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Turkish bank
faces sanctions
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Trump administration has imposed sanctions on a Turkish financial institution as part of its latest effort to sever “critical financial lifelines” for the Iranian government. The actions Friday against Golden Global Yatirim Bankasi Anonim Sirketi come after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent launched “Operation Economic Outcast.”
It’s the new administration effort to isolate already heavily sanctioned Iran from its remaining trading partners to try to get it to capitulate to U.S. demands after more than six months of war.
The U.S. also targeted an Egyptian bank’s operations in the United Arab Emirates last week.
Bullying
data scrubbed
(AP) -- The Trump administration this week quietly released an update to a major survey on civil rights in schools that was scrubbed of all data related to nonbinary students or bullying based on gender identity.
The data comes from the Education Department’s Civil Rights Data Collection, a federal survey of nearly every public school in the nation. The release this week covers the 2023-2024 school year, when the survey included “nonbinary” as a gender category alongside male and female.
However, an Associated Press analysis shows that in every column for information related to gender identity, the numbers were replaced with a code indicating “Suppressed in Compliance with Executive Order.”
Officer pleads
not guilty
McALLEN, Texas (AP) -- A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer has been released from federal custody after pleading not guilty to lying to investigators about the circumstances that led to the shooting of a Venezuelan man during the Minnesota immigration crackdown last winter.
A federal indictment unsealed Friday accuses Christian Castro of falsely telling investigators that he was attacked with a broom and shovel before he opened fire, injuring Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis in January.
Castro was shackled at his wrists, waist and feet during a brief hearing in Texas’ federal court after he turned himself into authorities Thursday evening. The judge ordered him released on $75,000 unsecured bond and with a GPS ankle monitor.
Ballots go
to voters
(AP) -- Statewide mail voting for this year's midterm elections is kicking off amid a churning legal battle over President Donald Trump's attempts to limit the practice. There is also mounting concern over Postal Service changes that some state officials blame for a rise in rejected ballots.
North Carolina on Friday is scheduled to become the first state to widely send out absentee ballots in this year's elections. But litigation over Trump’s executive order means its implementation remains up in the air. It would require states to submit lists of eligible voters to the Postal Service through an online portal and to comply with new Postal Service rules for ballot envelopes.