Joanna Kakissis

This seems incredible to read, as it could come straight out of an Orbán 2015-16 speech, but this has actually been a dominant position within the broader U.S. Right for decades. 🧵

State Department to deny visas to fact checkers and others, citing 'censorship' The order is focused on applicants for H-1B visas, which are frequently used by tech companies and is part of a campaign by the Trump administration against online content moderation.

The State Department is instructing its staff to reject visa applications from people who worked on fact-checking, content moderation or other activities the Trump administration considers "censorship" of Americans' speech.
www.npr.org/2025/12/04/n...

The cable, sent to all U.S. missions on December 2, orders U.S. consular officers to review resumes or LinkedIn profiles of H-1B applicants - and family members who would be traveling with them - to see if they have worked in areas that include activities such as misinformation, disinformation, content moderation, fact-checking, compliance and online safety, among others.

Holy shit.

Reuters reporting that new admin instructions on visas are if you worked at a platform in trust & safety or content moderation or on fact checking or online safety at an platform you *and your loved ones* are ineligible for H-1B visa.

www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...

A bit too on the nose for thanksgiving

A collage of book covers. A headline reads: "The New York Times Book Review's 100 Notable Books of 2025."

It’s here: Our list of 100 Notable Books of 2025. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/24/b...

🇵🇱🇺🇸 Polish media illustration:

White House briefing: “Ushakov and Witkoff will take part in the U.S.–Russia negotiations.”

Question from the press: “And who will represent the American side?”

Green Card Interviews End in Handcuffs for Spouses of U.S. Citizens

"Agents are arresting foreign-born spouses when they report for the final step to obtain permanent residency, and charging them with visa violations that could result in deportation." www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/u...

🇫🇮🇺🇦 Stubb: I spoke with Zelensky. The negotiations were a step forward, but there are still major issues which remain to be resolved.

Any decision falling in the remit of EU or NATO will be discussed and decided by EU and NATO members in a separate track.

Scientists have created a grain-of-sand–sized robot that can be guided by magnets to deliver drugs to precise locations in the human body.

“We’re just at the tip of the iceberg,” said Bradley J. Nelson, an author of the paper in Science. https://wapo.st/4oONjaz

Crockett on MTG resigning: "Honestly, I was like, you got to be kidding. You're on the other side of the president for one week and you can't take the heat? Imagine what it is to sit in my shoes."

In Russian-Occupied Mariupol, Everything Ukrainian Must Go

“During the siege, residents killed by shelling were often buried in makeshift graves wherever they fell. Now, construction crews sometimes unearth human remains.” #Mariupol. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/23/w...

“The plan was negotiated by Steve Witkoff, a real-estate developer with no historical, geographical, or cultural knowledge of Russia or Ukraine, and Kirill Dmitriev, who heads Russia’s sovereign-wealth fund and spends most of his time making business deals.”

NEW: Russian officials and state media continue to set information conditions to reject the US-proposed 28-point peace plan, indicating that the Kremlin is actively conditioning the Russian people to not accept anything less than a full victory in Ukraine. 🧵(1/8)

Read more: isw.pub/UkrWar112225

Family Affair: Commerce Secretary’s Sons Cash In on A.I. Frenzy

NEW: As Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick drives billions of dollars in foreign payments to help build AI data centers in the US, his sons help run a company earning tens of millions in fees helping finance AI data centers. A NYT investigation. (Free link)

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/20/u...

After break with Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene will resign Republican Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, an "America First" conservative who has clashed with President Trump and her party, said Friday she would resign from Congress Jan. 5, 2026.

BREAKING @npr.org: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Georgia Republican who rose to prominence as one of President Trump's biggest defenders and recently became one of his biggest critics, is leaving Congress effective 1/5/26.

Representative Jeff Van Drew’s Aide Faked Anti-Trump Slashing Attack, U.S. Says Natalie Greene, 26, who worked for Representative Jeff Van Drew, a Republican, falsely claimed she was attacked at a nature reserve, the authorities said.

