrayed as white while the victims are predominantly brown. And of course, if Israel speaks out against the film, it would be seen as 'well, if the shoe fits.'"

Users responding on Twitter wrote: “It’s so funny that they instantly recognize that the movie is about Israel’s genocide in Gaza without being told and yet still have the temerity to get offended and express their indignation in public. It’s like how come you know the evil murderous villains are Israel, guys?”

Paywall bypass: https://archive.today/CqMkl

Multiple federal law enforcement officials who spoke to Rolling Stone on the condition of anonymity say that Jeffrey Epstein hired private investigators to follow, intimidate, and surveil FBI special agents investigating allegations that he paid underage women for sex. The FBI declined Rolling Stone’s request for comment.

These new allegations about the pressure exerted on the FBI come after internal divisions in Donald Trump’s administration exploded into public view last week over its handling of files and information pertaining to the disgraced financier and accused sex trafficker.

Reports across several media outlets describe a tense meeting between deputy FBI director Dan Bongino, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and other officials. According to reports, that meeting ended with Bongino storming out. Bongino is now reportedly considering resigning from his post at the FBI.

Natasha Lennard
July 12 2025, 7:12 pm

"ICE agents detained over 200 people in militarized raids on two large farms in Carpinteria and Camarillo, including a number of US citizen workers and protesters who gathered outside the facilities in response to the raids. As of Saturday morning, at least two of the abducted citizens were still reported missing by loved ones and colleagues.

“Many workers-including US citizens, were held by federal authorities at the farm for 8 hours or more,” the United Farm Workers union said in a statement. “US citizen workers report only being released after they were forced to delete photos and videos of the raid from their phones.”"

Pro-Palestinian student protest leader Mahmoud Khalil on Thursday began the process of suing U.S. President Donald Trump's administration for $20 million in damages for the harm he suffered as a result of the government's "politically motivated plan to unlawfully arrest, detain, and deport" him.

"This is the first step towards accountability," Khalil said in a statement. "Nothing can restore the 104 days stolen from me. The trauma, the separation from my wife, the birth of my first child that I was forced to miss. But let's be clear, the same government that targeted me for speaking out is using taxpayer dollars to fund Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza."

"There must be accountability for political retaliation and abuse of power," he asserted. "And I won't stop here. I will continue to pursue justice against everyone who contributed to my unlawful detention or spread lies in an attempt to destroy my reputation, including those affiliated with Columbia University. I'm holding the U.S. government accountable not just for myself, but for everyone they try to silence through fear, exile, or detention."

Jonah Valdez
July 7 2025, 6:00 a.m.

"Agents have aimed firearms and sprayed chemical irritants at onlookers and protesters. They have launched tear gas and flash bang grenades into crowds. They have beaten the people they detain, struck them with batons, and restrained them face down in a prone position, pressing them into the pavement and restricting their abilities to breathe.

Agents often deployed these violent tactics against the targets of immigration raids — people they presumed to be undocumented immigrants. In the majority of cases reviewed for this story, federal agents used force against U.S. citizens who were attempting to document raids or intervene by putting their bodies between the agents and their neighbors. "

Last week, Miami’s city commission told those voters they’ll have to wait an extra year. In a 3-2 vote, the commission changed the city’s election bylaws to push the municipal races back to 2026.

Commissioners said they made the change in the name of cost savings and increased voter engagement when higher-profile races for Congress or the presidency may be on the ballot. But they gave themselves an extra year in office without asking voters for permission first.

The Trump administration said it deported a group of eight men convicted of serious crimes in the United States to the conflict-ridden African country of South Sudan, following a weeks-long legal saga that had kept the deportees in a military base in Djibouti for weeks.

Assistant Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the deportation flight carrying the deportees landed in South Sudan just before midnight EST on Friday. A photo provided by the department showed the deportees, with their hands and feet shackled, sitting inside an aircraft, guarded by U.S. service members.

Archived copies of the article

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Mr. Mamdani’s victory upended city politics and reverberated nationally. He relied on a memorable message, charisma and a strong ground game.

By Nicholas Fandos, Benjamin Oreskes, Emma G. Fitzsimmons and Jeffery C. Mays
July 1, 2025 Updated 3:58 p.m. ET

"Where Mr. Cuomo lectured from a distance, Mr. Mamdani took his campaign to the streets and asked questions. When other #progressives traded 10-point plans, Mr. Mamdani offered simple, concrete ideas for a city buckling under spiraling costs: free buses, child care and a rent freeze. He may have been outspent on TV and dismissed by newspaper editorial boards, but he turned his candidacy into something closer to a movement that jumped from social media to an army of volunteers."

https://archive.ph/vIw7u

Jessica Corbett
Jun 28, 2025

"As the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) works to deliver on Republican President Donald Trump's promise of mass deportations, federal agents, including those with ICE, have taken immigrants into custody while wearing masks and plain clothes—sparking alarm over abuse by anonymous agents and also copycat criminals.

Velázquez's bill would bar ICE agents from wearing facial coverings during immigration enforcement, unless medically necessary or required for safety. It would also require written justification for any mask use, agents to wear clothing displaying their name and affiliation with ICE, and DHS to report annually to Congress on any related complaints and disciplinary actions."