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Moscow Tightens Restrictions as Infections, Deaths Soar

Medics wearing special suits to protect against coronavirus move a patient with coronavirus at an ICU at the Moscow City Clinical Hospital 52, in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Oct. 19, 2021.(AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
Medics wearing special suits to protect against coronavirus move a patient with coronavirus at an ICU at the Moscow City Clinical Hospital 52, in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Oct. 19, 2021.(AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
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Moscow Tightens Restrictions as Infections, Deaths Soar

Medics wearing special suits to protect against coronavirus move a patient with coronavirus at an ICU at the Moscow City Clinical Hospital 52, in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Oct. 19, 2021.(AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
Medics wearing special suits to protect against coronavirus move a patient with coronavirus at an ICU at the Moscow City Clinical Hospital 52, in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Oct. 19, 2021.(AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Authorities in Moscow on Thursday announced plans to shut restaurants, cinemas and non-food stores and introduce other restrictions later this month, as Russia registered the highest daily numbers of new coronavirus infections and deaths since the start of the pandemic.

The government coronavirus task force reported 36,339 new confirmed infections and 1,036 deaths in the past 24 hours. That brought Russia´s death toll to 227,389, by far the highest in Europe.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday responded to rising contagion and deaths by ordering Russians to stay off work from Oct.30 to Nov.7, and Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin followed up Thursday by introducing a slew of restrictions in the capital, AFP reported.

All restaurants, cafes and non-food stores, gyms, cinemas and other entertainment venues in the Russian capital will be shut from Oct.28 to Nov.7, and schools and kindergartens will also be closed during that period.

Access to museums, theaters, concert halls and other venues will be limited to holders of digital codes proving vaccination or past illness, a practice that will also remain in place after Nov. 7 per the Cabinet's advice.

Most state organizations and private businesses except for those operating key infrastructure and a few others will halt work in the 11-day period, the mayor added.

"The situation in Moscow is developing according to the worst-case scenario," Sobyanin wrote on his blog, adding that the number of infections in the capital is nearing all-time highs.

Russia´s daily infections have been surging for weeks and coronavirus mortality numbers topped 1,000 for the first time over the weekend amid low vaccination rates, lax public attitudes toward taking precautions and the government´s reluctance to tighten restrictions. Only about 45 million Russians - roughly a third of its nearly 146 million people - are fully vaccinated.

Putin strongly urged Russians to get vaccinated, saying "why wait for the illness and its grave consequences?"

The Russian leader, who got the domestically developed Sputnik V vaccine earlier this year, said he was bewildered by vaccine hesitancy, even among his close friends, who told him they would get the shot after he does and then kept delaying it.

"I can´t understand what´s going on," Putin said. "We have a reliable and efficient vaccine. The vaccine really reduces the risks of illness, grave complications and death."

Russia became the first country in the world to authorize a coronavirus vaccine in August 2020 and has plentiful supplies. But citizens have been hesitant to take up the jabs, and some have blamed the skepticism on conflicting signals from authorities.

While extolling Sputnik V and three other domestic vaccines, state-controlled media often criticized Western-made shots, a message that many saw as feeding doubts about vaccines in general.

The nonworking period, which includes a two-day state holiday, should help limit the spread by keeping people out of offices and off crowded public transportation. The government also urged local authorities to restrict access to restaurants, theaters and other entertainment venues during the period.

Putin said that in some regions where the situation is the most threatening, the nonworking period could start as early as Saturday and be extended past Nov. 7.

The Kremlin has ruled out a nationwide lockdown like the one early in the pandemic that dealt a heavy blow to the economy and sapped Putin´s popularity. Authorities have instead allowed regional authorities to decide on local restrictions.

Many of Russia´s 85 regions already have restricted attendance at large public events and introduced digital codes proving vaccination or past illness for access to restaurants, theaters and other venues. Some have made vaccinations compulsory for certain public servants and people over 60.

But Moscow had avoided restrictions until now, with restaurants and movie theaters brimming with people, crowds swarming nightclubs and karaoke bars, and commuters widely ignoring mask mandates on public transportation even as ICUs have been filling quickly.

Authorities in the capital have avoided restrictive measures until now partly because Moscow's health care system has more resources compared to other regions.

But Sobyanin said that tougher measures are now inevitable amid soaring infections and deaths.

"The experience shows that nonworking days are the most effective way to reduce contagion and deaths," he said.

