Democratic socialists ride wave of momentum in primaries from New York to Colorado

Democratic socialists ride wave of momentum in primaries from New York to Colorado

The Guardian reports: Inside a Brooklyn industrial garage turned underground event venue, local leaders of the Democratic Socialists of America urged hundreds of mostly young people last month to avoid complacency. Sure, New York City had a socialist representative in the US Congress, and just elected a socialist mayor. But they had so much more to do. “If we only elect Zohran, we only elect AOC, our project will have been a failure,” Gustavo Gordillo, co-chair of the city’s DSA…

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Stephen Miller and fellow ethnonationalist bigots melt down after birthright citizenship ruling

Stephen Miller and fellow ethnonationalist bigots melt down after birthright citizenship ruling

Rolling Stone reports: The Supreme Court affirmed on Tuesday that the right to citizenship that has been in place since the abolishment of slavery more than 150 years ago is still, in fact, a right. If you are born on American soil — regardless of your parentage, race, creed, or any other potentially differentiating factor — you are an American citizen. It’s one of the foundational principles of the post-Civil War republic, and Republicans despise it. In the aftermath of…

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Trump accused of ‘disgusting’ greed after earning over $2 billion since return to office

Trump accused of ‘disgusting’ greed after earning over $2 billion since return to office

The Guardian reports: Donald Trump has again been accused of “brazen crypto corruption” after financial disclosures revealed his family’s cryptocurrency ventures generated more than $1bn in his first year back in the White House. A 927-page disclosure, released on Tuesday by the US Office of Government Ethics, showed that the US president had earned more than $2.2bn last year in total, from real estate, golf resorts, branded merchandise, licensing deals and court settlements. But a set of extraordinary crypto takings…

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A troubling milestone: Most Supreme Court rulings are secretive votes with little justification

A troubling milestone: Most Supreme Court rulings are secretive votes with little justification

By Ken B. Morales This story was originally published by ProPublica In its term that ended last October, the Supreme Court passed an important milestone that went unnoticed: For the first time, it decided more cases by secret ballot, and with few signed opinions, than it did for cases argued in open court. These decisions, which make up the court’s “shadow docket,” are a fast-track way to get a decision from the top court. They rarely include arguments, have limited…

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The United States of contradictions, fears, and hopes

The United States of contradictions, fears, and hopes

Rebecca Solnit writes: The United States of America is a truck that has driven into a ditch. The United States of America is a program that has been hacked. The United States of America is … so many things, horrific and magnificent, good and evil, promising and cursed, as it approaches its quarter-millennium mark. I say it as though the US was one thing, but it is a thousand things. It is the masked ICE agent shooting Renee Good as…

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Here’s why weather forecasts have seemed so inaccurate lately

Here’s why weather forecasts have seemed so inaccurate lately

Gizmodo reports: Is there anything more annoying than leaving the house in shorts and flip flops, only to get caught in an unexpected downpour? The weather report is rarely spot-on, but if forecasts have seemed particularly inaccurate recently, it’s because they have been. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) was among several agencies gutted by the Trump Administration’s Department of Government Efficiency in 2025. That February, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management abruptly fired 880 NOAA employees. Two months…

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It doesn’t have to be humanity versus nature

It doesn’t have to be humanity versus nature

Yadvinder Malhi writes: For much of the modern era, the global narrative of economic development has been imagined as a human story unfolding against a backdrop of nature as an externality to be exploited. Forests, rivers, soils and species appear as resources to be managed, inputs to be optimised, or constraints to be overcome. Human wellbeing advances; nature reduces. In some ways, this narrative has delivered. The condition and welfare of billions of humans have been improved beyond recognition. Yet…

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The Supreme Court just handed the GOP a major midterm financial boost

The Supreme Court just handed the GOP a major midterm financial boost

Shane Goldmacher reports: Just days before the 2022 midterm elections, as Democratic candidates were drastically outspending JD Vance and other Republicans running for the Senate, the future vice president and the Senate G.O.P. campaign arm filed a lawsuit to try to change the rules of the game. They knew it was too late to affect that year’s elections. The lawsuit was part of a longer-term gambit to tilt the financial playing field in future elections in the Republican Party’s favor….

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The justices had a simple task in Trump v. Barbara: uphold their oaths. Only five were willing to do so

The justices had a simple task in Trump v. Barbara: uphold their oaths. Only five were willing to do so

Madiba K. Dennie writes: A razor-thin majority of the Supreme Court confirmed today that the Fourteenth Amendment means what it says: “All persons” born in the United States and “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” are citizens of the United States. In January 2025, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that attempted to unilaterally revoke that guarantee, limiting citizenship at birth to only U.S.-born children with at least one parent who is a citizen or legal permanent resident. If implemented,…

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Who were the ‘Midway Blitz’ Border Patrol agents in Chicago? Most were veteran immigration officers

Who were the ‘Midway Blitz’ Border Patrol agents in Chicago? Most were veteran immigration officers

Block Club Chicago reports: About 300 Border Patrol agents were among the federal officers who made a torrent of arrests, deployed tear gas nearly 50 times, tased and assaulted residents and shot two people — one fatally — during Operation Midway Blitz in the Chicago area last year. That all happened even though those Border Patrol agents had extensive experience and training, many in crowd control and deescalation, a Block Club Chicago investigation found. They averaged more than a decade…

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China is the only clear winner from Trump’s war against Iran, report concludes

China is the only clear winner from Trump’s war against Iran, report concludes

The Guardian reports: China has emerged as the sole winner in Asia from the strait of Hormuz crisis, according to a report published on Tuesday. The report by the Asia Group thinktank concluded that China had weathered the storm of the global commodities crisis resulting from the closure of the Middle Eastern waterway, and also stood to gain from the economic and geopolitical trends sparked by the wider conflict. Iran virtually closed the strait, a vital waterway through which much…

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After U.S.-Iran War, Oman said to propose Hormuz joint fee plan

After U.S.-Iran War, Oman said to propose Hormuz joint fee plan

The New York Times reports: Iran and U.S.-allied Oman are moving forward with plans to collect payment for ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz, despite public American objections, according to an Iranian official and four diplomats with knowledge of the matter. If enacted, the plans would be a significant change from the prewar status in the strategic waterway, underscoring how the American-Israeli decision to attack Iran on Feb. 28 has changed the Middle East in far-reaching and unanticipated ways. Before…

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Ben Rhodes: How the ‘cult of success’ created Trump and Musk

Ben Rhodes: How the ‘cult of success’ created Trump and Musk

  From the White House situation room, to shaping the Obama administration’s national security communication – few people have had a closer view of the forces shaping modern America than Ben Rhodes. As Barack Obama’s speechwriter and Deputy National Security Adviser, Rhodes helped craft some of the defining messages of the Obama era and played a central role in major foreign policy decisions, including the Iran nuclear deal. In his new book All We Say, he argues that speeches reveal…

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Experiments reveal the psychological cost of insulting political rhetoric

Experiments reveal the psychological cost of insulting political rhetoric

PsyPost reports: Politicians frequently use aggressive, blaming language to mobilize voters and attack opponents. Recent psychological experiments reveal that exposure to this specific style of communication causes people to feel their core values are under attack, regardless of their own political affiliation. The findings, published in Current Psychology, show that polarizing rhetoric can directly degrade a person’s willingness to grant freedom of speech to political rivals. Political communication has increasingly fractured into hostile territory over the last several years. Across…

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