US politics live: Victim of Jeffrey Epstein writes to judge to express ‘disgust’ at Trump administration’s handling of the case
An alleged victim of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell has written to an American judge, expressing “disgust” at the way the case is progressing.
Welcome to our live coverage of US politics.
Obtaining a visa to visit the United States is set to become far more expensive, if you happen to come from the wrong country.
The US government is set to trial a program that would require foreigners from “countries identified by the State Department as having high visa overstay rates” to pay massive sums before being allowed into the United States.
“In this temporary final rule, the Department of State announces the commencement of a 12-month long visa bond pilot program,” the department said in a notice today.
“Aliens applying for visas as temporary visitors for business or pleasure and who are nationals of countries identified by the department as having high visa overstay rates, where screening and vetting information is deemed deficient, or offering citizenship by investment, is the alien obtained citizenship with no residency requirement, may be subject to the pilot program.
“Consular officers may require covered non-immigrant visa applicants to post a bond of up to $15,000 as a condition of visa issuance, as determined by the consular officers.”
That’s a lot of money. The first Trump administration looked at this idea too; most of the countries in question, when it was examined back then, were in Africa.
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Meanwhile a battle is brewing in Texas over a Donald Trump backed plan designed to skew the state even more Republican.
Democrat politicians have fled the state in a desperate attempt to stop a vote on a new map of Texas electoral districts which could give Mr Trump’s party more seats and therefore more power in Congress.
But Texas’ Republican Governor Greg Abbott has demanded the Democrats return or he will expel them from the legislatures. He’s even said some could be “felons” and arrested.
Read on for more updates.
Originally published as US politics live: Victim of Jeffrey Epstein writes to judge to express ‘disgust’ at Trump administration’s handling of the case
