The Dutch central bank announced Wednesday that it has moved billions of dollars worth of its gold reserves out of North America in a move it described as "crisis preparedness" in a time of global political unrest. read more
The U.S. State Department has proposed requiring parents applying for passports for their children to provide proof of their own citizenship or immigration status as part of President Donald Trump's latest effort to limit birthright citizenship.
The US homeland security secretary, Markwayne Mullin, on Tuesday said that federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers could be deployed to polling sites across the country. Speaking to reporters in New York, Mullin said: "ICE isn't there to patrol the polling places. We're there to enforce specific threats."
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has 148 "open allegations" of agent misconduct and potential criminal wrongdoing, including sexual assault, bribery and drug smuggling, from the last three years, internal records obtained by Newsweek show.
A House Intelligence Committee report warns artificial intelligence could become the same kind of blind spot that led to the September 11 attacks. The report cites testimony from Benjamin Buchanan, a Johns Hopkins professor and former White House Special Advisor for Artificial Intelligence on the National Security Council, who compared AI to the 9/11 Commission's original finding that the attacks stemmed from a "failure of imagination."
... Mullin said: "ICE isn't there to patrol the polling places. We're there to enforce specific threats." ...
Threats like voters not voting for "the right leaders?"
Noem dismisses criticism of 'right people' voting for 'right leaders' remark (February 2026)
thehill.com
... Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem waved off criticism of recent comments she made about ensuring "we have the right people voting, electing the right leaders to lead this country," calling the remarks "commonsense." ...
Army secretary frequently warned White House about Hegseth before his departure
abcnews.com
... Army Secretary Dan Driscoll's resignation follows a strained relationship with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and repeated warnings to the White House, including Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, about what has been described as Hegseth's widespread and seemingly indiscriminate firing of senior military officers, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Driscoll also warned the White House about unprecedented efforts by Hegseth to block others from advancing into the military's highest ranks after they had been thoroughly vetted, the sources said. ...
... The widow of an Alabama airman has revealed she and her children are not eligible for some benefits because the Iran war has not officially been declared a war. ...
Well, that's one way for Pres trump to help reduce the deficit.
And it fits right in with his "special strain of internal ugliness" ( drudge.com )
Trump just said he "certainly wouldn't sign" an immigration bill his White House helped write (June 2018)
www.vox.com
... Trump might have torpedoed a bill that even immigration hardliners in his administration like Stephen Miller were trying to pass.
Members of President Trump's White House -- including immigration hardliners like Stephen Miller -- have been hard at work with Republicans in the House of Representatives on crafting a "compromise" immigration bill for the House to vote on next week.
Trump himself may just have torpedoed it. ...
The "more moderate" bill was explicitly designed to adhere to the "four pillars" that Trump mandated in January be a part of any immigration deal: money for the "wall" he wants to build on the US-Mexico border; elimination of the diversity visa lottery; curbing family-based immigration (which the Trump administration refers to as "chain migration"); and a way for the immigrants currently facing the loss of their protections under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program to apply for formal legal status in the US.
It also gives the Trump administration what it's been demanding more recently, as it's turned its attention to trying to reduce the number of asylum seekers (especially Central Americans, and especially families) coming into the US without papers: It drastically raises the bar for the initial screening that allows someone to stay in the US and pursue an asylum case; it allows the US to turn back any asylum seeker who's come through Mexico and tell them to seek asylum there instead; and it allows children to be detained indefinitely by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (which the Trump administration claims is the only alternative to separating them from their parents at the border).
As late as Wednesday, the White House was helping Republican leadership sell the deal to conservatives in the House.
Stephen Miller, the biggest immigration hardliner in Trump's White House, went to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to lobby one of the House's most influential conservative caucuses, the Republican Study Committee. ...
@#1 ... They need to own it. ...
Talk to the corporations that hire them.
Talk to the farmers who hire them.
An excerpt from the Border Patrol Union webpage that was deleted during fmr Pres Trump's first term:
web.archive.org
- - - Walls and fences are temporary solutions that focus on the symptom (illegal immigration) rather than the problem (employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens). ...
