Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Nearly half of FBI agents in major offices reassigned to immigration enforcement

El Parece @elparece.bsky.social · 6h

45% of personnel at the FBI's 25 largest field offices are currently assigned to immigration enforcement. This comes at the expense of everything else the FBI is responsible for including counterterrorism, cyber, cointel, CSEM, organized crime, and corruption.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Data shows stunning shift in law enforcement priorities that has raised public safety concerns

www.theguardian.com

Trinidad and Tobago secures US permission to negotiate gas deal with neighboring Venezuela

El Parece @elparece.bsky.social · 6h

T&T granted permission from OFAC for development of a gas field in Venezuelan waters. The project was initially licensed in October 2023, revoked by the Trump administration in April, and reapproved following Rubio's meeting with T&T's prime minister September 30.
apnews.com/article/trin...

The U.S. has granted Trinidad and Tobago permission to negotiate a gas deal with neighboring Venezuela without facing any U.S. sanctions.

apnews.com

Star Witness in Menendez Bribery Case Avoids Prison Time

Reposted by El Parece

El Faro English @elfaroenglish.bsky.social · 16h

Deeper questions, sharper answers, more journalism. Help us keep digging by joining our crowdfunding community. bit.ly/3TFWLzu

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El Parece @elparece.bsky.social · 21h

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Reposted by El Parece

The New York Times @nytimes.com · 22h

Breaking News: Jose Uribe, the star witness who helped convict former Senator Bob Menendez on corruption charges, will serve no prison time.

Jose Uribe was sentenced to a period of home confinement and supervised release after pleading guilty to bribing New Jersey’s former senator, Robert Menendez.

nyti.ms

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El Parece @elparece.bsky.social · 22h

"The administration has not explained why it has blown up vessels in some cases, while carrying out the typical practice of stopping boats and seizing drugs at other times."
Either the strikes are solely propaganda or these are special ops complementary to some larger play
apnews.com/article/trum...

Trump has yet to provide Congress hard evidence that targeted boats carried drugs, officials say

The Trump administration hasn't provided evidence to lawmakers that recent U.S. military strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats were justified.

apnews.com

El Parece @elparece.bsky.social · 23h

That would probably lead to a civil war

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El Parece @elparece.bsky.social · 23h

Excellent news for Antifa
kingpins, they're getting plea deals and don't even have to cooperate.

www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

El Parece @elparece.bsky.social · 23h

It's going to be hard to undo this. Once you lavish an executive department with funding, it's not so simple for the next guy to just snap their fingers and reign in the budget. That's the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people. Ask fmr Kissinger Associate Paul Bremer how that went in Iraq.

Christina(Tina) Hendriks @renissance1.bsky.social · 23h

The vast, terrifying scale of Trump’s detention state

With $75 billion and thousands of masked agents, ICE is just getting started.

www.motherjones.com

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El Parece @elparece.bsky.social · 1d

Why blowing up Venezuelan fishing villager gig workers won't even stop the flow of cocaine, much less fentanyl, methamphetamine, and heroin, nearly 100% of which is produced in Mexico and smuggled into the U.S. in commercial cargo and passenger vehicles.
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Why Blowing Up Venezuelan Boats Won’t Stop the Flow of Drugs

President Trump says striking drug traffickers from Venezuela will prevent deadly drugs from reaching the United States. But the major smuggling routes are elsewhere.

As Trump sends the National Guard into US cities, right-wing media celebrate and call protests “an insurrection”

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Reposted by El Parece

Media Matters for America @mmfa.bsky.social · 1d

Some right-wing figures have urged stronger responses against protesters, suggesting the use of “lethal force” or “actual ammo”

Right-wing media and right-leaning online show hosts have rallied behind President Donald Trump’s attempts to deploy the National Guard to Chicago and Portland, suggesting the Democrat-run cities are ...

www.mediamatters.org

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El Parece @elparece.bsky.social · 1d

The Trump administration's decision to eliminate foreign aid has resulted Rohingya children starving to death in the military junta's internment camps in Myanmar.
apnews.com/article/myan...

