Tyler Robinson's roommate who tipped off FBI is identified as family refuse to deny transgender motive for Charlie Kirk assassination (Josh Boswell/Daily Mail)

Josh Boswell / Daily Mail:
Tyler Robinson's roommate who tipped off FBI is identified as family refuse to deny transgender motive for Charlie Kirk assassination  —  A 22-year-old wannabe professional gamer who lived with Charlie Kirk's alleged assassin gave cops incriminating text messages leading to his arrest.

2025-09-13 19:15:00 UTC

Daily Mail

This Week In Techdirt History: September 7th – 13th

Five Years Ago

This week in 2020, we learned about how the White House supposedly blocked Walmart from buying TikTok, and we asked why amidst all the fear around the site, nobody was equally worried about advertising tech and location data sales. GOP Senators released the latest stupid attempt to reform Section 230, the FISA court decided to loosen the restrictions on searching 702 collections, and Ajit Pai’s FCC was ignoring falsely inflated broadband numbers to pat itself on the back and killing rules that would have brought competition to cable boxes. We also took a look at the historic Zeran v. AOL case and what it could teach us about more recent cases.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2015, Getty Images did some copyright trolling around the “socially awkward penguin” meme, while one of its subsidiaries was going even further with a totally baseless copyright claim. Some anonymous plaintiffs filed a misguided lawsuit against Amazon and GoDaddy over the Ashley Madison hack, while security researcher Brian Krebs received a legal threat from a former Ashley Madison executive over allegations that they did some hacking themselves. Meanwhile, Ajit Pai was desperately trying to pretend he was right about net neutrality killing broadband investment, and we looked at a great example of the USTR’s “transparency” in taking three months to reveal the names of the chapters in the TPP.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2010, Righthaven’s mass lawsuit scheme found its way to a Senate candidate, and the company was demanding the domain names of sites it sued, while we responded to a ridiculous love letter to Intellectual Ventures. There were raids across Europe targeting file sharing websites, just as the Swiss Supreme Court ruled that tracking online file sharers was a violation of privacy laws, and the EU Parliament rejected ACTA. There was some rising awareness that censoring Craigslist only helps bad actors, while we wrote about the appeal of a ruling in which the court said Craigslist lost its Section 230 protections. And the ACLU took a somewhat new tack in suing Homeland Security over laptop searches at the border.

2025-09-13 19:00:00 UTC

One of Utah's Own — Before the president of the United States announced on this morning's broadcast ... (The Atlantic)

The Atlantic:
One of Utah's Own  —  Before the president of the United States announced on this morning's broadcast of Fox & Friends that the man who'd assassinated Charlie Kirk was finally in custody—"I think, with a high degree of certainty, we have him"—he had already told the American people who was to blame.

2025-09-13 18:35:05 UTC

The Atlantic

This Week in Democracy – Week 34: Assassination, Recriminations, and a Trump 'Birthday Note' to Epstein

This past week truly and tragically underscored the dark moment the US is currently facing – not only because of the horrific and inexcusable killing of Trump ally and right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk, but also because of the response to it.

Instead of bringing the nation together in the face of escalating political violence, Donald Trump, as president, chose to further divide the country, immediately blaming everyone on the left (despite knowing nothing about the shooter). What Trump and his allies conveniently failed to mention is that Democrats have been the victims of a spike in political violence themselves, perpetrated by pro-Trump individuals on the right.

The Kirk news dominated the news cycle, as it will likely do for days to come, but in the background, Trump and his allies continued to take a number of actions that harm democracy, undermine the Constitution, and hurt free societies worldwide.

From Trump’s strange denial of what clearly looks like his signature on a birthday message to Jeffrey Epstein, to his border czar spreading disinformation about people protesting against the administration’s policies, to the Supreme Court allowing ICE to continue practices that effectively amount to racial profiling, here’s ‘This Week in Democracy – Week 34’:

Saturday, September 6

• On Truth Social, Trump shared a meme that depicted him as an officer in the 1979 film ‘Apocalypse Now,’ with the title “Chipocalypse Now.” The caption read, “I love the smell of deportations in the morning…,” and continued, “Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of War.” In response, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker tweeted that Trump, whom he called a “wannabe dictator,” is “threatening to go to war with an American city,” and added, “This is not a joke. This is not normal.”

• Thousands of people protested in Washington, DC, to demand the Trump administration end its federal law enforcement takeover of the nation’s capital, with signs that read “Trump must go now,” “Free DC,” and “Resist Tyranny.”

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Sunday, September 7

• On Truth Social, Trump said that Israel has accepted his terms for an agreement to free the hostages and end its war on Gaza and added that it’s “time for Hamas to accept as well.” He went on to say that he “warned Hamas about the consequences of not accepting,” and noted, “This is my last warning, there will not be another one!” Drop Site News later reported that a senior Hamas official said the 100-word proposal “looks like it was written by the Israelis.”

• In an interview on ‘60 Minutes Australia,’ comedian Rosie O’Donnell responded to Trump’s repeated threats to revoke her US citizenship, saying that while it would violate the Constitution, “he has pawns in the Supreme Court and you never know what he’d be able to do.” O’Donnell also noted that she’s being advised on “what would be right and healthy and what would be safe for myself and my family” when it comes to visiting the US from her new home in Ireland.

• On Fox, Trump’s border czar Tom Homan said without evidence that those who are protesting the administration’s immigration crackdown are “absolutely” being paid to do so, and that those who are behind the funding “will be prosecuted too.”

• Asked by NBC News reporter Yamiche Alcindor whether Trump is trying to go to war with Chicago based on his Saturday post on Truth Social, the president berated her, called her “darling,” and told her to “be quiet,” adding, “You never listen. That’s why you’re second-rate.”

Monday, September 8

• The Trump administration filed an emergency appeal asking the Supreme Court to authorize the freezing of billions of dollars in foreign aid after a lower court ruled it must spend the funds before they begin to expire at the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.

• Politico reported that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent threatened to punch Federal Housing Finance Agency director Bill Pulte “in the fucking face” during a private dinner last week, which was attended by dozens of Trump’s administration officials and advisers.

• While speaking at the Museum of the Bible, Trump downplayed the seriousness of domestic violence, saying, “Things that take place in the home, they call crime … If a man has a little fight with the wife, they say, ‘This was a crime.’”

• Trump also said that the Department of Education will be introducing new guidelines “protecting the right to prayer in our public schools,” while claiming that there are “grave threats to religious liberty in American schools.”

• A federal appeals court rejected a lawsuit by a coalition of 19 states and DC, finding that they had no legal standing to sue the Trump administration over its mass firings of thousands of federal probationary employees.

• A federal appeals court upheld the $83 million judgment against Trump in a defamation case against writer E. Jean Carroll and rejected his claims that he should’ve been shielded from liability because of presidential immunity. The panel, which found that the jury’s damages awards were “fair and reasonable,” wrote that the hundreds of death threats Caroll faced due to Trump’s social media attacks and public statements against her supported the judge’s “determination that ‘the degree of reprehensibility’ of Mr. Trump’s conduct was remarkably high, perhaps unprecedented.”

• The Supreme Court, in a 6-3 unexplained decision, paused a lower court ruling preventing federal immigration officials from stopping suspects in Los Angeles based solely on factors like their race, their occupation, having an accent, or speaking Spanish. In her dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote, “That decision is yet another grave misuse of our emergency docket. We should not have to live in a country where the Government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low wage job.”

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• Meanwhile, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts allowed Trump to move forward with the firing of a Biden-appointed member of the Federal Trade Commission, directly contravening a 1935 Supreme Court ruling that upheld a federal law meant to restrict the White House’s ability to control the agency, while litigation around her termination continues.

• The House Oversight Committee released records from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate, including a note signed by Trump that was part of the sex trafficker’s 50th birthday “book,” which featured text framed around the outline of a naked woman. The text read, in part, “We have certain things in common, Jeffrey,” along with, “Happy birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.” The records also included another entry in the book from a long-time Mar-a-Lago member, which featured a photo of Epstein holding an oversized novelty check with the caption, “Jeffrey showing early talents with money + women! Sells ‘fully depreciated’ [woman’s name] to Donald Trump for $22,500.”

• The Department of Homeland Security announced it launched “Operation Midway Blitz” in Chicago, in an effort to “target the criminal illegal aliens who flocked to Chicago and Illinois because they knew Governor Pritzker and his sanctuary policies would protect them and allow them to roam free on American streets.” In response, Pritzker tweeted that the operation “isn’t about fighting crime,” but “scaring Illinoisians.”

