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CNN, MS NOW, Politico sue over denied White House access, citing First Amendment
CNN, MS NOW and Politico on Monday sued President Donald Trump's administration days after they were barred from White House grounds, calling the selective ban — based on the content of their coverage — illegal and a "blatant violation" of the First Amendment. Trump said in a post that he "cherished” a free press but not "FAKE NEWS.""White House access is a privilege — not a right," the administration posted on X.The extraordinary ban of the three news outlets’ reporters, which began over the weekend, represented a clear escalation of Trump's long-running efforts — in the courts and through administrative action — to restrict news coverage he finds objectionable or, in his words, "fake news." They were also the latest test of First Amendment protections in the United States, where the government is constitutionally forbidden from restricting the press.The Constitution, the banned news outlets said in their lawsuit, "does not allow a president or any other government official to deprive the press of their First Amendment rights and liberty and property interests with no notice or process based solely on his dislike of the content of their reporting."The three outlets filed the joint lawsuit two days after their reporters were blocked from the White House and prevented from doing their jobs. The reporters’ entry badges were disabled on Saturday, a day after Trump had suddenly announced he was barring the outlets because of reporting he considered "fake news."A number of high-level White House aides were caught off guard by the announcement on Friday, according to four officials who spoke to NBC News. Trump had discussed wanting to ban specific reporters and media outlets earlier in this term but ultimately chose not to do so or was talked out of it, according to two people familiar with those discussions.Monday brought a lawsuit and new reporting locations for the outletsOn Monday morning, the banned TV networks were reporting from an intersection just outside the White House complex. CNN, meanwhile, was removed from its pool duties, which are shared by the five major networks. It had been scheduled to cover the president’s trip to New York for the U.N. General Assembly. In an email to members, the TV pool wrote there would be no replacement coverage following the White House actions."Effective today, the TV pool will not be covering events designated as pool coverage of the President," said the email, seen by The Associated Press. "This follows the White House's position preventing CNN from fulfilling its assigned pool duties. There will be no replacement pool put in place.”CNN’s chief White House correspondent, Kaitlan Collins, explained on air that this meant: "When the president does anything today, there will be no TV camera with the president that is broadcasting and sharing this footage” to the viewing public.Reached for comment on the lawsuit, the White House press office directed NBC News to Trump's Truth Social post defending the move Monday morning. In the post, the president called the ban "an assault" on the news media, which he claimed is "a threat to our National Security, and must be stopped, NOW!"On his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote that he "cherished" a free press."The White House is not instituting an assault on the Free Press, something which I cherish," the president said in his post. "It is instituting an assault on the FAKE NEWS, something that has grown like Cancer in our beloved United States of America. It is corrupt, purposeful, pervasive, fully coordinated, and totally out of control. It is a threat to our National Security, and must be stopped, NOW!"Vice President JD Vance, meanwhile, argued that Trump's decision was about "basic fairness" and not a violation of the right to free speech. Vance told reporters that the journalism of the three outlets is "effectively far-left propaganda,” and said they were still allowed to report — just not to have offices in the White House.Trump has been more aggressive toward the media in his second termIn his second term, Trump and his Republican administration have upped the ante and punished certain media outlets. Trump has also lashed out at individual reporters in person or over social media, sometimes in strikingly personal terms — insulting them in briefings or in his recent speech at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner."This morning, we notified the government that we are filing a lawsuit today to protect our First Amendment rights and defend the principle that the government does not decide what the press reports or publishes," the outlets said in a joint statement posted early Monday on X. “Left unchallenged, this threatens press freedom and the public’s right to independent journalism free from government interference."In the joint complaint, accompanied by a separate request for a temporary restraining order blocking enforcement of the bans, the outlets said: "This ban could not be a more direct assault on the First Amendment nor a more blatant violation of our most fundamental constitutional principles."They said they’re being banned from doing their jobs at the White House "for one simple reason: (Trump) dislikes the content of the coverage of him and his administration.""But the Constitution does not allow a president or any other government official to deprive the press of their First Amendment rights and liberty and property interests with no notice or process based solely on his dislike of the content of their reporting."In legal terms, that's known as "viewpoint discrimination" — the government singling out specific media outlets for the content of what they say or publish. That legal principle is at issue in many of the court cases around Trump's treatment of the media and would likely be at play this time.Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, called the White House move “an attack both on press freedom and the public's right to independent information about the government."