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After White House officials announced Thursday they will be ending the federal immigration enforcement surge in the Twin Cities, U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin said she would not vote for a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security, saying she hopes to prevent some other community from being victimized next. On Thursday afternoon, Senate Democrats […]

De los hielos de Siberia a los desiertos de África: cuando caminar no es un deporte, sino la última frontera entre la vida y la muerte.

تازه ترین مواضع کنگره آمریکا درباره جمهوری اسلامی

La cumbre de los 27 países de la UE para discutir sobre cómo incrementar la competitividad frente a China y EEUU queda empañada por la iniciativa de Alemania, Italia y Bélgica de reunir previamente a un grupo de países y tratar de dejar marcadas las líneas políticas a seguir España critica la reunión económica previa organizada por Italia, Bélgica y Alemania por minar los principios básicos de la UE Las fricciones por el liderazgo económico de la Unión Europea han hecho descabalgar el encuentro informal sobre competitividad organizado en el castillo de Alden Biesen, en Bélgica. Una reunión previa organizada por Alemania, Italia y Bélgica, con una agenda propia sobre el camino para que la UE sea más competitiva, deslució una cumbre que además sufrió en algunos momentos “caos logísticos”, con continuas caídas del servicio de wifi. El encuentro previo, en el que participaron 19 países, devino en un conflicto abierto entre España e Italia. El presidente del Gobierno, Pedro Sánchez, no hizo declaraciones a su llegada ni dio la tradicional rueda de presa al final de la cumbre. En el Consejo Europeo, la reunión previa organizada por Alemania, Italia y Bélgica no sentó nada bien. En la institución europea se entendía que un encuentro previo en el que no participaban todos los países ni la UE como tal no era el lugar para alcanzar el consenso, más aún, cuando había posiciones alejadas entre países tan importantes como Alemania y Francia. Con esta cumbre informal se trataba de lanzar un mensaje unitario sobre la posición europea, pero solo se consiguió a medias, aunque tanto el Consejo Europeo como la Comisión intentaron maquillar la reunión de los líderes de los 27 países asegurando que se mantuvieron conversaciones constructivas sobre la unidad de acción, que se verán reflejadas en una cumbre oficial que se celebrará en marzo. El presidente del Consejo Europeo, Antonio Costa, insistió al final de la cumbre que “se ha allanado el camino para acordar acciones concretas en el Consejo Europeo de marzo”, entre las que mencionó la “ambiciosa agenda de simplificación” regulatoria y “pasar de un mercado único incompleto a 'un mercado para una Europa'” o seguir impulsando la transición energética como “la mejor estrategia a largo plazo para que Europa logre autonomía estratégica y reduzca los precios”. “Transformaremos los resultados del debate de hoy en compromisos concretos en el Consejo Europeo de marzo. Después nos centraremos en la ejecución. Y quiero ser claro: en 2026, Europa cumplirá. Lo hicimos en defensa el año pasado; lo haremos en competitividad este año”, ha concluido Costa, tratando de dar cierta utilidad al encuentro de este jueves. Sin embargo, la cumbre se empañó con el conflicto entre Italia y España. Fuentes cercanas al Gobierno de Pedro Sánchez confirmaron que no habían sido invitados y que se había trasladado a Italia que la reunión previa a la cumbre mina los principios básicos de la UE y en lugar de acercar soluciones, las aleja. El ejecutivo italiano respondió que Sánchez y Meloni tuvieron ocasión de intercambiar impresiones al margen del encuentro informal de los líderes de la UE, pero que durante la conversación, el presidente Sánchez no planteó ninguna cuestión respecto a la falta de invitación a la reunión de coordinación celebrada antes del inicio de los trabajos en el Castillo de Alden Biesen. No es el primer conflicto entre los líderes de España e Italia. Ya en 2024, ambos Gobiernos tuvieron una confrontación por la propuesta italiana de construir centros de deportación en terceros países para gestionar la política migratoria. Posteriormente, el primer ministro de Bélgica, Bart De Wever, añadía más confusión al conflicto al asegurar que “todos los países fueron invitados. Algunos decidieron responder a las invitaciones, otros no. Pero no creo que España haya sido excluida. Normalmente, estas reuniones informales reúnen a unos pocos países. Esta vez fueron 19. Fue un poco excesivo; parecía una especie de pre-reunión. Eso no es muy elegante hacia los demás, pero todos eran conscientes. No teníamos la intención de organizar una pre-reunión y tampoco queremos dar la percepción de que hay un gran grupo de países que quiere imponer su voluntad sobre otros países, como España. Esa no es la intención”. Pero sin duda es la percepción que ha quedado. De hecho, para eliminar este tipo de situaciones, el canciller de Alemania, Friedrich Merz, y el presidente francés, Emmanuel Macron, hicieron el paseíllo de entrada al Castillo juntos e hicieron declaraciones sobre la unidad de acción de los países europeos ante el reto de la competitividad. “Me alegra que Emmanuel Macron y yo —como casi siempre— estemos de acuerdo. Estoy seguro de que hoy damos un paso adelante, sin tomar decisiones, pero preparando decisiones”, declaró Merz. Mientras, Meloni ha insistido, referiéndose a Francia, que aunque se esté “reforzando la cooperación bilateral” con Alemania, “no es algo que hagamos en contra de alguien más, no se está excluyendo a nadie”. Aunque ha quedado patente que España no participó en la reunión previa. Italia y Alemania están liderando un bloque dentro de la UE para canalizar cómo deben ser el camino para que la UE sea más competitiva, con especial atención en posicionarse conjuntamente a favor de la desregulación y la simplificación de las normativas que afectan a empresas y sectores económicos.   En la cumbre informal ha participado tanto el ex presidente del BCE y ex primer ministro italiano Mario Draghi, como el exprimer ministro italiano autor del informe sobre el futuro del Mercado Único, Enrico Letta. Ambos ex políticos ha intercambiado con los líderes la situación económica de la UE y la necesidad de seguir avanzando en reformas si se quiere competir con EEUU y China. “El punto fundamental es que tenemos que pasar de 27 a 1, integrar de verdad el Mercado Único”, ha declarado Letta, que ha insistido en que sin una “unión energética” y “sin una fuerte integración de los mercados financieros, será imposible ser lo suficientemente competitivos”. Mientras que Draghi ha insistido en la necesidad de facilitar inversiones, la necesidad de reducir barreras en el Mercado Único y reducir el costo de la energía, en definitiva, volvió a recordar las medidas que describió en su informe, del que solo se han llevado a cabo el 11%. La presidenta de la Comisión Europea, Ursula von der Leyen, ha vuelto a advertir que ya no queda tiempo y que se seguirá adelante con las reformas aunque sea mediante el mecanismo de cooperación reforzada, que permite que si nueve países están de acuerdo se avance en medidas y posteriormente se vayan añadiendo el resto de países. En la cumbre del próximo marzo se comprobará cuál es la salud real de la Unión Europea.