• House Speaker Mike Johnson walked back the claim he made last week that Trump was an “FBI informant” against Epstein, saying he didn’t know if he used the “right terminology,” but that it’s “much ado about nothing.”

• On Truth Social, Trump posted a video that promoted the long-discredited and debunked claim that vaccines cause autism. The video featured vaccine skeptic David Geier, who was hired to work as a senior data analyst in Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Department of Health and Human Services to conduct a study on links between vaccines and autism.

• Asked on CNN about why Ghislaine Maxwell was moved to a lower-security prison, her former lawyer seemingly admitted that it was likely part of a deal with the Trump administration in exchange for her interview with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, saying, “when anybody who’s represented by a lawyer who knows what they’re doing goes in and meets with the government, there’s always a quid pro quo.”

• Trump politicized the killing of a Ukrainian refugee on a North Carolina train to rail against cashless bail, saying “her blood is on the hands of the Democrats who refuse to put bad people in jail,” and calling on Republicans to vote for former RNC Chair Michael Whatley for US Senate.

Tuesday, September 9

• NBC News reported that a more than 15-year-old ICE policy requiring officers in its Enforcement and Removal Operations division to fill out a form with details, including the name, known addresses, and criminal history of targeted immigrants before conducting any operations to arrest them, has ended under the Trump administration.

• A Michigan state judge dismissed charges against a group of fake electors who signed certificates that falsely stated Trump won the state in the 2020 presidential election, ruling that there wasn’t sufficient evidence to prove their intent to commit fraud. Calling the dismissal a “very wrong decision,” Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said it marked “the most dangerous slippery slope for American democracy, when courts decide that violations of election laws shouldn’t even be heard by a jury.” Nessel added, “I am terrified for the 2026 elections … If they can get away with this, what can’t they get away with next?”

• Israel launched a deadly attack on Hamas leaders in Doha, Qatar, two days after Trump said his proposal for a ceasefire agreement was “last warning.” A Qatari security official was also killed. The illegal bombing of a sovereign country took place in a residential neighborhood and was condemned worldwide.

• Qatar, which has hosted Hamas’ political leadership in part at the request of the US, has been a key mediator in negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage deal. “I think that what [Benjamin] Netanyahu has done yesterday, he just killed any hope for those hostages,” Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani said.

• White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the Trump administration was notified of the action by the US military, but CBS News reported that Israel told the US, which has a military base in Qatar, about the strike just before it happened. On Truth Social, Trump said the operation was “not a decision made by me” but called the elimination of Hamas a “worthy goal.” He also said that he directed Special Envoy Steve Witkoff to inform Qatar of the impending strike, “which he did, however, unfortunately, too late to stop the attack.”

• Asked about Trump’s Monday comments downplaying domestic violence during a White House press briefing, Leavitt baselessly claimed that women are falsely reporting cases of domestic violence as a crime “to undermine the great work” Trump’s task force is doing in DC.

• The Supreme Court said it would take up Trump’s emergency appeal related to the legality of his global tariffs, with oral arguments expected in November. In the meantime, the tariffs will remain in place.

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• The New York Times reported that Tulsi Gabbard ordered the retraction of an intelligence report on Venezuela and Richard Grenell, who serves as an envoy to the country and has called for negotiations with its government. The report, which was recalled several months ago while Grenell was negotiating the return of undocumented immigrants to Venezuela, focused on his conversations and negotiations with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

• The Missouri state House voted to approve a new gerrymandered congressional map that would likely result in Republicans gaining another US House seat in the 2026 midterm elections. The map now moves to the state Senate, which is expected to pass it this month.

• Speaking to reporters, Trump denied that he signed the letter included in Epstein’s 50th birthday book, saying, “It’s not my signature and it’s not the way I speak, and anybody that’s covered me for a long time know that’s not my language.”

• A federal judge temporarily blocked Trump from firing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, finding that the president’s decision to terminate her over accusations of mortgage fraud that allegedly occurred before her tenure is outside the bounds of the “for cause” provision, which is limited to her behavior in office.

• The New York Times reported that Trump’s Justice Department is quietly building the largest national voting database in the agency’s history, which includes data from more than 30 states. Experts say efforts to collect information about individual voters, including their names and addresses, may be against the law, and have raised concerns about the data being used to revive debunked claims about the 2020 presidential election being stolen, or to discredit the results of future elections.

• The Supreme Court temporarily authorized the Trump administration to freeze approximately $4 billion in foreign aid set to expire at the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30, which includes funding for global health and HIV/AIDS programs.

Wednesday, September 10

• Trump ally and MAGA pundit Charlie Kirk was fatally shot while speaking at an event at Utah Valley University. His killing was immediately condemned by politicians and pundits across the political spectrum.

• While top Democrats, including Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and Gavin Newsom, denounced Kirk’s killing, some far-right commentators immediately attempted to blame the left for the shooting. Elon Musk tweeted that “The Left is the party of murder,” while conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer called on the Trump administration to “shut down, defund & prosecute every single Leftist organization.”

• Meanwhile, Trump issued a video message from the Oval Office, in which he said, “For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals … My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity, and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it, as well as those who go after our judges, law enforcement officials, and everyone else who brings order to our country.” Trump’s warning came despite the fact that the shooter hadn’t yet been identified in Kirk’s killing, and their motive remained unclear.

• AP reported that the Trump administration is reviewing material at national parks and historic sites related to slavery, the destruction of Native American culture and language, the climate crisis, and other information that could be “disparaging” to the US. Additionally, the National Park Service had until July 18 to flag “inappropriate” signs, exhibits, and other material.

• A federal appeals court reinstated the copyright chief of the Library of Congress while she continues to challenge Trump’s effort to fire her in court.

• ProPublica reported that the Education Department cut funding for programs in eight states that help students who have hearing and vision loss, with a spokesperson for the department citing concerns about “divisive concepts” and “fairness” in relation to diversity, equity, and inclusion. The funding, which will stop at the end of September, was expected to continue through September 2028.

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• Three former senior FBI officials, including former acting director Brian Driscoll, sued Kash Patel for their firings, arguing they were unlawful and politically motivated. The lawsuit claims that Patel “deliberately chose to prioritize politicizing the FBI over protecting the American people. The suit also details an interview Driscoll undertook before he was appointed as acting director, which appeared to be a loyalty test. The interview included questions about whether he voted for a Democrat in the last five elections and if FBI agents who raided Mar-a-Lago in 2022 “should be held accountable.”

• The Trump administration announced it would withhold $350 million in grants to hundreds of colleges serving students of color, reallocating the funds away from eight discretionary grant programs that support Black, Native, Hispanic, and Asian American students.

• The Trump administration walked back its claims that hundreds of Guatemalan children it tried to deport back to their home country last month had been requested to return by their parents after a Justice Department attorney acknowledged that the claims had no factual basis and had been contradicted by a Guatemalan government review, which concluded that most of the parents couldn’t be located and the majority who were had wanted their children to remain in the US.

• Trump’s 30-day emergency order involving the federal takeover of law enforcement in DC officially expired, though National Guard troops and ICE agents will remain in the area. Meanwhile, The Washington Post reported that National Guard documents concluded that public sentiment about Trump’s takeover has been perceived as “leveraging fear,” driving a “wedge between citizens and the military,” and promoting a sense of “shame” among some troops and veterans.

• The New York Times reported that the Venezuelan boat destroyed by the US military in the Caribbean last week, which killed 11 civilians, had altered its course and appeared to have turned around before the strike began after people on board saw a military aircraft following them. The new details about the strike, which experts say may have violated international law, further undermine the Trump administration’s claim that it was legally justified as self-defense.

• A federal judge blocked the Trump administration from subpoenaing the medical records of trans patients who received gender-affirming care at a children’s hospital in Boston, calling the move improper and “motivated only by bad faith.”

• A federal judge blocked the Trump administration from restricting access to services for undocumented immigrants, including the federal preschool program Head Start, as well as health clinics and adult education.

• Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick suggested to Axios that the Trump administration may begin targeting a share of funds generated by patents developed at major universities that receive federal funding, saying, “I think if we fund it and they invent a patent, the United States of America taxpayer should get half the benefit.”

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Thursday, September 11

• Speaking to reporters, Trump escalated his dangerous rhetoric following Kirk’s killing, saying, “We have radical left lunatics out there and we just have to beat the hell out of them.”

• House Democrats sent a letter to the inspector general of the Federal Housing Finance Agency requesting a review of director Bill Pulte’s mortgage fraud allegations against Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook. In the letter, the lawmakers asked the IG to “review all the circumstances and activities” related to the agency’s acquisition and review of Cook’s mortgage application, along with “any announcements, statements, and release of documents related to this matter in order to determine whether any statutory, regulatory, or agency policies may have been violated.”