“The president's decision to bar news organizations from the White House for the content of their reporting is a flagrant violation of the First Amendment," said Jaffer, whose institute is filing a brief to support the lawsuit. The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, whom Trump nominated during his first term in the White House.Reporters were barred SaturdayOn Saturday, White House reporters from the two cable networks — Betsy Klein of CNN and Akayla Gardner of MS NOW — went live to report they'd been turned away, their press badges deactivated, when arriving for their jobs at the White House. Soon after, Politico said its White House reporter Cheyenne Haslett was also denied entry and had her badge confiscated.All three organizations that were banned covered the White House’s actions extensively during the weekend.The WHCA's president, Jacqui Heinrich, called on the Trump administration to immediately restore the three outlets' access."The implications extend beyond these organizations: a standard used to exclude one news outlet because of its coverage could be applied to any outlet in the future," Heinrich said. "The American people, through a free and independent press, must be able to scrutinize those elected to power, regardless of whether government officials view it favorably."The move follows the president's decision last year to bar AP reporters from the Oval Office, Air Force One and other events in retaliation for the news outlet's decision not to follow his lead in changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico, which lies partially in Mexican and other waters. The AP said it would note when appropriate that Trump had ordered it renamed the "Gulf of America."The AP filed suit and the case is ongoing. Since returning to office, Trump has pursued other legal action against a variety of different outlets, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and the BBC. His administration is also involved in a long-simmering confrontation involving ABC over renewal of its broadcast licenses.Over the weekend, the AP expressed solidarity with the banned news outlets."No news organization — or person — should be retaliated against by the government over the words they use," said a statement from the news cooperative.Associated Press reporter Michael Kunzelman contributed to this story.This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser.
China and U.S. compete for AI dominance but have shared concerns over safety
U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, leaders of rival nations in a race to dominate artificial intelligence, are expected to meet this week against a backdrop of rising concerns about the threats that rogue AI could pose to humanity.The hopes for finding common ground on concerns around global AI safety are clouded by competition between the two countries. As China narrows the technology gap with the U.S., each country has expressed concern over how AI in the other’s hands could hurt them."The U.S.-China conversation in AI is getting caught in the ups and downs in the broader U.S.-China relationship," said Scott Singer, co-director of the China AI Initiative at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.On Sunday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said after talks in New York with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng ahead of the meeting between Trump and Xi that the two countries discussed the setting up of a mechanism on AI dialogue and proposed a new "notification mechanism" for AI incidents that could impact national security.Here is a look at some topics that may — or may not — come up for discussion around AI.Communicating about AI emergencies is one focusThe agenda could focus on AI risks that could harm both countries, such as AI-enabled cyberattacks, biological misuse, major model failures or loss of human control, said Sun Chenghao, a senior fellow at the Center for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University in Beijing. In that case, "there is still meaningful room for cooperation," Sun said."It would be a mistake to dismiss the entire safety debate as geopolitical competition," Sun said. "China itself is paying growing attention to loss-of-control risks, malicious use, cyber threats and the safety of AI agents."Bessent said after his meeting with He that the U.S. proposed a notification mechanism between the United States and China, such as when there are incidents that rises up to the national security level from AI. "We want a shared vision of common goals and common threats," he told reporters.Michael Kratsios, Trump's science and technology adviser, told Fox News Sunday it's important to have conversations with China about AI. "The key thing that we want to talk to them about is avoiding shared risks, and that's something that I think we can have a fruitful conversation on," Kratsios said.Both governments are concerned about how AI could be used to attack critical infrastructure. In China, AI governance documents identify finance, electricity, telecommunications and transportation as areas potentially exposed to frontier-AI risks, Sun said.The Chinese side has shown real interest in discussing issues like AI and cyber incident information sharing with U.S. experts, said Samm Sacks, a senior fellow at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies' Institute for America, China, and the Future of Global Affairs.If the two countries can discuss how to report and communicate in the event of an AI-related emergency, said Xiao Qian, vice dean of the Institute for AI International Governance at Tsinghua University, "it can help the two countries to build technical confidence over time." China Sep 20 Trump used to slam China. Here's why he's now rolling out the red carpet for Xi Artificial intelligence Sep 13 Trump downplays the need to check AI development and says he doesn't want to cede edge to China U.S. export controls affect China’s AI developmentTrump has repeatedly said "whoever wins AI, wins." He has insisted the U.S. needs to keep a technological edge over China and downplayed calls by American tech leaders to slow AI’s development over safety concerns. Beijing, in turn, has accused the U.S. of pursuing an AI monopoly as it curbs China's AI growth including in restricting its access to the world's most advanced chips.At the meeting, any loosening of U.S. export controls on advanced technologies related to AI is likely to be off the table, said Alfredo Montufar-Helu with the consultancy Ankura. With each country seeking competitive advantages in so many areas, Montufar-Helu said the room for U.S. and China to collaborate on AI is "quite narrow.”In his essay this month calling for an AI slowdown, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called on the U.S. to continue seeking ways to limit Chinese AI development. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Amodei's warnings about China were confrontational and a form of "fearmongering" and that all parties should work together on AI.Despite the restrictions, Chinese AI models increasingly challenge American frontier models. Chinese AI models led by Moonshot AI and DeepSeek this year have shown they can be, by some measures, as powerful as those of U.S. rivals like Anthropic and OpenAI, often at a lower cost. Many of them are making inroads globally, including in the U.S."Export controls have not stopped China from developing frontier-competitive models, but they slow its rate of expansion by limiting the compute it can use to serve users," said professor Will Cong of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.Despite the constraints, China’s chip developers have been catching up with the U.S., and companies in China are turning more to domestic chips. That’s giving Xi more confidence in his talks with Trump, George Chen with The Asia Group said.Accusations of 'distillation' are a sore spotU.S. claims that China is ripping off American AI technology are another sore spot in the relationship. The U.S. government and AI companies have stepped up allegations of "malicious" extraction of capabilities, or "distillation," from top American AI models, claims that Chinese officials have rejected.Anthropic has accused Chinese AI models of DeepSeek and Moonshot of routing a number of their user requests to its Claude AI models. Chinese labs are likely attempting to "piggyback on the massive training and inference infrastructure of their U.S. rivals" given how U.S. restrictions are limiting China’s compute power, Rebecca Arcesati, with the Mercator Institute for China Studies, said.Chinese officials and some technology analysts have argued that distillation is not uncommon across the AI industry and is not the main explanation behind Chinese models' improving capabilities and ability to innovate.Beijing, meanwhile, has expressed worries over threats to China's critical infrastructure from American AI, including Anthropic's powerful Claude Mythos, and more broadly, the risk of AI's aiding of spreading of political misinformation and potentially challenging its governance."We cannot expect meaningful cooperation on AI safety if one side increasingly treats the other side's technological progress as a national security threat," Xiao said. Disagreements between the U.S. and China "make dialogue even more necessary," she added.___Associated Press journalists E. Eduardo Castillo in Beijing and Josh Boak in Washington contributed to this report.
Dallas Wings secured a spot in the playoffs, but the seeding is muddled
With the WNBA entering the final week of the regular season, the playoff seeding remains undecided.The eight teams that will play in the postseason were decided a few weeks ago, but none of the positions have been clinched yet.Minnesota and Golden State are still vying for the top overall seed and home-court advantage throughout the playoffs. Las Vegas is in the driver’s seat for the No. 3 seed.Then it really gets tight with only two games separating fourth-place Atlanta from eighth-place Dallas. The Wings, Liberty and Mystics all have the same record as of Monday.Indiana is one game in front of them.There are two key series this week that should have playoff intensity to them when Minnesota and Indiana play a home-and-home set on Tuesday and Thursday. New York and Atlanta will also play two times this week. Those two series will go a long way in determining postseason matchups."I think it'll be good for both us and New York to get two games going into the playoffs, wherever it shakes out, where you're already playing a playoff intensity and kind of playoff stakes," Atlanta coach Karl Smekso said Monday morning after shootaround.Power poll rankingsGolden State remained the No. 1 team in the power poll this week. Las Vegas and Minnesota were the next two. Atlanta, New York, Washington and Dallas followed the Lynx. Indiana was eighth. Los Angeles and Phoenix followed. Portland, Chicago, Toronto, Connecticut and Seattle rounded out the poll.Immortalized in bronzeLisa Leslie was honored by the Los Angeles Sparks franchise with a bronze statue outside their arena. She became the 16th person honored with a statue in Star Plaza in a ceremony that featured Magic Johnson, Candace Parker, Michael Cooper and others.Leslie, who starred for the Sparks from 1997-2009, is the first Sparks player to be honored with a statue. The 11-foot statue with a 4 1/2 foot base depicts Leslie's signature dunk, the first in WNBA history.Record-breaking rookieOlivia Miles passed Caitlin Clark’s record for most points by a rookie when she scored her 770th point in the Minnesota Lynx’s victory over Connecticut on Sunday. Miles came into the game tied with Clark and broke her record with a free throw early in the second quarter. Miles finished the game with 21 points and now has 790 on the season.Player of the weekNew York’s Breanna Stewart was the AP player of the week. She averaged 25.5 points, nine rebounds and four assists to help the Liberty win their two games last week, including one at Minnesota. Other players receiving votes included Paige Bueckers of Dallas, Kiki Iriafen of Washington and Angel Reese of Atlanta.
