The Trump administration is considering narrowly defining gender as a biological, immutable condition determined by genitalia at birth, the most drastic move yet in a governmentwide effort to roll back recognition and protections of transgender people under federal civil rights law. A series of decisions by the Obama administration loosened the legal concept of gender in federal programs, including in education and health care, recognizing gender largely as an individual’s choice and not determined by the sex assigned at birth. The policy prompted fights over bathrooms, dormitories...

Although official results are not yet in, exit polls suggested that the governing Law and Justice party had not expanded its appeal to the moderates in Poland’s urban areas.

Dumb ass failed Hollywood wannabe calling everybody else stupid.

How the Maker of Junk Fighters Like the F-22 and F-35 Came to Have Full-Spectrum Dominance Over the Defense Industry. By Jeffrey St. Clair.

Political entanglements undermine a once-authoritative and beloved institution

Europe’s highest court told Poland to reinstate more than two dozen judges ousted by the ruling party, escalating a clash between Warsaw and the European Union.

There is an increasing fascination among political scientists with the concept of anti-politics, an apparently growing sentiment of distrust with existing political institutions. It may be worth recalling then, that distrust in politics has economic roots. Bluntly, the economically marginalised do not trust politicians and this makes sense- if you’re not doing so well out of society, you will not trust those who run it.

Georgia secretary of state and gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp improperly purged more than 340,000 voters from the state’s registration rolls, an investigation charges. Greg Palast, a journalist and the director of the Palast Investigative Fund, said an analysis he commissioned found 340,134 voters were removed from the rolls on the grounds that they had moved – but they actually still live at the address where they are registered.

At Liberty University, students and faculty have faith in the president to help ‘create generations of rightwing Christians’ – but some are uneasy. hree times a week, 15,000 students stream into the Vines Center, a huge silver-domed building on the campus of Liberty University for “convocation”, an intoxicating mix of prayer, political rally and entertainment. Thousands more watch a live stream of the event.

Speaking truth to power has ruined Darin Jones, a former FBI contract specialist who reported evidence of serious procurement improprieties. He should be the last federal whistleblower victimized, writes John Kiriakou.

Oklahoma lawmakers have passed legislation that would require officials to consider abortion to be murder. The Tulsa World reported a law was passed Monday afternoon that would force any state official to defy the U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized privacy for the procedure. It was also done without any discussion or debate on the House floor.

Abortion will no longer be a crime in Queensland, after state MPs voted on Wednesday night to remove the procedure from the criminal code. The historic reforms were passed in the Queensland Parliament on Wednesday night via a conscience vote, with the support of LNP members Tim Nicholls, Jann Stuckey and Steve Minnikin helping to ensure its success at the second reading and final vote.

Missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi endured a horrific seven-minute ordeal as he was butchered alive inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, a source has claimed. The death squad are reported to have listened to music through headphones to drown out Washington Post columnist Khashoggi's screams. The anonymous Turkish source claims to have heard an audio recording of Khashoggi's grim final moments, recorded on the journalist's own Apple watch , shortly after he entered the consulate on October 2.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) said in recent interview that he does not believe Russia hacked the Democratic National Committee or other Democrats during the 2016 presidential election, based on a denial offered by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. The congressman’s belief is contrary to the public conclusion of United States law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

The tragic death of a Washington Post columnist should not destroy our relationship with Saudi Arabia.

Twitter has barred hundreds of right-wing accounts for posing as soulless, “nonplayable” liberal activists.

Youth isn’t a good proxy for support of political correctness, and race isn’t either.

Donald Trump finally just said it: he doesn’t care if Christine Blasey Ford was telling the truth. Journalist Lesley Stahl asked Trump in an interview aired on 60 Minutes Sunday night why he had mocked Ford at a rally a few days after she testified before the Senate that Brett Kavanaugh had attempted to rape her when they were teenagers.

