Articles & Videos

12590 items
All PoliticsPolicyEconomyRights & JusticeInternationalClimate & EnvironmentTechnologyHealthMediaCulture & Society

Select Date Range

Epstein Relationship With Virgin Islands Governor Exposed in New Texts
New Republic • 2 weeks ago

Epstein Relationship With Virgin Islands Governor Exposed in New Texts

Newly revealed text messages from the government’s files on Jeffrey Epstein reveal that he had a long-standing relationship with the governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands, including getting help in a legal dispute over construction on his private islands. In 2019, months before he was arrested, Epstein was facing possible fines over unauthorized construction on one of his islands. So he turned to Albert Bryan Jr., the Democratic governor of the territory, who reassured Epstein that he’d handle the matter. Bryan informed Epstein that he told the islands’ top environmental official to pause enforcing the infraction until they could speak. Epstein complained further about the fines and negative media attention, to which Bryan replied that he asked the commissioner in charge of the case to recuse himself and approve all of Epstein’s previous permit requests. “We got u,” Bryan texted the billionaire. Epstein’s vast connections are further exposed with every trove of files the government releases, and this batch shows how he was able to operate and commit crimes in the U.S. Virgin Islands: by throwing his money around to sway the people in charge. We don’t know if Bryan, who is currently in the last year of his second term as governor, actually took action to help Epstein, but further text messages indicate he was willing to keep advocating for the billionaire. The two would meet privately, and Epstein claimed that enforcing the law against him could “kill all interest and send investors to puerto rico instead !!” Effectively, he implied that he and his friends would take their money elsewhere if he had to follow the rules. Bryan and Epstein knew each other since at least September 2018, when Epstein, his tax attorney, employees at one of his financial services companies, and his personal assistant arranged a meeting with Bryan, then a candidate challenging the islands’ incumbent governor, and his campaign manager. Their communications would continue through the next year, even after May 2019, when the Miami Herald exposed Epstein’s activities. The paper examined the light plea deal Epstein received in 2008 over soliciting prostitution, including from a minor. Bryan was questioned in 2023 as part of a civil lawsuit about his relationship with Epstein. Bryan testified at the time that he thought the billionaire’s 2008 charges were settled after Epstein “copped a plea to having sex with a hooker who was under age,” and said he “wasn’t really interested” in learning about new charges from Epstein’s 2019 arrest. He denied giving Epstein special treatment but later apologized for the wording of his remarks through a spokesperson. “I believe that we should honor and support all victims of human trafficking. That was a terrible use of language, and I should never had said that. It was disrespectful,” Bryan said in a statement.That doesn’t change the fact that, even indirectly, Bryan helped enable Epstein far away from prying eyes in the Caribbean. It’s not known if the governor broke any laws, but at the very least, his reputation is ruined, as the U.S. Virgin Islands is another place where Epstein escaped scrutiny, investigation, and prosecution. Not a single agency on the island ever looked into him.

Trump’s Surgeon General Pick Panics When Asked if Flu Vaccine Is Safe
New Republic • 2 weeks ago