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World

Trump Set to Expand Immigration Crackdown in 2026 despite Brewing Backlash

A woman holds a poster as immigrants rights activists stage a traditional Mexican posada, reenacting Mary and Joseph’s search for shelter, to symbolize immigrants seeking refuge from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents during the ongoing immigration operation "Catahoula Crunch", in New Orleans, Louisiana, US, December 18, 2025. REUTERS/Seth Herald
A woman holds a poster as immigrants rights activists stage a traditional Mexican posada, reenacting Mary and Joseph’s search for shelter, to symbolize immigrants seeking refuge from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents during the ongoing immigration operation "Catahoula Crunch", in New Orleans, Louisiana, US, December 18, 2025. REUTERS/Seth Herald
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Trump Set to Expand Immigration Crackdown in 2026 despite Brewing Backlash

A woman holds a poster as immigrants rights activists stage a traditional Mexican posada, reenacting Mary and Joseph’s search for shelter, to symbolize immigrants seeking refuge from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents during the ongoing immigration operation "Catahoula Crunch", in New Orleans, Louisiana, US, December 18, 2025. REUTERS/Seth Herald
A woman holds a poster as immigrants rights activists stage a traditional Mexican posada, reenacting Mary and Joseph’s search for shelter, to symbolize immigrants seeking refuge from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents during the ongoing immigration operation "Catahoula Crunch", in New Orleans, Louisiana, US, December 18, 2025. REUTERS/Seth Herald

US President Donald Trump is preparing for a more aggressive immigration crackdown in 2026 with billions in new funding, including by raiding more workplaces — even as backlash builds ahead of next year’s midterm elections.

Trump has already surged immigration agents into major US cities, where they swept through neighborhoods and clashed with residents. While federal agents this year conducted some high-profile raids on businesses, they largely avoided raiding farms, factories and other businesses that are economically important but known to employ immigrants without legal status.

ICE and Border Patrol will get $170 billion in additional funds through September 2029 - a huge surge of funding over their existing annual budgets of about $19 billion after the Republican-controlled Congress passed a massive spending package in July.

Administration officials say they plan to hire thousands more agents, open new detention centers, pick up more immigrants in local jails and partner with outside companies to track down people without legal status, Reuters reported.

The expanded deportation plans come despite growing signs of political backlash ahead of next year’s midterm elections.

Miami, one of the cities most affected by Trump’s crackdown because of its large immigrant population, elected its first Democratic mayor in nearly three decades last week in what the mayor-elect said was, in part, a reaction to the president.

Other local elections and polling ‌have suggested rising concern among ‌voters wary of aggressive immigration tactics. "People are beginning to see this not as an immigration question anymore ‌as ⁠much as it ‌is a violation of rights, a violation of due process and militarizing neighborhoods extraconstitutionally," said Mike Madrid, a moderate Republican political strategist.

"There is no question that is a problem for the president and Republicans." Trump’s overall approval rating on immigration policy fell from 50% in March, before he launched crackdowns in several major US cities, to 41% in mid-December, for what had been his strongest issue.

Rising public unease has focused on masked federal agents using aggressive tactics such as deploying tear gas in residential neighborhoods and detaining US citizens.

'NUMBERS WILL EXPLODE'

In addition to expanding enforcement actions, Trump has stripped hundreds of thousands of Haitian, Venezuelan and Afghan immigrants of temporary legal status, expanding the pool of people who could be deported as the president promises to remove 1 million immigrants each year – a goal he almost certainly will miss this year. So far, some 622,000 immigrants ⁠have been deported since Trump took office in January.

White House border czar Tom Homan told Reuters Trump had delivered on his promise of a historic deportation operation and removing criminals while shutting down illegal immigration across ‌the US-Mexico border. Homan said the number of arrests will increase sharply as ICE hires more ‍officers and expands detention capacity with the new funding.

“I think you're going to ‍see the numbers explode greatly next year,” Homan said.

Homan said the plans “absolutely” include more enforcement actions at workplaces.

Sarah Pierce, director of social policy at the ‍center-left group Third Way, said US businesses have been reluctant to push back on Trump's immigration crackdown in the past year but could be prompted to speak up if the focus turns to employers.

Pierce said it will be interesting to see "whether or not businesses finally stand up to this administration."

Trump, a Republican, recaptured the White House promising record levels of deportations, saying it was needed after years of high levels of illegal immigration under his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden. He kicked off a campaign that dispatched federal agents to US cities in search of possible immigration offenders, sparking protests and lawsuits over racial profiling and violent tactics.

Some businesses shut down to avoid raids or because of a lack of customers. Parents vulnerable to arrest kept their children home from school or had neighbors ⁠walk them. Some US citizens started carrying passports. Despite the focus on criminals in its public statements, government data shows that the Trump administration has been arresting more people who have not been charged with any crimes beyond their alleged immigration violations than previous administrations.

