News

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/31786768

The University of Florida student won an academic honor after he argued in a paper that the Constitution applies only to white people. From there, the situation spiraled.

A panel of three federal appellate judges has ruled that a Louisiana law requiring the Ten Commandments to be posted in each of the state's public school classrooms is unconstitutional.

The ruling Friday marked a major win for civil liberties groups who say the mandate violates the separation of church and state, and that the poster-sized displays would isolate students — especially those who are not Christian.

The mandate has been touted by Republicans, including Donald Trump, and marks one of the latest pushes by conservatives to incorporate religion into classrooms. Backers of the law argue the Ten Commandments belong in classrooms because they are historical and part of the foundation of U.S. law.

People locators, 3D weapon blueprints, tactical planning – all accessible on the web for potential attackers or terrorists

A rash of recent assassinations have brought on congressional scrutiny and concern among law enforcement agencies who are wary of an age of political polarization turning deadly.

But experts say the violence is as much a byproduct of the times as it is the easy accessibility to DIY murder tradecraft, evident in some high-profile slayings of late.

So while the willingness to commit these acts has certainly increased, the tradecraft to pull them off has never been more obtainable.

A University of Florida student argued in a school paper that the US Constitution applies only to white people. The judge teaching the class gave him the highest grade and awarded him a prize. The granting of the award set off months of turmoil on the law school campus.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/21/us/white-supremacist-university-of-florida-paper.html

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/67475475

New London immigration attorney says ending status partway through is ‘inhumane’

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security ended a Biden-era humanitarian parole program that allowed people under threat to live and work legally in the United States.

The program admitted more than half a million people to the U.S. including a group of French-speaking Haitian immigrants in eastern Wisconsin. Last week, they received a notification, sent to them in English, encouraging them to self-deport immediately.

“What people have to understand is the people that are here, the immigrants that are here in our community … came here legally,” local immigration attorney Marc Christopher told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today.”

“These individuals did it the right way. And for better or for worse, they’re here,” he added. “And to cut their visas off midstream … is inhumane.”

To qualify for the program, they were required to pass a background check and have a U.S. sponsor to provide financial support.

Community organizers who have been working with this group of Haitian immigrants described them as hard-working, religious people with backgrounds in entrepreneurship, phlebotomy and education.

Now, their options for staying in the country legally are extremely limited.

“They abandoned not just their jobs, but their homes, their families, because their lives were threatened,” said Hélène Pohl, a volunteer translator who immigrated to the U.S. from France 50 years ago. “They thought they had found a welcoming country.”

The program known as the Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela, or CHNV, Parole Program allowed people from those countries to live and work in the U.S. for two years due to urgent humanitarian concerns in their home countries, such as repressive tactics or threats of violence.

Data on the exact number of people participating in the program is not public, but Christopher estimates there are roughly 300 Haitian immigrants living in the Waupaca area. Pohl said she’s worked with at least 80 people directly.

President Donald Trump canceled the program on his first day in office and the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the cancellation on May 30. Homeland Security started sending notifications to self-deport less than two weeks later.

It was the first en masse termination of such a program on record, according to NPR.

“This program was abused by the previous administration to admit hundreds of thousands of poorly vetted illegal aliens into the United States,” DHS wrote in a press release.

The statement goes on to say the program gave immigrants “opportunities to compete for American jobs and undercut American workers.”

Local media outlets have reported at least 100 Haitian immigrants were working at a Tyson Foods meat processing plant in New London. WPR reached out to Tyson Food for comment but received no response.

According to Pohl and Christopher, the immigrants fill a needed gap in Wisconsin’s workforce.

“You don’t have to take my word for it. Go ask any of the employers, the manufacturers, the builders, the construction company owners that are here in central Wisconsin,” Christopher said. “These are very good, hardworking laborers.”

Across the US, the Active Club network uses combat sports to lure boys and young men into white nationalist circles

A neo-Nazi fight club that secretly infiltrated a Tennessee martial arts school where young children train has been banned from the facility, after an inquiry by the Guardian.

Last month, the South Central Tennessee Active Club published video footage on the messaging app Telegram showing its members participating in combat training at Shelbyville BJJ Academy, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu school in Shelbyville, Tennessee, that offers classes to students as young as three years old.

