https://www.indiatoday.in/world/us-news/video/donald-trump-supports-h-1b-visa-programme-amidst-immigration-debates-ytvd-2658249-2025-01-01

President-elect Donald Trump affirmed his backing for the H-1B visa system at a New Year's Eve event, stressing the role of skilled workers in national development. He highlighted the need for competent people to fill high-demand positions, recognising the programme's relevance in immigration discourse. Trump declared it essential for achieving substantial job growth.

Convicted felon Donald Trump, tired of the daily embarrassments and headaches caused by online squabbling from potential members of his upcoming administration, has issued a decree demanding all members of his team refrain from social media posts until after power has transferred hands.
The wisdom of trying to put people who can't even be trusted with social media accounts into some of the most powerful positions in American government may confuse some, until we remember that the former reality TV star turned adjudicated rapist himself was deemed not responsible enough to have a Twitter account for the last two weeks of his administration.
https://nypost.com/2024/12/30/us-news/trump-team-orders-all-intended-nominees-to-stop-posting-on-social-media-ahead-of-senate-confirmations/

President-elect Donald Trump’s chief of staff Susie Wiles sent a message Sunday ordering nominees to refrain from any posting on social media as Senate confirmation hearings are scheduled to start next week.

“While this instruction has been delivered previously, I am reiterating that no member of the incoming administration or Transition speaks for the United States or the President-elect himself,” Wiles wrote in a memo obtained by The Post.

“Accordingly, all intended nominees should refrain from any public social media posts without prior approval of the incoming White House counsel,” she said in the Dec. 29 missive.

https://news.sky.com/story/elon-musk-accused-of-censoring-right-wing-x-accounts-who-disagree-with-him-on-immigration-13280740
Elon Musk is facing censorship accusations after prominent right-wing accounts claimed they lost access to premium features on X when they criticised his views on immigration.

On Friday night, Musk called some anti-immigration Republicans "contemptible fools", adding they were "hateful, unrepentant racists" who would "absolutely be the downfall of the Republican Party if they are not removed".

At least 14 conservative accounts who criticised Musk's pro-legal immigration views said X revoked their blue tick, a verification badge given to premium account holders, according to Sky News' US partner NBC News.

That removed their ability to monetise their accounts and led to some saying they were worried about their ability to keep posting on the platform.

When Musk bought the site in 2022, he said he had a policy of "freedom of speech" but not "freedom of reach", meaning negative posts wouldn't be banned but would be "max deboosted", making them hard to find.

He said this policy would apply to individual tweets and not entire accounts.

Musk has since called himself a free-expression advocate, even as he called for jailing some of his critics.

X and Musk did not respond to NBC News' requests for comment on Friday

However on Thursday, the tech billionaire posted what he called a "reminder" on X: "If far more credible, verified subscriber accounts (not bots) mute/block your account compared to those who like your posts, your reach will decline significantly".

This led some to say he was "shadowbanning" people who disagreed with him.

Shadowbanning is when the reach of an account is significantly restricted without an official explanation or acknowledgement of the restriction.

Biden has staged trump for the worst housing market crash since 2008.
Property values will eventually fall—just like in 2008—sending household wealth tumbling. The United States would be looking at a systemic shock to the economy similar to the financial crisis of 2008—if not greater
https://www.newsweek.com/us-housing-market-mirroring-2008-bubble-real-estate-analyst-2005520
US Housing Market Is Mirroring 2008 Bubble—Real Estate Analyst

The recent flood of new inventory in the U.S. housing market has brought the number of homes sitting vacant and waiting for a buyer close to levels seen only during the 2008 bubble, the real estate analyst Nick Gerli said.

Gerli, the CEO of the real estate data platform Reventure App, wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that for-sale speculative, or "spec," homes—new houses built under the assumption that builders will be able to sell them easily for a profit—"just hit the second highest level ever."

"Builders are doing their part to inundate the housing market with supply," Gerli wrote on X. "Only other time there has been more builder spec inventory was [the] 2008 bubble."

Newsweek contacted Gerli for comment by email on Tuesday outside normal working hours.

According to Gerli, the explosion of inventory in certain markets of the country is "quite the rebound from the shortage experienced from 2012-22."

The country has long struggled with a housing shortage that has inflated prices and pushed the property ladder a little further from many Americans' reach.

