https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0kd2d4gj08o
A judge in the US state of Wisconsin has been found guilty of obstruction for trying to help a Mexican man evade immigration officials during an arrest attempt.

Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan was arrested in April after ushering Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, a Mexican national facing misdemeanour battery charges, out of her courtroom through a side door.

An immigration judge had issued a warrant for his arrest.

Her conviction marks a win for the Trump administration and its supporters, who have sought to portray the judge's actions as indicative of a politicised justice system.

Dugan faces up to five years in prison for the obstruction charge, according to US media reports.

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Cambodia based Chinese scam gangs defraud Americans of billions but US won't sanction Cambodia... because Amerimutt retards think they can lure Cambodia to their side against China.

FYI Cambodia voted for China in every ASEAN resolution on the South China SEA.

American senior citizens had their entire retirement savings wiped out and the US refuses to sanction Cambodia which willingly hosts these gangs.

https://dw.com/en/how-the-battle-against-asian-scam-networks-went-global/a-75181724

>Even with the recent announcements of sanctions and criminal investigations, countries like South Korea and even the US appear reluctant to criticize the governments of China or Cambodia and instead target the criminals and their networks directly.

>According to Sims, as long as Phnom Penh performs just enough cooperation to preserve the illusion that it remains strategically "in play," Western capitals have proven reliably willing to tolerate industrial-scale scams targeting their own citizens.

>"Many governments hesitate to confront Cambodia directly because they still view it as a pivotal chess piece in a China-versus-the-West geopolitical game," he said.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgmneem1e89o

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says his government will crack down on hate speech following Sunday's deadly shooting at Bondi Beach that targeted a Jewish festival.

Fifteen people were killed when two gunmen opened fire at an event to mark the first day of Hanukkah.

New laws will target "those who spread hate, division and radicalisation", Albanese told reporters in Canberra.

The home affairs minister will also be given new powers to cancel or refuse visas for those who spread hate and a new taskforce will be set up to ensure the education system "prevents, tackles and properly responds to antisemitism".

The new laws will also include penalties for preachers and leaders who promote violence, a new federal offence of "aggravated hate speech", and the introduction of "hate" as an aggravating factor in sentencing crimes for online threats and harassment.

"Every Jewish Australian has the right to feel safe, valued and respected for the contribution that they make to our great nation," Albanese said.

"The terrorists, inspired by ISIS... sought to turn Australians against each other. Australians have responded to that act of hatred with love and sympathy for those in mourning."

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DOJ won’t meet Friday deadline to release all the Epstein files

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/12/19/epstein-documents-release-friday-deadline-00699935?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=dlvr.it

The Department of Justice will not be releasing all of its files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein by Friday’s deadline, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said Friday morning.

In an interview with Fox News, Blanche said the department would “release several hundred thousand documents today.”

But he acknowledged Friday’s release would not encompass all of the DOJ’s documents for the investigation into the late financier.

“I expect that we’re going to release more documents over the next couple of weeks, so today several hundred thousand and then over the next couple weeks, I expect several hundred thousand more,” Blanche said. “There’s a lot of eyes looking at these and we want to make sure that when we do produce the materials we are producing, that we are protecting every single victim.”

The delay means the White House is in apparent conflict with a law President Donald Trump signed in November that mandated the wholesale release of all of its non-exempt Epstein information within a 30-day period.

A spokesperson for the Department of Justice declined a request to expand on Blanche’s comments, saying they speak for themselves.

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> Thread theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpLQgT1BfL0

> https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/18/suspect-brown-university-shooting

> Brown University shooting suspect died from self-inflicted gunshot wound, officials say

A man suspected of killing two and wounding several others at Brown University has been found dead in a New Hampshire storage facility where he had rented a unit, officials said.

Claudio Neves Valente, 48, a Portuguese national and a former Brown student, was found dead on Thursday evening from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Oscar Perez, the Providence police chief, said at a news conference. Perez said as far as investigators know, the suspect acted alone.

Valente is also believed to have killed a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor at his Boston-area home, the AP said, citing a law enforcement official. Authorities have not formally confirmed a connection between the two shootings.

“He took his own life tonight,” Perez said at a press conference, where he identified Valente and described the chain of events that had led law enforcement to the storage facility.

Neronha said Valente was found dead with a bag, and two firearms, as well as evidence in the car “that matches exactly what we see at the scene here in Providence”.

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This unexpected news comes hours after the abrupt resignation of Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino

https://www.newsweek.com/house-republicans-call-early-christmas-break-before-epstein-files-release-11234307

Republicans in the House have brought their Christmas recess a day forward—before the Department of Justice (DOJ) is scheduled to release a tranche of documents related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

According to a floor update released by Democratic Whip Katherine Clark of Massachusetts, the House will hold its final votes on Thursday afternoon, a change from the GOP’s previously announced schedule which would have seen these taking place on Friday.

Under the guidelines of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, signed into law by President Donald Trump on November 19, Attorney General Pam Bondi had a 30-day deadline to make publicly available all unclassified materials related to Epstein.

Newsweek has contacted the DOJ through its website and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise's D.C. office by phone outside of regular hours for comment.

There is no evidence that the early recess stems from a desire to interfere with the release of the files, or an indication that the DOJ’s deadline could be affected by the altered schedule. However, many online commentators, as well as some Democratic lawmakers, have connected the decision with GOP leadership’s past reluctance to pursue full disclosure around the Epstein case.

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BREAKING: President and WEED HERO Trump the REPUBLICAN just reclassified MARIJUANA from Schedule I to Schedule III placing it alongside Tylenol with codeine, he did it before any democrat ever did despite them promising it for years to their stupid voter base.

“Marijuana can be legitimate in terms of medical applications when carefully administered.”

“Prescription painkillers have legitimate uses but also can do damage.”

“I promised to be the president of common sense. That’s exactly what I’m doing.”

He took a democrats forever promise away and actually did it.
Time to enjoy some Magajuana

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/12/18/politics/trump-marijuana-reclassification-executive-order

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https://usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/12/18/trump-kennedy-center-takeover-white-house/87829719007/
WASHINGTON ‒ The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington is now known as the the "Trump-Kennedy Center," according to the White House.
The Kennedy Center's board of directors voted unanimously on Dec. 18 to rename the national music and cultural institution after President Donald Trump, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

The board, which Trump chairs, is made up of members handpicked by the president. Yet an official name change appears to require action from Congress. A law passed in 1964, months after President John F. Kennedy's assassination, established the construction of "a building to be designated as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts." The law did not grant the board authority to change its name.

One month into his second term in office, Trump terminated the Kennedy Center's board and installed himself as the new chairman while tapping several political allies as new board members. Trump chose Ric Grenell, his envoy for special missions, as the center's president.

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https://www.npr.org/2025/12/19/g-s1-102967/eu-leaders-agree-on-ukraine-loan
European Union leaders agreed on Friday to provide a massive interest-free loan to Ukraine to meet its military and economic needs for the next two years, but they failed to bridge differences with Belgium that would have allowed them to use frozen Russian assets to raise the funds.

After almost four years of war, the International Monetary Fund estimates that Ukraine will need 137 billion euros ($161 billion) in 2026 and 2027. The government in Kyiv is on the verge of bankruptcy, and desperately needs the money by spring.

The plan had been to use some of the 210 billion euros ($246 billion) worth of Russian assets that are frozen in Europe, mostly in Belgium.

The leaders worked deep into Thursday night to reassure Belgium that they would protect it from any Russian retaliation if it backed the "reparations loan" plan but in the end the leaders did not use that option, but as the talks bogged down the leaders eventually opted to borrow the money on capital markets.

"We have a deal. Decision to provide 90 billion euros ($106 billion) of support to Ukraine for 2026-27 approved. We committed, we delivered," EU Council President António Costa said in a post on social media.

Not all countries agreed to the loan package. Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic refuse to support Ukraine and opposed it, but a deal was reached in which they did not block the package and were promised protection from any financial fallout.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/17/world/europe/finland-scandal-beauty-queen-china-racist.html
Finland’s prime minister apologized on Wednesday to China, South Korea and Japan in an effort to quash a growing racism scandal in the country.

Over the past few days, lawmakers in Finland’s most prominent anti-immigration party have posted pictures of themselves pulling back their eyelids, apparently in support of a Finnish beauty queen who was stripped of her crown last week for making a similar gesture.

“I sincerely apologize for recent offensive social media posts by individual members of Parliament, which do not reflect Finland’s values of equality and inclusion,” Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said in a Chinese-language statement posted on social media on Wednesday by the Finnish Embassy in China.

Finland’s embassies in South Korea and Japan shared similar statements on social media.

The controversy began this month when pictures surfaced on social media of Sarah Dzafce, Finland’s representative to the Miss Universe pageant, pulling her eyelids back at a slant, according to Helsingin Sanomat, Finland’s largest newspaper.
Ms. Dzafce apologized in an Instagram statement last week.

“One of the most important things for me is respect for people, their backgrounds and differences,” she said, adding, “I take responsibility for my actions and will learn from this.”

The Miss Finland Organization then stripped her of her title, saying in a statement that her comment was “offensive, harmful and completely against the values” of the pageant.

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https://www.ft.com/content/bee83769-fa41-4d18-9dc2-4a46130c72a8

Wall Street economists have warned that November’s US inflation report, which showed a sharp decline in price growth, was flawed because of missing data in the wake of the recent government shutdown.

US consumer prices rose 2.7 per cent in November from the same period the previous year, according to official data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The figure was well below expectations in a Bloomberg poll of 3.1 per cent and September’s rise of 3 per cent.

Core inflation, which strips out volatile food and energy prices, was 2.6 per cent, compared with expectations of 3 per cent.

