Category: Middle East

The Trump administration is rolling back tariffs on a wide range of agricultural and grocery items including coffee, tropical fruit, spices, and beef, the White House announced Friday.
The president has signed an executive order exempting these goods from the “reciprocal” tariffs he put on most U.S. trading partners earlier this year.
The White House said the move followed “substantial progress” in trade negotiations with foreign nations, while reflecting “current domestic demand for certain products, and current domestic capacity to produce certain products.”
The tariff announcement also comes amid political pressure on the president from voters concerned about continued inflation at the supermarket.
President Trump has insisted affordability questions are a Democratic “con job” and prices on “everything” are “way down,” though this is not true.
open image in galleryThe Trump administration has rolled back tariffs on more than 100 food items including beef and coffee, as the White Ho..

An immigrant who was arrested after a Milwaukee judge allegedly helped him dodge federal agents has been deported.
Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, 31, pleaded guilty in September to illegally reentering the United States after he reached a deal with prosecutors. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security tweeted Friday afternoon that he has now been deported.
The tweet did not say whether he was transported back to his native Mexico or some other destination. The Associated Press sent an email message to his attorney, Martin Pruhs, seeking more details but he did not immediately respond.
Flores-Ruiz is at the center of a case against that could end with Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan in prison.
According to court documents, Flores-Ruiz left his home near Michoacan, Mexico, at age 18 in 2013 and sneaked into the United States. He was apprehended and deported immediately after crossing the border, but reentered the country a few days later, making his way to Milwaukee where he worked in resta..

The makers of Cape Cod potato chips were hit with a potential class action lawsuit last month alleging the brand falsely claims its snacks are free of artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives.
The suit, filed in New York federal court on October 23, comes from shopper Rozaliya Ripa, who claims she bought the kettle-cooked chips “numerous times” under false pretenses, including during an August trip to a Brooklyn Stop & Shop store.
Had Ripa “known the claims were false and misleading, she would not have purchased the Products or would have only been willing to purchase the Products at a lesser price,” the suit claims.
The lawsuit alleges that Cape Cod chips contain citric acid, an ingredient that is “no longer commercially available” in its natural form and is made synthetically by using “industrial chemicals to render the ingredient from mold.”
Campbell’s Company, which has owned Cape Cod since 2018, declined to comment on the claims in the pending litigation.
open image in gall..

As many as one in five Americans say they want to leave the U.S., with young women driving the trend, a new survey has found.
Polling by Gallup shows that 40 percent of women aged 15 to 44 said they would like to leave the country and move abroad permanently if they could. The figure is four times greater than it was 10 years ago.
A big spike in those expressing the desire to move out of the U.S. was first reported by the pollster in 2016, the final year of Barack Obama’s presidency and before Donald Trump’s first term in office.
That year, Gallup surveyed the U.S. in June and July, after both parties’ presumptive nominees were set for the November election, which Trump went on to win over Hillary Clinton.
However, the pollster noted that the desire to move was not entirely partisan, as the wish to leave continued to climb even after Trump lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden.
open image in galleryPolling by Gallup shows that 40 percent of women aged 15 to 44 said they would like to le..

Leer en EspañolAll 14 victims of Tuesday afternoon’s horrific UPS plane crash in Louisville, Kentucky, have now been named by authorities.
Three flight crew members, a local business owner, and a grandfather and his granddaughter who were “in the wrong place, at the wrong time” were among the dead following the November 4 crash, the deadliest in the company’s history.
The victims include were named as Captain Dana Diamond, 62; Captain Richard Wartenberg, 57; First Officer Lee Truitt, 45; Angela Anderson, 45; Carlos Fernandez, 52; Trinadette Chavez, 37; Tony Crain, 65; John Loucks, 52; John Spray, 45; Matthew Sweets, 37; Ella Petty Whorton, 31; Megan Washburn, 35; Louisnes Fedon, 47; and his 3-year-old granddaughter Kimberly Asa.
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said at a press conference identifying the victims that there are not believed to be any other victims of the shocking incident at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport.
“Our city feels the full weight of this unimagina..

