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Trump foe GOP Rep. Thomas Massie wins over MAGA allies with his push for Epstein files

Trump foe GOP Rep. Thomas Massie wins over MAGA allies with his push for Epstein files

NBC News reports: Once fighting a lonely battle against President Donald Trump, GOP Rep. Thomas Massie has found an issue that is winning him more Republican friends and political allies than he has had all year: his push to release the Jeffrey Epstein files. Many of Trump’s MAGA allies on and off Capitol Hill are frustrated with Trump and top officials in his administration for dragging their feet in releasing the government’s remaining documents and records related to Epstein, the…

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Republican voters are breaking with Trump over Epstein files, polls show

Republican voters are breaking with Trump over Epstein files, polls show

The New York Times reports: The Trump administration’s recent decision to backtrack on releasing new details about the investigation into the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has prompted something exceedingly rare: Republican voters have begun to break with the president. Mr. Trump has long engendered unwavering loyalty from his followers, who tend to shrug off even his most extreme controversies. But recent public polling suggests even such fervent support may have a limit. While 40 percent of Republicans approve of…

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Powerful Americans are acting with no more courage than their Hungarian counterparts

Powerful Americans are acting with no more courage than their Hungarian counterparts

David Pressman writes: As the most recent U.S. ambassador to Viktor Orban’s Hungary, I’m often asked if the Trump administration’s tactics and policies feel familiar. The short answer is yes. But the more important — and unsettling — question is this: Does the way Americans are responding feel familiar, too? After years watching Hungary suffocate under the weight of its democratic collapse, I came to understand that the real danger of a strongman isn’t his tactics; it’s how others, especially…

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Silicon Valley AI startups embrace China’s grueling ‘996’ work schedule

Silicon Valley AI startups embrace China’s grueling ‘996’ work schedule

Wired reports: Would you like to work nearly double the standard 40-hour week? It’s a question that many startups in the US are asking prospective employees—and to get the job, the answer needs to be an unequivocal yes. These companies are embracing an intense schedule, first popularized in mainland China, known as “996,” or 9 am to 9 pm, six days a week. In other words, it’s a 72-hour work week. The 996 phenomenon in China gave rise to major…

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There is no safe place for legal immigrants in Trump’s America

There is no safe place for legal immigrants in Trump’s America

The American Prospect reports: The federal agents stationed outside immigration courtrooms at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan wore face coverings, either medical masks or neck gaiters pulled up over their noses. Some obscured their identity further with sunglasses and baseball hats. None displayed their names or badge numbers, though one wore a T-shirt with a picture of a skull and the words “we the people defend liberty.” Assembled in three separate groups, they lingered casually as they waited for their…

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Trump’s job approval has been remarkably stable. That might be about to change

Trump’s job approval has been remarkably stable. That might be about to change

Carroll Doherty writes: Throughout Donald Trump’s decade in politics, his critics have reacted predictably, almost reflexively, to his string of seeming career-ending statements, precedent-shattering policies and perceived missteps. This is it. This time, Trump has finally done something so outrageous, so over the line, that his popularity will plunge and never recover. But it’s never really happened. Compared with past presidents, Trump’s job approval ratings have, for the most part, moved within a narrow range. The reason is simple: He…

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Tulsi Gabbard shows how far she’ll go to politicize intelligence to help Donald Trump

Tulsi Gabbard shows how far she’ll go to politicize intelligence to help Donald Trump

David Corn writes: The Trump administration has launched a war on former Obama administration officials, and to do so, it has engaged in one of the most egregious and obvious acts of politicizing intelligence in decades. On Friday, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard released formerly classified US intelligence reports about the 2016 election that she said were evidence of an Obama administration “conspiracy to subvert President Trump’s 2016 victory and presidency.” In a hysterical press release, she accused former…

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After major law firms bent the knee, a corps of ‘little guys’ jumped in to fight Trump

After major law firms bent the knee, a corps of ‘little guys’ jumped in to fight Trump

The New York Times reports: President Trump’s executive orders seeking to punish big law firms have led some of them to acquiesce to him and left others reluctant to take on pro bono cases that could put them at odds with the administration. But as opponents of the White House’s policies organized to fight Mr. Trump in court on a vast range of actions and policies, they quickly found that they did not need to rely on Big Law. Instead,…

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National Park Service dragged into Trump’s effort to cover up America’s ugly past

National Park Service dragged into Trump’s effort to cover up America’s ugly past

The New York Times reports: At Cape Hatteras National Seashore in North Carolina, the Trump administration is set to review, and possibly remove or alter, signs about how climate change is causing sea levels to rise. At Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, the administration will soon decide whether to take down exhibits on the brutality of slavery. And at Castillo de San Marcos National Monument in Florida, Trump officials are scrutinizing language about the imprisonment of Native Americans inside…

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Harvard publisher cancels entire journal issue on education and Palestine shortly before publication

Harvard publisher cancels entire journal issue on education and Palestine shortly before publication

The Guardian reports: In March 2024, six months into Israel’s war in Gaza, education in the territory was decimated. Schools were closed – most had been turned into shelters – and all 12 of the strip’s universities were partially or fully destroyed. Against that backdrop, a prestigious American education journal decided to dedicate a special issue to “education and Palestine”. The Harvard Educational Review (HER) put out a call for submissions, asking academics around the world for ideas for articles…

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Techno-hubris: AI chatbots remain overconfident — even when they’re wrong, study finds

Techno-hubris: AI chatbots remain overconfident — even when they’re wrong, study finds

Carnegie Mellon University: Artificial intelligence chatbots are everywhere these days, from smartphone apps and customer service portals to online search engines. But what happens when these handy tools overestimate their own abilities? Researchers asked both human participants and four large language models (LLMs) how confident they felt in their ability to answer trivia questions, predict the outcomes of NFL games or Academy Award ceremonies, or play a Pictionary-like image identification game. Both the people and the LLMs tended to be…

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How John Roberts laid the foundations for an American dictatorship

How John Roberts laid the foundations for an American dictatorship

Peter M. Shane writes: No one on the Supreme Court has gone further to enable Donald Trump’s extreme exercise of presidential power than the chief justice of the United States, John Roberts. Associate justices have also written some important opinions shaping executive power, and the Court has issued ever more important unsigned orders, but the most transformative opinions—the opinions that directly legitimize Trump’s unprecedented uses of power—are Roberts’s handiwork. This is not happenstance. Under Supreme Court practice, the most senior…

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Trump officials accused of defying a third of the judges who have ruled against him

Trump officials accused of defying a third of the judges who have ruled against him

The Washington Post reports: President Donald Trump and his appointees have been accused of flouting courts in a third of the more than 160 lawsuits against the administration in which a judge has issued a substantive ruling, a Washington Post analysis has found, suggesting widespread noncompliance with America’s legal system. Plaintiffs say Justice Department lawyers and the agencies they represent are snubbing rulings, providing false information, failing to turn over evidence, quietly working around court orders and inventing pretexts to…

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Migrants at ICE jail in Miami made to kneel to eat ‘like dogs’, Human Rights Watch reports

Migrants at ICE jail in Miami made to kneel to eat ‘like dogs’, Human Rights Watch reports

The Guardian reports: Migrants at a Miami immigration jail were shackled with their hands tied behind their backs and made to kneel to eat food from styrofoam plates “like dogs”, according to a report published on Monday into conditions at three overcrowded south Florida facilities. The incident at the downtown federal detention center is one of a succession of alleged abuses at Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (Ice) operated jails in the state since January, chronicled by advocacy groups Human…

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