The report comes after the recent government shutdown halted data collection for a six-week period, forcing the BLS to scrap its October release and estimate many prices rather than using observed data from surveys.

“You’ve got to take it with a grain of salt,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist at KPMG US.

She added: “Things that should be going up are going down and things that should be going down are going up. So it’s confusing and it doesn’t quite square with prices that we’ve observed.”


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https://apnews.com/article/jack-smith-congress-justice-department-d35557d525fcfe51a20d08c6abb7f71d

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith told lawmakers in a closed-door interview Wednesday that his team of investigators “developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt” that President Donald Trumphad criminally conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 election, according to portions of his opening statement obtained by The Associated Press.

Smith also said investigators had accrued “powerful evidence” Trump broke the law by hoarding classified documents from his first term as president at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, and by obstructing government efforts to recover the records.

“I made my decisions in the investigation without regard to President Trump’s political association, activities, beliefs, or candidacy in the 2024 election,” Smith said. “We took actions based on what the facts and the law required — the very lesson I learned early in my career as a prosecutor.”

He said that if asked whether he would “prosecute a former president based on the same facts today, I would do so regardless of whether the president was a Republican or Democrat.”

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Why come every time there's a terrorism, I assume the LGBT is invloved?

5th person arrested in NYE bombing plot is a ‘trantifa’ Marine vet out to ‘recreate Waco’ on ICE: complaint
https://nypost.com/2025/12/16/us-news/5th-arrest-made-in-turtle-island-liberation-front-nye-bombing-plot-idd-as-transgender-ex-marine/

The fifth person arrested over an alleged New Year’s Eve bombing plot by a far-left terrorist group is a transgender Marine veteran who wanted to “recreate Waco” on ICE agents, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday.

Micah James Legnon, 29, was arrested in Louisiana on Saturday after being tied to chats with suspected members of the far-left terrorist group Turtle Island Liberation Front as they allegedly plotted to plant pipe bombs on businesses and then ICE agents, according to the FBI investigation.

Legnon — who went by “Kateri TheWitch” and “DarkWitch She/Her” in chat groups — appeared to be planning an attack in New Orleans to coincide with others attacking southern California, the complaint alleged.

Legnon shared pictures of assault rifles and body armor — and federal agents “found sniper training manuals, SWAT training manuals, assault rifles, and multiple rounds of ammunition” in a raid on the suspect’s home in New Iberia, the complaint said.

Legnon also posted a story on Facebook on Dec. 4 that called Border Patrol agents “masked f–ks,” the complaint alleged.


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https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/fbi-deputy-director-dan-bongino-leave-post-january-rcna249789

Dan Bongino, a former conservative podcaster who became the No. 2 official at the FBI under the Trump administration, announced Wednesday that he is leaving the bureau next month.

"I will be leaving my position with the FBI in January. I want to thank President Trump, AG Bondi, and Director Patel for the opportunity to serve with purpose. Most importantly, I want to thank you, my fellow Americans, for the privilege to serve you," he wrote in a post on X.

Trump appeared to confirm Bongino's departure earlier Wednesday when asked by a reporter about Bongino's future as deputy director at the bureau.

"Dan did a great job. I think he wants to go back to his show," Trump said.

The president tapped Bongino, a former Secret Service agent and NYPD officer, for the post in February.

NBC News previously reported that Bongino considered resigning in July after the FBI and Justice Department issued a joint memo saying they had completed an "exhaustive" review of investigative files relating to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and that no other people would be charged in the case and the agencies would not be releasing any more information.

Sources told NBC News at the time that Bongino got into a heated argument with Attorney General Pam Bondi after the release of the memo, which had sparked outrage from some Trump supporters.

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https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-administration-news-12-17-25?t=1766025050300

President Donald Trump on Wednesday mounted a sustained argument for his administration’s economic success, arguing that he’d made significant progress in easing prices despite widespread voter frustration with the cost of living.

“In a few short months, we went from worst to best,” Trump said from the White House, ticking off a series of products he claimed were cheaper compared to last year. “I am bringing those high prices down and bringing them down very fast.”

The president heaped blame on former President Joe Biden for soaring inflation, contending that he was now making headway in fixing what he characterized as an economic “mess.” And he pledged fresh relief for Americans come 2026, pointing to new tax measures passed under Republicans’ “one big beautiful bill.”

The message represented a more focused effort to combat increasing voter backlash on the economy that has dragged down Trump’s approval rating and sparked fears within the GOP that its headed for major losses in next year’s midterms elections.

Still, Trump largely refused to acknowledge any weaknesses in the economy on his watch, declaring that inflation had been “stopped” even as prices have ticked up in recent months. And he credited much of his success to his administration’s widespread tariffs, despite indications that his disruptive trade policy has driven up some prices and proven largely unpopular with voters.

White House advisers and Republicans have urged the president to express more empathy with Americans who are struggling financially and skeptical that the administration is doing much to improve their situation.

But Trump largely offered only a triumphant message, insisting that the economy had already been rescued and would only improve from here.

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