Paramount reaches deal with California, other states over Warner merger
The California's attorney general's office announced a settlement Monday resolving a 12-state legal challenge to Paramount Skydance's $110 billion merger with Warner Bros. Discovery, clearing a key hurdle for the transaction.The merger would join together two historic film studios (Paramount and Warner Bros.), two popular streaming platforms (Paramount+ and HBO Max) and two news organizations (CBS News and CNN) under the leadership of 43-year-old mogul David Ellison.The states opposing the deal, led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, sued to block the merger July 13, arguing in a 38-page complaint that it would "extinguish competition" in Hollywood.The terms of the settlement include a pledge by the company to release 30 films per year for the first two years of the deal, followed by 32 films in each of the following three years — or pay a fee for missing that target. Bonta also said that the combined company would invest more than $1 billion in production and film releases in the United States.Paramount is also pledging to establish independent editorial boards overseeing the operations of CNN and CBS News.Also Monday, the Writers' Guild of America announced it had settled its lawsuit with Paramount. The guild, which is made up of more than 21,000 members, said in its statement that it is still opposed to the deal, but after the states moved to drop their case, it had to "contend with the reality of forging ahead alone."As part of its settlement terms, the union said Paramount has agreed "to prohibit writer layoffs at CBS News Broadcast for 5 years, and to pay $17.5 million to our health fund along with our attorneys' fees in the litigation."Paramount had agreed to freeze the merger until either the antitrust challenge was resolved or June 1, 2027 — whichever came first. Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, who is presiding over the case, had scheduled an antitrust trial for early March.The fee of $30 million per missed film will be paid into health care and retirement trust funds associated with Hollywood unions, such as the Writers Guild, International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and Directors Guild of America.In a statement Monday, Ellison said, "We are grateful to Attorney General Bonta and his fellow AGs, as well as the WGA, for engaging in good faith to find a path forward to a resolution that serves all parties, and to Governor Newsom for his support throughout this process.""Our goal has always been to build a stronger Hollywood — one with more stories told, greater choice for consumers and stronger competition," he added.Shares of both Paramount and Warner soared more than 10% as reports of the settlement circulated early in the day.Additionally, as part of the states' settlement agreement, "the merged company must conduct negotiations for Paramount basic cable channels independently from negotiations for Warner basic cable channels, preserving the existing competitive dynamic between the companies," New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport said in a statement."The merged company will commit $47.5 million in a workforce fund over five years for training and career development for workers who are displaced by the merger," the statement said.The lawsuit challenging the deal was filed by Bonta and his fellow Democratic attorneys general from Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Washington.They argued that the transaction violated Section 7 of the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914, a federal law that bars mergers likely to reduce competition. The states said the deal would lessen competition in three areas: wide-release theatrical film distribution, anticipated top-grossing movie distribution and the market for distributing basic cable channels to cable and satellite providers.Paramount rejected those claims, arguing that the states' suit is "wrong on both the facts and the law" and "one of the weakest merger challenges in modern antitrust history."Paramount executives had been eager to wrap up the deal as soon as possible partly because the company agreed to pay Warner shareholders a "ticking fee" of 25 cents a share each quarter if the transaction did not close by Sept. 30 — a penalty worth more than $600 million every three months.In August, Paramount's lawyers asked Martínez-Olguín to require the merger's legal opponents, which also includes the Writers Guild, to put up a nearly $1.9 billion bond. The money, the company said, would cover the costs of delays caused by the antitrust lawsuit.The Justice Department threw its support behind Paramount's demand that the opponents should be forced to post a bond as the price of continuing to block the merger. Martínez-Olguín had scheduled a hearing on Paramount's bond request for Sept. 24. Media Jul 24 Paramount agrees to delay closing Warner buyout for months Media Jul 13 12 states challenge Paramount's $81 billion takeover of Warner Bros in lawsuit Hollywood's mixed views on mergerParamount had already received regulatory clearance from the Justice