The real meaning of the IPCC report isn’t “climate change is worse than you think.” We knew that. It’s “you now have permission to freak out.” By David Wallace-Wells.

A recent purge by Facebook and Twitter of a host of independent media sites has pushed thousands of people out of work and has killed one of the most effective forms of expressing political dissent. [And you better not try to post this at Reddit, if you know what’s good for you.]

"We write to express our alarm at recent reports that your company is distributing anti-union materials to Whole Foods managers that directs and encourages potentially illegal interference with the rights of thousands of workers."

During an appearance on C-SPAN this Tuesday, evangelical firebrand and Family Research Council president Tony Perkins got an earful from a caller who described himself as a former evangelical who went back to being a “true Christian.” The caller, who identified himself as “Steve” from North Carolina, told Perkins that a “true Christian follows the teachings of Jesus.”

Last month, the federal government announced it was expanding the shelter's capacity to 3,800 beds — making it the largest shelter in the system for kids who cross the border solo.

President Donald Trump and his lawyers still believe he can block people on Twitter because he doesn’t like their views, so today we’ve filed a brief telling a court, again, that doing so violates the First Amendment. We’re hopeful that the court, like the last one that considered the case, will side with the plaintiffs, seven individuals blocked by Trump who are represented by the Knight First Amendment Institute. As we explain in the brief, the case has broad implications for the public as social media use by the government becomes more and more ubiquitous.

For the past year, the Trump administration has been phasing out a special immigration program that has allowed hundreds of thousands of foreigners from nations devastated by natural disasters and civil strife to live and work in the U.S. as legal residents. In order to do so, the Department of Homeland Security has tossed aside findings reached by Republican and Democratic administrations over nearly three decades and adopted a new, more narrow interpretation of U.S. law.

When a Turkish court released American Andrew Brunson after two years of confinement, it was a profound moment for Christian evangelicals, who had made the pastor a symbol of religious persecution worldwide. In Brunson's case and others, they had prayed for deliverance. And President Donald Trump, they said, delivered.

New reports show that several thousand newly-registered voters in the state of Texas have been illegally purged from the state’s voting rolls, a move that will certainly benefit struggling incumbent Senator Ted Cruz. The state has seen a surge in new voter registrations, and that is never a good sign for Republicans, which helps explain the illegal purges. Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins discusses this.

Sir Richard Branson and Virgin Group are severing their business relationships with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman following the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey last week. In a blog post on Virgin Group's website, the company's founder announced that Virgin Galatic and Virgin Orbit will suspend its discussions with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia.

Soon, perhaps even by the time you read this, the rules for flying remote-controlled aircraft in the United States will be very different.

More than 100,000 people have been marching in the German capital Berlin to protest against xenophobia and the increasing influence of the far right. Rights groups organised the rally, as marchers held placards reading "Indivisible" and "United against racism". The BBC's Jenny Hill in Berlin says even the organisers seemed surprised by the turnout.

The Senate confirmed Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court Saturday afternoon, likely cementing a conservative majority on the court for a generation and bringing to an end months of bitter partisan feuding marked by shocking allegations of sexual assault and vehement and angry denials from the nominee.

Under Mohammed Bin Salman, Saudi Arabia has spent heavily to promote a reformist image. The country has quietly built an army of consultants in Washington to ensure that the kingdom's goals are not blocked in America's corridors of power.

Foreign companies and investors are distancing themselves from Saudi Arabia since news of the disappearance and possible murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist critical of the government. Several companies and individuals have withdrawn from the Saudi Future Investment Initiative (FII) conference in Riyadh later this month. The conference, which is now in its second year, has been referred to as “Davos in the Desert,” a comparison to the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

The president's reluctance to take decisive action after the disappearance of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi is triggering renewed questions about the potential conflicts posed by Trump's longstanding ties to the kingdom's royal family.

President Trump said late Saturday that he mocked Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who accused new Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault, because he needed to “even the playing field.”