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Federal judge blocks Trump admin’s database of Americans’ Social Security numbers and citizenship status

Federal judge blocks Trump admin’s database of Americans’ Social Security numbers and citizenship status

Politico reports: A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from creating a database of millions of Americans’ private information — including Social Security numbers and citizenship status — saying the administration has fed knowingly inaccurate data to states that are now “actively” and “haphazardly” purging purported non-citizens from voter rolls. “The federal government has knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote,” U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan wrote…

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‘A huge grab of power’: Trump is defying Congress on foreign aid

‘A huge grab of power’: Trump is defying Congress on foreign aid

By Anna Maria Barry-Jester This story was originally published by ProPublica After the Trump administration upended the world’s largest foreign aid provider last year, terminating thousands of programs and firing nearly all of its staff, its plan for the agency was clear: Eliminate it entirely. But because it is a congressionally created agency, President Donald Trump needed lawmakers’ permission to do so. So this year, Trump officials asked Congress for permission to shutter the U.S. Agency for International Development and…

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Who is Andy Burnham, the ‘man of the people’ likely to be next UK prime minister?

Who is Andy Burnham, the ‘man of the people’ likely to be next UK prime minister?

Daniel Boffey writes: In the story that Andy Burnham tells about himself, “the turning point” in his political life came in 2009 when he was booed at a football ground in the north-west of England. He had been an ideologically reliable middle-ranking minister under Tony Blair, the centrist New Labour prime minister between 1997 and 2007, and had gone on to be appointed as secretary of state for culture, media and sport under Blair’s successor, Gordon Brown. On the 20th…

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Zhuangzi and the case against meritocracy

Zhuangzi and the case against meritocracy

Christine Abigail L Tan writes: Deeply embedded in the ideals of justice and fairness is the idea that we ought to get what we deserve. Deservingness is thus an intuitively compelling concept, because we want the world to be intelligible. If the good suffer and the wicked flourish, then the world not only becomes a painful place to live in, it also becomes a place of moral chaos. Even if the world is bountifully unjust, it remains a necessary illusion…

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A dark dimension could link two of the universe’s great unknowns

A dark dimension could link two of the universe’s great unknowns

Steve Nadis writes: For those who see the world as a dark place, the universe seems to offer little solace. According to current estimates, approximately 70% of the stuff that makes up the cosmos consists of dark energy, an unknown force that pushes space to expand. And another 25% consists of dark matter, a mysterious material that holds galaxies together. But semantically speaking, dark energy and dark matter are not so much “dark” as they are invisible. They do not…

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Tulsi Gabbard, the Manchurian DNI

Tulsi Gabbard, the Manchurian DNI

Reporting for the Washington Post, Jon Swaine writes: [Rebecca] Saltzburg [former staffer for Tulsi Gabbard and former member of a breakaway Hare Krishna group to which Gabbard also belonged] told me [Chris] Butler [founder of the Science of Identity Foundation (SIF)] did not use a computer. Instead, he delivered his advice for Gabbard verbally, she said, sometimes to her directly over the phone and other times to his secretaries or other followers. The secretaries transcribed his remarks and turned them…

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Trump imagines that if Iran regime can’t be dislodged by force, maybe it can be bribed

Trump imagines that if Iran regime can’t be dislodged by force, maybe it can be bribed

Karim Sadjadpour writes: Donald Trump’s war against Iran began with one gamble and ended with another. Initially, the president bet that he could stop Iran’s nuclear ambitions by bombing Iran’s revolutionary regime out of existence. So he spent tens of billions of dollars, and upended the global economy, only to sign a memorandum of understanding undoubtedly weaker than any deal he could have struck before the war. Embedded in this document is a new gamble: that if Iran’s revolutionaries can’t…

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For cash-strapped farmers, deal that might end Iran war comes too late

