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Democrat’s swearing-in tips scales for House battle to unseal Epstein documents
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Rep. Adelita Grijalva, D-Ariz., was sworn into office on Wednesday, unlocking the needed support to force the House of Representatives into a vote over the Epstein files.
Now having received the oath of office, Grijalva is free to become the 218th — and final signatory — to advance a discharge petition on a bill to instruct the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release its documentation on Jeffrey Epstein. If successful, the petition would bring the bill to the floor over the objection of the chamber’s leadership.
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Rep. Adelita Grijalva, a Democrat from Arizona, speaks to members of the media at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Sept. 30, 2025. (Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Grijalva, who now fills the seat formerly held by her father, the late Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., said signing the petition would be her first act as a member of Congress.
«I will sign the discharge petition right now to release the Epstein files. It’s past time for Congress to restore its role as the check and balance on this administration and fight for we, the American people,» Grijalva said.
Epstein, a former businessman and financier, died in 2019 while jailed on federal sex-trafficking charges involving minors. During his career, he accrued an impressive social circle that included rich and powerful figures like former President Bill Clinton, President Donald Trump and the United Kingdom’s Prince Andrew.
His sudden death, ruled a suicide by investigators, left unanswered questions about whether he had used his expansive social circle to facilitate illegal sexual encounters for some of his contacts.
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Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were both indicted on federal sex trafficking charges stemming from Epstein’s years of abuse of underage girls. (Joe Schildhorn/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
After disappointing announcements from the DOJ that the investigation met a dead end earlier this year, lawmakers led by Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., demanded Congress vote to force the DOJ to release its documentation on the matter.
Those demands went unheeded by House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who said the DOJ was already conducting its own internal evaluation and complying with congressional requests for information.
For Massie and three other Republicans, that wasn’t good enough.
Massie joined Reps. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., — and all House Democrats — in signing the petition, falling just one signatory short of putting it over the needed 218 threshold.
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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene speaks with Reps. Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna during a news conference with alleged victims of the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein outside the U.S. Capitol on Sept. 3, 2025. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Two of Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged victims joined lawmakers in the House chamber for Grijalva’s swearing in.
«Our democracy only works when everyone has a voice. This includes the millions of people across the country who have experienced violence and exploitation — including Liz Stein and Jessica Michaels, both survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse. They are here in the gallery here this evening,» Grijalva said.
Johnson has said he supports the measure in principle but believes aspects of it are poorly written or may provide insufficient protections for Epstein’s potential victims.
With Grijalva’s support, Democrat leadership believes the petition will come to the floor sometime in December.
Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., the ranking member on the House Rules Committee, noted that Johnson might try to derail its timeline.
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«It should ripen in early December. That doesn’t mean that the speaker of the House [won’t] try to do some shenanigans, but if all goes the way we want it to go, early December,» McGovern said.
congress,democrats,jeffrey epstein
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The record-breaking U.S. government shutdown appears to be on a path to finally ending after 43 days.
Federal funding legislation aimed at opening the government survived a key test vote in the House later Wednesday, teeing it up for final passage in a matter of hours.
That means the bill could hit President Donald Trump’s desk as soon as Wednesday night, likely ending what has been the longest shutdown in U.S. history.
The White House announced that Trump would sign the bill in a statement of administration policy obtained by Fox News Digital.
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Speaker Mike Johnson holds the gavel during the first session of the 119th Congress in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol in Washington Jan. 3, 2025. (Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
«The Administration urges every Member of Congress to support this responsible, good faith product to finally put an end to the longest shutdown in history,» the statement said.
The bill advanced through a procedural hurdle known as a rule vote, which is where lawmakers decide whether to allow legislation to get debated before a final vote on passage.
Rule votes generally fall along partisan lines and are not an indication of whether a bill will be bipartisan.
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The vast majority of House Democrats still oppose the bill, but it’s possible that at least several moderates will defy their leaders to support it.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., reiterated to reporters hours before the vote that Democrats were frustrated the bill did not do anything about COVID-19 pandemic-era healthcare subsidies under Obamacare, also known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Those enhanced tax credits expire this year.
«House Democrats are here on the Capitol steps to reiterate our strong opposition to this spending bill because it fails to address the Republican healthcare crisis, and it fails to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credit,» Jeffries said.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries speaks during a press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington Nov. 3, 2025. (Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images)
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., sounded optimistic in comments to reporters Wednesday morning ahead of the vote.
«I wanted to come out and say that we believe the long national nightmare will be over tonight,» Johnson said. «It was completely and utterly foolish and pointless in the end.»
Meanwhile, the shutdown’s effects on the country have grown more severe by the day.
Many of the thousands of air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents who had to work without pay were forced to take second jobs, causing nationwide flight delays and cancellations amid staffing shortages at the country’s busiest airports. Millions of Americans who rely on federal benefits were also left in limbo as funding for critical government programs ran close to drying out.
At the heart of the issue was Democratic leaders’ refusal to back any funding bill that did not also extend the enhanced Obamacare subsidies. Democrats argued it was their best hope of preventing healthcare price hikes for Americans across the U.S.
Republicans agreed to hold conversations on reforming what they saw as a broken healthcare system, but they refused to pair any partisan priority with federal funding.
In the end, a compromise led by the Senate — which saw eight Democrats in the upper chamber join colleagues to pass the bill in a 60 to 40 vote — included a side deal guaranteeing the left a vote on extending the enhanced subsidies sometime in December.
