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The Education Department said Monday it has terminated agreements that previous administrations reached with five school districts and a college aimed at upholding rights and protections for transgender students.

The decision means the department will no longer play a role in enforcing those agreements, which called for schools to take steps to comply with federal civil rights law. The districts affected are Cape Henlopen School District in Delaware, Fife School District in Washington, Delaware Valley School District in Pennsylvania, and La Mesa-Spring Valley School District, Sacramento City Unified and Taft College in California.

Under the Biden and Obama administrations, the department interpreted Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in education, to include protections for transgender and gay students.

In recent weeks, the Trump administration swiftly attempted to justify the shootings of Renee Macklin Good and Alex Prettiby claiming they were carrying out acts of domestic terrorism in the moments before they were killed. They made these claims without waiting for investigations to unfold, and in spite of conflicting video evidence and witness accounts. As Martinez’s case and others demonstrate, these statements are part of a much broader, months-long communication pattern by the administration on immigration related issues. Trump administration officials have repeatedly made unproven or incorrect claims when describing immigrants targeted for deportation, U.S. citizens arrested while protesting the administration’s immigration crackdown and people who simply drove through areas where an immigration enforcement operation was going on. On social media, the administration has accused people of violently attacking federal immigration agents or impeding operations. In many instances, criminal charges were quietly dropped or never filed.

Demonstrations will be held across the US, with flagship event in Twin Cities, where ICE fatally shot two people A third No Kings protest will be held on 28 March, organizers announced today. Ezra Levin, co-founder of Indivisible, one of the groups coordinating No Kings, said that he expects it to be “the biggest protest in American history”. Protests will be held nationwide, with a flagship event in Minnesota’s Twin Cities – Minneapolis and St Paul – where this month federal immigration agents killed two residents, Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good, amid their escalated operations in the region. Levin said No Kings 3 is a response to many Americans’ growing outrage over Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) “reign of terror” in communities across the country. The coalition behind the No Kings protests also hosted a mass mobilization “weekend of action” immediately following Good’s death, which included more than 1,000 protests, vigils and other events. According to recent polling from YouGov, more Americans now support abolishing ICE than oppose it.

AI tool faces growing global scrutiny over the spread of nonconsensual sexual images of women and minors on X Elon Musk said on Wednesday he was not aware of any “naked underage images” generated by xAI’s Grok, as scrutiny of the AI tool intensifies worldwide. “I not aware of any naked underage images generated by Grok. Literally zero,” Musk said in an X post. Musk’s comment comes as xAI and X face growing global scrutiny, including calls by lawmakers and advocacy groups for Apple and Google to drop Grok from app stores, an investigation by UK regulators, and bans or legal action in countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia. Last week, X curtailed Grok’s ability to generate or edit images publicly for many users, however industry experts and watchdogs have said that Grok was still able to produce sexually explicit images, and that restrictions, such as paywalling certain features, may not fully block access to deeper AI image tools.

The president of Oglala Sioux Tribe in South Dakota on Tuesday called for the immediate release of tribal members who were detained at a homeless encampment by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Minnesota last week. Three of the four Oglala Sioux Tribe members who were arrested in Minneapolis on Friday have been transferred to an ICE facility at Fort Snelling, President Frank Star Comes Out said in a statement released with a memorandum sent to federal immigration authorities. “The Oglala Sioux Tribe’s memorandum makes clear that ‘tribal citizens are not aliens’ and are ‘categorically outside immigration jurisdiction,’” Star Comes Out said. “Enrolled tribal members are citizens of the United States by statute and citizens of the Oglala Sioux Nation by treaty.”

Looks like the Epstein files are still a sore subject for Trump. Donald Trump on Tuesday flipped off an autoworker during an appearance at a Ford plant in Dearborn, Michigan, dropping an F-bomb during the interaction for good measure. Trump threw the bird after a worker in the crowd called him a “pedophile protector,” presumably a reference to the president’s relationship with the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein ― and his efforts to prevent the release of Justice Department files regarding Epstein in its possession. Video of the incident obtained by TMZ shows Trump standing high on a walkway above the factory floor Tuesday in a full-length black peacoat.

A social media post from the Department of Labor is attracting criticism for appearing to echo a Nazi-era slogan from the early 20th century. The department posted to X on Jan. 10, “One Homeland. One People. One Heritage. Remember who you are, American.” Dozens of users commented and reposted, expressing alarm and outrage over what they called an alarming echo of what the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum describes as one of the central slogans used by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. That slogan is, “One People, One Realm, One Leader.” Adam Tooze, a British historian and author who has written about the Third Reich and Nazi Germany, said on social media that the phrase is from a “white nationalist anthem.”

