
US sanctions six top leaders of Venezuela gang Tren de Aragua
The Treasury Department said that Tren de Aragua is a threat to public safety throughout the Western world, and is involved in the illicit drug trade, extortion, human smuggling and trafficking, money laundering, sexual exploitation of women and children, and other criminal conduct.
'Today's action highlights the critical role of leaders like Niño Guerrero and his lieutenants in Tren de Aragua's efforts to increase its destabilizing influence throughout the region,' Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement on Thursday.
'The Trump Administration will not allow Tren de Aragua to continue to terrorize our communities and harm innocent Americans,' Bessent added. 'In line with President Trump's mandate to Make America Safe Again, Treasury remains dedicated to dismantling Tren de Aragua and disrupting the group's campaign of violence.'
Tren de Aragua, which originated in Venezuela, was designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the State Department on Feb. 20.
Apart from Guerrero Flores, the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Yohan Jose Romero, Josue Angel Santana Pena, Wilmer Jose Perez Castillo, Guerrero Flores's wife Wendy Marbelys Rios Gomez and Felix Anner Castillo Rondon.
Thursday's sanctions will block all property and interests in property of the six individuals. Also, any entities owned directly or indirectly at a 50 percent rate or more will be blocked.
Jose Romero, a close lieutenant of Guerrero Flores, has been responsible for Tren de Aragua's illegal mining efforts in Venezuela, along with providing the criminal gang with military-grade weapons, according to the Treasury Department.
The State Department, through the Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program, is offering up to $5 million for information that leads to the arrest or conviction of Guerrero Flores.
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San Francisco Chronicle
7 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Photos: Hundreds in S.F. form human banner during ‘Families First' protest of Trump
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Protesters also decried recent raids in the Bay Area and nationwide by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. As a ukulele band played Woody Guthrie's 'This Land is Your Land' over speakers, Peter Hosey, 40, stood in a line of people forming the letter 'A' in 'FAMILIA.' 'The message today is 'We are familia,'' Hosey said. 'That certainly resonates for a lot of us when you see what ICE has been doing, deporting children, deporting mothers, putting people in camps.' 'This is not what our country should be,' added Hosey, who works in the tech industry. The crowd, which organizers estimated as 600, then headed to the ocean, raising hands and waving to the water. Protesters then walked back and formed a circle around a large American flag as Sister Sledge's 1979 hit 'We Are Family' played over the speakers. Micki Morales, a retired schoolteacher who lives in Cupertino, was standing in one of the human letter lines when a call went out over the speakers. They needed someone who could sing 'This Land is Your Land.' Morales didn't come to the beach expecting to sing Saturday, but has experience in choruses and decided to offer up her voice. The song took on special meaning for her in the age of Trump. 'It's almost a prayer versus a statement,' said Morales, 88. 'I don't know how we got to this position, how people could be so fooled. But here we are, and hopefully we will dig our ways out.' Several related events were held around the Bay Area, including an afternoon rally at Snow Park in Oakland commemorating the anniversaries of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Medicaid program and the Social Security Administration. The event featured speeches from Medi-Cal recipients, health care workers, caregivers and community members. One of the featured speakers in Oakland, Jazmine Arreola of the grassroots group Parent Voices Los Angeles, said she has fibromyalgia and is severely impacted by the federal cuts. 'How is it fair that families like mine up and down the state of California have lived our whole lives trying to move up and move forward for our kids, and we just can't?' Arreola, the mother of three children, said in a news release before the protest. 'My closest family members are on Medi-Cal: my dad and my grandparents. My daughter needs eye surgery. These cuts put our lives at risk.' In San Jose, health care workers, patients, community leaders and educators gathered Saturday afternoon at Discovery Meadow to highlight the effect of immigration raids and corporate tax breaks on working families. The Bay Area protests were organized by a coalition of unions, advocacy groups, faith leaders, and families. Events were also planned in San Mateo, Colma and Novato. The 'Families First' day of action included hundreds of rallies in all 50 states, highlighted by a livestreamed mobilization in Washington, D.C. 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Newsham walked around the sand in a bright yellow jacket Saturday, delivering orders to the crowd via bullhorn. His injured ankle didn't hold him back. 'It's cool when you get a shot from the sky of all these people,' he said. When a group of protesters wearing purple union shirts bunched up in a line that was supposed to be single file, Newsham whipped them into shape. 'Hey SEIU, squeeze in!' he shouted into the bullhorn. 'It makes a better picture, you can do it.' Newsham seemed to get a kick out of it. 'It's an awesome responsibility,' he said. The demonstrators spelled out 'FAMILIA' to protest what Newsham's co-organizer, Travis Van Brasch, called ICE's 'completely illegal, cruel, stupid, unnecessary' raids. 'We are saying it in Spanish because that's where most of the trouble is,' said Van Brasch, 72. Warren Pederson contributed to this report.