Trump’s Surgeon General Pick Panics When Asked if Flu Vaccine Is Safe

It’s unsurprising, but disappointing nonetheless: The president’s pick for surgeon general is a vaccine skeptic.During her Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday, Casey Means was caught in a bind between party loyalty and medical truth after Senator Tim Kaine repeatedly asked her about a CBS article in which Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said there is “no evidence” that the flu vaccine prevents serious disease, hospitalizations, or death among children. The overwhelming medical evidence shows that the flu vaccine is safe and effective.Means, a wellness influencer and author aligned with RFK Jr, first dodged the question by trying to generalize. “I believe vaccines save lives,” she said.Kaine then pushed Means to answer the question about the flu vaccine specifically.“I have not personally seen that quote or that article.… I believe that all patients should talk to their doctors,” she replied.But Kaine wasn’t done, asking again: “Do you believe there’s no evidence that the flu vaccine has no efficacy in reducing serious injury or hospitalization?”This time, Means paused for four seconds.“This is an easy one, doctor,” the senator said.“I support the CDC’s guidance on the vaccine,” Means eventually said.“Do you think the flu vaccine reduces the risk of hospitalization or serious injury?” Kaine said.“At the population level, I certainly think it does,” Means stammered.Kaine then lambasted Means for her filibustering: “Three minutes in, you answered a question that had a very simple yes, or it had a very simple no.”KAINE: Last month, Sec. Kennedy stated 'there is no evidence the flu vaccine prevents serious disease or hospitalization or deaths in children.' Do you agree with that statement?MEANS: I believe vaccines save livesKAINE: I want to be scrupulous. Do you agree with him?MEANS:… pic.twitter.com/iG9FAKY6uK— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 25, 2026Means’s hesitancy to go against the conspiratorial anti-vaxxer serving as health secretary exposed the depressing ironies of her being tapped to be America’s leading public health spokesperson. As an entrepreneur and influencer, Means has profited by sowing distrust in the medical system. As The New York Times pointed out, one chapter of her best-selling book is titled Trust Yourself, Not Your Doctor.Earlier in the hearing, Means said that while she “accepts” evidence that vaccines do not cause autism, she wants to see more research done on the matter.“Science is never settled,” she added.For decades, medical studies have shown that there is absolutely no link between vaccines and autism, but Means, like Kennedy, continues not to trust the work.Means was questioned by Senator Bill Cassidy, a Republican physician who voted to confirm RFK Jr. but has been outspoken in his belief that vaccines are safe.Cassidy asked if Means thought mothers should get their children vaccinated against measles. The modern measles vaccine was created in 1954, and seven years later, was declared “100% effective” by the World Health Organization. The Centers for Disease Control reported that measles had been entirely eradicated from the U.S. in 2000, but that has changed since Trump’s second term. American communities have faced multiple measles outbreaks this year due to rising anti-vax sentiment.Means stoked that sentiment further by declining to encourage use of the vaccine. “I do believe that each patient, mother, parent needs to have a conversation with their pediatrician about any medication they’re putting in their body, their children’s bodies,” she said.Dr. Casey Means, Trump's nominee for surgeon general, won't unambiguously say that mothers should have their kids vaccinated against measles: "I do believe that each mother needs to have a conversation with their pediatrician about any medication they're putting in their… pic.twitter.com/tiqYv7eeAD— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 25, 2026Senator Bernie Sanders, a democratic socialist, then asked Means about a recent American Medical Association statement. “An abundance of evidence from decades of scientific studies shows no link between vaccines and autism,” the statement reads.Sanders once again asked her if she believed vaccines caused autism; Means once again wouldn’t give a straight answer. “I am not going to sit here and say we should not study something in the future,” she said, pointing to rising autism rates among children.A graduate of Stanford School of Medicine, Means previously dropped out of a surgical residency at Oregon Health and Science University. She has been criticized for repeatedly using the “Dr.” honorific though her medical license, granted in 2014, has been inactive since 2019. Without an active medical license, Means is unauthorized to practice medicine or prescribe medication.This story has been updated.

Anti-Trans Playbook is Designed to Hurt Women, with Paisley Currah
1:13:14
FACTUALLY • 2 weeks ago