• Trump asked a federal appeals court to immediately pause a lower court ruling that blocked his firing of Lisa Cook, and requested a ruling by Monday, which is one day before the Fed’s board starts meeting to vote on whether to lower interest rates. Cook will be able to attend the meeting if the block on her firing remains in place.

• Bloomberg reported on a trove of Epstein emails from his personal Yahoo account that hadn’t been made public until now, which largely shed light on his partnership with Maxwell. In one email from Sept. 2006, two months after Epstein was charged in Florida with solicitation of prostitution, Maxwell sent Epstein a list of 51 people, including politicians, business executives, and Wall Street powerbrokers, writing, “Pls review list and add or remove peeps.” Epstein responded, “Remove trump.” A White House spokesperson called the article “more stupid, fake news playing into the hands of the Democrat Hox trying to link” Trump and Epstein.

• A federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deporting dozens of Guatemalan and Honduran children who came to the US alone, extending her order until at least Sept. 26. The judge also raised concerns about whether the government made arrangements for the children’s parents or legal guardians to take custody of them.

• On Twitter, Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau announced that the State Department will “undertake appropriate action” against immigrants who are “praising, rationalizing, or making light” of Charlie Kirk’s killing on social media, saying they “are not welcome visitors to our country.” He also called on Twitter users to report immigrants who have made such comments.

• Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was sentenced to over 27 years in prison after the country’s Supreme Court found him guilty of plotting a coup d’état following his loss in the 2022 election. Trump, who has called Bolsonaro’s prosecution a “witch hunt,” compared the former president to himself, telling reporters, “It’s very much like they tried to do with me, but they didn’t get away with it.”

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• The Trump administration told the New York Times it had ordered the destruction of nearly $10 million worth of birth control pills and other contraceptives meant to go to individuals in low-income countries, even though several international organizations offered to buy them or accept them as donations. The estimated cost to destroy the products was $167,000. Authorities in Belgium, where the products were being held, later told the Times that the stockpile hadn’t been destroyed yet.

• Utah Governor Spencer Cox warned about a “tremendous amount” of disinformation circulating on social media in relation to Charlie Kirk’s killing.

• Senate Republicans broke precedent by changing a rule to lower the existing 60-vote threshold for considering a group of presidential nominees to a simple majority, further eroding the filibuster in the process and making it more difficult for individual senators to block specific nominees.

• Several historically Black colleges and universities in the South were put on lockdown and had classes canceled after receiving “potential threats to campus safety.” Meanwhile, Capitol Police responded to a “potential security concern” at the Democratic National Committee headquarters, which turned out to be a non-credible bomb threat.

• A federal appeals court cleared the way for the Trump administration to move forward with blocking Medicaid funds to Planned Parenthood as part of the president’s tax and spending bill passed in July.

Friday, September 12

• During a one-hour interview on Fox, Trump announced that a 22-year-old suspect in the killing of Charlie Kirk had been taken into custody, and once again called for “quick trials,” saying that suspects who are caught on tape “should have a trial the following day.” The suspect was later named as Tyler Robinson.

• Also during the interview, Trump falsely said he could “change the mayor” of DC if he wants, claimed Chicago is “worse than Afghanistan,” and ludicrously said that “California doesn’t have ballot boxes.” Additionally, he accused, without evidence, the Jan. 6 Select Committee of “burn[ing] all the information because we were right on everything.” He claimed that “radicals on the right oftentimes are radical because they don’t want to see crime. The radicals on the left are the problem.” He also said his administration is going to “look into” Jewish billionaire and Democratic Party donor George Soros, adding he believes “it’s a RICO case against him and other people.”

• Trump announced that Memphis, Tennessee, will be his administration’s next target of a National Guard deployment to fight crime, saying, “We’re going to fix that just like we did Washington.” He added, “I would’ve preferred going to Chicago … we’ll bring in the military too if we need it.”

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• Reuters reported that the Trump administration is planning to propose significant restrictions on the right to asylum at the United Nations later this month. The proposed framework would require asylum seekers to claim protection in the first country they enter, rather than a country of their choosing. Additionally, asylum would be temporary, and the country providing asylum would be able to determine whether conditions in home countries have improved enough for their return.

• The Washington Post reported that Trump health officials are planning to link COVID-19 vaccines to the deaths of 25 children based on information submitted to the federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, which contains unverified reports of side effects from vaccines that can be submitted by anyone. The move comes as the Trump administration considers limiting who can get the COVID-19 vaccine.

• A federal judge blocked the Trump administration’s policy that directed immigration judges to dismiss deportation cases, a move that has resulted in ICE arresting immigrants in and around courthouses.

• Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it would move to end a 15-year-old program that requires thousands of polluters to report the amount of greenhouse gases they emit, with EPA administrator Lee Zeldin saying in a statement that the program “is nothing more than bureaucratic red tape.”

• CBS News reported that the US Secret Service put an agent on leave after writing a Facebook post about Charlie Kirk’s killing, noting he “spewed hate and racism on his show.” In a memo, the Secret Service director said that members “must be focused on being the solution, not adding to the problem.”

• Lisa Cook, the Federal Reserve governor who Trump tried to fire over allegations of mortgage fraud, listed the Atlanta property at the center of those allegations as a “vacation home,” according to a document reviewed by Reuters. The 2021 document, says Reuters, “appears to counter other documentation that Cook’s critics have cited in support of their claims that she committed mortgage fraud.”

Did you miss previous weeks? Catch up here.

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2025-09-13 18:00:38 UTC

Charlie Kirk's allies warn Americans: Mourn him properly or else (Raphael Satter/Reuters)

Raphael Satter / Reuters:
Charlie Kirk's allies warn Americans: Mourn him properly or else  — Republicans warn against mocking Kirk's death, threaten dire consequences  — At least 13 people fired or suspended for allegedly disrespecting Kirk's memory  — Online campaigns directed by Republicans continue to target Kirk's critics online

2025-09-13 16:55:00 UTC

Reuters

Trump is selling a strong economy. Voters aren't buying it. (Megan Messerly/Politico)

Megan Messerly / Politico:
Trump is selling a strong economy.  Voters aren't buying it. … “That's a thing that I know the White House political team is nervous about because there's a reality and there's a perception.  And the reality is the economy is doing fine and the perception is people are still worried …

2025-09-13 16:40:00 UTC

Politico

Pentagon plan envisions 1,000 troops for Louisiana policing mission (Washington Post)

Washington Post:
Pentagon plan envisions 1,000 troops for Louisiana policing mission  —  Documents reviewed by The Washington Post illustrate the Trump administration's evolving strategy for sending the military into cities with Democratic majorities.  —  Just now  —  The Trump administration has drafted …

2025-09-13 16:40:00 UTC

Washington Post

San Diego Navy doctor fired after right-wing activists find pronouns on social media (Andrew Dyer/KPBS Public Media)

Andrew Dyer / KPBS Public Media:
San Diego Navy doctor fired after right-wing activists find pronouns on social media  —  A San Diego Navy doctor was removed from command last week after right wing activists began sharing screenshots of her LinkedIn account on X.  —  Cmdr.  Janelle Marra is a Navy physician with 21 years of service.

2025-09-13 16:30:01 UTC

KPBS Public Media

These Charts Show How Putin Is Defying Trump by Escalating Airstrikes on Ukraine (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street Journal:
These Charts Show How Putin Is Defying Trump by Escalating Airstrikes on Ukraine  —  Russia has significantly stepped up its drone and missile strikes this year  —  KYIV, Ukraine—Russia has significantly escalated strikes on Ukraine since President Trump took office, data show …

2025-09-13 16:20:01 UTC

Wall Street Journal

Charlie Kirk Didn't Shy Away From Who He Was. We Shouldn't Either. (Jamelle Bouie/New York Times)

Jamelle Bouie / New York Times:
Charlie Kirk Didn't Shy Away From Who He Was.  We Shouldn't Either.  —  Virtually every person of note in American politics has, rightfully, condemned the horrific killing of Charlie Kirk and expressed their deep concerns about the growing incidence of political violence in the United States.

