#passports — Public Fediverse posts

#Poland pushes the #EU to require biometric #passports https://www.youtube.com/shorts/BstgYYrDA1M?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

#Poland pushes the #EU to require biometric #passports https://www.youtube.com/shorts/BstgYYrDA1M?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

#Poland pushes the #EU to require biometric #passports https://www.youtube.com/shorts/BstgYYrDA1M?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

#Poland pushes the #EU to require biometric #passports https://www.youtube.com/shorts/BstgYYrDA1M?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

Indiana quietly bans trans residents from changing gender markers on IDs

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.advocate.com/politics/indiana-gender-marker-change-ban

‘Lolita,’ passports and more famous figures pictured in latest Epstein photo release | PBS News

Editor’s Note: Some of the images from Friday’s release (December 19, 2025) are included in this post. Please ensure respect for the victims in these photos, and documents. –DrWeb

• Full Episodes
• Podcasts
• Newsletters
• Live

By — Liz Landers

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

‘Lolita,’ passports and more famous figures pictured in latest Epstein photo release

Politics Dec 18, 2025 6:09 PM EST

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released another collection of images from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate Thursday, on the eve of the Justice Department’s deadline to release all of its files on his case.

Around 70 photographs come from Epstein’s computer and email accounts, and shed more light on his lifestyle and social circles. The photographs, among 95,000 handed over by Epstein’s estate last week, were provided to the committee without context.

In this undated photograph from the personal collection of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is standing next to a woman whose face has been redacted. The photo, from Epstein’s estate, was released Thursday by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.

One image shows former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates standing next to a woman, whose face is redacted. Another shows Noam Chomsky seated next to Epstein on a plane. Several images show a social gathering over a meal and several faces of powerful or public figures, including Epstein. A separate image that appears to be from the same room shows Google co-founder Sergey Brin and New York Times columnist David Brooks, who is a regular contributor to the PBS News Hour. The photos are undated.

In this undated photograph from the personal collection of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, New York Times columnist and PBS News contributor David Brooks is seen seated next to Google co-founder Sergey Brin. The photo, from Epstein’s estate, was released Thursday by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.

A New York Times spokesperson said in a statement, “As a journalist, David Brooks regularly attends events to speak with noted and important business leaders to inform his columns, which is exactly what happened at this 2011 event. Mr. Brooks had no contact with him before or after this single attendance at a widely-attended dinner.”

In this undated photograph from the personal collection of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Google co-founder Sergey Brin is seen smiling. The photo, from Epstein’s estate, was released Thursday by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.

Educate your inbox

Subscribe to Here’s the Deal, our politics newsletter for analysis you won’t find anywhere else. Enter your email address

Several images in the new release show Epstein photographed with women whose faces have been redacted. One photograph appears to show three women with Epstein, with an open computer nearby. One of the women has her arm around his shoulder. Another photo shows Epstein seated on a plane, pointing out a window while a woman sits closely beside him. Her face has also been obscured.

In this undated photograph from the personal collection of Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender is seated on a plane next to a woman whose face has been redacted. The photo, from Epstein’s estate, was released Thursday by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.

In this undated photograph from the personal collection of Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender is seen with three women whose faces have been redacted. The photo, from Epstein’s estate, was released Thursday by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.

Some photos in this batch show closeups of a foot and a neck. In both images, quotes from the book “Lolita” appear to have been written in black pen on the person’s body.

In this undated photograph from the personal collection of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a quote from Vladimir Nabokov’s “Lolita” is seen written on someone’s foot. The book appears in the background. The photo, from Epstein’s estate, was released Thursday by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.

In this undated photograph from the personal collection of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a quote from Vladimir Nabokov’s “Lolita” is seen written on someone’s neck. The photo, from Epstein’s estate, was released Thursday by Democrats on the House Ov

Continue/Read Original Article Here: ‘Lolita,’ passports and more famous figures pictured in latest Epstein photo release | PBS News

My least-replicable travel hack is now saving me money, not just time

The passport that I’ve taken for much of my international travel since the spring of 2017 finally has some stamps in it–courtesy of the Brazilian border officers in São Paolo who did the honors with my Irish passport at the start and end of my trip for Web Summit Rio this week.

While I had traveled to Rio on my U.S. passport the previous two years, Brazil has since rolled out its e-visa program for U.S., Canadian and Australian citizens. Applying for one of these 10-year travel permissions costs $80.90 and, per numerous reports from travelers, requires time and patience to deal with glitches and delays in the approval process.

Traveling with my Irish passport, however, required nothing beyond scanning it into the United app’s Travel-Ready Center, having a check-in agent at Dulles eyeball that before issuing my boarding pass for last Saturday’s flight, and showing it one more time to a gate agent during boarding.

I didn’t have any issues exiting the country on that passport either, although having two passports on the reservation meant I had go through a second doc check for my U.S. passport before getting a boarding pass for my flight back to the States.

This was the second time this year that my Irish citizenship has saved me little money instead of merely letting me use shorter passport lines in Europe as an EU national (and not getting a passport stamp in the process).

Since Jan. 8, American citizens traveling to the United Kingdom have had to pay £16 for a two-year ETA (electronic travel authorisation) and do that at least three business days before flying to the U.K. It could have been worse; the British government originally planned to require an ETA just for connecting through Heathrow before relenting.

But Irish nationals are exempt from this, in keeping with the U.K. and Ireland’s Common Travel Area arrangements. So I didn’t have to worry about getting an ETA for my two-day stopover in London between Web Summit Qatar and MWC Barcelona.

Starting in the last quarter of 2026, I’ll get one more way to save a little money when the EU implements its ETIAS (European Travel Information and Authorisation System), which will cost €7 and be valid for three years or, if sooner, the expiration of the passport used to apply for it. EU nationals will, of course, be exempt from that.

I feel a little guilty ducking all of these minor administrative obstacles since all of these countries are only responding to longstanding U.S. travel-permissions requirements for their own citizens. Brazilian citizens need a visa to travel to the U.S., with fees starting at $185 for a 10-year non-immigrant tourist visa. And U.K. and EU nationals need to pay $21 for an ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorization), good for two years or passport expiration.

No American can blame any foreign government for deciding to return a little of these favors. And every American should hope that foreign governments following news of the incarcerations of international tourists and students in the U.S. (in some cases only for their speech) under the xenophobic Trump administration have the grace not to reciprocate.

#BrazilEVisa #dualCitizenship #ESTA #EUETIAS #internationalTravel #IrishCitizenship #IrishPassport #passportStamps #passports #UKETA #USPassport #USVisa #WebSummitRio