Some 41% of the roughly 54,000 people arrested by ICE and detained by late November had no criminal record beyond a suspected immigration violation, agency figures show.

In the first few weeks in January, before Trump took office, just 6% of those arrested and detained by ICE were not facing charges for other crimes or previously convicted.

The Trump administration has taken aim at legal immigrants as well. Agents have arrested spouses of US citizens at their green card interviews, pulled people from certain countries out of their naturalization ceremonies, moments before they were to become citizens, and revoked thousands of student visas.

PLANS TO TARGET EMPLOYERS

The administration’s planned focus on job sites in the coming year could generate many more arrests and affect the US economy and Republican-leaning business owners.

Replacing immigrants arrested during workplace raids could lead to higher labor costs, undermining Trump’s fight against inflation, which analysts expect to be a major issue in the closely watched November elections, determining control of Congress. Administration officials earlier this year exempted such businesses from enforcement on Trump’s orders, then quickly reversed, Reuters reported at the time.

Some immigration hardliners have ‌called for more workplace enforcement.

"Eventually you’re going to have to go after these employers,” said Jessica Vaughan, policy director for the Center for Immigration Studies, which backs lower levels of immigration. “When that starts happening the employers will start cleaning up their acts on their own.”

World

At Least 16 Files Have Disappeared from the DOJ Webpage for Documents Related to Jeffrey Epstein

Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein are seen in this image released by the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., US, on December 19, 2025 as part of a new trove of documents from its investigations into the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. US Justice Department/Handout via REUTERS
Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein are seen in this image released by the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., US, on December 19, 2025 as part of a new trove of documents from its investigations into the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. US Justice Department/Handout via REUTERS
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At Least 16 Files Have Disappeared from the DOJ Webpage for Documents Related to Jeffrey Epstein

Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein are seen in this image released by the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., US, on December 19, 2025 as part of a new trove of documents from its investigations into the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. US Justice Department/Handout via REUTERS
Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein are seen in this image released by the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., US, on December 19, 2025 as part of a new trove of documents from its investigations into the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. US Justice Department/Handout via REUTERS

At least 16 files disappeared from the Justice Department’s public webpage for documents related to Jeffrey Epstein — including a photograph showing President Donald Trump — less than a day after they were posted, with no explanation from the government and no notice to the public.

The missing files, which were available Friday and no longer accessible by Saturday, included images of paintings depicting nude women, and one showing a series of photographs along a credenza and in drawers. In that image, inside a drawer among other photos, was a photograph of Trump, alongside Epstein, Melania Trump and Epstein's longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell.

The Justice Department did not say why the files were removed or whether their disappearance was intentional. A spokesperson for the department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Online, the unexplained missing files fueled speculation about what was taken down and why the public was not notified, compounding long-standing intrigue about Epstein and the powerful figures who surrounded him. Democrats on the House Oversight Committee pointed to the missing image featuring a Trump photo in a post on X, writing: “What else is being covered up? We need transparency for the American public.”

The episode deepened concerns that had already emerged from the Justice Department’s much-anticipated document release. The tens of thousands of pages made public offered little new insight into Epstein’s crimes or the prosecutorial decisions that allowed him to avoid serious federal charges for years, while omitting some of the most closely watched materials, including FBI interviews with victims and internal Justice Department memos on charging decisions.

Scant new insight in the initial disclosures

Some of the most consequential records expected about Epstein are nowhere to be found in the Justice Department's initial disclosures, which span tens of thousands of pages.

Missing are FBI interviews with survivors and internal Justice Department memos examining charging decisions — records that could have helped explain how investigators viewed the case and why Epstein was allowed in 2008 to plead guilty to a relatively minor state-level prostitution charge.

The gaps go further.

The records, required to be released under a recent law passed by Congress, hardly reference several powerful figures long associated with Epstein, including Britain’s former Prince Andrew, renewing questions about who was scrutinized, who was not, and how much the disclosures truly advance public accountability

Among the fresh nuggets: insight into the Justice Department’s decision to abandon an investigation into Epstein in the 2000s, which enabled him to plead guilty to that state-level charge, and a previously unseen 1996 complaint accusing Epstein of stealing photographs of children.

The releases so far have been heavy on images of Epstein’s homes in New York City and the US Virgin Islands, with some photos of celebrities and politicians.

There was a series of never-before-seen photos of former President Bill Clinton but fleetingly few of Trump. Both have been associated with Epstein, but both have since disowned those friendships. Neither has been accused of any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein and there was no indication the photos played a role in the criminal cases brought against him.