President Donald Trump speaks during a breakfast with Senate and House Republicans in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington Nov. 5, 2025. (Evan Vucci/AP Newsroom)
Johnson has made no such promise in the House, however.
And the lack of a guarantee on extending those subsidies has angered progressives and Democratic leaders.
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«What were Republicans willing to give in the end, other more than a handshake deal to take a future vote on extending the healthcare subsidies?» Rep. Shomari Figures, D-Ala., said Wednesday. «We all know that a future vote is the equivalent of asking two wolves and a chicken to vote on what’s for dinner. It is dead on arrival.»
The full House will now vote on the legislation during the 7 p.m. hour.
The bill kicks the current federal funding fight to Jan. 30, by which point House GOP leaders said they were confident they’ll finish work on a longer-term deal for fiscal year 2026.
«There are nine remaining bills, and we’d like to get all of those done in the next few weeks. And, so, [House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla.] and his appropriators will be working overtime,» House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told Fox News Digital.
Asked if he thought they’d get it done by that date, Cole said, «I think we can.»
house of representatives politics,politics,government shutdown
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Científicos advierten sobre el impacto ambiental del deterioro acelerado del lago Tonle Sap, en Camboya
Una advertencia científica situó al lago Tonle Sap en el foco internacional, al confirmarse que la extracción de arena en el río Mekong altera el funcionamiento ecológico de la mayor reserva de agua dulce del sudeste asiático.
Un estudio publicado el 10 de noviembre de 2025 y dirigido por Newcastle University revela que la significativa reducción del flujo de agua hacia el lago amenaza la biodiversidad y los medios de vida de millones de personas que dependen de este ecosistema.
El informe, desarrollado en colaboración con Loughborough University, destaca que Tonle Sap es uno de los ecosistemas lacustres más diversos del planeta y la cuarta mayor fuente de pesca a nivel mundial. Reconocido como Reserva de la Biosfera por la UNESCO desde 1997, el lago alberga más de 800 especies, incluidas poblaciones de anfibios, reptiles, mamíferos y aves en peligro de extinción.
Su pulso anual de inundación, imprescindible para la productividad biológica y la regulación hídrica de la región, depende del flujo inverso del Mekong durante los monzones en una zona donde viven cerca de 23 millones de personas.
El estudio de Newcastle University advierte que la extracción de arena, junto a la construcción de presas que retienen sedimentos río arriba, provocó una disminución significativa en el volumen de agua que llega al lago durante la temporada de lluvias.
Entre 1998 y 2018, el descenso del lecho del Mekong, impulsado principalmente por la minería de arena y la alteración de la morfología del canal, redujo el flujo inverso hacia el Tonle Sap entre un 40% y un 50%.
Los investigadores señalan que este deterioro es consecuencia directa de la extracción de arena y la transformación física del cauce, y no únicamente de cambios en el clima o en los patrones de agua.
La presión que sufren tanto las especies acuáticas como las comunidades humanas pone de manifiesto la importancia social y ecológica del lago.
El Dr. Chris Hackney, profesor de Geografía Física en Newcastle University, explicó: “El lago es vital para los ecosistemas y las comunidades de Camboya. En los últimos años, las comunidades locales notaron que el lago ya no se llena como antes y los ecosistemas que dependen de largas temporadas de inundación están bajo una presión creciente. Si se quiere preservar el lago, es necesario mantener o aumentar los niveles del lecho del río Mekong”.
El análisis de los expertos, como el Dr. Quan Quan Le de Loughborough University, también subraya el papel del crecimiento urbano en la demanda global de arena para construcción, lo que multiplica la extracción en los ríos de la región.
La investigación confirma que esta extracción debilitó el pulso de inundación del lago, causando daños ambientales duraderos y resaltando la urgencia de una gestión sostenible de sedimentos.
Las proyecciones del estudio atribuido a Newcastle University resultan especialmente graves. Si la tendencia actual continúa, para 2038 el flujo inverso podría disminuir hasta un 69% respecto a los niveles de 1998. Esta reducción no solo afectaría la biodiversidad, sino que tendría efectos directos sobre la agricultura y la seguridad alimentaria en el delta del Mekong.
El estudio detalla que el reducido flujo durante la estación seca podría bajar en un 59%, lo que intensificaría la intrusión de agua salada y disminuiría los rendimientos agrícolas. Asimismo, el aumento del flujo hacia el delta durante el monzón, calculado en unos 26 km³, elevaría el riesgo de inundaciones en una de las regiones más densamente pobladas del sudeste asiático.
Frente a este escenario, los autores del estudio insisten en la necesidad urgente de implementar una gestión sostenible de los sedimentos y regular la extracción de arena para evitar daños irreversibles en el sistema Tonle Sap-Mekong.
Los expertos advierten que la salvaguarda del lago y la seguridad de las comunidades dependen de acciones inmediatas y coordinadas que antepongan la integridad ecológica del río y su cuenca.
Newcastle University alerta que la extracción excesiva de arena representa una amenaza existencial para la sostenibilidad del sistema Tonle Sap-Mekong. Los autores del estudio manifiestan su preocupación respecto al futuro de este ecosistema fundamental.
extracción de arena,lago Tonle Sap,crisis ambiental Camboya,inundaciones Tonle Sap,impacto ecológico sudeste asiático,biodiversidad Mekong
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