Anti-Trans Playbook is Designed to Hurt Women, with Paisley Currah

The Toxic State of Trump’s Union
New Republic • 2 weeks ago

The Toxic State of Trump’s Union

On Tuesday night, Donald Trump delivered his State of the Union address. On Wednesday morning, I have an unsophisticated analysis of an unsophisticated speech: I fucking hate this guy. We can try to top each other with clever ways to communicate our disgust, but the president is really just a greasy fleshhole of hate. He’s rancid and powerful, he’s a sadistic goon; he’s also inescapable—and that is the State of Our Union.Trump strutted onto the dais, smacked his lips, grimaced and wobbled his way through two hours of white-supremacist wolf whistles—not dog whistles—leering insults, lies, and puffery. There was no substance to anything he said. I could lay out the fake proposals, the nonsense about inflation or the housing market or record-setting 401(k)s. He said something about a health care situation, I think. But this was not a speech designed to showcase new policy tweaks or even goose the national mood. Here’s my topline reaction: It felt like preparation for a lynching. Violence and resentment washed over everything. It’s February, but the spirit of January 6 was in the room.Trump could not stop dwelling on the intimacies of injury and suffering: the recovery of the bodies of Israeli hostages. The murder of Iryna Zarutska, lingering on the method and outcome even as her mother sobbed on the balcony. (Her murderer, by the way, was not an immigrant and crossed no border to get here.) Even the uplifting stories of heroism Trump muscled up when doling out medals were limned with the possibility of terrible harm: shootings, stabbings, “CRIME.”No wonder he is so taken with the U.S. men’s hockey team and Jack Hughes’s missing tooth. Sure, Trump craves the kind of worn-in familiarity and affection that comes from spending long hours together and working toward a shared goal. But what he really wants is conflicts to end in “sudden death” and a piece of flesh on the floor.But Trump’s lust for cruelty isn’t what made the atmosphere so uncomfortably familiar. A lynching needs more than ambient threat. Trump gave it direction toward all the familiar targets. He boiled up his usual stew of xenophobia and race-baiting, at one point referring to the Minnesota Somali community as “pirates.” He berated and taunted the Democrats in the chamber too, with persistent references to how they “wouldn’t stand” to applaud him. He called them “crazy” after the obligatory trans-panic portion of the program. He said, “We’re lucky we have a country with people like this. Democrats are destroying our country, but we stopped it, just in the nick of time.” The venue’s history and power might have deepened his call for judgment and retribution beyond the usual bleat and whine, but his biggest advantage was having the Democratic lawmakers there at all.The speech was streaked with Stephen Miller effluvia: the racism, sure; also some too-clever oration party tricks, like when Trump asked the audience to rise if they believed that a country should protect its citizens before immigrants. The Democrats remained seated; I don’t think it was quite the campaign-ad footage Miller or whoever thought it would be. It was cinematic only in how the crowd reaction echoed in the chamber; it was the first time I realized that elected officials and guests were jeering and *hooting* their approval. They’re all Pete Hegseth now.He transformed the Senate chamber—where history and tragedy and farce have all been made—into the rotten dregs of a frat party. Cheering, whistling, fist pumping. There’s going to be literal cheerleaders at the next State of the Union: big-breasted blondes in spangles leaping through pretend derricks spouting real oil. Flashing lights, gold hardware. A brass band.That said, I am vigorously pro-stunt. Democrats should do more of them. Representative Al Green was tossed from the venue because he brandished a sign reading “Black People Are Not Apes” as Trump took the floor. Fantastic. Be the show, not the staff, I say. And above all, in this tawdry media environment, get the headlines.There were Epstein survivors at the State of the Union: over a dozen of them. They couldn’t be stacked around Pam Bondi or presented as a group, so Trump didn’t see them, obviously. But you could put each survivor across the table from Trump one at a time and I don’t think Trump would see them. He’s never seen them. He may have been in a room with them once—he may have been more than in the room—but predators don’t see individuals. They see an audience. Maybe that’s why watching Trump feels corrosive and contaminating all on its own; why the debate over whether paying attention to Trump itself only serves to legitimize him has whipsawed for a decade. It was once a principled stand to pretend he wasn’t serious and ignore him. That didn’t work. Witnessing him and reporting in real time doesn’t feel like it works, either.Today, I believe it’s not binary. Some people can refuse the spectacle entirely. Some of us volunteer for the shift. I do this for a living. I show up. And sometimes I wake up feeling burned out, ashes in my mouth, wondering why I gave him my attention again.As of this morning, I believe that the reason I choose to bear witness to Trump’s tantrums is to check on the wound that won’t heal until he’s gone: press the bruise with my thumb, hard. Knowing he still exists and what he’s up to is well and good, but actually seeing his freakish, clowning visage and experiencing that rage? Has to be done. Direct exposure is the true test—I want to make sure I’m not numb. We have work to do.

Dumb Anti-China Hate Against Eileen Gu
5:42
The Bitchuation Room • 2 weeks ago

Dumb Anti-China Hate Against Eileen Gu

“Lies, Gaslighting and Maligning”: Rep. Adelita Grijalva Boycotts Trump's Speech
4:37
Democracy Now Video • 2 weeks ago

“Lies, Gaslighting and Maligning”: Rep. Adelita Grijalva Boycotts Trump's Speech

Supreme Court Unanimously Strikes Down Private Prison Immunity Case
New Republic • 2 weeks ago

Supreme Court Unanimously Strikes Down Private Prison Immunity Case

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously against private prison company Geo Group, denying them a fast-track appeal of a lower court ruling that found they are not immune from being sued.The initial lawsuit was brought about in 2014 by Alejandro Menocal and other former detainees at the Aurora Immigration Processing Center in Colorado. They filed a class action lawsuit against GEO Group claiming they were forced to clean common areas and were punished with solitary confinement if they said no. Detainees claimed that they worked at the detention center for either $1 a day or no pay at all.Geo Group, the second-largest contractor for President Trump’s mass detention campaign, didn’t think it should even be able to be sued in the first place.The prison company argued that it deserved “derivative sovereign immunity,” something usually reserved for the government, because it works with and for the U.S. government. It also claimed that it should have the right to immediate appeals rather than after-trial appeals, which would have allowed it to ignore unfavorable rulings.Now, thanks to the unanimous Supreme Court ruling, the forced-labor lawsuit brought by the immigrant detainees at Geo Group can move forward.

12...236237238239240...13981399