Idea for Trump presidential library in Miami takes a step forward

MIAMI — Miami Dade College set the stage Tuesday morning for Donald Trump’s presidential library to rise next to Miami’s iconic Freedom Tower when trustees voted to transfer a downtown parking lot to the state — a precursor to dedicating the land to the president’s legacy project.

The vote — taken during a lightning-quick meeting without specifying the property or the reason for the transfer — was immediately followed by an announcement from Attorney General James Uthmeier that the state would dedicate the land to Trump’s library.

“Next week, the Florida Cabinet will vote to dedicate land at Miami Dade College to house the Presidential Library of Donald J. Trump,” Uthmeier wrote on X Tuesday morning after the college’s vote. “I’ll be voting yes!”

The state vote is scheduled for Sept. 30.

Trump’s immigration crackdown notwithstanding, the state is pitching the location as a “symbol of freedom,” in light of the Freedom Tower’s history welcoming Cuban asylum-seekers in the 1960s and 1970s. “I can think of no better location to tell the story of Donald Trump,” Uthmeier said in a dramatized promotional video.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

—Miami Herald

Ex-Rep. George Santos complains of ‘torture’ in federal prison

Disgraced former U.S. Rep. George Santos says he’s facing “torture” because he’s imprisoned in a tiny windowless cell in a New Jersey federal prison.

The convicted fraudster, a New York Republican who concocted his life story and scammed donors, is complaining that he’s been held in solitary confinement virtually 24 hours a day for his own protection in a 50-square-foot cell for nearly a month.

“He does not get any sunlight. He’s only allowed to buy stamps from the commissary and is drinking water from the sink,” tweeted Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R- Ga.“This is torture.”

Greene, a far right-wing friend and ally of Santos, called on President Donald Trump to free Santos, who has served just a few weeks of a seven-year prison sentence.

“There are criminals as we speak serving in Congress and many other former government officials that are criminals walking free that did far more heinous things than George Santos,” Greene added. “Honestly, George should be pardoned.”

Greene was apparently responding to a public plea from Santos on Monday in which he also asked Trump to pardon him or commute his sentence. The White House has not responded.

“Help me escape this daily torment and let me return to my family,” Santos tweeted, tagging Greene.

Santos said he was placed into solitary confinement in August following an unspecific death threat at FCI Fairton, a medium security prison in new Jersey. Prison officials declined to address the disgraced politician‘s living conditions.

Santos is serving a seven-year sentence, after being convicted of wire fraud and identity theft.

—New York Daily News

NASA officials say Artemis II moon flight could come in early February

After multiple delays, the first crewed Artemis flight around the moon could be less than 20 weeks away, NASA officials said Tuesday, putting the space program one step closer to returning to the moon itself in its “second space race” with China.

The Artemis II mission, which would be the first crewed spaceflight to exit low-Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972, had already been pushed back several times after its original launch target of 2024, with the most recent delay aiming for “no later than” April 2026. But with pieces falling into place, it could launch as early as Feb. 5, NASA officials said during a mission update from Johnson Space Center in Houston.

“We want to emphasize that safety is our top priority, and so as we work through these operational preparations, as we finish stacking the rocket, we’re continuing to assess to make sure that we do things in a safe way,” said Lakiesha Hawkins, acting deputy associate administrator for NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate.

Monthly launch windows, which take into account the required proximity of the Earth and moon, would last four to eight days. Most of the February launch window attempts would be in the evening.

“As we get closer, we’ll be able to more clearly communicate what those periods could be,” Hawkins said.

Artemis II is planned to be a 10-day flight to take NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch as well as Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen on a trip out past the moon, but without landing.

“Let me emphasize that this is a test flight, and so the activities that we do together, we are going to learn from them,” Hawkins said. “While Artemis I was a great success, there are new systems and new capabilities that we will be demonstrating on Artemis II, including the life support systems, the display capabilities, software, etc.”

It’s a test mission that would set up Artemis III, currently on NASA’s schedule for summer 2027, to return humans to the lunar surface for the first time since the end of the Apollo program.

—Orlando Sentinel

South Korea’s Lee calls for ‘new era’ with northern neighbor

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said his country was committed to de-escalating tensions with North Korea as part of an effort to “usher in a new era of peaceful co-existence and renewed growth.”

In an address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, Lee pledged to “restore broken inter-Korean trust and shift to a stance of mutual trust.”

He said South Korea would seek to “end the vicious cycle of unnecessary” military tensions and hostile acts on the Korean Peninsula, including by bolstering exchanges with North Korea, even amid the “grave task” of denuclearization.

The remarks were part of a sweeping address that drew on democratic values and paid tribute to the U.N. and multilateralism as a means to navigate challenges regarding artificial intelligence, climate and development financing as well as confronting hunger and armed conflict.

“There were times when democracy and peace were in crisis,” but each time Korea rose with “indomitable strength” — even amid a “coup,” he said, referring to the political crisis that engulfed his country at the end of last year as he spoke of the parallel 80-year histories of South Korea and the U.N.

Lee, who took office in June, called on the U.N. Security Council to add seats for non-permanent members, in order to reflect changes in the international environment and help with multilateral decision-making.

Lee’s address drew a contrast with President Donald Trump’s speech to the chamber earlier Tuesday. While Trump castigated those in the international community who he said were abetting “uncontrolled migration,” Lee said he wanted to ensure that in South Korea“both nationals and foreigners can be respected as an equal member of society in all fields of life.”

Relations between Washington and Seoul came under strain after hundreds of South Koreans were detained in an immigration raid at a Hyundai Motor Co.- LG Energy Solution Ltd. battery plant under construction in Georgia.

The incident raised fresh doubts about billions of dollars in Korean investment that had been committed to the U.S. when the two countries signed a fresh trade and investment deal at the end of July.

—Bloomberg News

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