Another view...
OpEd: Odd that Lake Ontario would be what finally turns the public against Trump
thehill.com
... According to a YouGov poll, only 19 percent of Americans support Trump's maneuver, an obviously petty snub of our friendly neighbor to the north. Before declaring the negative polling "better late than never," however, it is worth pointing out that the naysayers might have jumped on the wrong legal bandwagon. This is one executive order that finds Trump on relatively legitimate legal footing -- which makes the public outrage almost tragic. ...
Hegseth removes 6 Army officers from promotion list
thehill.com
... Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth spiked the names of at least six Army officers from a list for promotions to two-star generals, a person familiar with the matter, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Hill on Tuesday. ...
Venezuela's Oil Revival Is Slower Than the U.S. Hoped (August 24, 2026)
oilprice.com
...ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips remain reluctant to return to Venezuela, with negotiations slowed by demands for attractive fiscal terms and concerns over political and legal stability.
Smaller U.S. players are moving faster, with SLB and Hunt Oil signing agreements and Pacific Coast Energy pursuing an $800-million-backed expansion.
Venezuela's history of nationalizations remains a major deterrent, reinforced by a new $2-billion ownership dispute over oilfields potentially being transferred to Pacific Coast. ...
Another category ...
President Trump Job Approval - Inflation
www.realclearpolling.com
...
RCP Average 7/17 - 8/31
Approve: 28.1
Disapprove: 68.7
Spread: -40.6
...
House adopts measure condemning socialism ahead of November
www.cnbc.com
... The House of Representatives voted 220-192 to adopt a resolution to condemn socialism as early as Tuesday, an election-year gambit intended to force an uncomfortable vote for Democrats as far-left candidates win Democratic primaries across the country. ...
Non-paywall version ...
Putin pledges support to Iran, rallies leaders to challenge U.S.
www.spokesman.com
'Who knows if it will survive': Experts question how long Trump's Venezuela oil deal will last
www.politico.com
... Oil company executives and Venezuela experts are looking skeptically at the Trump administration's $100 billion plan to boost Venezuelan oil production, raising questions about whether the deal will yield significant oil any time soon " or ever.
Under the deal the White House announced Monday, the United States would receive a 35 percent stake in oil company North American Blue Energy Partners to drill for oil in Venezuela, the latest instance of the Trump administration taking shares in a private business. As part of the deal, the U.S. would have "preferential access" to 20 percent of the oil the company produces at cost.
The partnership, if successful, would kick-start oil production in Venezuela, something President Donald Trump has wanted since his administration plucked Venezuelan President Nicols Maduro from power in January. Trump and the GOP are promoting increased imports of Venezuelan crude into the United States as a possible balm for the high fuel prices that have plagued voters since the U.S. launched its attacks against Iran in late February.
Oil executives are warning, however, that the fields targeted for production will take years to develop and expressed little confidence that the deal the White House announced with a company few are familiar with would lead to much. ...
[many more concerns expressed in the article ...]
Trump says Venezuelan oil could replenish depleted U.S. stockpiles. Will it?
www.cbsnews.com
... President Trump has framed last week's deal for the U.S. government to take a stake in Venezuela's oil reserves as a boon not just for gas prices, but also for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which has dropped to historically low levels.
"One of the things I am going to do with the Venezuelan Oil is fill up the Strategic National Reserves," Mr. Trump wrote on social media Sunday, saying "the 'topping out' process will begin very shortly, and is a Gift from Venezuela to the People of the United States."
The plan could face hurdles, energy experts say. The oil produced in Venezuela is far heavier than most of the crude in U.S. reserves and would need to be converted. And rebuilding Venezuela's ailing oil industry could take years, requiring oil producers to invest billions while navigating the country's still-uncertain political and legal landscape.
"This project is very unlikely to produce new investment and new production anytime soon," said David Goldwyn, a former federal energy official who serves as president of the consulting firm Goldwyn Global Strategies and chairs the Atlantic Council's energy advisory group. He predicted the U.S. is "at least two years, if not five to seven years at best, away from seeing that production reach the SPR, directly or indirectly." ...
More from the article ...