Les 27 chefs d’États et de gouvernements européens se sont réunis ce jeudi 12 février pour un sommet informel à Alden Biesen en Flandre. Dans cette ancienne commanderie des Templiers, les 27 ont débattu une nouvelle fois avec les anciens présidents du conseil italien Enrico Letta et Mario Draghi, auteurs en 2024 de rapports ambitieux sur le besoin de compétitivité de l’Europe, un signal d’alarme d’autant plus urgent que les défis mondiaux se sont accélérés en 2025.

The investigative group Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT) has released a report documenting civilians killed and wounded in the war between Russia and Ukraine in 2025. The summary, which tracks victims on both sides of the conflict, is CIT’s second — the first covered 2024. The report’s central finding is grim: Peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, brokered by the United States, failed to de-escalate the violence. Instead, civilian casualties surged so sharply that 2025 was the war’s deadliest year for noncombatants since 2022.

Senior Judge Richard J. Leon of the District of Columbia District Court wrote in the 29-page ruling that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and others named in the lawsuit have “trampled on Senator Kelly's First Amendment freedoms and threatened the constitutional liberties of millions of military retirees.”

وزیر خزانه‌داری آمریکا: فشار حداکثری ادامه دارد، مقام‌های جمهوری اسلامی تنها زبان زور را می‌فهمند

Parade-goers will have the chance to catch a bedazzled Muses shoe from the award-winning television journalist Soledad O'Brien, who has a decades long history with and love for New Orleans.