2025-09-13 16:15:01 UTC

New York Times

Deportation Blowback in South Korea (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street Journal:
Deportation Blowback in South Korea  —  More foreign investment will require more U.S. temporary visas, as there aren't enough American workers.  —  Still think mass deportation has no economic or political consequences?  The fallout from last week's blunderbuss raid on a Hyundai plant …

2025-09-13 15:45:04 UTC

Wall Street Journal

The Right Is Changing the Rules of the Culture War (Thomas Chatterton Williams/The Atlantic)

Thomas Chatterton Williams / The Atlantic:
The Right Is Changing the Rules of the Culture War  —  For conservatives, cancel culture is in.  —  Christopher rufo took six months to contradict his own advice.  In February, the conservative activist wrote that social-media posts “should no longer be grounds for automatic social and professional annihilation.”

2025-09-13 14:30:03 UTC

The Atlantic

Toxic rhetoric, including calls for 'civil war' and retribution from the right, proliferates after Charlie Kirk killing (David Ingram/NBC News)

David Ingram / NBC News:
Toxic rhetoric, including calls for ‘civil war’ and retribution from the right, proliferates after Charlie Kirk killing  —  Kirk was known for sharing extreme and provocative positions online and in frequent on-campus appearances.  His killing has sparked messages threatening violence.

2025-09-13 14:15:00 UTC

NBC News

Why foreign travelers are avoiding the U.S. (Emily Peck/Axios)

Emily Peck / Axios:
Why foreign travelers are avoiding the U.S.  —  Like a lot of Canadians, Jorge Aranda stopped coming to the United States this year.  “I don't want to pretend that everything's OK,” he tells Axios. … - The U.S. could see 8.2% fewer international arrivals in 2025, per a forecast last month …

2025-09-13 14:10:03 UTC

Axios

Sold-Out Screening of Our Gaza Doctors Film Draws Hundreds at Georgetown University

With not a single empty seat in the crowd, hundreds gathered at Washington DC’s Georgetown University for a screening of Zeteo’s documentary, ‘Gaza: Doctors Under Attack,’ which the BBC refused to air. The screening of the documentary, produced by Basement Films, was followed by a panel discussion with Mehdi and California trauma surgeon Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, who recently came back from Gaza. The panel was moderated by the Director of the Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, Nader Hashemi.

“I wish it wasn't a Zeteo film,” Mehdi opened by saying of the documentary. “It was supposed to have aired on the BBC, and yet the BBC decided, under pressure from all sorts of institutions, individuals, groups, that they couldn't run this film.”

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Dr. Sidhwa, who has been to Gaza twice since the genocide started and is planning for his third visit later this year, explained to the audience the realities of being a doctor in Gaza that our film couldn’t show. “You can only show so much in an hour,” said the trauma surgeon. “One thing it doesn't show is their struggle to survive.”

The doctor shared personal experiences from his trips to Gaza, including the killing of one of his child patients while he was being treated, the difficulty of getting into the occupied strip, and testimonies from Palestinian doctors who cannot leave.

“I fly in for two weeks, and I fly out, and I pat myself on the back, and then I go eat a big cheeseburger. But these folks are there literally just all the time. And there's countless stories of physicians working in the ER when their whole family is brought in dead,” Dr. Sidhwa recounts.

Audience members got to take part in the conversation by putting their own questions to the panel, which ranged from what they can do to fight Israel’s brutality, how Dr. Sidhwa prepares for his trips to Gaza, and where Israel’s red lines are drawn, among many others.

Mehdi, as ever, didn’t hold back in his scathing critique of both Israel’s genocidal government and our own complicit mainstream media!

Paid subscribers can watch the full discussion above. Free subscribers can watch a three-minute preview. Do consider becoming a paid subscriber to Zeteo and never hitting another paywall again!

In case you missed them, here are some of our latest stories:

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2025-09-13 14:02:47 UTC

Pluralistic: Wallet voting (13 Sep 2025)

Today's links

• Wallet voting: On the uses and abuses of consumerism.
• Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
• Object permanence: Microsoft copyright crackdown against Russian dissidents; Corbyn wins Labour leadership; Bill Gates' monopolism; TiVo won't record DRM shows; HDCP leaks; Puking sink; Mr Gotcha…

2025-09-13 13:45:00 UTC

13 Sep 2025

Extremist Groups Hated Charlie Kirk. They're Using His Death to Radicalize Others (David Gilbert/Wired)

David Gilbert / Wired:
Extremist Groups Hated Charlie Kirk.  They're Using His Death to Radicalize Others  —  The Oath Keepers are apparently restarting, and extremist groups like the Proud Boys are calling for “state violence” in the wake of Charlie Kirk's death.  —  For years, extremist groups, white nationalists …

2025-09-13 13:15:01 UTC

Wired

After Charlie Kirk's death, teachers and professors nationwide fired or disciplined over social media posts (NBC News)

NBC News:
After Charlie Kirk's death, teachers and professors nationwide fired or disciplined over social media posts  —  At least a dozen faculty and staff have faced fallout over insensitive comments online.  —  Following the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk this week …

2025-09-13 12:45:01 UTC

NBC News

Bullets Found After the Charlie Kirk Shooting Carried Messages. Here's What They Mean (Wired)

Wired:
Bullets Found After the Charlie Kirk Shooting Carried Messages.  Here's What They Mean  —  The inscriptions on bullets recovered near the scene of Charlie Kirk's murder appear to reference video games like Helldivers 2 and online furry roleplay, not a legible political ideology.

2025-09-13 10:25:00 UTC

Wired

Pete Hegseth tells Pentagon staff to hunt for negative Charlie Kirk posts by service members (NBC News)

NBC News:
Pete Hegseth tells Pentagon staff to hunt for negative Charlie Kirk posts by service members  —  Several people have already been relieved of their jobs because of their posts on social media, defense officials told NBC News.  —  WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has told his staff …

2025-09-13 05:05:00 UTC

NBC News

Lisa Cook's bank documents appear to contradict Trump administration's mortgage fraud allegations (Steve Kopack/NBC News)

Steve Kopack / NBC News:
Lisa Cook's bank documents appear to contradict Trump administration's mortgage fraud allegations  —  President Donald Trump is seeking to remove Cook, a board member at the Federal Reserve, over claims that she falsified financial forms regarding a secondary home.

2025-09-13 05:00:05 UTC

NBC News

Reassessing the 'fine people hoax' hoax (pbump)

pbump:
Reassessing the ‘fine people hoax’ hoax  —  Donald Trump appeared on Fox News' “Fox & Friends” Friday morning, returning to the program where he was a weekly contributor until he announced his bid for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.  Back then, he used to offer right-wing assessments …

2025-09-13 04:45:01 UTC

pbump

Trump shelves Chicago crackdown plans for now as advisers warn of legal headaches (CNN)

CNN:
Trump shelves Chicago crackdown plans for now as advisers warn of legal headaches  —  President Donald Trump shelved his plans to target Chicago as the next city for his domestic crime push after advisers warned him that sending in troops to help with local law enforcement without buy …

2025-09-13 02:50:00 UTC

CNN

Newly Granted Nintendo Patents An ‘Embarrassing Failure’ By The USPTO, Says Patent Attorney

As you will hopefully recall, that very strange patent lawsuit between Nintendo and PocketPair over the latter’s hit game, Palworld, is ongoing. At the heart of that case is a series of overly broad patents for what are generally considered generic game mechanics that also have a bunch of prior art from before their use by Nintendo in its Pokémon games. These include concepts like throwing a capture item at an NPC to collect a character, as well as riding and mounting/dismounting NPCs in an open world setting. The result, even as the litigation is ongoing, has been PocketPair patching out several of these game mechanics from its game in order to protect itself. That it feels this is necessary as a result of these broad patents is unfortunate.

And, because of the failure of the USPTO to do its job, it seems things will only get worse. Nintendo was awarded two additional patents in just the past couple of weeks and those patents are being called an “embarrassing failure” by patent attorney Kirk Sigmon.

The last 10 days have brought a string of patent wins for Nintendo. Yesterday, the company was granted US patent 12,409,387, a patent covering riding and flying systems similar to those Nintendo has been criticized for claiming in its Palworld lawsuit (via Gamesfray). Last week, however, Nintendo received a more troubling weapon in its legal arsenal: US patent 12,403,397, a patent on summoning and battling characters that the United States Patent and Trademark Office granted with alarmingly little resistance.

According to videogame patent lawyer Kirk Sigmon, the USPTO granting Nintendo these latest patents isn’t just a moment of questionable legal theory. It’s an indictment of American patent law.

“Broadly, I don’t disagree with the many online complaints about these Nintendo patents,” said Sigmon, whose opinions do not represent those of his firm and clients. “They have been an embarrassing failure of the US patent system.”