For cash-strapped farmers, deal that might end Iran war comes too late

The Washington Post reports: The possible end of the Iran war will not cure the drought that has stunted the wheat crop. It won’t secure soybean export orders caught in the U.S.-China trade war. And it will do nothing to promote competition in agriculture, which would help farmers like Jeff Tyson earn a living. Like other growers, Tyson, 55, has seen costs outrun sales this year as the rain grew scarce and government policies added to his burdens. Now, the…

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Syria rules out intervening in Lebanon after Trump again suggests it fight Hezbollah

Syria rules out intervening in Lebanon after Trump again suggests it fight Hezbollah

The Times of Israel reports: Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Sunday ruled out intervening militarily in the Israel-Hezbollah conflict in Lebanon, after US President Donald Trump again suggested Damascus could get involved and expressed frustration with Israel’s fight against the Iran-backed terror group. Trump’s comments to Fox News on Sunday came as the conflict in Lebanon has threatened to derail US-Iranian negotiations underway in Switzerland. On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu doubled down on the Israeli military’s need to maintain…

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Russian-occupied Crimea completely suspends gas sales to civilians as Ukrainian drone strikes squeeze peninsula

Russian-occupied Crimea completely suspends gas sales to civilians as Ukrainian drone strikes squeeze peninsula

The Kyiv Independent reports: Gas stations in Russian-occupied Crimea have been instructed as of June 21 to completely suspend sales of fuel to civilians, as Ukraine steps up medium-range drone strikes on energy infrastructure across the peninsula. “Fuel will only be dispensed to state services that ensure the vital activities and security of the Republic of Crimea,” Sergey Aksyonov, the Russian-appointed governor of occupied Crimea, said in a video address on the morning of June 21. The ban is effective…

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How a German-U.S. corporate giant became the world’s largest foreign financier of Israel’s wars

How a German-U.S. corporate giant became the world’s largest foreign financier of Israel’s wars

Middle East Eye reports: At the height of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, one company became the single largest foreign financier of the Israeli state – holding more in Israeli government bonds than the US, the UK, France and every other country put together. That company is Allianz, the German insurance and financial services giant, alongside its California-based bond management subsidiary PIMCO, the world’s largest active bond manager. Data shared with Middle East Eye by Profundo, an Amsterdam-based sustainability research…

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Before SpaceX IPO, investors in China secretly acquired stakes

Before SpaceX IPO, investors in China secretly acquired stakes

By Justin Elliott and Joshua Kaplan This story was originally published by ProPublica A businessman with ties to Chinese military contractors was among the overseas investors who acquired stakes in SpaceX while it was still a private company. An entity linked to the Qatari royal family also took a stake. The new details come from a private investor list obtained by ProPublica that sheds light on a particularly delicate issue for Elon Musk’s rocket company: which people in countries like…

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Israel’s national security minister spurns call for truce: ‘All of Lebanon must burn.’ Iran closes Strait of Hormuz

Israel’s national security minister spurns call for truce: ‘All of Lebanon must burn.’ Iran closes Strait of Hormuz

The Hill reports: A far-right member of Israel’s governing coalition on Friday said that “all of Lebanon must burn,” as fighting broke out between Israel and the Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah despite a ceasefire imposed by the U.S. and Iran. Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s national security minister and head of the far-right Jewish Power party, posted on the social platform X that Israel must respond with overwhelming force to the death of Israeli soldiers killed in fighting overnight. President Trump has publicly…

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Ehud Olmert: Israel is engaged in ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity in the West Bank

Ehud Olmert: Israel is engaged in ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity in the West Bank

Israel’s former prime minister, Ehud Olmert, writes: The fight against Jewish terrorism in the West Bank must advance to the next stage and be waged with greater determination. The daily terrorism that is managed, directed, encouraged and supported by the Israeli government can no longer be tolerated. What is happening across the West Bank today is not the work of “70 kids … from broken homes,” as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once tried to claim, disingenuously. Nor are these the…

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