Starving children screaming for food as US aid cuts unleash devastation and death across Myanmar

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly said “no one has died" because of his government’s decision to gut its foreign aid program.

apnews.com

El Parece @elparece.bsky.social · 2d

Context:
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/20/o...

Opinion | What the Mayor Got Away With Has Already Changed America

El Parece @elparece.bsky.social · 2d

Context:
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halkbank

Halkbank - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Behind Trump’s Turkish ‘Bromance’: Oligarchs, Crooks, and a Multi-Million-Dollar Lobbying Deal

El Parece @elparece.bsky.social · 2d

Context:
www.occrp.org/en/investiga...

Turkey’s president has enjoyed an unusually powerful sway over the Trump administration. A new investigation reveals the relationship was built by a circle that included Trump’s favorite lobbyist, a k...

www.occrp.org

Turkey’s Erdogan Says Halkbank US Case to End After Trump Talks

El Parece @elparece.bsky.social · 2d

Open corruption at the very core of a saga that links Lev Parnas, Mike Flynn, Brian Ballard, the firing of Preet Bharara, Bill Barr, Geoffrey Berman, John Bolton's purported leak of classified info, and Eric Adams.
@emptywheel.bsky.social @jamiepeppard.bsky.social
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said state lender Halkbank’s legal case in the US is due to be resolved following recent talks with President Donald Trump, prompting bank shares to rise.

www.bloomberg.com

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El Parece @elparece.bsky.social · 2d

Colombian mercenaries hired by firms in the UAE are working with the RSF paramilitary in Sudan
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

‘War is a business’: the Colombian mercenaries at Sudan’s battlefront

A soldier of fortune tells of lucrative contracts, the siege of El Fasher and training child fighters to ‘go and get killed’

www.theguardian.com

El Parece @elparece.bsky.social · 2d

Hard to reconcile this open-ended justification for using lethal force against suspected drug traffickers and cartels with nothing but smiles and lip service about cooperation and mutual respect in Mexico. Who exactly are they planning on targeting next?
www.cnn.com/2025/10/06/p...

Exclusive: Classified Justice Department opinion authorizes strikes on secret list of cartels, sources say | CNN Politics

The Trump administration has produced a classified legal opinion that justifies lethal strikes against a secret and expansive list of cartels and suspected drug traffickers, according to multiple peop...

www.cnn.com

Trump’s Immigration Push Diverts U.S. Agents From Drug, Money and Sex-Crime Cases

El Parece @elparece.bsky.social · 3d

25-75% of every federal law enforcement agency working immigration comes at the expense of drug/arms/human trafficking, money laundering, fraud, corruption, robbery, counterintelligence, terrorism, CSEM and rape investigations. I personally doubt this is unintentional.
www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

Federal investigators are resigning, and morale is low, as they juggle complex cases and detain migrants.

www.wsj.com

Where in the World Is Eric Adams? Try Albania.

El Parece @elparece.bsky.social · 3d

Eric Adams is meeting with Albania's prime minister who you may remember from criminal cases such as United States v. Charles McGonigal
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/06/n...

C.I.A. Deputy Director Has Replaced Agency’s Top Legal Official With Himself

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El Parece @elparece.bsky.social · 3d

Extremely dangerous person

Charlie Savage @charliesavage.bsky.social · 3d

C.I.A. Deputy Director Has Replaced Agency’s Top Legal Official With Himself

It is not clear what is behind the move by Michael Ellis, a Trump loyalist. A legal ethics specialist said it could raise conflict-of-interest issues.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/06/u...

US skydiving instructor found dead after apparently falling without parachute

El Parece @elparece.bsky.social · 3d

First of many parachuting mishaps and small plane crashes over the next 3.25 years in the southeast, probably
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Authorities say federal aviation agency to investigate incident after also rescuing instructor’s student from tree

www.theguardian.com

El Parece @elparece.bsky.social · 3d

One of Donald Trump's final actions of his first presidency (after the failed autogolpe) was an Executive Order protecting 145,000 Venezuelan immigrants from deportation.

Now, I'm not a Venezuelan expert or a Trump scholar, but this seems a little out of character to me.
apnews.com/general-news...

El Parece @elparece.bsky.social · 3d

hbd