Despite a Friday deadline set by Congress to make everything public, the Justice Department said it plans to release records on a rolling basis. It blamed the delay on the time-consuming process of obscuring survivors' names and other identifying information. The department has not given any notice when more records might arrive.

That approach angered some Epstein accusers and members of Congress who fought to pass the law forced the department to act. Instead of marking the end of a yearslong battle for transparency, the document release Friday was merely the beginning of an indefinite wait for a complete picture of Epstein’s crimes and the steps taken to investigate them.

“I feel like again the DOJ, the justice system is failing us,” said Marina Lacerda, who alleges Epstein started sexually abusing her at his New York City mansion when she was 14.

Many of the long-anticipated records were redacted or lacked context Federal prosecutors in New York brought sex trafficking charges against Epstein in 2019, but he killed himself in jail after his arrest.

The documents just made public were a sliver of potentially millions of pages records in the department’s possession. In one example, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said Manhattan federal prosecutors had more than 3.6 million records from sex trafficking investigations into Epstein and Maxwell, though many duplicated material already turned over by the FBI.

Many of the records released so far had been made public in court filings, congressional releases or freedom of information requests, though, for the first time, they were all in one place and available for the public to search for free.

Ones that were new were often lacking necessary context or heavily blacked out. A 119-page document marked “Grand Jury-NY," likely from one of the federal sex trafficking investigations that led to the charges against Epstein in 2019 or Maxwell in 2021, was entirely blacked out.

Trump’s Republican allies seized on the Clinton images, including photos of the Democrat with singers Michael Jackson and Diana Ross. There were also photos of Epstein with actors Chris Tucker and Kevin Spacey, and even Epstein with TV newscaster Walter Cronkite. But none of the photos had captions and was no explanation given for why any of them were together.

The meatiest records released so far showed that federal prosecutors had what appeared to be a strong case against Epstein in 2007 yet never charged him.

Transcripts of grand jury proceedings, released publicly for the first time, included testimony from FBI agents who described interviews they had with several girls and young women who described being paid to perform sex acts for Epstein. The youngest was 14 and in ninth grade.

One had told investigators about being sexually assaulted by Epstein when she initially resisted his advances during a massage.

Another, then 21, testified before the grand jury about how Epstein had hired her when she was 16 to perform a sexual massage and how she had gone on to recruit other girls to do the same.

“For every girl that I brought to the table he would give me $200,” she said. They were mostly people she knew from high school, she said. “I also told them that if they are under age, just lie about it and tell him that you are 18.”

The documents also contain a transcript of an interview Justice Department lawyers did more than a decade later with the US attorney who oversaw the case, Alexander Acosta, about his ultimate decision not to bring federal charges.

Acosta, who was labor secretary during Trump’s first term, cited concerns about whether a jury would believe Epstein’s accusers.

He also said the Justice Department might have been more reluctant to make a federal prosecution out of a case that straddled the legal border between sex trafficking and soliciting prostitution, something more commonly handled by state prosecutors.

“I’m not saying it was the right view,” Acosta added. He also said that the public today would likely view the survivors differently.

“There’s been a lot of changes in victim shaming,” Acosta said.

World

Kremlin Says Chances of Peace Not Improved by European and Ukrainian Changes to US Proposals

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Russian Presidential foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov, left, attend talks with US special envoy Steve Witkoff, back to a camera, at the Senate Palace of the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Russian Presidential foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov, left, attend talks with US special envoy Steve Witkoff, back to a camera, at the Senate Palace of the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
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Kremlin Says Chances of Peace Not Improved by European and Ukrainian Changes to US Proposals

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Russian Presidential foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov, left, attend talks with US special envoy Steve Witkoff, back to a camera, at the Senate Palace of the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Russian Presidential foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov, left, attend talks with US special envoy Steve Witkoff, back to a camera, at the Senate Palace of the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin's top foreign policy aide said on Sunday that he was sure the chances of peace in Ukraine were not improved by changes to US proposals made by the Europeans and Ukraine, ‌Interfax news agency ‌reported. 

"This is ‌not ⁠a forecast," ‌Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters. 

"I am sure that the proposals that the Europeans and Ukrainians have made or are trying to make definitely ⁠do not improve the document and do ‌not improve the possibility ‍of achieving long-term ‍peace." 

European and Ukrainian negotiators have ‍been discussing changes to a US set of proposals for an agreement to end the nearly four-year-old war, though it is unclear exactly what changes have been ⁠made to the original US proposals. 

US negotiators met Russian officials in Florida on Saturday. 

Putin's special envoy Kirill Dmitriev told reporters after meeting US special envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, that the talks were constructive and would continue ‌on Sunday.