The group is part of the wider Active Club network, which consists of dozens of decentralized cells across the US and abroad that use combat sports to lure people into white nationalist and neo-Nazi causes.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/31779162

• Release brokered by US special envoy Kellogg, Lithuania PM's spokesperson says
• Tsikhanouski's wife thanks Trump, Kellogg
• Kellogg met with Belarusian President Lukashenko, Belta agency says
• Lukashenko pardoned those released

VILNIUS, June 21 (Reuters) - Belarus opposition leader Siarhei Tsikhanouski and 13 other prisoners have been released from jail and are now free in Lithuania, the neighbouring country's government said on Saturday.

The release was brokered by U.S. special envoy Keith Kellogg, a spokesperson for Lithuania's prime minister said.

Kellogg earlier met with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, the country's state news agency Belta said.

Tsikhanouski's wife Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya in a post on social media platform X thanked U.S. President Donald Trump, as well as Kellogg and others for their efforts to secure her husband's release.

"We're not done," Tsikhanouskaya wrote on her X account, calling for the release of a further 1,150 prisoners.

Lukashenko issued pardons for all those released in response to a U.S. request, the president's spokeswoman, Natalya Eismont, said in a statement.

Eismont's statement on the Pul Pervogo Telegram channel close to the president, said the Belarusian nationals among the 14 released detainees had been "convicted of extremist and terrorist activity".

She said the decision to release Tsikhanouski was "taken by the president strictly on humanitarian considerations with the aim of family reunification".

Tsikhanouski was seen emerging from a van with a shaven head, smiling and immediately stepping up to hug his wife in a long embrace, a video released by her office showed.

Reuters reported on Tuesday that Kellogg, the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit Belarus in years, saw his mission as one that could help jump-start peace talks aimed at ending Russia's war against Ukraine.

In a major ruling late Thursday night, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit unanimously held that President Donald Trump acted within his authority in federalizing and deploying California National Guard troops to Los Angeles, overriding the objections of Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom.

As of this writing, some 4,700 US military personnel—including 4,000 members of the California National Guard—have been federalized by the Trump administration in response to protests against ongoing immigration raids across Southern California. Hundreds of troops are now deployed throughout Los Angeles, as masked and unaccountable immigration Gestapo agents continue to brutally assault, detain and disappear residents, workers and even US citizens on a daily basis.

Despite having been the one to shoot and kill Ah Loo and wound Arturo, the yet unidentified No Kings “peacekeeper” was detained and released without charges after being questioned by police.

Officials in US health agencies fear ‘people will get sick’ as programmes are slashed and scientists are fired under the constant surveillance of DOGE

Zoom meetings are avoided out of fear they are being secretly recorded. Conversations about budgets and policies are held in soundproof offices, as if they were matters of national security. Many employees carry small notebooks with them, jotting down notes instead of logging them on a computer. The desks of several sacked colleagues are empty — save for the few who have left family photos and possessions behind in case a judge rules they can return.

“There is a constant sense that we’re being watched and monitored,” the source said. “DOGE leadership are located several floors above but they have this omnipotent presence … We’re counted when we swipe our badges into the building.”

Emerson Colindres had no criminal record and was attending appointment with ICE when detained

A teenage student and soccer stand-out was arrested by immigration authorities four days after his high school graduation ceremony in Ohio earlier this month, and deported to Honduras this week, his family has said.

Emerson Colindres, 19, had no criminal record and was attending a regularly scheduled appointment with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Cincinnati when he was detained on 4 June, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.

His parents told the newspaper he was deported on Wednesday to a country he has not lived in since he was 8 years old.

Japan has canceled an annual high-level meeting with key ally the United States after the Trump administration demanded it spend more on defense, the Financial Times reported on Friday.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had been expected to meet Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya and Defense Minister Gen Nakatani in Washington on July 1 for the yearly 2+2 security talks.

But Tokyo scrapped the meeting after the U.S. asked Japan to boost defense spending to 3.5% of gross domestic product, higher than an earlier request of 3%, the newspaper said, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter.