
Why the infrastructure deal is so important for Joe Biden
CNN
President Joe Biden will validate a foundational pillar of his presidency on Thursday -- a quest to court Republicans across Congress' poisoned divides -- if he signs off on a hard won bipartisan infrastructure deal.
Biden's patience seems to have delivered a Senate compromise on the issue that would cut against the prevailing stalemate on Capitol Hill. A parallel and exhaustive set of talks on police reform in the wake of the George Floyd murder last year also faces an end-of-day test seen by key players as crucial ahead of a looming Senate recess. Senators emerged from another marathon infrastructure negotiating session on Wednesday, declaring they had sealed a framework of an agreement worth around $1.2 trillion with $579 billion in new spending, and planned to discuss it on Thursday with Biden, whose team was briefing him on it Wednesday night.
One year ago this week, Joe Biden was president. I was in Doha, Qatar, negotiating with Israel and Hamas to finalize a ceasefire and hostage release deal. The incoming Trump team worked closely with us, a rare display of nonpartisanship to free hostages and end a war. It feels like a decade ago. A lot can happen in a year, as 2025 has shown.

Botched Epstein redactions trace back to Virgin Islands’ 2020 civil racketeering case against estate
A botched redaction in the Epstein files revealed that government attorneys once accused his lawyers of paying over $400,000 to “young female models and actresses” to cover up his criminal activities

The Justice Department’s leadership asked career prosecutors in Florida Tuesday to volunteer over the “next several days” to help to redact the Epstein files, in the latest internal Trump administrationpush toward releasing the hundreds of thousands of photos, internal memos and other evidence around the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The US State Department on Tuesday imposed visa sanctions on a former top European Union official and employees of organizations that combat disinformation for alleged censorship – sharply ratcheting up the Trump administration’s fight against European regulations that have impacted digital platforms, far-right politicians and Trump allies, including Elon Musk.









