Nepal, Norway, ICE and Jeffrey Epstein: The Night's News
Nepal: Police open fire on protesters, 19 dead. Young people were protesting corruption and the ban on social media across the country. In the capital, Kathmandu, in addition to tear gas and water cannons, police fired live ammunition at protesters approaching parliament. Four hundred people were injured in addition to the 19 killed. Last week, the government blocked nearly 30 social media sites, including X, YouTube, and Facebook, which had failed to comply with the authorities' requests in a timely manner. Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak resigned Monday evening, “taking moral responsibility for the bloody crackdown,” reports The Himalayan Times. Social media has become accessible again.
The Norwegian left remains in power. “Labor Party leader Jonas Gahr Støre will not have to leave the Prime Minister's residence. He will be able to continue governing. There will be no change in the government,” notes Aftenposten. However, he will have to negotiate with the other left-wing parties that helped him win 87 seats, two more than the majority. The other lesson from these legislative elections is the rise of the Progress Party, a populist and anti-immigration party, which achieved a historic score (24%), doubling its number of seats (48 today). Disappointment, however, for the conservatives, who only won 14% of the vote (compared to 20% in 2021) . “The Conservative Party's disastrous election campaign cost Norway a new government,” laments Dagen, a Christian newspaper. Gaza, taxes for the richest, and oil exploitation were some of the major themes of this election.
The Supreme Court authorizes racial profiling for ICE. The decision—not final—is a “significant victory for President Trump” as part of his mass deportation plan, notes the Los Angeles Times. It allows ICE agents, in charge of immigration, “to arrest and detain anyone they suspect of being illegally on American soil,” the daily continues. The court’s six conservative justices—three of whom were appointed by Donald Trump—voted to overturn a Los Angeles judge’s decision that barred ICE from stopping people “on the basis of their physical appearance, the language they speak, the job they do, or where they are located,” the Californian daily specifies. “We should not live in a country where the government can arrest anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work for low wages,” criticized Sonia Sotomayor, one of the three progressive justices on the court.
A letter contradicts Donald Trump's statements. The Wall Street Journal reveals that Jeffrey Epstein's lawyers gave members of the House of Representatives "a copy of the book prepared for the financier's 50th birthday, which includes a letter with President Trump's signature that he had said did not exist." The newspaper mentioned this note - a few lines written amidst a sketch of a nude woman - in a July article. The American president sued the newspaper for defamation. Robert Garcia, a Democratic representative in the House of Representatives from California and a member of the committee to whom Mr. Epstein's lawyers gave the copy of the book, said that "we now know that Donald Trump lied and is doing everything in his power to hide the truth." On Twitter, a White House spokeswoman maintained that Mr. Trump was not the author of the cartoon and that he had not signed it, claiming it was “fake news” and repeating that the Epstein affair was a “Democrat hoax.”