WASHINGTON — The top leaders of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee showed a play-by-play video leading up to the fatal shooting in Minneapolis of Alex Pretti by Customs and Border Protection officers, as they grilled the heads of two federal immigration agencies about the incident during an oversight hearing Thursday. Chairman Rand […]

TOPEKA — Local government leaders want more details about how to enforce a “bathroom bill” passed by the Legislature that some city officials say could cost taxpayers “millions of dollars.”   Senate Bill 244, which is awaiting Gov. Laura Kelly’s signature, forces people to use facilities matching their biological sex at birth in government buildings.  Kelly […]

El enamoramiento irrumpe con vértigo, idealización y promesas de unicidad; pero cuando la intensidad se aquieta, emerge el verdadero reto: aprender a ver al otro sin fantasías, integrar pasión, intimidad y compromiso, y decidir si se quiere crecer juntos o quedarse en la superficie del deseo.

Quase metade (47%) das mulheres brasileiras já sofreram alguma forma de assédio sexual no Carnaval e 80% delas têm medo de passarem por alguma experiência do tipo. É o que mostra uma pesquisa realizada pelo Instituto Locomotiva e divulgada nesta quarta-feira (11). Além disso, 86% dos entrevistados concordam que o assédio ainda existe no Carnaval. […] Carnaval: 80% das mulheres temem assédio e quase metade já foi vítima apareceu primeiro no Brasil de Fato.