CloseTrump says deal to end shutdown is very goodDemocrats on the House Oversight Committee released email exchanges between Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and author Michael Wolff discussing Donald Trump.
In one email, apparently sent by Epstein to Maxwell, the convicted sex offender wrote: “I want you to realize that that dog that hasn't barked is [T]rump..” A victim “spent hours at my house with him, he has never once been mentioned, police chief. etc. im 75% there,” Esptein added.
In response, Maxwell wrote: “I have been thinking about that…”
Trump has repeatedly emphasized that their friendship dissolved in the early 2000s and has called the renewed interest in the Epstein files a “hoax” cooked up by the Democrats.
Trump did not send or receive any of the emails and has not been accused of any wrongdoing. The Independent has requested comment from the White House. He has said publicly that he had a falling out with Epstein because the disgraced financier “stole” young wom..

Adelita Grijalva will be sworn in on Wednesday by Speaker Mike Johnson, his office said on Tuesday, ending weeks of delays and likely triggering a vote in the House of Representatives around the release of the Department of Justice’s trove of files related to Jeffrey Epstein.
The speaker’s office made the announcement Tuesday afternoon, as Congress appeared to be on the brink of ending the longest federal government shutdown in history. Johnson previously said that Grijalva’s swearing-in would be delayed until the shutdown ended.
Democrats in the chamber have loudly insisted for weeks that Johnson’s real aim in delaying Grijalva’s swearing-in was to prevent a vote on a resolution co-sponsored by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) and Ro Khanna (D-California) which, with Grijalva’s signature, will be forced to the House floor as privileged legislation. With the votes of every Democrat in the chamber and several Republicans, it’s expected to pass in an embarrassing defeat for the Trump adm..

The Supreme Court will continue to block a judge’s order requiring President Donald Trump’s administration to fully fund a critical food assistance program that helps prevent millions of Americans from going hungry.
The nation’s highest court extended a pause on that order for another two days as Congress inches closer to ending the government shutdown. Lawmakers are expected to pass a temporary funding bill this week that will effectively restart funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
A brief order from the court Tuesday night noted that liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson would have rejected the Trump administration’s request and allowed the lower-court order requiring the government to fully fund the program to stand.
The Supreme Court’s latest order remains in effect until midnight Thursday. The House of Representatives is expected to vote on a temporary funding measure to reopen the government Wednesday night, which would likely bring the legal battle to an e..

At least eight passengers have been taken to the hospital after a people mover vehicle hit a building dock at Dulles International Airport.
At around 4:30 p.m. local time, the vehicle taking travelers from an arriving flight to an airport gate crashed into the dock at an angle, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority said, per local outlet WJLA.
The eight people who were hospitalized had non-life-threatening injuries, airport officials said.
Airport operations are normal, WJLA reported, citing a Dulles spokesperson.
At least eight passengers have been taken to the hospital after a people mover vehicle hit a building dock at Dulles International Airport (AFP via Getty Images)Dulles International Airport serves the Washington, D.C., area.
This is a developing story…

The Department of Justice has been hemorrhaging staff under President Donald Trump, with thousands of attorneys leaving and few being hired to replace them, according to a new report.
Since January, nearly 5,500 DOJ career employees have quit, taken a buyout, or been fired, according to Justice Connection, an advocacy group composed of department alumni.
A Justice Connection spokesperson told The Independent that its estimates are based on both public reporting and non-public information the group has gathered.
As a result, the department is grappling with sweeping vacancies amidst a dearth of qualified applicants, according to The Washington Post.
Historically, the Justice Department — which employs more than 10,000 attorneys nationwide — has been a magnet for top legal talent, drawing applicants from Ivy League schools and white shoe law firms. But sources told the outlet that the recent mass firings and concerns about politically motivated prosecutions may be driving people away.
A..