A week after the Senate rebuffed Trump’s military action in Venezuela, the fate of a rare war powers resolution remains in doubt, as a handful of Republicans face pressure to walk it back. Senators will have to make a choice on Wednesday when the chamber considers final votes on the resolution to block Trump’s ability to use military force again in Venezuela without Congressional approval. When the Senate voted on Jan. 8 to move forward with the resolution, that procedural vote passed 52-47, with five Republicans joining all Senate Democrats. It was a clear rebuke of Trump’s action in Venezuela, which he authorized without giving advance notice to the members of the Senate Armed Services committee. In the intervening days, Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have worked the phones to try to convince some of those Republicans to back off the resolution when it comes up for a final vote. By late Tuesday, the question of whether the Senate would follow through on the resolution was in doubt. Even if the legislation passes the Senate, it is unlikely to become law, as it would still need to be approved by the Republican-controlled House and signed by Trump.

The head of Iran’s judiciary signaled Wednesday there would be fast trials and executions ahead for those detained in nationwide protests despite a warning from Donald Trump. The comments from Iran’s judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei come as activists had warned hangings of those detained could come soon. Already, a bloody security force crackdown on the demonstrations has killed at least 2,571, the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency reported. That figure dwarfs the death toll from any other round of protest or unrest in Iran in decades and recalls the chaos surrounding the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement there was “no basis” for an investigation. The statement comes as new polling shows over half of Americans say the shooting was unjustified. Justice Department officials said on Jan. 13 there is “no basis” for an investigation into the killing of Renee Nicole Good, the mother of three whose fatal shooting by an immigration enforcement agent sparked protests across the country. “There is currently no basis for a criminal civil rights investigation,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement referring to Good. The 37-year-old was fatally shot on Jan. 7 in Minneapolis, Minnesota by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jonathan Ross, when she moved her car forward near the ICE agent. Her death has inspired widespread protests against the Trump administration’s militarized use of the Department of Homeland Security.

Grocery prices rose broadly in December, with five major food categories posting increases, while dining out also became more expensive. Utility costs added to the pressure, with electricity prices up nearly 7% last year and natural gas posting double-digit gains. After several years of relatively slow growth, health care costs are beginning to play a larger role in inflation, according to the data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

James Rodden, identified by the Observer last year as the operator of an account that routinely posted hateful statements, appeared to be back at work Tuesday. In February of last year, the Texas Observer reported that James “Jim” Joseph Rodden—an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) assistant chief counsel who acts as a prosecutor for ICE in immigration court in Dallas—operates a white supremacist X account named GlomarResponder, based on an overwhelming number of biographical details that the Observer matched through publicly available documents, other social media activity, and courtroom observation. The account has over 17,000 followers and has routinely posted hateful statements, including that “America is a White nation,” that “‘Migrants’ are all criminals,” and that “All blacks are foreign to my people,” in addition to posts with apparent praise of Adolf Hitler.

While Grok has introduced belated safeguards to prevent sexualised AI imagery, other tools have far fewer limits “Since discovering Grok AI, regular porn doesn’t do it for me anymore, it just sounds absurd now,” one enthusiast for the Elon Musk-owned AI chatbot wrote on Reddit. Another agreed: “If I want a really specific person, yes.” If those who have been horrified by the distribution of sexualised imagery on Grok hoped that last week’s belated safeguards could put the genie back in the bottle, there are many such posts on Reddit and elsewhere that tell a different story. And while Grok has undoubtedly transformed public understanding of the power of artificial intelligence, it has also pointed to a much wider problem: the growing availability of tools, and means of distribution, that present worldwide regulators with what many view as an impossible task. Even as the UK announces that creating nonconsensual sexual and intimate images will soon be a criminal offence, experts say that the use of AI to harm women has only just begun.