An aide to a Republican congressman from New Jersey faked being the victim of what she claimed was a politically motivated slashing in July, a narrative that quickly unraveled when investigators found spare zip ties in her Maserati, federal prosecutors said.

NEW: All available reporting continues to indicate that the stipulations of the reported 28-point Russia-US peace plan amount to Ukraine’s full capitulation to Russia’s original war demands. 🧵(1/6)

Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, Nov. 20, 2025: isw.pub/UkrWar112025

Our servicemembers take an oath to defend the Constitution–not any one person or political party.

Did the bombshell BBC memo misquote the misquote? Wording used by Michael Prescott was itself an edit of Trump’s actual words

Did the bombshell BBC memo misquote the misquote? on.ft.com/485zOMr Spoiler alert: it did. Panorama edited Trump to make him look bad. But Prescott edited Trump to make the BBC look bad.

Denver’s bison were once zoo animals. Now they’re food and sustenance for Indigenous residents Since 2018, Denver has allowed a local organization to hold a ceremonial event to harvest one of its roughly 70 buffalo.

Denver’s bison were once zoo animals. Now they’re food and sustenance for Indigenous residents www.cpr.org/2025/11/19/d... via @sambrasch.bsky.social

I think the word you’re looking for is “kept”

U.S. deports dozens of migrants to Ukraine amid war Immigration lawyers say those deported to Ukraine could be conscripted to fight in the war, contrary to international laws that prohibit deportations to places where people could face violence.

NPR: The U.S. deported 50 people to Ukraine this week, a Ukrainian border official said on Tuesday, in what appears to be the single largest such deportation from the U.S. since the country has been at war with Russia. www.npr.org/2025/11/18/g...

The scramble for Europe is just beginning As the EU struggles to defend its interests, outside powers play divide and rule

“Europe’s weakness on security had negated its potential strength on trade. One form of frailty had led to another.”

on.ft.com/4r82M79
The scramble for Europe is just beginning

I have been thinking about this line today, on the value of editors, from the late great John Bennet, for no reason in particular.

Editors have a really hard job, and the good ones can make something unreadable readable, and the great ones can make something unreadable into something good. But they're basically invisible, until someone tries to write without one.

A person in dark clothing carrying shopping bags walks by heavily damaged buildings. Photo by Tyler Hicks/The New York Times

Our photographer Tyler Hicks has been covering the war in Ukraine since 2022. “Nearly every thriving city, town and village I’ve visited near the front lines has been obliterated, become unreachable, or been occupied by Moscow’s forces. Pokrovsk is now one of them.” See more photos: nyti.ms/49RmrSw

Bill Gates Met With Jeffrey Epstein Many Times, Despite His Past (Published 2019)

As a former member of NYT’s finance team & the co-author of this story exposing the relationship between Epstein & Bill Gates as well as one on Epstein & JPMorgan, I am really frustrated to see people claiming that NYT sat on publishable info about Trump and Epstein 🧵 www.nytimes.com/2019/10/12/b...

NYT yoinks Tiny Desk? That's a recession indicator.

www.instagram.com/reel/DQ7qG-5...

'No turning back': More and more Ukrainian women join the army to fight Russia An increasing number of women are joining the Ukrainian military, with thousands serving in front line roles, as Russia's war on Ukraine nears its fourth year — with no peace in sight.

An increasing number of women are joining the Ukrainian military, with thousands serving in front line roles, as Russia's war on Ukraine nears its fourth year — with no peace in sight. n.pr/3LGGxF3

Racing to Save a Ukrainian Archaeological Site Exposed by the War : State of the World from NPR The war with Russia has touched all aspects of Ukrainian life, including efforts to preserve the nation’s history. We go to an island in the Dnipro River where archaeologists from around the world ar...

Moving & interesting piece on NPR about archaeologists from the US & Sweden helping Ukrainian colleagues rescue parts of a wreck (from an 18th-cent Russian military expedition) exposed by the current war. The archaeologists made out their wills before they travelled.

www.npr.org/2025/11/07/n...