And as Sigmon goes on to note, the failure is multifaceted in both instances. Sigmon notes that both patents are for mechanics and concepts that ought to be obvious to anyone with a reasonable amount of skill in this industry, which ought to have made them ineligible to be patented. That standard of patent law only works, however, if the USPTO acts as a true interlocutor during the filing process. In both of these cases, though, the USPTO appears to have not been in the mood to do their jobs.

Sigmon notes that it is common for patent applications like this to show some amount of questioning or pushback from the examiner. In both of these cases, that seemed almost entirely absent from the process, especially for patent ‘397.

Most of the claims made in the ‘387 patent’s single parent case, US Pat. No. 12,246,255, were immediately allowed by the USPTO, which Sigmon said is “a very unusual result: most claims are rejected at least once.” When the claims were ultimately allowed, the only reasoning the USPTO offered was a block quote of text from the claims themselves.

The ‘397 patent granted last week is even more striking. It’s a patent on summoning and battling with “sub-characters,” using specific language suggesting it’s based on the Let’s Go! mechanics in the Pokémon Scarlet and Violet games. Despite its relevance to a conceit in countless games—calling characters to battle enemies for you—it was allowed without any pushback whatsoever from the USPTO, which Sigmon said is essentially unheard of.

“Like the above case, the reasons for allowance don’t give us even a hint of why it was allowed: the Examiner just paraphrases the claims (after block quoting them) without explaining why the claims are allowed over the prior art,” Sigmon said. “This is extremely unusual and raises a large number of red flags.”

It’s hard to know what to say here. I obviously can’t crawl inside the head of whoever examined these patents at the USPTO. To that end, it would be irresponsible to claim that this is obvious laziness by a government employee, though on the surface that’s certainly what this looks like. Absent more information that is not currently available, any alternate theories as to why these applications were handled is mere speculation.

But with the Palworld example fresh in our minds, we do certainly know what the granting of patents like this will result in: more patent bullying by Nintendo.

“Pragmatically speaking, though, it’s not impossible to be sued for patent infringement even when a claim infringement argument is weak, and bad patents like this cast a massive shadow on the industry,” Sigmon said.

For a company at Nintendo’s scale, the claims of the ‘397 patent don’t need to make for a strong argument that would hold up in court. The threat of a lawsuit can stifle competition well enough on its own when it would cost millions of dollars to defend against.

And in the current environment, where challenging bad patents has become essentially pointless, you can bet we’ll see Nintendo wielding these patents against competitors in the near future.

2025-09-13 02:39:00 UTC

Fired MSNBC Contributor Says Right Wing Mob Came for Him (Wiktoria Gucia/The Daily Beast)

Wiktoria Gucia / The Daily Beast:
Fired MSNBC Contributor Says Right Wing Mob Came for Him  —  FIRED UP  —  The ousted MSNBC analyst has spoken out about the network's decision.  —  Matthew Dowd says most at MSNBC knew his comments following Charlie Kirk's death were “misconstructed,” but claims the network caved to a “Right Wing media mob” in deciding to fire him.

2025-09-13 02:30:01 UTC

The Daily Beast

Keystone Kash Kept Kirk Arrest Secret So Trump Could Spill on Fox (Farrah Tomazin/The Daily Beast)

Farrah Tomazin / The Daily Beast:
Keystone Kash Kept Kirk Arrest Secret So Trump Could Spill on Fox  —  MADE FOR TV  —  The investigation has placed FBI Director Kash Patel and his lack of experience under scrutiny.  —  FBI Director Kash Patel did not disclose for hours that Charlie Kirk's suspected killer had been arrested …

2025-09-13 01:25:02 UTC

The Daily Beast

Charlie Kirk's Legacy Deserves No Mourning (Elizabeth Spiers/The Nation)

Elizabeth Spiers / The Nation:
Charlie Kirk's Legacy Deserves No Mourning  —  The white Christian nationalist provocateur wasn't a promoter of civil discourse.  He preached hate, bigotry, and division  —  Pocket  —  Charles James Kirk, 31, died on Wednesday from a gunshot to the neck at a Utah Valley University campus event …

2025-09-13 01:10:04 UTC

The Nation

The WSJ carelessly spread anti-trans misinformation (Elizabeth Lopatto/The Verge)

Elizabeth Lopatto / The Verge:
The WSJ carelessly spread anti-trans misinformation  —  While I generally respect The Wall Street Journal, every once in a while it sees fit to remind me that it is, in fact, owned by Rupert Murdoch.  This time, it printed something dangerously close to anti-trans blood libel in the wake of Charlie Kirk's shooting.

2025-09-13 00:25:00 UTC

The Verge

After Charlie Kirk's killing, suspect's family put the country first (Washington Post)

Washington Post:
After Charlie Kirk's killing, suspect's family put the country first  —  A father's choice spared the country further agony by accelerating justice in this case.  —  Just now  —  Details are still pouring in about the capture of the suspect in the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

2025-09-12 23:45:01 UTC

Washington Post

Charlie Kirk shooting: suspect set to face aggravated murder charge - live updates (Cy Neff/The Guardian)

Cy Neff / The Guardian:
Charlie Kirk shooting: suspect set to face aggravated murder charge - live updates  —  Tyler Robinson, 22, expected to be charged on Tuesday; family friend contacted authorities after being told he had shot rightwing activist  —  Suspect's high school friend says Robinson was the only ‘leftist’ in a family of ‘very hard’ Republicans

2025-09-12 23:25:02 UTC

The Guardian

Lutnick says Musk was 'backward' in cutting government (Meryl Kornfield/Washington Post)

Meryl Kornfield / Washington Post:
Lutnick says Musk was ‘backward’ in cutting government  —  The commerce secretary said the billionaire's efforts focused too much on reducing the workforce rather than targeting waste.  —  Just now  —  Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said former Trump adviser Elon Musk was “backward” …

2025-09-12 23:10:01 UTC

Washington Post

'Don't even bother dealing with them,' Trump says of Democrats' shutdown demands (Meredith Lee Hill/Politico)

Meredith Lee Hill / Politico:
'Don't even bother dealing with them,' Trump says of Democrats' shutdown demands … Lawmakers have until midnight on Sept. 30 to reach a funding deal. … But Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said this week that Democrats will not vote for any such bill absent bipartisan negotiations.

2025-09-12 23:00:49 UTC

Politico

Evergreen High School shooter embraced Columbine, antisemitism and white supremacy online (The Colorado Sun)

The Colorado Sun:
Evergreen High School shooter embraced Columbine, antisemitism and white supremacy online  —  T he 16-year-old boy accused of shooting two classmates at Evergreen High School on Wednesday before fatally shooting himself embraced conspiratorial, antisemitic and white supremacist social media content …

2025-09-12 22:45:01 UTC

The Colorado Sun

Trump Is Accusing Foes With Multiple Mortgages Of Fraud. Records Show Three Of His Cabinet Members Have Them.

This story was originally published by ProPublica. Republished under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 license.

The Trump administration has vowed to go after anyone who got lower mortgage rates by claiming more than one primary residence on their loan papers.

President Donald Trump has used it as a justification to target political foes, including a governor on the Federal Reserve Board, a Democratic U.S. senator, and a state attorney general.

Real estate experts say claiming primary residences on different mortgages at the same time is often legal and rarely prosecuted.

But if administration officials continue the campaign, mortgage records show there’s another place they could look: Trump’s own Cabinet.

Underscoring how common the practice is, ProPublica found that at least three of Trump’s Cabinet members call multiple homes their primary residences on mortgages. We discovered the loans while examining financial disclosure forms, county real estate records and publicly available mortgage data provided by Hunterbrook Media.

Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer entered into two primary-residence mortgages in quick succession, including for a second home near a country club in Arizona, where she’s known to vacation. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has primary-residence mortgages in New Jersey and Washington, D.C. Lee Zeldin, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, has one primary-residence mortgage in Long Island and another in Washington, D.C., according to loan records.

In a flurry of interviews and rapid-fire posts on X, Bill Pulte, the Federal Housing Finance Agency director, has led the charge in accusing Trump opponents of mortgage fraud. “If somebody is claiming two primary residences, that is not appropriate, and we will refer it for criminal investigation,” Pulte said last month.

A political donor to the president and heir to a housing company fortune, Pulte’s posts online tease big developments and criminal referrals, drawing reposts from Trump himself and promises of swift consequences. “Fraud will not be tolerated in President Trump’s housing market,” Pulte has warned.

Real estate experts told ProPublica that, in its bid to wrest control of the historically independent Fed and go after political enemies, the Trump administration has mischaracterized mortgage rules. Its justification for launching criminal investigations, they said, could also apply to the Trump Cabinet members.

All three Cabinet members denied wrongdoing. In a statement, a White House spokesperson said: “This is just another hit piece from a left-wing dark money group that constantly attempts to smear President Trump’s incredible Cabinet members. Unlike [Fed Gov.] Lisa ‘Corrupt’ Cook who blatantly and intentionally committed mortgage fraud, Secretary DeRemer, Secretary Duffy, and Administrator Zeldin own multiple residences, and they have followed the law and they are fully compliant with all ethical obligations.”

Mortgages for a person’s main home tend to receive more favorable terms than for a second home or an investment property. That includes better interest rates and the ability to borrow more money.

The idea is that borrowers are more likely to pay back — and less likely to default on — a loan attached to the home they actually live in. That makes those loans less risky for lenders. Interest rates are typically a quarter- to a half-point lower for primary mortgages, according to Pulte. On the low end, that could save around $75 each month over the life of a 30-year, 5% interest, half-million-dollar loan — or a total of around $25,000.

Standard mortgage documents commonly include an occupancy clause that requires the borrower to use the property as their principal residence for at least a year. They also include a section where borrowers can check a box when the mortgage is for a second home.

Misrepresenting occupancy status is not rare, according to a widely cited 2023 study from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. In interviews, real estate lawyers said that mortgage lenders are typically well aware of their clients’ other loans and sometimes even encourage the primary-residence language for second homes.

They also pointed to a mundane reason that innocent mistakes are common: Homebuyers simply sign stacks of forms without reading them.

“Few consumers understand this issue, and if there is someone at fault here, it is likely the loan officer who likely advised them to sign up for this loan that obviously wasn’t for their primary residence,” said real estate lawyer Doug Miller. “Loan officers who are competing for business will often quote lower rates in order to get a customer’s business.”

Mortgage fraud is rarely prosecuted, according to real estate lawyers and federal sentencing data. Pulte has pointed to a case from 2016 in which a California woman was found guilty of obtaining multiple loans for condos that she falsely stated would be her primary residence. But that case had an added layer of fraud: The woman never intended to live in the homes. She was secretly being paid because she had good credit to act as a front for the true buyer of the properties, to whom they were later transferred. She later defaulted on the loans, causing more than half a million dollars in losses for the lenders.

Lawyers told ProPublica that determining ill intent would be key to prosecute. “Fraud requires the borrower to be aware that the borrower was making a false representation,” said Jon Goodman, an attorney focused on real estate at Frascona, Joiner, Goodman and Greenstein.

But Pulte has framed the issue in black-and-white terms: “Your second home is not your primary home,” he warned in one recent post on X.

By that standard, Trump’s labor secretary, Chavez-DeRemer, could be in the wrong.

In her financial disclosure form, she listed two mortgages on personal residences, both obtained in 2021. Mortgage records show her home is in Happy Valley, a city near Portland where Chavez-DeRemer served as mayor before being elected to represent the area in the U.S. House.

She and her husband, Shawn DeRemer, who leads an anesthesia company in Portland, refinanced their longtime Oregon home in January 2021. Two months later, the couple bought a newly built house near a golf course in Fountain Hills, Arizona.

The pair had previously enjoyed vacationing in Arizona, according to news reports and social media posts. (In one incident that made the news, Chavez-DeRemer was briefly hospitalized after a golf cart accident on her way back from watching a Sonoran Desert sunset.)

The mortgage agreement for the Arizona property required them to occupy the home as their “principal residence” for at least a year, barring “extenuating circumstances” or the lender allowing them to violate the stipulation.

A spokesperson for Chavez-DeRemer said that the couple bought the Arizona home with the intent to retire there, but then Chavez-DeRemer decided to run for Congress representing her Oregon district and did not move.

“This is nothing more than a left-wing rag inventing a story just to attack the Trump Administration. It’s common for families to refinance then buy a home with future plans in mind — trying to spin that as some type of scandal is pure nonsense,” said spokesperson Courtney Parella.

In response to questions from ProPublica, a White House official said that although DeRemer opted to stay in Oregon, her husband “continued to move forward with the process of becoming” an Arizona resident. Political donation records list his home in Oregon as recently as late 2023.

Duffy, Trump’s transportation secretary, and his wife also have two primary-residence mortgages, obtained a few years apart.

In August 2021, the Duffys, who have nine children, purchased a large $2 million home in Far Hills, New Jersey, about an hour’s drive from Manhattan, where Rachel Campos-Duffy works as a Fox News host.

They got a $1.6 million mortgage to purchase the property, and documents show it was a “principal residence” loan.

In February, after Duffy took the job in Trump’s cabinet, the couple bought another home, in Washington, D.C. Again, they got a principal-residence mortgage, this time for $1.76 million. Both Duffy and his wife are listed as borrowers on both mortgages, which came from the same bank.

It’s not clear where Sean Duffy lives most of the time, and a Department of Transportation spokesperson declined to answer questions about where Duffy and his wife each make their primary home. In late May, several months after they purchased the Washington home, “Fox & Friends Weekend” ran a segment in which Rachel Campos-Duffy cooked a “Make America Healthy Again” breakfast for host Steve Doocy. Sean Duffy and some of the couple’s children were also in the segment, and it was filmed in the New Jersey home.

Duffy’s spokesperson said in a statement that after being confirmed, “Sean purchased a home in Washington D.C. where he works full-time. The home in DC is not a rental, investment or vacation property. The same bank holds both mortgages and was fully informed of Secretary Duffy’s new employment location and need for a DC residence.”

A White House spokesperson said, “The bank, not the Secretary, determined and classified both mortgages as primary residences.”

Like the Duffys, Lee Zeldin, the EPA administrator, and his wife also have two concurrent primary-residence mortgages.

One, obtained in 2007, is on a home in Shirley, New York, on Long Island, which Zeldin represented in Congress for several years. Last year, Zeldin and his wife obtained a second mortgage, for $712,500, on a property in Washington, D.C., a short walk from the EPA’s headquarters. Both are primary-residence mortgages.

An EPA spokesperson said in a statement that Zeldin’s primary residence was previously on Long Island but is now in Washington. The spokesperson didn’t respond to questions about where his wife lives. “Administrator Zeldin followed ALL steps to complete the move in accordance with all laws, rules, and contracts, notifying his mortgage company, insurance company, and local government,” the spokesperson said. “EVERY ‘I’ was dotted and ‘t’ was crossed 1000% by the book without exception.”

The dual mortgages identified by ProPublica among Trump’s cabinet secretaries resemble the loans obtained by U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff, whom Trump accused of mortgage fraud.

In May, Pulte referred Schiff to the Justice Department for taking out a primary-residence mortgage in Maryland, for a home he purchased in 2003 after being elected to the House, while also claiming his primary home was in Burbank, California, in the district he represented. Schiff and his wife refinanced the Maryland home several times as a primary residence, Pulte noted, until a 2020 refinance in which they reclassified it as a secondary home.

“Schiff appears to have falsified records in order to receive favorable loan terms,” Pulte concluded in a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Representatives for Schiff called the allegations “transparently false” and said his lenders had “full knowledge of the senator’s year-round bicoastal work obligations” and “his use of two homes for that reason.” Schiff, according to his office, navigated the two mortgages in consultation with a House lawyer.

Pulte made similar allegations in a criminal referral about New York Attorney General Letitia James, alleging she may have committed fraud by getting a primary-residence mortgage for a home in Virginia, even though her position required her to live in New York. Her lawyer has said James helped a family member buy the property and notified the mortgage broker at the time that it would not be her primary residence. James became one of Trump’s top political enemies after she brought a fraud lawsuit against the president and his company in 2022. Representatives for James have called the fraud claims made against her politically motivated and false. (Pulte did not respond to a request for comment from ProPublica.)

Pulte’s most consequential allegations thus far were made against Cook, a Federal Reserve governor. Trump has been going after Fed Chair Jerome Powell for months for not lowering interest rates, even raising the specter that he would take the unprecedented step of attempting to fire the chair. Pulte’s criminal referral against Cook presented Trump with another avenue for bending the traditionally independent Fed to his will, securing a majority of the Fed’s board by firing Cook, a move that Cook has sued to block.

Pulte pointed to mortgage records that show that within just a couple of weeks, Cook signed primary-residence mortgages for homes in Michigan and Georgia. Legal experts said the close proximity was a red flag but that much was still unknown, including Cook’s intent and what her lenders were told. Pulte also flagged a third property, in Massachusetts, that Cook represented as a second home in mortgage documents but as an investment property in subsequent financial disclosures. Investment properties can be hit with higher mortgage rates than second homes.

“3 strikes and you’re out,” he posted on X.

Cook’s lawyers have denied that she committed mortgage fraud but have not provided a detailed explanation of the context for the various mortgages. They argued in court this week that her loans cannot be legally used as grounds to terminate her.

The Justice Department has begun investigating all three Trump foes singled out in Pulte’s referrals, according to news reports. The department has issued subpoenas in Cook’s case, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

ProPublica’s review of mortgage agreements by Trump cabinet officials shows that some made clear to lenders they were purchasing second homes.

When Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., for example, got a mortgage for his home near the Kennedy Compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, the agreement included a rider making it clear he would be using it as a second home.

2025-09-12 22:35:40 UTC

ICE officer fatally shoots suspect after being dragged by car near Chicago, officials say (Associated Press)

Associated Press:
ICE officer fatally shoots suspect after being dragged by car near Chicago, officials say  —  A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot a suspect who tried to evade arrest Friday in a Chicago suburb by driving his car at officers and dragging one of them, officials said.

2025-09-12 22:25:00 UTC

Associated Press

Charlie Kirk Suspect's Grandma Says Family Is All MAGA (Amber Levis/The Daily Beast)

Amber Levis / The Daily Beast:
Charlie Kirk Suspect's Grandma Says Family Is All MAGA  —  RELATIVELY REPUBLICAN  —  Tyler Robinson, the prime suspect for Charlie Kirk's assassination, comes from a proud MAGA family, according to his grandmother.  —  Tyler Robinson, 22, the man arrested in connection with the assassination …

2025-09-12 22:15:00 UTC

The Daily Beast

Exclusive: Fed Governor Cook declared her Atlanta property as "vacation home," documents show (Reuters)

Reuters:
Exclusive: Fed Governor Cook declared her Atlanta property as “vacation home,” documents show  — Cook's declarations on loan, job-vetting forms appear to undercut fraud claims  — Cook never sought tax exemption for Georgia home as primary residence  — Accusations against Cook …

2025-09-12 21:55:00 UTC

Reuters

EPA Releases Proposal to End the Burdensome, Costly Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, Saving up to $2.4 Billion (US EPA)

US EPA:
EPA Releases Proposal to End the Burdensome, Costly Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, Saving up to $2.4 Billion  —  WASHINGTON - Today, in accordance with President Trump's Day One executive orders, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin announced a proposed rule …

2025-09-12 21:50:00 UTC

US EPA

I Am the Daughter of a Holocaust Survivor. The UK Arrested Me for Protesting the Genocide in Gaza

My Polish father survived the Holocaust.

Last Saturday, I was arrested for protesting against a genocide.

I had made the conscious decision to attend a protest against the UK's draconian law that makes it a crime to support Palestine Action, a group the government recently proscribed as a terrorist organization, knowing I would be arrested.

Hundreds, including an 89-year-old woman, a blind man in a wheelchair, and many others in their 60s like me, have been arrested at similar protests in London. So going there, I knew how my day would end.

Read more

2025-09-12 21:16:27 UTC

The Judiciary Is Breaking Down: Federal Judges Now Openly Revolt Against SCOTUS Shadow Docket During Live Court Hearing

We’ve been tracking the growing judicial revolt against the Supreme Court’s shadow docket nonsense, from individual district judges getting snarky in footnotes to anonymous judges speaking to reporters. But what happened Thursday at the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals crosses into entirely new territory: a full en banc panel of federal judges openly criticizing the Supreme Court’s approach during a live oral argument session.

This isn’t normal. Federal judges don’t usually air their grievances about the Supreme Court in open court. The fact that an entire appeals court panel—including respected conservative judges—turned their oral argument into what Politico called “a remarkable, 80-minute venting session” tells you everything about how broken the system has become.

The immediate catalyst was trying to figure out what to do with a case about DOGE’s access to Social Security data after the Supreme Court issued one of its trademark unexplained emergency orders. But the real issue was much bigger: how are lower courts supposed to function when the highest court in the land operates like it’s playing Calvinball?

“They’re leaving the circuit courts, the district courts out in limbo,” said Judge James Wynn… “We’re out here flailing. … I’m not criticizing the justices. They’re using a vehicle that’s there, but they are telling us nothing. They could easily just give us direction and we would follow it.”

Judge Wynn didn’t stop there:

“They cannot get amnesia in the future because they didn’t write an opinion on it. Write an opinion,” Wynn said. “We need to understand why you did it. We judges would just love to hear your reasoning as to why you rule that way. It makes our job easier. We will follow the law. We will follow the Supreme Court, but we’d like to know what it is we are following.”

I’ve been writing about the law for almost three decades. I’ve never seen anything like this. Ever. Not even in the same zip code as this. These are judges crying out for help under a completely lawless Supreme Court.

And, no, this wasn’t just liberal judges complaining. Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III—a Reagan appointee and one of the most respected conservative jurists in the country—was right there with them:

“The Supreme Court’s action must mean something,” said Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III, a Reagan appointee. “It doesn’t do these things just for the kicks of it.”

Even Wilkinson can’t figure out what the hell the Supreme Court is doing. When you’ve lost Harvie Wilkinson—a judge so conservative and institutionally minded that he’s basically judicial royalty—you’ve completely broken the system.

The specific case that triggered this judicial revolt involves the Supreme Court’s typical shadow docket bullshit. In June, the Court overruled the Fourth Circuit’s decision and lifted an injunction against DOGE’s use of Social Security data. But they did so in the most bizarre and troubling way. After sending the case back to the Fourth Circuit for more review, it said that even if the Fourth Circuit rules that DOGE is breaking the law, the stay will remain in place.

By an apparent 6-3 vote, the justices went further, saying that no matter what the appeals court decided, the injunction would remain on hold until the case returned to the Supreme Court. Yet, the high court’s majority offered no substantive rationale for the lower court to parse.

So the Supreme Court basically said: “We’re overturning you, and also whatever you decide doesn’t matter anyway, but we’re not going to tell you why.” This left the entire Fourth Circuit panel wondering what the fuck they’re even supposed to do.

That left many of the 15 4th Circuit judges on hand for Thursday’s unusual en banc arguments puzzling at their role. One even suggested the appeals court should simply issue a one-line opinion saying the injunction is lifted and kick the case back to the Supreme Court to resolve.

Some judges thought they should just give up entirely and punt the case back to SCOTUS since SCOTUS has already said whatever they decide here doesn’t actually matter. Others insisted they had a constitutional duty to actually do their jobs:

“It sounds like some of my colleagues think that there’s no work to be done, that we’re done because the Supreme Court has told us what the answer is,” said Judge Albert Diaz, an Obama appointee.

Judge Robert King said punting on the case would be a mistake.

“We each have a commission and we have a robe and we have an oath to abide by,” said King, a Clinton appointee.

This perfectly captures the impossible position the Supreme Court has created. Lower court judges literally don’t know if they’re supposed to do their jobs or just rubber-stamp whatever vibes they think they’re getting from the shadow docket.

The whole mess stems from a series of recent Supreme Court shadow docket rulings (without much explanation) basically telling lower courts they have to follow SCOTUS shadow docket rulings (also without much explanation) as binding precedent. But as we’ve written about extensively, these aren’t reasoned legal decisions—they’re often unexplained orders issued with minimal briefing, no oral arguments, and little to no explanation of any reasoning.

This has created a situation where experienced federal judges—people who’ve spent decades interpreting legal precedent (often longer than the Justices themselves)—literally can’t figure out what the Supreme Court wants them to do.

What we’re witnessing is the breakdown of the federal judiciary as a functioning institution. When Reagan and Obama appointees are united in open revolt, and Harvie Wilkinson can’t figure out what the Supreme Court wants, the system has collapsed.

The three liberal Justices have been warning about this in dissent after dissent, while the conservative majority just keeps issuing more unexplained orders and then getting pissy when lower courts can’t read their minds. This isn’t jurisprudence. It’s government by judicial decree, where constitutional law operates on vibes and the only consistent principle is “give Trump whatever he wants.”

When federal judges with decades of experience are reduced to public pleading for basic guidance during oral arguments, we’ve crossed into judicial authoritarianism. The Supreme Court has effectively told the entire federal judiciary: “Follow our orders, but we won’t explain what they mean, and if you guess wrong, we’ll scold you for defying us.”

That’s not how precedent works. That’s not how courts work. That’s not the rule of law. It’s just nine people in robes demanding deference to their unexplained whims.