Jonathan Gerlach remains in custody after officials say they found skulls, bones and other remains in his car and home The Pennsylvania man suspected of stealing more than 100 pieces of human remains from a historic cemetery has allegedly admitted to selling some of them online – while the graveyard solicits donations to upgrade its security. Jonathan Gerlach’s purported admission, along with the most complete account yet of how he caught the attention of law enforcement, are contained in search warrants obtained by authorities investigating a case one government official called “a horror movie come to life”. Detectives said they were already investigating reports of cemetery burglaries when police evidently received a tip that was submitted online and urged them to look into whether Gerlach was connected to one mausoleum robbery in particular. As the Pennsylvania news outlet WHP-TV reported in the Baltimore Sun, the tipster described knowing someone who had been in Gerlach’s home and had spotted a “partially decomposed corpse” hanging in the basement.

Labor department rhetoric, such as ‘One Homeland. One People. One Heritage’, prompt comparisons to Nazi slogan Union leaders have accused the Trump administration of a “rhetorical shift towards white supremacy” after social media posts by the US Department of Labor drew comparison with a Nazi slogan. Recent posts from the agency include a video captioned “remember who you are, American”, with the phrase: “One Homeland. One People. One Heritage.” Users of X, formerly Twitter, and Grok, the platform’s AI tool, highlighted a similarity with the Nazi slogan: “Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer” (“one people, one realm, one leader”). “The similarity to that Nazi slogan is bad,” Christopher Hayes, a labor historian and professor at Rutgers University, told the Guardian, expressing alarm over “the motivation behind it, the message, the sentiment and desired outcome”.

Claudette Colvin, whose 1955 arrest for refusing to give up her seat on a segregated Montgomery, Alabama, bus helped spark the modern civil rights movement, has died. She was 86. Colvin was arrested months before Rosa Parks gained international fame before refusing to give up her seat on a segregated bus. A bus driver called police on March 2, 1955, to complain that two Black girls were sitting near two White girls in violation of segregation laws. One of the Black girls moved toward the rear when asked, a police report said, but Colvin refused and was arrested. She was 15 at the time.

Groups say EEOC demand for names and personal details echoes dark history and threatens safety and civil rights Several faculty groups have denounced the Trump administration’s efforts to obtain information about Jewish professors, staff and students at the University of Pennsylvania – including personal emails, phone numbers and home addresses – as government abuse with “ominous historical overtones”. The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is demanding the university turn over names and personal information about Jewish members of the Penn community as part of the administration’s stated goal to combat antisemitism on campuses. But some Jewish faculty and staff have condemned the government’s demand as “a visceral threat to the safety of those who would find themselves identified because compiling and turning over to the government ‘lists of Jews’ conjures a terrifying history”, according to a press release put out by the groups’ lawyers.

Donald Trump’s desire to annex Greenland will not be thwarted and there could be meaningful U.S. action related to the Arctic island within “weeks or months,” according to a senior administration official. That’s the view of Thomas Dans, Trump’s Arctic commissioner. He’s regarded as one of the main proponents of the president’s interest in Greenland, an idea first brought to Trump by billionaire and former diplomat Ronald Lauder. Dans has been working on the issue since 2020.

The details from the leak have been uploaded to ICE List, a website that claims to have the identities of ICE agents, collaborators, and leadership personnel Details of thousands of alleged ICE agents and Border Patrol employees have been leaked online following the fatal shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis. The identities of around 4,500 federal agents were shared with the ICE List website by a Department of Homeland Security whistleblower, according to a report. The dataset includes information on around 2,000 agents and 150 supervisors, according to Dominick Skinner, who launched ICE List. Early analysis from the volunteer-led organization suggests that around 80 per cent of those identified are still employed by the DHS.

ICE’s approval rating among Americans currently sits at negative 13 points, a recent poll revealed. More Americans support abolishing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency than at any point since it was established in 2003, new polling shows. According to data examined by Civiqs, 42% support getting rid of the agency while 50% oppose doing so, a split of just 8 points. This represents a major shift from a year ago, at the start of Donald Trump’s second term, when only 24% of Americans supported abolishing ICE and 59% opposed the idea, a 35-point split. The 27-point change over the past year comes as Trump uses the agency to terrorize immigrant communities and overrun U.S. cities in the name of his mass deportation campaign, often using tactics that are not only harmful but illegal.

The murder of Renee Nicole Good by ICE officer Jonathan Ross has certainly created quite the divide between the reality-based majority of the population who doesn’t want masked unaccountable federal law enforcement goons invading cities they have no business being in and shooting people for saying “dude, I’m not mad at you” and trying to drive away… and the fantasy-land MAGA folks who are bending over backwards to justify the murder.

