United States | News & Politics

A senior official from the Trump administration reportedly sent a message to the Israeli occupation on the eve of Hezbollah leaders Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Sayyed Hashem Safieddine’s funeral, stating that not only did Washington give a green light for targeting high-ranking Hezbollah officials during the funeral procession, but the administration would actually welcome such an action, Israeli media reported on Thursday.

The report, published by Channel 14, did not clarify whether the message was conveyed directly on behalf of President Donald Trump. However, it suggested that the message came from a relatively senior and well-known figure within the administration, hinting at a degree of support from Washington.

Jewish Voice for Peace Action is gravely concerned that the Trump administration and right-wing actors in Congress are using false accusations of antisemitism as a pretext to crush free speech and dissent in civil society and exert unprecedented control over American universities.

“Since Donald Trump began his tariff threats against Canada and his ‘jokes’ about making Canada the 51st US state, I have not bought a single product originating in the US,” said Lynne Allardice, 78, a retired business owner from New Brunswick, Canada.

“Not a single lettuce leaf or piece of fruit. I have become an avid reader of labels and have adopted an ‘anywhere but the US’ policy when shopping. I will not visit the States while Trump remains in office, and most of the people I know have adopted the same policy.”

Acquaintances, Allardice added, were selling US holiday properties they had owned for many years.

Not so long ago...

https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/issues/veterans/

"In addition to threatening students with imprisonment, the president said he would end federal funding for "any college, school, or university that allows illegal protests.""

"If the students want to even see the evidence against them, they have to sign a restrictive privacy agreement, and the OIE has thus far been unwilling to amend or alter the contract in order to make it less restrictive. Essentially this agreement amounts to both a gag order and a contract of adhesion—sign or lose your ability to meaningfully participate in the process."

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, enacted in 1964 to prevent institutions that engage in discrimination from receiving federal funds, states that “no person shall be subject to discrimination because of race, color, or national origin.” The OIE’s guidelines expand who is protected significantly to cover “citizenship or residency in a country with a dominant religion or distinct religious identity,” as well as “veteran or active military status,” as elements of membership in a “protected class.” In this interpretation, negative statements about Israel, or even membership in the Israeli military, could count as prohibited speech resulting in sanction by the university – even if no specific person is being discriminated against.

As an administrative body run by the university, the OIE has the power to both investigate and render verdicts against students based on its findings. If the OIE finds the student is guilty of discriminatory harassment, the OIE and the dean of the school will then convene separately to determine what type of punishment the student will face—outside of their presence. Students can also be subjected to provisional punishments like withholding of diplomas or suspension from campus before a finding is even made on their case.

The use of the OIE comes at a time when the Trump administration is escalating threats against schools where large protests have been led by students since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza. On Tuesday, Trump posted on Truth Social that, “All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests. Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on the crime, arrested.”

In addition to creating a mechanism for anonymous complaints about individuals on campus to be submitted, the OIE’s expansive definition of discrimination can also target faculty, staff, and student workers for “failure to report”—meaning that even failing to a report an incident to the OIE that another party later deemed discriminatory could result in disciplinary measures. Students who have been called into hearings with the office say that they have been pressured to give names of other students that the office suspected to be involved in campus protest activity.

Individuals who have had disciplinary records created by the office could also have that information turned over to law enforcement and even the U.S. Congress, which has indicated an interest in regulating pro-Palestinian speech on campus and even seeking deportations and other measures against students who have engaged in speech deemed hostile to Israel. Congress has demanded that schools hand over disciplinary records of students involved in protests, amid growing pressure on schools to comply.

In recent weeks, Columbia has announced the expulsion of a number of students for participating in protests at the school. The expulsions come amid announcements by the Department of Justice’s new task force on antisemitism that it plans to visit Columbia and several other universities that were sites of anti-Israel protest over the past year. That effort has also been supported by private sector actors that have made surveillance and targeting of students over their speech on the subject a priority.

“Anybody can go on the website of the OIE and file a complaint. They can take screenshots of posts from Instagram, photographs of art pieces, submit social media comments out of context, and even quote people without actual proof other than that someone alleges they said something,” added Greer. “We have seen a proliferation of these cases since the OIE office was opened, the complaints are just flooding in.”

Today, the State Department is fulfilling one of President Trump’s first promises upon taking office, and I’m pleased to announce the Department’s designation of Ansarallah, commonly referred to as the Houthis, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

As President Trump laid out in Executive Order 14175, “the Houthis’ activities threaten the security of American civilians and personnel in the Middle East, the safety of our closest regional partners, and the stability of global maritime trade.”

Since 2023, the Houthis have launched hundreds of attacks against commercial vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, as well as U.S. service members defending freedom of navigation and our regional partners. Most recently, the Houthis spared Chinese-flagged ships while targeting American and allied vessels.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/22690030

The CEOs of two large retailers in the United States say shoppers are likely to see prices rise as a result of the tariffs Donald Trump placed on Canada and Mexico, and his hike in levies on China.