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for our free weekly newsletter to get the latest. CONCORD, N.H. — On a freezing December day, Liberty Vote executive Robert Giles sat before the New Hampshire Ballot Law Commission to answer questions about a familiar company operating under an unfamiliar name. Until October, the company had been Dominion Voting Systems — one of just two vendors certified to sell voting systems in the state. Then, it was sold to a former election official named Scott Leiendecker and rebranded as Liberty Vote. State regulators required to sign off on changes wanted to know more about who and what, exactly, they were signing off on. As one ballot law commission member pointed out, in New Hampshire, “when we give somebody a liquor license for a little restaurant, they have to go through quite a bit of a background check before we’re able to provide that. So I think we’d like to know a little bit more.” Secretary of State David Scanlan, a Republican, said he and others had “some really hard questions” for the company. A commission member had a fundamental one. “Why did he acquire this company?” he asked, referring to Leiendecker. “You would have to ask him that question,” Giles replied. They would hardly be the first. Election officials have been wrestling with that question since the announcement that Leiendecker — who previously had founded a major electronic pollbook company — had purchased Dominion. The purchase immediately vaulted the former Republican election official from St. Louis, little known to the public, into one of the most powerful players in American elections. Whether he can stabilize a company that provides voting systems to roughly a quarter of the country — and has been battling conspiracy theories since 2020 — is an open question. ‘I felt I needed to do something about it’ In a January interview with Votebeat, Leiendecker said Dominion had a good product, employees, and customer base but needed a new owner who understood and cared about election technology and elections — an area where he has a long track record. “I felt I needed to do something about it. So, you know, here we are.” He also said that he wondered, “if not me, then who would?” That’s a good question, too. Dominion came with considerable baggage. In the wake of the 2020 presidential election, President Donald Trump and his allies alleged Dominion systems deleted or switched votes, but no evidence emerged to support that. The claims were repeatedly debunked, including by Republican officials. Fox News, Newsmax, and former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani settled defamation claims brought by the company, in Fox News’ case for $787 million. But the false allegations hurt business, the company said, and some places canceled or rescinded contracts and selected other vendors. In 2023, after the Fox settlement, Dominion’s former CEO told Time that the allegations had “basically put us into a death spiral” and said a customer had described it “as the most demonized brand in the United States.” Dominion was a distressed business, Leiendecker acknowledged in December to the St. Louis Business Journal. But in the interview with Votebeat, he stressed that he believes there’s a path forward, despite the challenges. “Can we turn this around? And I believe that we can,” he said, adding that he’s received a lot of encouragement from election officials. There are big challenges, as well as signs Trump administration officials continue to focus on election equipment in general and Dominion specifically. Since returning to the White House, Trump has continued to rage against voting machines. In addition, officials reportedly contacted local officials in Colorado and Missouri, unsuccessfully asking to examine Dominion equipment used in the 2020 election. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence took custody of voting equipment in Puerto Rico last year. And the White House has said the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is expected to deliver a report on the cybersecurity of voting systems. Leiendecker said Liberty Vote has not directly heard from officials with the departments of Justice or Homeland Security regarding the planned cybersecurity report or any requests to review the company’s equipment. He’s happy to answer questions from people with concerns, he says, but he hopes that if election officials and others prove the system is secure, people will listen. “Our election officials do a great job. They know what they’re doing,” he said. He said he hopes the public will be reassured by learning more about the checks in place, such as, for example, paper ballots that can be audited and checked against machine counts to ensure they are accurate, and also said the election process needs to be as transparent as possible. As for Trump’s views, Leiendecker chooses his words carefully. “The president, you know, has an opinion, and he has a very big opinion when it comes to it, right?” he said. “His views need to be heard, obviously, but I hope that he listens to” election officials. ‘Can we turn this around?’ Dominion was hardly the first election technology company to get consolidated into another one, including after controversy. In 2003, for example, Diebold’s CEO, a fundraiser for former President George W. Bush, said he was “committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year,” sparking worries about whether the machines could be trusted; he later called his comments a “huge mistake.” There was ultimately no evidence of wrongdoing in connection with the company’s equipment, but that and other issues prompted it to sell its voting machine division. Many of those Diebold assets ultimately went to Dominion. “Now we jump ahead to Trump’s time, and now the Republicans think that the same system that was created by Diebold that was then sold to Dominion is now going to rig votes against them and for Democrats,” said Terry Burton, the co-director of the Wood County Board of Elections in Ohio. “And now that it’s been sold again, now we’re starting to see the first vestiges of the swing back.” Burton was referring to the focus on Leiendecker’s Republican background after he acquired Dominion. The press release announcing the company’s sale described it as “a bold and historic move to transform and improve election integrity in America” and echoed language used by Trump and other conservatives, including calls for hand-marked paper ballots. The announcement — managed by a Republican-aligned communications firm and hastily put together (Leiendecker had expected to have more time) — sparked full-throated fears that the company was now an arm of the Republican Party. As a result, some expressed concern that the left would start embracing conspiracy theories about the company previously pushed by the far right. At the time, Matt Crane, executive director of the Colorado County Clerks Association, told Votebeat that clerks were initially “very upset” about the announcement’s tone and the initial uncertainty about what might change. Some Colorado clerks issued public statements, and Crane arranged a meeting for clerks to talk through the changeover with Leiendecker. Since then, Leiendecker has followed up individually with many of them, and tensions have “calmed down,” Crane said. Leiendecker says he hadn’t expected the response and doesn’t think of himself as partisan. He stressed his long track record in the election technology business and as a former election official, pointing out he understands and has worked to meet the challenges of the profession. He also stressed the positive responses he’s gotten as he’s spoken to election officials. People in the industry said the launch complicated an already fraught and closely watched sale. Mark Lindeman, the policy and strategy director for Verified Voting, a nonprofit organization that tracks voting equipment use, said he was also distressed to see news coverage around the sale of Dominion focus on Leiendecker’s partisan background. “Our judgments should not be based on our gut feelings about the politics of anyone involved in the companies. It’s just not a reasonable way to go,” he said. “We have to look at performance. So that’s why we have voting system certification, that’s why we have pre-election testing. That’s why we have post-election audits, right? I hate to see this continued swerve into partisan speculation.” Leiendecker says existing wells of trust from his long track record in elections and past work helped him recover from the rocky rollout: His other company, KNOWiNK, is the country’s leading manufacturer of electronic pollbooks, the systems used to check in voters at polling places, and the company’s pollbook was the first to be certified by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. As of the November 2024 election, Dominion provided election equipment to more than a quarter of registered voters in the U.S., according to Verified Voting — more than all but one other vendor, Election Systems and Software. Together, Leiendecker’s two companies provide election equipment to thousands of jurisdictions led by officials from both parties. Among those publicly vouching for him: Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar, a Democrat who said Leiendecker was responsive and attentive as the head of KNOWiNK when Nevada transitioned to a new voter registration management system. Leiendecker says election officials seem relieved to know Liberty Vote has a new, committed owner and encouraging about its plans for the future, though he’s assured them that little or nothing is changing immediately. In 2026, Liberty Vote’s focus is making sure the midterms run smoothly for clients, he said. Plans include federal certification for new voting system Leiendecker is slowly settling in and figuring out ways to streamline the work his companies are doing. Liberty Vote is still headquartered in Denver, where Dominion was based. KNOWiNK is headquartered in Leiendecker’s home base of St. Louis and will remain a separate company, Leiendecker said, though he said technology staff members at the two companies will be looking for ways to make the products work more seamlessly together. Liberty Vote recently hired former Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman, a Republican who was also a senior election security adviser at the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, to handle government affairs. It also hired a firm with strong Missouri ties earlier this month to lobby the federal government on election security, federal lobbying disclosures show; a Liberty Vote spokesman said it “will support our ongoing work to serve election officials nationwide and advance the future of American elections.” In late November, Liberty Vote submitted a system, called Frontier 1.0, to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission for certification under the latest set of voluntary voting system guidelines approved by the agency, a set of standards widely referred to as VVSG 2.0. The submitted system is a version of Dominion equipment currently in use, but updated to meet the criteria of the newer guidelines, company officials said. The submission is an important benchmark for the company, since many jurisdictions planning to purchase new equipment will want it to meet the most recent set of federal guidelines, or be in the process of getting certified under those guidelines (the company is also one of six competing for the biggest available contract at the moment, from Louisiana). So far, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission has certified systems from only two manufacturers as meeting the VVSG 2.0 guidelines, and others are still in the testing process. At a December meeting, members of the New Hampshire Ballot Law Commission asked Liberty Vote's Robert Giles, left, pictured from the back, questions about the sale of the company formerly known as Dominion, now called Liberty Vote. Dominion’s existing agreement with New Hampshire, which Liberty Vote has now inherited, calls for the company’s system to receive certification under VVSG 2.0 by the end of 2026. At the December meeting, Giles told the New Hampshire Ballot Law Commission that after discussions with the testing laboratory, the company believes it can finish the process in about eight to nine months; New Hampshire officials later said the laboratory confirmed that certification this year is a reasonable expectation. The New Hampshire commission must sign off on any changes to the technology currently certified for use in New Hampshire. And each state has different requirements for voting machines to be approved for use in the state, though many require either federal certification or testing in federally approved laboratories. Among the changes in the system submitted for certification: Liberty Vote, and just about every other manufacturer, is moving away from using barcodes or quick-response codes in ballot tabulation, something Trump sought to prohibit in his March executive order on elections. Election officials, too, are worried about how to rebuild public trust in elections and election technology. As New Hampshire’s Scanlan points out, voting equipment is one area where it’s hard to be transparent. At some level, people have to trust that the voting machines in use to allow local election officials to quickly and reliably tally large numbers of ballots and report results quickly are doing so correctly. Pre-election testing and post-election audits, including hand-count audits, are part of how election officials provide evidence that tallies are correct, he said. “If they question whether the machine is counting votes accurately, it’s not an easy thing for any election official to explain,” Scanlan said, other than to stress, “we have these safeguards in place: testing, audits and just other ways to verify the accuracy of the results.” Carrie Levine is Votebeat’s editor-in-chief and is based in Washington, D.C. Contact Carrie at clevine@votebeat.org.

