The EU could \u201crespond swiftly and decisively\u201d against the \u201cunjustified\u201d US visa bans on five Europeans involved in combating online hate and disinformation, a European Commission spokesperson has said.<\/p>\n
European leaders including Emmanuel Macron<\/a> accused Washington of \u201ccoercion and intimidation\u201d, after the visa ban on the figures who have been at the heart of campaigns to introduce laws regulating American tech companies.<\/p>\n Justifying the visa bans, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, wrote on X: \u201cFor far too long, ideologues in Europe have led organised efforts to coerce American platforms to punish American viewpoints they oppose. The Trump administration<\/a> will no longer tolerate these egregious acts of extraterritorial censorship.\u201d<\/p>\n European leaders condemn US visa bans as row over \u2018censorship\u2019 escalates<\/p>\n Germany, Spain, the UK and a chorus of EU officials joined the French president in condemning the move.<\/p>\n The visa bans were imposed on Tuesday on Thierry Breton, the former EU commissioner and one of the architects of the bloc\u2019s Digital Services Act (DSA), and four anti-disinformation campaigners, including two in Germany and two in the UK.<\/p>\n The DSA is seen by Washington as a form of censorship while European leaders say the regulations are necessary to control hate speech, but the row threatens to become part of a far wider existing cultural and political conflict between Donald Trump\u2019s administration and Europe.<\/p>\n Read the full story<\/a><\/p>\n US justice department says it may need \u2018a few more weeks\u2019 to process 1m more Epstein documents for release<\/p>\n The US justice department said on Wednesday that it has been told by federal prosecutors in Manhattan and the FBI that they have uncovered more than a million more documents related to the Jeffrey Epstein<\/a> case and processing these for release could take \u201ca few more weeks\u201d.<\/p>\n Over the weekend there was outrage from victims and legal threats <\/a>over the limited initial Epstein files release despite the law requiring full disclosure of all Epstein files by 19 December.<\/p>\n Read the full story<\/a><\/p>\n Federal judge blocks White House\u2019s reductions of homeland security funding to states<\/p>\n A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration<\/a>\u2019s efforts to reduce federal homeland security funding, including for disasters, for states that do not comply with immigration enforcement policies.<\/p>\n US district judge Mary McElroy of Rhode Island, a 2018 Trump appointee, ruled on Monday that the latest case was \u201canother example\u201d of the Trump administration tying state and local government assistance to its immigration crackdown.<\/p>\n The Department of Homeland Security has indicated it would appeal against the latest decision.<\/p>\n Read the full story<\/a><\/p>\n Trump approves deployment of 350 national guard members to New Orleans<\/p>\n The Trump administration<\/a> is deploying 350 national guard troops to New Orleans<\/a> ahead of the new year, launching another federal deployment in the city at the same time that an immigration crackdown led by border patrol is under way.<\/p>\n Read the full story<\/a><\/p>\n What else happened today:<\/p>\n Palau will take up to 75 migrants from the US in return for additional aid, after the tiny Pacific Island nation signed a memorandum of understanding with Washington<\/a> on transfer of third-country nationals.<\/p>\n Democratic US representative Joyce Beatty of Ohio sued Donald Trump on Monday<\/a> to seek the removal of his name from the John F Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington DC. A White House spokesperson said in a statement that Trump had \u201cstepped up and saved the old Kennedy Center\u201d.<\/p>\n Donald Trump\u2019s recent claims that the US should keep Venezuelan oil from seized tankers are part of a broader belief in rightwing \u201cresource imperialism\u201d<\/a>, experts say. In recent weeks, the Trump administration has escalated pressure on Venezuela, invoking drug-trafficking claims. Critics have compared the offensive to the Iraq war, citing a familiar mix of regime-change rhetoric, security pretexts and oil interests.<\/p>\n