Since he retook office, President Donald Trump has sought to discourage social media companies from taking down posts they deem hateful or misleading. Now his administration is using immigration policy to ratchet up that pressure. The State Department this week issued additional guidance that could deny visas to workers involved in online content moderation, which Republicans argue is a threat to Americans' free speech. The move is part of an "enhanced vetting" process for H-1B visas widely used by Silicon Valley firms to bring skilled tech workers into the country.

The Trump administration on Wednesday announced increased vetting of applicants for H-1B visas for highly skilled workers, with an internal State Department memo saying that anyone involved in "censorship" of free speech be considered for rejection. H-1B visas, which allow U.S. employers to hire foreign workers in specialty fields, are crucial for U.S. tech companies which recruit heavily from countries including India and China. Many of those companies' leaders threw their support behind Trump in the last presidential election.

Given the savagely disproportionate fine just imposed by the EU on X/Twitter (more on that to come), this step, if accurately reported, is a welcome beginning, but it should only be a beginning. Reuters: The Trump administration on Wednesday announced increased vetting of applicants for H-1B visas for highly skilled workers, with an internal State Department memo saying that anyone involved in "censorship" of free speech be considered for rejection.

A coup that was announced in Benin on Sunday has been "foiled," the interior minister said in a video on Facebook. "In the early morning of Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025, a small group of soldiers launched a mutiny with the aim of destabilizing the state and its institutions," Alassane Seidou said. "Faced with this situation, the Beninese Armed Forces and their leadership, true to their oath, remained committed to the republic."

Portugal and France both support EU proposals to use frozen Russian assets to provide loans to Ukraine amid Moscow's all-out war, now well into its fourth year. Russia terminated decades-old military cooperation agreements with Portugal, France and Canada by decree published on Friday, according to Russian state media. The three agreements signed between 1989 and 2000 are no longer strategically relevant, Russian authorities said.

Russia continued its air strikes on Ukraine overnight, hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he had a "very constructive" phone call with Donald Trump's negotiating team following three days of talks in Florida. Early on Sunday the mayor of Kremenchuk, a major industrial hub in central Ukraine, said the city had been repeatedly struck in a "massive" attack. No deaths have been confirmed so far.

President Trump is the true heir to Ronald Reagan when it comes to championing the former president's policy of "peace through strength," Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Saturday. Mr. Hegseth, in a major speech to the Reagan National Defense Forum, also defended the Trump administration's deadly missile strikes on alleged drug-trafficking vessels, including a controversial secondary attack Sept. 2 that Mr. Hegseth said killed two "narco-terrorists."

A U.S. Coast Guard ship seized more than 20,000 pounds of cocaine from a single ship this week, making the largest at-sea interdiction in nearly 20 years, officials said. The Coast Guard said the crew of the Munro, a cutter that patrols the Pacific and is based in Alameda, California, made the seizure during "counter-narcotics operations" in the Eastern Pacific. The incident was part of Operation Pacific Viper, an effort by the Trump Administration to stop the flow of illicit drugs through the Pacific Ocean.

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from 21st Century Wire: The Islander writes… As it became known following five hours of tense negotiations with the American delegation inside the Kremlin’s stone walls, one issue, unsurprisingly remained a gaping wound, the territorial question. And Washington, true to form, came with its recycled 28 point plan. Dusting off pages from the 28-point “Trump Plan,” […]