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Trump Paralyzes Independent Rights Watchdog, Firing Members Selected by Democrats

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Trump Paralyzes Independent Rights Watchdog, Firing Members Selected by Democrats

President Trump on Monday fired the three Democratic-selected members of an independent civil liberties watchdog agency, leaving it paralyzed as Mr. Trump’s administration starts to put its stamp on the F.B.I. and intelligence community.

Last week, the day after Mr. Trump’s inauguration, Trent Morse, the deputy director of presidential personnel, sent emails to the agency, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, ordering the three members — Sharon Bradford Franklin, Edward W. Felten and Travis LeBlanc — to submit their resignations by that deadline, saying Mr. Trump would terminate them if they did not.

But the deadline came and went. Having received no further word, the three remained in their positions on Friday, when the board released a long-in-the-works study of terrorism watchlists, which keep people off planes or subject them to extra screening at airports.

On Monday afternoon, however, Mr. Morse sent emails to the three members of the board informing them of their dismissals. The New York Times reviewed one of the emails, and Ms. Franklin and Mr. LeBlanc confirmed that all three had been fired.

Mr. Trump did not remove the sole Republican-selected member, Beth Williams, and a fifth seat was already vacant.

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But the agency needs at least three members to take official actions like starting a new investigative project or issuing a board report with a policy recommendation, so the move has crippled its ability to function.

Mr. Trump would have been able to appoint a Republican majority even without the firings. Mr. Felten had been set to stay on until as late as January 2026, and Mr. LeBlanc till January 2029. But the tenure of Ms. Franklin, the board’s chairwoman, was about to end.

In a statement, Ms. Franklin called the firings unnecessary, while also expressing regret that the board would be unable to issue a planned report on a data privacy agreement between the European Union and the United States.

“This isn’t about me — my term was set to end later this week anyway,” she said. “But I am devastated by the attack on the board’s independence and the fact that our agency will have too few members to issue official reports.”

Congress established the agency as an independent unit in the executive branch after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to investigate national security activities that can intrude upon individual rights, like the government’s use of surveillance affecting Americans.

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It has security clearances and subpoena power, and is set up to have five members, appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate, who serve six-year terms and can stay on for another after that if no successor has been confirmed. Some members are picked by the president, and some are selected by congressional leaders of the other party.

In a statement, Mr. LeBlanc thanked Mr. Trump for having appointed him in his first term, after Democrats selected him, but said that cutting short the terms Congress had intended the Democratic members to serve would undermine the board’s independence in performing oversight work that is “absolutely essential to accountability in a democracy.”

“I regret that the board’s partisan shift will ultimately undermine not only the mission of the agency, but public trust and confidence in the ability of the government to honor privacy rights, respect civil liberties, honestly inform the public, and follow the law,” Mr. LeBlanc said.

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Marjorie Taylor Greene says she’s received threats over Trump feud

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Marjorie Taylor Greene says she’s received threats over Trump feud

Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene says she’s facing threats following a barrage of personal criticism from US President Donald Trump on social media.

The former MAGA ally posted on X, saying she had been contacted by private security firms “with warnings for my safety as a hotbed of threats against me are being fueled and egged on by the most powerful man in the world”.

She went on: “As a woman, I take threats from men seriously.

“I now have a small understanding of the fear and pressure the women, who are victims of Jeffrey Epstein and his cabal, must feel.

“As a Republican, who overwhelmingly votes for President Trump’s bills and agenda, his aggression against me, which also fuels the venomous nature of his radical internet trolls (many of whom are paid), this is completely shocking to everyone.”

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1:54

‘MAGA meltdown going on because of Epstein’

Calling her “wacky,” a “RINO” (Republican In Name Only) and swapping her surname from Greene to “Brown” (“Green grass turns Brown when it begins to ROT!”), Donald Trump rescinded his support for the Georgia representative and suggested he could back a primary challenger against her.

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Ms Greene claims the president’s “aggressive rhetoric” is in retaliation for her support for releasing files about disgraced paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

After the US government shutdown ended, a petition to vote on the full release of the files about Epstein received enough signatures – including that of Ms Greene – to bring it to a vote in the House of Representatives.

Ms Greene claimed text messages she sent to Mr Trump over the Epstein files “sent him over the edge,” writing on social media: “Of course he’s coming after me hard to make an example to scare all the other Republicans before next week’s vote to release the Epstein files.”

She went on: “It’s astonishing really, how hard he’s fighting to stop the Epstein files from coming out that he actually goes to this level.”

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Trump rebukes MAGA ally over foreign policy

High-profile figures, including Mr Trump, have been referenced in some of the documents.

The White House has said the “selectively leaked emails” were an attempt to “create a fake narrative to smear President Trump”, who has consistently denied any involvement or knowledge about Epstein’s sex trafficking operation.