Department, which approved the deal June 12, and it has touted similar approvals from other foreign territories, including Australia, Canada and China.The deal was given the green light by the European Commission on July 21, which required the company to divest its stake in United International Pictures and not enter any film distribution deals with Universal in the European Economic Area for 10 years.The merger also has the backing of AMC Theatres and Regal Cinemas, the largest movie theater chains in the U.S. by number of locations and screens.But many outspoken actors, writers and producers in Hollywood have rallied behind efforts to block the merger, arguing in an open letter earlier this year that further corporate consolidation of the entertainment industry will "threaten the sustainability of the entire creative community."Paramount has repeatedly insisted the deal is "lawful, pro-competitive, and will benefit consumers, creators, workers, and the entertainment industry."The company has argued that big studios face healthy competition from smaller film distribution labels, including recent hitmakers Amazon MGM ("Project Hail Mary"), A24 ("Backrooms") and Lionsgate ("Michael").The actors' union SAG-AFTRA issued a statement shortly after a settlement was reached saying it believes the terms address "some of our deep concerns about production levels and investment in U.S. production""We will continue to approach our relationship with Paramount with professionalism and the intention to work well together," SAG-AFTRA President Sean Astin and National Executive Director and chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland said in the statement. "We hope that the process of engaging with the attorneys general has impressed upon them the fact that in addition to collective bargaining, our members rely on the law to help protect our interests.. These are the lowest standards that our employers must meet."On Sunday and Monday, members of the Committee for the First Amendment, a free-speech advocacy group headed by actor Jane Fonda — organized rallies in Oakland, California, outside Bonta's office, and in New York City, outside state Attorney General Letitia James' office.Holding signs reading "#BlockTheMerger," the protesters called on attorneys general from the states suing Paramount to "stay strong" and resist making concessions in negotiations."We just want to thank everyone for listening, we want people to spread the word and let everyone know: this merger is bad," said Bruce Cohen, a producer who was among the rally attendees and speakers Monday. "It's bad for Hollywood, it's bad for workers, it's bad for democracy."
1 dead, 2 others injured in 2-vehicle crash in Vaughan, Ont.
York police say one person is dead after a two-vehicle collision in Vaughan, Ont., Sunday night. Officers were called to the area of Jane Street and Brandon Gate Drive for reports of a crash around 7:30 p.m. Police say two others were transported to hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries. The exact cause of the […]
President of Belleville synagogue believes gunfire outside temple on Yom Kippur was ‘hate crime’
The president of a Belleville synagogue outside which a shooting occurred on Yom Kippur - the holiest day of the year for the Jewish community - says the incident was hate-motived. “When an individual with a firearm approaches a synagogue where Jews are praying, I would call that a hate crime,” said Norman Weddum, president […]
Police release details on death of Cindy Crawford's 27-year-old son Presley Gerber
Police released new details Monday following the death of Presley Gerber, the 27-year-old son of supermodel Cindy Crawford.Santa Monica Police said officers were first called around 9:35 a.m. Sunday to the 1000 block of Berkeley Street in the Southern California city for a report of a “possible overdose.” When they arrived, they found a man, later identified as Gerber, dead.The department said they are investigating Gerber’s death “as a suspected overdose.” “At this time, there is no indication of foul play. The official cause and manner of death will be determined by the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner,” the department said. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner said in a statement that an examination was scheduled for Monday, but “limited information is currently available.” Gerber, the son of Crawford, a suburban Chicago native, and businessman Rande Gerber, died at a rehab facility, according to online records of the medical examiner.The death was confirmed by Allie Jenkins, a representative for Crawford and Rande Gerber, who were married in 1998."The family is asking for privacy during this very difficult and painful time," Jenkins said in an email Sunday night.Gerber was a model and the older brother of model and actress Kaia Gerber.This story originally appeared on NBCChicago.com.This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser.
StubHub Canada fined $20K under Ontario ticket resale capping law
The Ontario government has fined ticket reseller StubHub Canada Ltd. $20,000 under a recent law that caps the sale of seats at face value.