CNBC
7 minutes ago
- CNBC
Ghislaine Maxwell's meetings with Justice Department shrouded in secrecy
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Jack Scarola, a lawyer representing roughly 20 Epstein victims, said he asked to attend the Maxwell interviews but was not included. Berit Berger, a former federal prosecutor in New York, said the interviews by Blanche, who worked as Trump's former defense lawyer, may be performative. "It may be just a way of being able to say, 'Look, we dotted every I and crossed every T,'" she said. "There's value to being able to say that we've tried to speak to everyone we possibly could, including the co-defendant." Attorney General Pam Bondi, Blanche and President Donald Trump himself have struggled to quell the uproar since the DOJ and FBI announced on July 6 that an exhaustive Epstein case review had not uncovered evidence that justified investigating other individuals. FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino — who have both spread conspiracy theories about the Epstein case — backed those findings and a DOJ decision to release no other Epstein case documents. Catherine Christian, a former Manhattan assistant district attorney and an NBC News legal analyst, said the Maxwell interviews could also be an effort to protect Trump, who now faces one of the largest political crises of his second term in the furor over the Epstein investigation. Trump, like dozens of other wealthy Americans, socialized with Epstein. He is among hundreds of individuals whose names appear in 100,000 pages of Epstein case documents reviewed by the DOJ and the FBI. "It's hard to believe this is anything but performative," Christian said. "Or Todd Blanche, just wanting to have her on the record saying, 'Yes, President Trump had nothing to do with any of this. He was not a client.'" Maxwell's lawyer, David Oscar Markus, is a top Florida criminal defense lawyer and a friend of Blanche's. Blanche appeared on Markus' podcast in 2024, where the host praised Blanche's legal skills. 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You should focus on some of the hedge fund guys." "I'll give you a list. These guys lived with Jeffrey Epstein. I sure as hell didn't," Trump said. Asked if he was considering granting Maxwell a pardon or commuting her sentence, Trump said, "It's something I haven't thought about." "I'm allowed to do it," he added. Mimi Rocah, a former federal prosecutor in New York, said she believes the recent firing of Maurene Comey, a lead prosecutor in the Maxwell case and the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, was an effort to give Trump appointees full control of the Maxwell case, limit transparency and silence dissent. "That does not seem coincidental. It seems like they wanted Maurene not to be present in the Department of Justice," Rocah said. "To be able to say, 'What the heck, you can't go talk to my client or my defendant.'" 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Newsweek
7 minutes ago
- Newsweek
Democratic Party Hits Lowest Approval in Over 30 Years: Poll
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. A Wall Street Journal poll published on Friday shows the Democratic Party's image has deteriorated to its lowest point in over three decades according to the newspaper's records that date back to 1990. Only 8 percent of registered voters said they view the Democratic Party "very favorably," while 63 percent said it's out of touch with the everyday concerns of Americans. In contrast, Republicans are now trusted more on key issues like the economy, immigration and crime. The poll, which surveyed 1,500 registered voters between July 16-20, found Republicans have taken the lead on eight of 10 issues tested. Despite President Donald Trump's continued unpopularity in the polls, the GOP leads in overall party identification. The Journal's poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points. Why It Matters In last year's presidential election, Trump beat then-Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, by 2 points in the popular vote, 50 to 48 percent. Trump also won the electoral vote, which decides the winner, 312-226. The Democratic Party faced a string of defeats in the 2024 election cycle when it came to the U.S. House and Senate, with the party's struggles for a clear message and effective leadership intensifying as the 2026 midterm elections approach. The new poll signals a significant warning for Democrats. Although Trump remains a polarizing figure, the data suggests that voters are increasingly viewing the party as ineffective on core issues like inflation, border security, and crime. What To Know According to the Journal's poll, Democrats now face a net favorability of -30 points, with only one-third of voters expressing any positive sentiment toward the party. This marks the worst performance for Democrats in the newspaper's polling history to date. While Trump's handling of inflation and tariffs drew significant disapproval—11 and 17 points respectively—voters still trust Republicans more than Democrats to manage those issues in Congress. The GOP holds a 10-point advantage on inflation and a 7-point edge on tariffs. The only policy areas where Democrats outperform Republicans in the poll are health care and vaccine policy, suggesting the party retains some credibility on public health issues. The president's net unfavorability stands at -7 points, with the GOP slightly worse at -11. However, Trump's favorability has remained relatively steady through the first six months of his second term, even as other polls show sharper declines. Despite the negative sentiment, 46 percent of voters say they would back a Democrat for Congress if an election were held today, compared to 43 percent who would support a Republican. That margin is narrower than the 8-point advantage Democrats had at the same point in Trump's first term in 2017. Senate Minority Leader Senator Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, speaks as Senate Minority Whip Sen. Richard Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, and Senator Cory Booker, a New Jersey Democrat, listen during a news briefing at... Senate Minority Leader Senator Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, speaks as Senate Minority Whip Sen. Richard Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, and Senator Cory Booker, a New Jersey Democrat, listen during a news briefing at the U.S. Capitol on July 22 in Washington, D.C. MoreWhat People Are Saying Bill McInturff, a Republican pollster not connected to the Journal's survey, said: "We were already watching the tide moving out for the Republican Party by this point in 2017, and that's not where we are today. And that's worth jumping up and down and trying to explain: how much more competitive Trump and the Republicans are today than in 2017." John Anzalone, a Democratic pollster who worked on the Journal survey, said: "The Democratic brand is so bad that they don't have the credibility to be a critic of Trump or the Republican Party. Until they reconnect with real voters and working people on who they're for and what their economic message is, they're going to have problems." What Happens Next? Democrats face mounting pressure to redefine their economic message and rebuild trust with working-class voters. Meanwhile, Republicans are likely to double down on their perceived strengths in fiscal and foreign policy ahead of next year's midterms.