An impeachment effort against Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem will “move forward,” members of Congress are promising, after the effort was announced last week in the wake of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer fatally shooting a United States citizen in Minneapolis. “We’re gonna move forward to impeach Kristi Noem,” Representative Angie Craig, a Minnesota Democrat, vowed during an interview with MS Now on Sunday. In a press release, Democratic Representative Robin Kelly‘s office said that the 3 articles of impeachment would allege Noem “abused her office for personal benefit and steered federal dollars to associates,” “willfully obstructed Congressional oversight and withheld Congressionally appropriated funds in violation of her constitutional oath and federal law” and “compromised public safety, violated due process of American citizens, and directed unconstitutional actions.”

A former U.S. Navy sailor convicted of selling technical and operating manuals for ships and operating systems to an intelligence officer working for China was sentenced Monday to more than 16 years in prison, prosecutors said. A federal judge in San Diego sentenced Jinchao Wei, also known as Patrick Wei, 25, to 200 months. A federal jury convicted Wei in August of six crimes, including espionage. He was paid more than $12,000 for the information he sold, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement. Wei, an engineer for the amphibious assault ship USS Essex, was one of two California-based sailors charged on Aug. 3, 2023, with providing sensitive military information to China. The other, Wenheng Zhao, was sentenced to more than two years in 2024 after he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of receiving a bribe in violation of his official duties.

At least four leaders of the Civil Rights Division resigned because the section’s head, Harmeet Dhillon, decided not to investigate shooting of Renee Good. Top leaders of the criminal section of the Civil Rights Division have left their jobs to register their frustration with the department after the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon decided not to investigate the ICE officer’s fatal shooting of Renee Good last week. The criminal section of the division would normally investigate any fatal shooting by a law enforcement officer and specializes in probing potential or alleged abuse or improper use of force by law enforcement. The departures – including that of the chief of the section, as well as the principal deputy chief, deputy chief and acting deputy chief – represent the most significant mass resignation at the Justice Department since February. At that time, five leaders and supervisors of the department’s Public Integrity Section, which investigates public officials for possible corruption, resigned rather than comply with an appointee of Donald Trump’s orders to dismiss the bribery case against then-New York mayor Eric Adams.

Exclusive: China Labor Watch says people aged 16-18 employed without required special protections A labour rights NGO says it has found evidence of worker exploitation in the supply chain of Labubus, the furry toys that took the world by storm last year and which are expected to continue to grow in popularity in 2026. Labubus, toothy gremlins made by the Chinese toy company Pop Mart, have become one of China’s hottest cultural exports. In the first half of 2025 alone, “the Monsters” line of toys, which includes Labubus, generated 4.8bn yuan (£511m) in sales for the Hong Kong-listed company. In August, Pop Mart’s chief executive, Wang Ning, said the company was on track to reach 20bn yuan in revenues in 2025. According to an investigation by China Labor Watch (CLW), a New York-based NGO, one of Pop Mart’s suppliers for Labubus has engaged in exploitative workplace practices. They include workers being forced to sign blank contracts, 16- and 17-year-olds being employed without the special protections for young workers required by Chinese law, inadequate health and safety training and other labour rights violations at the factory in south-east China’s Jiangxi province.

Mayor decries ‘assault on our democracy’ after employee detained during ‘routine immigration appointment’ Federal immigration agents detained an employee of the New York City council on Monday, sparking outrage from the city’s leaders and renewed rebukes against the Trump administration’s immigration actions. “This is an assault on our democracy, on our city, and our values,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in a statement on X. “I am calling for his immediate release and will continue to monitor the situation.” The employee was taken in during a “routine immigration appointment”, according to statements from Mamdani and council speaker, Julie Menin. The council was made aware he had been detained on Monday afternoon, after the employee called the council’s human resources department for help, ABC News reported.

ICE Out for Good vigils and rallies are being tracked online by Indivisible, the group behind the No Kings protests More than a thousand protests are planned across the US this Saturday and Sunday after an ICE agent killed US citizen Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis this week. “This weekend, people all over are coming together not just to mourn the lives lost to ICE violence, but to confront a pattern of harm that has torn families apart and terrorized our communities,” said Leah Greenberg, co-executive director of Indivisible, an organizer of “ICE Out for Good Weekend of Action”.

The Federal Communications Commission is letting Verizon lock phones to its network for longer periods, eliminating a requirement to unlock handsets 60 days after they are activated on its network. The change will make it harder for people to switch from Verizon to other carriers.