Chairman Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, said there needs to be accountability following the deaths of Pretti, an intensive care unit nurse and Renee Good, a mother of three and poet, in January at the hands of immigration agents.

WASHINGTON — The top leaders of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee showed a play-by-play video leading up to the fatal shooting in Minneapolis of Alex Pretti by Customs and Border Protection officers, as they grilled the heads of two federal immigration agencies about the incident during an oversight hearing Thursday. Chairman Rand […]

The money will help developers cover their operating costs. The post Indy nonprofit affordable housing developers get $900K in grants appeared first on Mirror Indy.

Федеральные власти США сворачивают масштабную антимиграционную операцию в Миннеаполисе, которая продолжалась более двух месяцев и сопровождалась массовыми рейдами, задержаниями и уличными протестами. О постепенном выводе ICE из города сообщил глава федеральной миграционной политики и «царь границ» Том Хоман, уточнив, что соответствующее решение одобрил президент Дональд Трамп.

La visita de la Secretaria de Seguridad Nacional, Kristi Noem, a la frontera entre Estados Unidos y México se produce en un momento en que las encuestas muestran un apoyo cada vez menor a las políticas de inmigración del Presidente Trump desde el asesinato de manifestantes en Minneapolis.

WASHINGTON — The top leaders of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee showed a play-by-play video leading up to the fatal shooting in Minneapolis of Alex Pretti by Customs and Border Protection officers, as they grilled the heads of two federal immigration agencies about the incident during an oversight hearing Thursday. Chairman Rand […]