Mr Trump has called the Epstein files a “hoax” created by the Democrats to “deflect” from the shutdown.

Watch Sky’s Martha Kelner clash with Taylor Greene earlier this year…

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Marjorie Taylor Greene clashes with Sky correspondent

In another post on X, Ms Greene wrote: “I never thought that fighting to release the Epstein files, defending women who were victims of rape, and fighting to expose the web of rich powerful elites would have caused this, but here we are.

“And it truly speaks for itself. There needs to be a new way forward.”

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The new Epstein files: The key takeaways

Read more on Jeffrey Epstein:
Ghislaine Maxwell ‘wants Trump to commute sentence’
What Epstein’s right-hand woman said about Trump and Andrew

Epstein took his own life in prison in 2019 while awaiting a trial for sex trafficking charges and was accused of running a “vast network” of underage girls for sex. He pleaded not guilty.

Following a conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor in 2008, he was registered as a sex offender.

Mr Trump has consistently denied knowledge of Epstein’s crimes.

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Video: Sleepovers With Dinosaur Bones Are Back in N.Y.C.

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Video: Sleepovers With Dinosaur Bones Are Back in N.Y.C.

new video loaded: Sleepovers With Dinosaur Bones Are Back in N.Y.C.

After a five-year hiatus, children were invited to spend the night at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City in October. They roamed the galleries, played games and slept under the blue whale.

By Chevaz Clarke and Lucia Bell-Epstein

November 15, 2025

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Judge indefinitely bars Trump from fining UC over alleged discrimination

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Judge indefinitely bars Trump from fining UC over alleged discrimination

Students walk past Royce Hall on the University of California, Los Angeles campus on Aug. 15, 2024.

Damian Dovarganes/AP


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The Trump administration cannot fine the University of California or summarily cut the school system’s federal funding over claims it allows antisemitism or other forms of discrimination, a federal judge ruled late Friday in a sharply worded decision.

U.S. District Judge Rita Lin in San Francisco issued a preliminary injunction barring the administration from cancelling funding to UC based on alleged discrimination without giving notice to affected faculty and conducting a hearing, among other requirements.

The administration over the summer demanded the University of California, Los Angeles pay $1.2 billion to restore frozen research funding and ensure eligibility for future funding after accusing the school of allowing antisemitism on campus. UCLA was the first public university to be targeted by the administration over allegations of civil rights violations.

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It has also frozen or paused federal funding over similar claims against private colleges, including Columbia University.

In her ruling, Lin said labor unions and other groups representing UC faculty, students and employees had provided “overwhelming evidence” that the Trump administration was “engaged in a concerted campaign to purge ‘woke,’ ‘left,’ and ‘socialist’ viewpoints from our country’s leading universities.”

“Agency officials, as well as the President and Vice President, have repeatedly and publicly announced a playbook of initiating civil rights investigations of preeminent universities to justify cutting off federal funding, with the goal of bringing universities to their knees and forcing them to change their ideological tune,” Lin wrote.

She added, “It is undisputed that this precise playbook is now being executed at the University of California.”

At UC, which is facing a series of civil rights probes, she found the administration had engaged in “coercive and retaliatory conduct in violation of the First Amendment and Tenth Amendment.”

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Messages sent to the White House and the U.S. Department of Justice after hours Friday were not immediately returned. Lin’s order will remain in effect indefinitely.

University of California President James B. Milliken has said the size of the UCLA fine would devastate the UC system, whose campuses are viewed as some of the top public colleges in the nation.

UC is in settlement talks with the administration and is not a party to the lawsuit before Lin, who was nominated to the bench by President Joe Biden, a Democrat. In a statement, the university system said it “remains committed to protecting the mission, governance, and academic freedom of the University.”

The administration has demanded UCLA comply with its views on gender identity and establish a process to make sure foreign students are not admitted if they are likely to engage in anti-American, anti-Western or antisemitic “disruptions or harassment,” among other requirements outlined in a settlement proposal made public in October.

The administration has previously struck deals with Brown University for $50 million and Columbia University for $221 million.

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Lin cited declarations by UC faculty and staff that the administration’s moves were prompting them to stop teaching or researching topics they were “afraid were too ‘left’ or ‘woke.’”

Her injunction also blocks the administration from “conditioning the grant or continuance of federal funding on the UC’s agreement to any measures that would violate the rights of Plaintiffs’ members under the First Amendment.”

She cited efforts to force the UCs to screen international students based on “‘anti-Western” or “‘anti-American’” views, restrict research and teaching, or adopt specific definitions of “male” and “female” as examples of such measures.

President Donald Trump has decried elite colleges as overrun by liberalism and antisemitism.

His administration has launched investigations of dozens of universities, claiming they have failed to end the use of racial preferences in violation of civil rights law. The Republican administration says diversity, equity and inclusion efforts discriminate against white and Asian American students.

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