https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdd5j9jdvy9o
A pair of US lawmakers have threatened legal action against US Attorney General Pam Bondi, after her deadline to release all government files related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was met only in part.

The release of the Department of Justice documents was highly anticipated but in the end, only a portion of the available material was made public.

A leading campaigner on the issue, Republican congressman Thomas Massie, said he could try to bring contempt proceedings against the attorney general as a result.

The DoJ insists it is complying with its legal obligations, and Bondi herself has said she is part of "the most transparent administration in American history".

The phrase "Epstein files" refer to the trove of information that was amassed by the US justice department.

A law that compelled the release of the full trove was signed by US President Donald Trump in November, after pressure from his supporters and members of his own Republican Party. Friday was the deadline for the release of the material.

Although some material was released, there were many redactions and other information was withheld - which angered Massie and his allies, as well as survivors of Epstein's abuse. Trump himself is yet to comment.

The DoJ has said that more material will follow in the coming weeks.

But speaking to CBS programme Face the Nation on Sunday, Massie suggested that the justice department was "flouting the spirit and the letter of the law".

He went on to say: "The quickest way, and I think most expeditious way, to get justice for these victims is to bring inherent contempt against Pam Bondi, and that doesn't require going through the courts."

Inherent contempt is a little-used legal recourse that can be used by either the Senate or House - the upper and lower chambers of Congress respectively - which has not been invoked for nearly a century, according to the American Bar Association.

Bow to your new Queen /pol/
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Bow to your new Queen /pol/
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Bow to your new Queen /pol/
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https://apnews.com/live/donald-trump-news-updates-12-18-2025

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday unveiled a series of regulatory actions designed to effectively ban gender-affirming care for minors, building on broader Trump administration restrictions on transgender Americans.

The proposals mark the administration’s most significant moves to restrict the use of puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgical interventions for transgender children — running counter to the recommendations of most major U.S. medical organizations.

More than half of U.S. states already ban or restrict gender-affirming care.

The proposed rules also cut off federal Medicaid and Medicare funding from hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to children, imperiling access in nearly two dozen states where drug treatments and surgical procedures remain legal and funded by Medicaid.

Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his deputies announced the moves, which are not final or legally binding and are likely to face legal challenges.

Cambodia based Chinese scam gangs defraud Americans of billions but US won't sanction Cambodia... because Amerimutt retards think they can lure Cambodia to their side against China.

FYI Cambodia voted for China in every ASEAN resolution on the South China SEA.

American senior citizens had their entire retirement savings wiped out and the US refuses to sanction Cambodia which willingly hosts these gangs.

https://dw.com/en/how-the-battle-against-asian-scam-networks-went-global/a-75181724

>Even with the recent announcements of sanctions and criminal investigations, countries like South Korea and even the US appear reluctant to criticize the governments of China or Cambodia and instead target the criminals and their networks directly.

>According to Sims, as long as Phnom Penh performs just enough cooperation to preserve the illusion that it remains strategically "in play," Western capitals have proven reliably willing to tolerate industrial-scale scams targeting their own citizens.

>"Many governments hesitate to confront Cambodia directly because they still view it as a pivotal chess piece in a China-versus-the-West geopolitical game," he said.

A company called Evercore ISI has been studying the sales of Christmas trees for over 20 years and has found that this is one of the most accurate ways to gauge consumer spending around the holidays. This holiday season, the annual Christmas tree survey suggests that people are spending less than usual.

Tree sales were up just 3% year over year in the three weeks since Thanksgiving, compared to 2024 when sales were up 7% year over year.

Sales of eight-foot and higher trees, typically the most expensive, were flat this year. The smaller six-to-eight-foot trees, ones that cost around 75$, saw a slight drop in sales. In addition, tree sellers note that extras, like wreaths, garland and baskets have been hard to move at all.