The warnings from the CEOs of Best Buy and Target, reported by CNBC, contradict the president’s assertion that the costs of his trade war will not be borne by US consumers, who rebelled against his predecessor Joe Biden after the US economy was hit by its worst bout of inflation in decades.

“Those are categories where we’ll try to protect pricing, but the consumer will likely see price increases over the next couple of days,” Target CEO Brian Cornell told the network in an interview. “If there’s a 25% tariff, those prices will go up.”

The Center Biological Diversity sued five cabinet-level agencies today seeking to stop the so-called Department of Government Efficiency and its DOGE teams from taking further actions against multiple environmental agencies until each team fully complies with the Federal Advisory Committee Act. This is the first lawsuit challenging DOGE’s efforts to eviscerate the agencies charged with protecting the environment, natural resources and wildlife.

WASHINGTON, March 3 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada will definitely take effect on Tuesday, raising fears of a trade war in North America and sending financial markets reeling.

"They're going to have to have a tariff. So what they have to do is build their car plants, frankly, and other things in the United States, in which case they have no tariffs," Trump said at the White House. He said there was "no room left" for a deal that would avert the tariffs by curbing fentanyl flows into the United States.

Trump's comments sent U.S. stocks down sharply in late afternoon trading. The dollar rose against the Mexican peso and the Canadian dollar following his remarks.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/26295120

Paywall removed: https://archive.is/RFAYF

The video is yet another case of Democrats resenting their base for expecting them to stand up for anything.

In a leaked recording, State Senator Elena Parent (D-42) said she’d vote for Republican transgender healthcare bans because trans rights are too “unpopular."

"You can go right to heck. I don’t think I will lose re-election based on you screaming at me"

The insane flipping back and forth in the video of declaring yourself pro-lgbt whilst signalling you'll vote for anti-trans legislation, to then attack the person asking them obvious questions by declaring that the question implies because Republicans are in charge that they should adopt opposite positions and they're not going to vote for things that are "unpopular".

The democratic politician distilled: You need to vote for me because I support you and I'm not as bad as Republicans, but when it comes down to it I will throw you under the bus and get mad at you for asking me about it and implying I might not be a good person.

But swearing is a no-no so I'll say Heck as I support you being oppressed by the state.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/26671382

Brett Wilkins
Feb 28, 2025

As Palestinians released from #Israeli imprisonment recount torture and other abuse suffered at the hands of their former captors, the Trump administration on Friday approved a new $3 billion weapons package for #Israel.

The new package, reported by Zeteo's Prem Thakker, includes nearly $2.716 billion worth of bombs and weapons guidance kits, as well as $295 million in bulldozers.

Yet more Democrats doubling down on "we have to be more racist", "we need to have less principles", "it's actually the lefts fault somehow".

Reminder that here in reality, Democrats ran republican campaign messaging during the election whilst Kamala failed to distance herself from literal fucking genocide in response to the bases concerns nor did they provide any meaningful economic policies as answers.

When several dozen Democratic political operatives and elected officials gathered at a tony resort off the Potomac River last month, frustration boiled over at the left wing of their party.

Democrats had become too obsessed with “ideological purity tests” and should push back “against far-left staffers and groups that exert a disproportionate influence on policy and messaging,” according to a document of takeaways from the gathering produced by the center-left group Third Way and obtained by POLITICO.

The group of moderate Democratic consultants, campaign staffers, elected officials and party leaders who gathered in Loudoun County, Virginia for a day-and-a-half retreat, where they plotted their party’s comeback, searched for why the party lost in November — and what to do about it. Much of what they focused their ire on centered on the kind of identity politics that they believed lost them races up and down the ballot.

One of the key ways to win back the trust of the working class, some gathered there argued, was to “reduce far-left influence and infrastructure” on the party, according to the takeaways document. That included building a more moderate campaign infrastructure and talent pipeline, pushing “back against far-left staffers and groups that exert a disproportionate influence on policy and messaging,” and refusing to participate in “far-left candidate questionnaires” and “forums that create ideological purity tests.”

The gathering resulted in five pages of takeaways, a document POLITICO obtained from one of the participants. (Not all attendees endorsed each point, and the document — and Third Way — kept the identities of participants private.)

[...]

Those gathered then laid out 20 solutions for how Democrats can regain working-class trust and reconnect with them culturally.

Among their takeaways:

• The party should “embrace patriotism, community, and traditional American imagery.”

• Candidates should “get out of elite circles and into real communities (e.g., tailgates, gun shows, local restaurants, churches).”

• The party needs to “own the failures of Democratic governance in large cities and commit to improving local government.”

The party, many of those gathered also argued, needs to “develop a stronger, more relatable Democratic media presence (podcasts, social media, sports broadcasting).”

Bennett said that, with the meeting coming just three months after the election, “we didn’t expect to have a lot of answers about exactly what the Democratic offer to the working class on the economy ought to be going forward. We were still kind of picking through the rubble here.”