New inventory is good news for the housing market, but not if a slowdown of home appreciation isn't matched by a rise in demand from buyers. At the moment, with stubbornly high mortgage rates and still rising home prices, sales remain relatively low despite pent-up demand in the market.

Many of the new homes for sale on the U.S. markets remain unsold because their prices are still higher than many can afford.

Feds release photos showing VP Biden meeting son Hunter’s China biz partners — days before he leaves office. The same business partners he said he had never met before, because he claimed to have nothing to do with his son's business.
Hunter has received, from his father, the single most extensive pardon of any individual in United States history, shielding him from all crimes, known and unknown "For those offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024, including but not limited to all offenses charged or prosecuted by Special Counsel David C. Weiss".
Hunter worked directly with Xi.
https://nypost.com/2024/12/27/us-news/feds-finally-release-photos-showing-then-vp-biden-meeting-son-hunters-china-biz-partners-days-before-he-leaves-office/
WASHINGTON — The National Archives has finally released photos showing then-Vice President Biden meeting with two of first son Hunter Biden’s Chinese government-linked business partners — again proving that the president lied about not interacting with his family’s foreign patrons.

The cache of photos, released long after their potential political salience and days before Biden retires on Jan. 20, also show Chinese President Xi Jinping grinning as then-Vice President Biden introduced his son during the same December 2013 trip to Beijing.

The Xi-Hunter Biden encounter, which had not previously garnered much attention, appears to have been at a meal Hunter described in an email to his former associate Devon Archer as “pretty amazing” because his dad and China’s powerful authoritarian leader “were supposed to spend 2hrs together [but it] stretched to 7hrs. I think they are in love.”

Xi was two months into his ambitious “Belt and Road” foreign-influence and investment — and a Chinese state-backed company aligned with that vision, BHR Partners, was in the process being launched by Hunter.

https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-news/immigration/border-coverage/deportation-price-tag-tom-homan/

Incoming Trump administration border czar Tom Homan tells NewsNation’s Ali Bradley there is no “price tag” for the mass deportations planned by the incoming administration, citing “national security” concerns.

“What price do you put on national security? I don’t think it has a price tag,” Homan said. “What price do you put on the thousands of American moms and dads who buried their children? You want to talk about family separation; they buried their children because their children were murdered by illegal aliens that weren’t supposed to be here. I don’t put a price on that. I don’t put a price on national security. I don’t put a price on American lives.”

Homan further defended the mass deportations’ $86 billion price tag, saying it would save American taxpayers money in the future.

“This operation would be expensive,” he acknowledged. “However, it’s going to save taxpayers a lot of money in the long run. Right now, we’re spending billions of dollars on free airline tickets, free hotel rooms, free medical care, free meals, the education system.”

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/guatemalan-jewish-sect-lev-tahor-children-rescue-b2668298.html

Authorities in Guatemala rescued at least 160 children from a Jewish sect following allegations of abuse and human trafficking.

Police raided the premises of the sect called Lev Tahor in Oratorio city, 78km southeast of the capital Guatemala City, on Friday after receiving complaints of widespread abuse of children, including rape, human trafficking and forced marriage, prosecutors said.

They took at least 160 minors and 40 women into protective custody.

The operation in the Santa Rosa region involved around 480 police personnel, soldiers, prosecutors, and psychologists who also seized electronic devices and searched for evidence of child pornography.

Regional prosecutor Dimas Jiménez y Jiménez said they were considering charges of human trafficking, mistreatment of minors, and rape.

“We suspect these crimes were committed by a member of the community,” he said.

Nancy Lorena Paiz García, a prosecutor in the Office Against Human Trafficking, said that police found bodies suspected to be of minors buried on the premises.

“We have no information that the sect has used the local cemeteries,” she said, “but we must investigate these possible deaths of minors.”

https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/us-news/maga-up-in-arms-against-sriram-krishnan-as-h-1b-divides-trump-supporters-101735103176383.html

US President-Elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Indian American venture capitalist Sriram Krishnan for the post of Senior Policy Advisor for Artificial Intelligence at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy over the weekend has sparked a huge row. Online feuds on X, voicing MAGA’s strong opposition to H1B visa extension, were fuelled mainly by what far-right political activist Laura Loomer believes is a counter-attack on the “America First” agenda, which the incoming president ostensibly stands for.