Adobe reported online sales were up over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. However, account data analyzed by Bank of America found that any sales growth that happened over that weekend had already died off by the end of November.

https://www.newsnationnow.com/business/your-money/lower-christmas-tree-sales-point-to-consumer-spending-hit-survey/

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/us-interdicting-sanctioned-vessel-off-venezuelan-coast-officials-say-2025-12-20/
Dec 20 (Reuters) - The United States is interdicting and seizing a vessel off the coast of Venezuela in international waters, three U.S. officials told Reuters on Saturday, a move that comes just days after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a "blockade" of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela.
This would mark the second time in recent weeks that the United States has seized a tanker near Venezuela and comes amid a large U.S. military build-up in the region.

The officials, who were speaking on the condition of anonymity, did not say where the operation was taking place but added the Coast Guard was in the lead.
The Coast Guard and Pentagon referred questions to the White House, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Venezuela's oil ministry and state oil company PDVSA did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
"I am ordering A TOTAL AND COMPLETE BLOCKADE OF ALL SANCTIONED OIL TANKERS going into, and out of, Venezuela," Trump said on Tuesday.
In the days since U.S. forces seized a sanctioned oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela last week, there has been an effective embargo in place, with loaded vessels carrying millions of barrels of oil staying in Venezuelan waters rather than risk seizure.
Since the first seizure, Venezuelan crude exports have fallen sharply.
While many vessels picking up oil in Venezuela are under sanctions, others transporting the country's oil and crude from Iran and Russia have not been sanctioned, and some companies, particularly the U.S.' Chevron (CVX.N), transport Venezuelan oil in their own authorized ships.
China is the biggest buyer of Venezuelan crude, which accounts for roughly 4% of its imports, with shipments in December on track to average more than 600,000 barrels per day, analysts have said.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/jim-beam-distillery-trump-tariffs-b2888451.html

Jim Beam, one of the largest makers of American whiskey globally, is shutting down bourbon production at one of its Kentucky distilleries for a year.

The move comes amid President Donald Trump’s trade war with Canada, which has contributed to a significant decline in U.S. liquor sales after the country ushered in a boycott of American booze, and as more young adults are cutting back on drinking.

Jim Beam, owned by Suntory Global Spirits, is one of Kentucky’s biggest bourbon producers.

The Bluegrass state’s $9 billion whiskey bourbon industry has been struggling to manage its abundant supply of liquor against the drop in demand.

In a statement, the company said it was shutting down production at its Clermont distillery on January 1, 2026, though the visitors center on the site is to remain open, according to the Lexington Herald Leader.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/21/maga-stars-turning-point-conference

The stars of the Maga conservatism converged for the four-day AmericaFest conference in Phoenix this weekend amid reports that the cohesion of the political-religious right, a year into Donald Trump’s second presidential term, is showing signs of stress.

The sold-out Turning Point USA event brought together figures from the right including Megyn Kelly, Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon, Donald Trump Jr, Vivek Ramaswamy, Ben Shapiro and Glenn Beck, to kick around the dominant themes of conservatism.

It marked Turning Point USA’s first annual gathering since its leader Charlie Kirk was shot and killed on a college campus in Utah in September. The event was billed as “a powerful celebration of faith, freedom, and the legacy of our founder, Charlie Kirk”.

However, the gathering made headlines for the infighting on display among its high-profile participants.

“Say what you want about AmFest, but it’s definitely not boring,” said Kirk’s widow Erika. “Feels like a Thanksgiving dinner where your family’s hashing out the family business.”

According to reports from the festival, the unification seen in previous years has been challenged by interpersonal gripes and disagreement over how big the big tent of conservatism should be and what brands of conservative thinking it can be expected to hold.

Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, co-founder of The Daily Wire, set the tone on Thursday when he condemned Carlson for hosting the white nationalist Nick Fuentes on his streaming show, as well as others he depicted as charlatans and grifters.

Shapiro said hosts are “indeed responsible for the guests they choose and the questions they ask”, adding that Fuentes “is an evil troll and that building him up is an act of moral imbecility. And that is precisely what Tucker Carlson did.”