New details out of Afghanistan: Officials say the earthquake was the deadliest in decades, killing over 2,200 people. AFP reports:
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 #Afghanistan #Earthquake #News
At least 15 people have been killed and many have been injured in a funicular railway crash in Lisbon, Portugal. Here's more from NBC.
NBC News
At least 15 people killed and 18 injured in crash of funicular railway in Lisbon
An investigation is underway to determine the cause of the accident.
 #News #WorldNews #Portugal #Lisbon
A new executive order from U.S. President Donald Trump seeks to withhold federal funds from state and local governments that have moved away from cash bail. "Cashless bail" means that people don't end up in jail just because they can't afford to pay to secure their release while they await trial and are still presumed innocent. Sharone Mitchell, public defender in Cook County, Illinois, explains to @npub1hpgg...yrre why the state entirely abolished cash bail and how the new system is more fair, works well, and hasn't harmed public safety. "What is scary is that this is tyranny 101. This is a state legislature looking at a problem, studying a problem, proposing a solution, getting the votes, and then implementing that solution — and then you have a president deciding he doesn’t like this idea," Mitchell says. "And the way he’s going to get the state to change it is to essentially rob the state or starve the state of resources. That’s the type of stuff that happens in 'The Godfather' and 'Goodfellas.'"
Bolts
Chicago’s Public Defender on Why Illinois Should Fight Trump's Threats on Cashless Bail - Bolts
President Trump on Monday issued an executive order that purports to block federal funds from state and local governments that have moved away from...
 #USPolitics #TrumpAdministration #Illinois #Chicago #CashlessBail #USNews #CriminalJustice #Incarceration
U.S. immigration agents have arrested two Mexican contractors who were helping to tackle the Bear Gulch fire in Olympic National Forest, Washington. Crew boss David Diaz said they were among 20 Mexican contract workers, all of whom carried work visas and passports, but they were arrested on suspicion of being in the U.S. illegally. Contracts with the two firefighting companies that had been brought in to help with the fire, which is only 13% contained, have now been terminated, according to Customs and Border Protection.
NBC News
Border Patrol agents arrest fire crew members at Washington wildfire
The two Mexican men were contract workers who were in the U.S. illegally, immigration officials said.
 #ICE #Immigration #BorderProtection #USNews #TrumpAdministration #WIldfires
Both Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. will claim that their opponents are the worse perpetrators when it comes to gerrymandering. Sam Wang and his team at Princeton University took a look at the data and graded states for their congressional and legislative redistricting. Here's his blogpost explaining the method, plus, at the second link, the results. "From this systematic comparison across every state, we learned that there is a very particular way that districting can be fair: take the power away from legislators."
Redistricting plans in 50 states, graded (correctly)
...but first, we have to kill the proportionality myth.
 https://flip.it/lEfXGm #USPolitics #Republican #GOP #Democrat #Redistricting
Two children ages 8 and 10 are dead and 17 people are injured after a mass shooting at a Minneapolis school. NBC News has a live blog with the latest:
NBC News
Minneapolis shooting: 2 children dead, 17 victims injured in Minnesota Catholic school attack
Multiple senior law enforcement officials briefed on the matter say federal law enforcement has identified the shooter as Robin Westman.
 #Minneapolis #News #Shooting #Crime #Guns
"The precise moment when and where in recent weeks America crossed that invisible line from democracy into authoritarianism can and will be debated by future historians, but it’s clear that the line itself has been crossed," writes Garrett Graff for his Doomsday Scenario newsletter. He chronicles why he feels that today, August 25, 2025, is a date to remember. "Everything else from here on out is just a matter of degree and wondering how bad it will get and how far it will go," he writes. "Do we end up 'merely' like Hungary or do we go all the way toward an 'American Reich'? So far, after years of studying World War II, I fear that America’s trajectory feels more like Berlin circa 1933 than it does Budapest circa 2015."
Doomsday Scenario
America Tips Into Fascism
Today is different than before.
 #TrumpAdministration #USPolitics #Politics #USNews #Fascism #Authoritarianism #History #News
Earlier this week, New York's The City newspaper reported on the bizarre moment when one of Mayor Eric Adams' longtime advisors, Winnie Greco, offered a reporter cash in a bag of Herr's Sour Cream & Onion chips. Now, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, another of the mayor's aides, has been slapped with criminal charges alleging — guess what — cash-for-favors exchanges. Here's the latest on the whole saga, including a response from Bob Clark, vice president of marketing for Herr Foods Inc. "While we can’t speak to the details of the story," he said, "we can confirm that our Sour Cream & Onion flavor is money."
THE CITY - NYC News
The Chips Fall as Rivals Fry the Mayor
The jokes and jabs are flying as one of Eric Adams’ closest advisors was slapped with new criminal charges the day after another longtime aide of...
 #NewYork #NewYorkPolitics #Corruption #EricAdams #AndrewCuomo #ZohranMamdani #Chips #SourCreamChips
No Jeffrey Epstein client list or blackmail scheme exists, convicted co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell told the U.S. Department of Justice last month. ABCNews.com reports:
ABC News
Ghislaine Maxwell provided no incriminating information during meetings with deputy AG on high-profile individuals who interacted with Jeffrey Epstein, transcript shows
Ghislaine Maxwell said she never witnessed any inappropriate activity by Donald Trump or Bill Clinton, according to a transcript of her meeting las...
 #News #JeffreyEpstein #GhislaineMaxwell
America's partisan gerrymandering mess dates back to a 2019 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. In Rucho v. Common Cause, "the five Republican judges held that court challenges to partisan gerrymanders could not go forward in federal courts because such cases present a 'political question,'" Jay Willis writes for Balls and Strikes. "What is happening in Texas and California and elsewhere right now demonstrates just how vapid and hollow the reasoning in 'Rucho' always was. You do not have to have a law degree to understand that a Texas map that transforms a 56-42 advantage into a 79-21 blowout is not, in any meaningful sense, fair. You do not need to be a Supreme Court justice to understand that a California map that would turn Kamala Harris’s 58 percent vote share in 2024 into 94 percent of power in the House does not allow for equal participation in the political process. But this is the price that 'Rucho' is forcing millions of voters to pay."
Balls and Strikes
John Roberts Is Responsible For America’s Embarrassing Gerrymandering Mess
In Rucho, the conservatives worried about courts answering hypothetical questions that might be hard. All they did is prevent courts from answering...
 #USLaw #USSupremeCourt #SupremeCourt #JohnRoberts #RuchoVCommonCause #Rucho