2025-09-12 20:41:47 UTC

Judge worries Trump administration is sidestepping torture protections for deported Africans (Politico)

Politico:
Judge worries Trump administration is sidestepping torture protections for deported Africans … The immigrants had all won legal protections from being deported to their home countries over fear of being persecuted or tortured.  Their lawyers say the Trump administration is circumventing …

2025-09-12 20:40:00 UTC

Politico

Live updates: Charlie Kirk shooting suspect Tyler Robinson in custody; family turned him in, sources say (NBC News)

NBC News:
Live updates: Charlie Kirk shooting suspect Tyler Robinson in custody; family turned him in, sources say  —  The FBI has offered a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading to the identification and arrest of the shooter. … White House defends Patel's handling of the Kirk investigation

2025-09-12 20:25:00 UTC

NBC News

Tyler Robinson's Descent From Promising Student to Murder Suspect (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street Journal:
Tyler Robinson's Descent From Promising Student to Murder Suspect  —  The 22-year-old suspect in the killing of Charlie Kirk spent much of his time online and had become increasingly political, according to relatives.  ‘I have no idea why he did this.’  —  Tyler Robinson was the pride of his Utah family.

2025-09-12 20:05:02 UTC

Wall Street Journal

Charlie Kirk's alleged killer scratched bullets with a Helldivers combo and a furry sex meme (The Verge)

The Verge:
Charlie Kirk's alleged killer scratched bullets with a Helldivers combo and a furry sex meme  —  The suspected shooter left a hodgepodge of extremely online taunts. … Tyler Robinson, apprehended last night in connection to the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk …

2025-09-12 19:25:00 UTC

The Verge

After 30+ Deaths In Protests Triggered by Nepal’s Social Media Ban, 145,000 People Debate The Country’s Future In Discord Chatroom

The Himalayan nation of Nepal has featured only rarely on Techdirt. The first time was back in 2003, with a story about an early Internet user there. According to the post, he would spend five hours walking down the mountain to the main road, and then another four hours on a bus to get to the nearest town that had an Internet connection he could use. As a recent Ctrl-Alt-Speech podcast explained, Nepal’s digital society has moved on a long way since then, with massive street protests in the country’s capital, Kathmandu, triggered by a government order banning 26 social media platforms, later rescinded. Those protests turned violent, leaving more than 30 people killed in clashes with the police, key government buildings in flames, and the prime minister ousted. Although the attempt to block the main social media platforms for their failure to submit to governmental registration — and thus control — may have been the final spark that ignited the violence, the underlying causes lie deeper, as NPR explains:

Frustrations have been mounting among young people in Nepal over the country’s unemployment and wealth gap. According to the Nepal Living Standard Survey 2022-23, published by the government, the country’s unemployment rate was 12.6%.

Leading up to the protests, the hashtag #NepoBaby had been trending in the country, largely to criticize the extravagant lifestyles of local politicians’ children and call out corruption, NPR previously reported.

The use of popular digital platforms to criticize the government in this way was probably a key reason for the authorities’ botched clampdown on social media, which in turn led to the large-scale protests and ensuing chaos. And now another popular digital platform is being used in an attempt to find a way to move forward:

After the government’s collapse on Tuesday, the military imposed a curfew across the capital, Kathmandu, and restricted large gatherings. With the country in political limbo and no obvious next leader in place, Nepalis have taken to Discord, a platform popularized by video gamers, to enact the digital version of a national convention.

As one person participating in the discussions told the New York Times: “The Parliament of Nepal right now is Discord.” It is a parliament like no other: in just a few days, more than 145,000 people have joined a Discord server to discuss who should lead the country, at least for the moment:

The channel’s organizers are members of Hami Nepal, a civic organization, and many of those participating in the chat are the so-called Gen-Z activists who led this week’s protests. But since the prime minister’s abrupt resignation on Tuesday, power in Nepal effectively resides with the military. The army’s chiefs, who most likely will decide who next leads the country, have met with the channel’s organizers and asked them to put forth a potential nominee for interim leader.

Whether this unprecedented experiment in large-scale digital politics succeeds in bringing order and stability to Nepal remains to be seen. But it is certainly extraordinary to watch history being made as, once more, the online world rapidly and profoundly reshapes the offline world.

Follow me @glynmoody on Mastodon and on Bluesky.

2025-09-12 19:12:36 UTC

ICE agents fatally shoot man after traffic stop in Franklin Park (Chicago Tribune)

Chicago Tribune:
ICE agents fatally shoot man after traffic stop in Franklin Park  —  A federal immigration agent fatally shot a man in northwest suburban Franklin Park Friday morning after the agency says the man tried to flee a traffic stop and struck the officer with his vehicle.

2025-09-12 18:50:04 UTC

Chicago Tribune

'Why are yall sad?' Teachers, firefighters, officials on leave or fired over Charlie Kirk posts (The Hill)

The Hill:
‘Why are yall sad?’  Teachers, firefighters, officials on leave or fired over Charlie Kirk posts  —  Related Video: GOP Lawmakers Urge BIG TECH To ‘Ban For Life’ Users Celebrating Charlie Kirk's Shooting  —  (NEXSTAR) - Teachers, firefighters, elected officials and even a cable news contributor …

2025-09-12 18:40:01 UTC

The Hill

Suspect in Charlie Kirk shooting turned in by family friend, Utah governor says (Washington Post)

Washington Post:
Suspect in Charlie Kirk shooting turned in by family friend, Utah governor says  —  Authorities have identified a suspect in the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, potentially capping a two-day manhunt after the brazen shooting in front of a large outdoor audience …

2025-09-12 18:15:00 UTC

Washington Post

Charlie Kirk in His Own Words

Black people

• “Happening all the time in urban America, prowling Blacks go around for fun to go target white people, that’s a fact. It’s happening more and more.” (source)

Black pilots

• “If I see a Black pilot, I’m gonna be like, ’Boy, I hope he’s qualified.’” (source)

Black women

• “They're coming out, and they're saying, 'I'm only here because of affirmative action.' Yeah, we know. You do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously. You had to go steal a white person's slot to go be taken somewhat seriously." (source)

Civil rights

• “We made a huge mistake when we passed the Civil Rights Act in the mid-1960s.” (source)

The death penalty

• "[The death penalty] should be public, should be quick, should be televised… I think at a certain age, it’s an initiation… At what age should you start to see public executions?" (source)

Democrats

• “The Democrat Party supports everything that God hates.” (source)

Empathy

• "I can't stand the word empathy, actually. I think empathy is a made up new age term that does a lot of damage." (source)

Feminism

• “Reject feminism. Submit to your husband, Taylor. You're not in charge." (source)

Gay people

• “You might want to crack open that Bible of yours. In a lesser referenced part of the same part of scripture, is in Leviticus 18 is that, ‘thou shalt lay with another man shall be stoned to death.’ Just sayin’! So Miss Rachel, you quote Leviticus 19… the chapter before affirms God’s perfect law when it comes to sexual matters.” (source)

George Floyd

• “This guy was a scumbag.” (source)

Great Replacement Theory

• “It's not a Great Replacement Theory, it's a Great Replacement Reality. Just this year, 3.6 million foreigners will invade America. 10-15 million will enter by the end of Joe Biden's term. Each will probably have 3-5 kids on average while native born Americans have 1.5 per couple. You are being replaced, by design.” (source)

Guns

• “It’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment.” (source)

Jews

• “Jewish donors have been the number one funding mechanism of radical open-border, neoliberal, quasi-Marxist policies, cultural institutions and nonprofits. This is a beast created by secular Jews and now it’s coming for Jews, and they're like, ‘What on Earth happened?’ And it's not just the colleges. It's the nonprofits, it's the movies, it's Hollywood, it's all of it.” (source)

Martin Luther King Jr.

• “MLK was awful. He's not a good person. He said one good thing he actually didn't believe.” (source)

Muslims

• “They aren’t even hiding their intentions. Muslims plan to conquer Europe by demographic replacement. Will Europe wake up in time?” (source)

Palestine

• “I don’t think the place exists.” (source)

Transgender people

• “You’re an abomination to God.” (source)

2025-09-12 18:10:31 UTC

Breaking Precedent, G.O.P. Changes Rules on Nominees (Michael Gold/New York Times)

Michael Gold / New York Times:
Breaking Precedent, G.O.P. Changes Rules on Nominees  —  Senate Republicans used what is known as the nuclear option to break a Democratic blockade of President Trump's nominees, weakening Congress's vetting role.  —  Senate Republicans on Thursday bulldozed past Senate precedents and changed …

2025-09-12 18:05:02 UTC

New York Times