A tsunami of jailings will drown Trump and his gang — his latest acts signed the warrants
A new Economist/YouGov poll of registered voters that just came out this week found that the top two words that Americans across the board endorse to describe Donald Trump are "corrupt" (53%) and "dangerous" (51%). Not even half of registered Republican voters were willing to call him "honest."This is consistent with Gallup's finding earlier this month that fully 89 percent of Americans now believe that corruption in our government is widespread, the highest number in the two decades the polling company has been asking, and a higher number than in any other advanced, industrialized democracy.The same day that poll came out, on Wednesday, CBS News published photos that American service members smuggled out of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia showing extensive — massive — damage to barracks, facilities, and even U.S. aircraft, all done by Iranian drones and missiles. The Pentagon's own Inspector General just reported that there has been $3.7 billion in equipment and building losses and around 60 aircraft destroyed or severely damaged.This follows Trump, last week, lying through his teeth, saying that the Iranians had inflicted "no damage" on U.S. facilities and troops, 18 of whom are now dead with hundreds more hospitalized.Trump calls that small potatoes and refused to visit the wounded troops when he was at Walter Reed a few weeks ago. One soldier, his identity concealed, told CBS News, "We're standing there with our eyes closed getting punched in the face."Not only is Trump regularly — arguably, daily — lying to America and the world about what's happening in the Middle East (and dozens of other things), but that polling shows that most Americans have figured it out. Which raises a vital question for our country at this pivotal moment:What happens to a country when it loses trust in its government and leaders, and what can be done to restore that trust?I've seen the consequences of this sort of loss of trust up-close and personal in the years I traveled the world on behalf of a German international relief organization, and the lessons I learned are both important and grim.In the 1990s I made several trips to Bogotá, Colombia on Salem's behalf, as I wrote about in The Prophet's Way; I remember the immigration officer at the airport stamping my passport, saying "Mister Tourist, be careful." At dinner that first night, after being warned not to take taxis or trust the police, a German woman who'd lived there for 15 years flinched every time the doorbell rang.Her husband's office manager, an ordinary middle-class guy, had been forced to watch helplessly at gunpoint as 15 armed men broke into his house looking for their 16-year-old daughter; when they discovered she wasn't there, they took his wife, a friend of my dinner companion.Every night for a month they called the husband and made his wife cry into the phone as he systematically drained every credit card, bank account, and retirement account he had. She was only released when he'd finally mortgaged his condo and given them the last of his money and credit. She was a shell of a person afterward, barely able to speak, and the family was desperately trying to borrow enough money from friends to leave the country and go back home to Germany.The nun who ran the church where we were staying (locked into cells with steel doors and cement walls) warned us against going to a restaurant after dark and wrote down the phone number of the only trustworthy cab company in the city. Off-duty cops and soldiers had organized "hunt clubs" to shoot street children for sport.One morning, as Horst Von Heyer and I drove past a billboard advertising a gated community of upscale homes with smiling guards carrying AK-47s, we passed a teenage boy sprawled on the sidewalk in a spreading pool of blood, a uniformed man standing over him with a gun still in his hand. Nobody in the car said a word; it was just too ordinary.This is just one small example from my own experience of what happens when people no longer trust their own government. Into that vacuum of trust rush two types of people.The first are the predators, who correctly figure that it's now open season. We're seeing that right now as corporate America fleeces us, banks rip us off, health insurance companies deny us care to fatten profits, and oil companies and their wholly-owned GOP shills lie to our faces about climate change.The second are the strongman politicians, who promise that only violence and an iron fist can "restore law and order." I saw that in Kaliningrad, Russia in the 1990s when four Russian cops pulled our car over for speeding and then let us go when we gave them a case of high-end chocolates. It was a town where the mob-run kiosks around Lenin Square were "the safest parts of town" (and vodka was cheaper than bottled water).Six years later, Russians — by then exhausted by the crime and grifting oligarchs — handed the country over to a KGB colonel who promised to make the trains run on time. There hasn't been a free election in that country since.Recently, El Salvador ran that same script. A corrupt, on-the-take government of grifters and hustlers so ripped off the country and gutted the middle class that Salvadorans voted in Nayib Bukele, a guy who describes himself as "Central America's coolest dictator." He proceeded to arrest and lock up about two percent of the entire country, cutting crime but also ending democracy altogether.That's the warning for us. When trust is gone, wild stuff happens to countries and I've seen it in person from Peru to the Philippines to Uganda to South Sudan and Darfur and elsewhere. And now I'm seeing it here as the predators and fascists are running amok in America.Trust is the single most vital component of all human relationships. With it, you can create miracles; without it, it's hard to do anything productive.Just ask any marriage counselor; to recover trust after a betrayal can take years and requires both full disclosure, real contrition (or at least explanation), and a genuine change in behavior.And that's exactly what Americans are struggling with right now. In a republic like ours, trustworthiness necessarily begins at the top, and Donald Trump is an utterly un-trustworthy man.He cheated on every one of his wives. He convinced his followers to give him a combined $3.81 billion for his $TRUMP and $MELANIA digital coins before their value fell 97 percent and he pocketed the difference. He's made another $1.4 billion from crypto just in the first year of his second presidency.And then there are the jailings and murders being carried out in Trump's name and under his direction.In January, his masked thugs murdered Renee Good (a mother of three) and Alex Pretti (an ICU nurse at the VA), both American citizens, on the streets of Minneapolis. For six months, the administration refused to hand the evidence of the murders over to state prosecutors and physically blocked state investigators.As of today, nobody has been charged with these crimes. That's the Bogotá sidewalk, the uniformed men with high-powered rifles who know nobody will ever hold them to account for their killing sprees.This is a pattern that's been more than 50 years in the making.— Nixon committed treason, blowing up the Vietnam peace talks to win the 1968 election, and then repeatedly both broke the law and took bribes while in office. Ford pardoned him, telling us our "long national nightmare" was over, when he was simply setting up its next phase.— Reagan cut a deal with the Iranians to hold the hostages until after the 1980 election to screw Jimmy Carter and, when a special prosecutor began a serious investigation of that treason, George H.W. Bush's Attorney General, Bill Barr, advised him to pardon the six Iran-Contra defendants on Christmas Eve of 1992, just months before he left office. Bill Clinton chose to ignore it all and "look to the future."And when George W. Bush's brother, Florida Governor Jeb Bush, purged around 100,000 Black Floridian citizens from the voter rolls in the months before the 2000 election so his sibling could "win" the state by 537 votes and their father's appointee to the Supreme Court, Clarence Thomas, cast the deciding vote to stop the recount that would have revealed the crime, Al Gore just let it slide.Which brings us to the Democrats. It's long past time when they have to say, in one loud voice, "No more! We are finally going to hold these criminals to account!"Most recently, Trump committed a whole bunch of crimes both during his first term as president and, particularly, when he lost the 2020 election and demanded that Georgia's Secretary of State "find" another 11,000 votes and sent a mob to the Capitol to murder the vice president and speaker of the House.Biden's Attorney General, Merrick Garland, waited 15 long, painful months before appointing Jack Smith and getting serious about holding this serial criminal to account; it was too little, too late.Every one of those decisions, from Ford through Clinton to Gore and Garland, was made by decent people who told themselves that they were protecting our nation's institutions by letting a little Republican crime slide by.Unfortunately, that's not the way this works.Instead, what they told the next Republican criminal (or, in Trump's case, himself) was that they, too, should go ahead and crime because if they get caught, they'll get off with a slap on the hand or maybe, at worst, lose their office.Every one of these Republican presidents, in other words, showed the next that the price of crimes against our democracy was negligible.That's how we got from Nixon hiding his bribes in the Oval Office to Reagan committing treason with the Iranians to the Bush brothers rigging Florida in 2000 to Trump selling meme coins from the White House and implicitly encouraging his agents to shoot citizens in the street.Other democracies have gone down this road and figured out how to recover from a political party becoming so corrupt it sanctions theft from, and even the open murder of, its own citizens.— In Argentina, they put the ruling junta on trial in a civilian courtroom in 1985, just two years after the dictatorship ended and during a time when the generals still almost certainly could have re-taken the government.— South Korea impeached, removed from office, and sentenced President Yoon Suk Yeol to life in prison just 15 months after he tried to declare a state of emergency and martial law to avoid the consequences of his party's electoral losses — the same crimes Trump is openly contemplating now.— Brazil arrested and convicted former President Jair Bolsonaro for plotting a January 6th style coup and sentenced him to 27 years in prison; they also convicted his generals alongside him.None of these countries collapsed; to the contrary, the democratic fabric of each was strengthened by holding their former political criminals to account. All are still democracies, and it looks like the same process will soon play out in Hungary.Even South Africa's "Truth and Reconciliation Commission" — which people think of as a "gentle alternative" to criminal prosecution — wasn't designed to be gentle. People who failed to make full, public confessions of their crimes were supposed to be imprisoned; the cautionary tale is that none were, which is a good part of why many South Africans will tell you the wounds are still open. The government broke trust even as it was trying to restore it.Increasingly, Americans get this. There have to be consequences for:— betraying America, Ukraine, and democracy on behalf of Putin,— looting our treasury and handing no-bid contracts to friends and business associates,— traveling the world on our dime while picking up billions from dictators on the pretense of negotiating peace,— killing unarmed civilians in the Caribbean and children in Iran,— poisoning our air in exchange for campaign contributions,— trying to overthrow our government and fix the 2026 election,— sending armed masked thugs into our streets to intimidate and kill us while organizing them into the country's largest domestic spying operation,— handing trillions in tax breaks, all borrowed from the rest of us, to billionaire donors who are now trying to buy this 2026 election,— and all the other crimes that you're welcome to list in the comments to this article.If Democrats want to earn the votes of that 89 percent of Americans who've lost faith in their government, they must — every one of them who wants our vote — publicly promise to prosecute these people.No more Garland pauses, no more Ford pardons, no more Clinton, Gore, and Obama looking the other way. Not for Trump, Miller, Noem, Hegseth, the ICE agents, the crypto bagmen, the Abu Dhabi royals, or the pardon-buyers who're cashing in on Trump's corruption every day.On Day One, the subpoenas must begin: Legislation mandating an independent counsel with a real budget and open trials in open court the way Argentina, Brazil, and South Korea did it. Impeachment of every corrupt Cabinet billionaire and associated lickspittle, from Trump on down. Revealing the complicity of Congressional Republicans.Democrats don't get to run on "restoring trust" and then govern like an abused spouse who keeps offering "just one more chance." We've had four Republican presidents openly break the law or even commit treason just for political power; it must come to an end.So, be sure you're ready to vote and make sure your friends are, too.And please share this piece and support hartmannreport.com, because the only reason I can still say these things out loud is that people like you help keep the lights on.
Trump says he'll probably lose lawsuit brought by news outlets he banned from White House, blaming judge appointed by 'TRUMP' – live
President repeats frequent 'fake news' attacks as four other networks that make up White House TV pool decided they would cease coverage in solidarity with banned CNNSign up for US Breaking News emailsThe three news outlets President Trump banned from the White House last Friday have filed their anticipated lawsuit against his administration to restore their access.In the new complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Monday, CNN, MS Now and Politico alleged that Trump had violated the First Amendment and due process by stripping the outlets of their White House access in a blatant act of retaliation for coverage he disliked. Continue reading...
On TV
Futurama — 14x9: "A New New York Yankee in King Elfo's Court" (Hulu)
A time-machine failure sends Fry sideways in time to a medieval land.
New Music

No new drops today. Go rediscover something in your old playlists.

In theaters

No new releases hitting theaters today. Your popcorn can wait.

Launching today

Nothing launching today. Every rocket is staying grounded and behaving.

Useless Fact

2,000 pounds of space dust and other space debris fall on the Earth every day.

The loonie
CAD → USD
0.7132
▼ 0.0010
CAD → EUR
0.6217
▼ 0.0009
Today In History
2013 — 2013 Westgate Shopping Centre Attack
Al-Shabaab militants launched a terrorist attack on the Westgate shopping centre in Nairobi, which ended three days later and left more than 65 people dead, including Ghanian poet and novelist Kofi Awoonor. Kenyan Presidential Press Service/Getty Images
2004 — Green Day's "American Idiot" album wins Grammy in 2004
The American band Green Day released its iconic American Idiot, which later won a Grammy Award for best rock album and was adapted into a rock opera
2001 — Dow Jones Suffers Largest Weekly Loss Since Great Depression
In stock market trading in the United States, the Dow Jones industrial average posted its largest weekly loss (14.3 percent) since the Great Depression. economics quiz Justin Guariglia—x PACIFICA/Redux
1981 — Belize's Independence from UK
Belizegained its independence from the United Kingdom
1972 — Marcos Declares Martial Law in the Philippines
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos imposed martial law in the Philippines, beginning a period of harsh authoritarian rule
1957 — Perry Mason TV Series Debut
The American TV series Perry Mason, which was based on a mystery series by Erle Stanley Gardner, debuted and became hugely popular, especially noted for Raymond Burr's portrayal of the title character
1950 — Bill Murray Born in 1950
American comedian and actor Bill Murray, best known for his trademark deadpan humour on television's Saturday Night Liveand for his film roles, was born
1937 — J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit First Published
English writer J.R.R. Tolkien's novel The Hobbit, a beloved coming-of-age fantasy, was first published
1931 — Bank of England Abandons Gold Standard in 1931
The Bank of England dropped the gold standard, and the pound sterling promptly lost 28 percent of its value, undermining the solvency of countries in eastern Europe and South America
1867 — Birth of Henry L. Stimson, American Statesman
Henry L. Stimson, an American statesman who exercised a strong influence on U.S. foreign policy in the 1930s and '40s and served in the administrations of five presidents between 1911 and 1945, was born
1840 — William Henry Fox Talbot's Photographic Discovery
While experimenting with gallic acid, a chemical he was informed would increase the sensitivity of his prepared paper, William Henry Fox Talbot discovered that the acid can be used to develop a latent image on paper, leading to a revolution in photography. The Mansell Collection/Art Resource, New York
1823 — Joseph Smith's vision of Moroni
According to the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Moroni was an angel or resurrected being who appeared to Joseph Smith on this day in 1823 and instructed him to restore God's church on earth
1435 — Treaty of Arras Signed, Ending Burgundy-France Conflict
In the French kingdom, the Treaty of Arraswas signed, ending the long quarrel between Duke Philip of Burgundyand King Charles VII
-19 — Roman Poet Virgil's Death in 19 BCE
The Roman poet Virgil, best known for his national epic the Aeneid, died

This is today, boiled down to the essentials. The full stash lives at logicalchaos.ca. Go get lost in it.