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Any trade deal with U.S. must be based on ‘respect not threats’, says EU commissioner

Any trade deal with U.S. must be based on ‘respect not threats’, says EU commissioner

The Guardian reports: The European Union’s trade chief has struck a defiant tone after Donald Trump threatened to place a 50% tariff on all goods from the bloc, saying any potential trade deal between Brussels and Washington must be based on “respect not threats”. The US president made his announcement after voicing frustration with the pace of progress on a trade agreement with the EU. The new rates would come into effect from 1 June. The EU trade commissioner, Maroš…

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Israel ‘killing babies as a hobby’ in Gaza, says Democrats party leader, an IDF reserve major general

Israel ‘killing babies as a hobby’ in Gaza, says Democrats party leader, an IDF reserve major general

The Times of Israel reports: Left-wing politician Yair Golan faced a wave of backlash on Tuesday from across the political spectrum after he accused Israel of killing babies in Gaza “as a hobby.” Golan, a former IDF deputy chief of staff and current head of the The Democrats party, a merger of Labor and Meretz, said in an interview with the Kan public broadcaster that “Israel is on the way to becoming a pariah state, like South Africa was, if…

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Pentagon’s newly promoted press secretary seen as an ‘unabashed white nationalist’

Pentagon’s newly promoted press secretary seen as an ‘unabashed white nationalist’

The Office of the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs is announcing that Kingsley Wilson will serve as Press Secretary for the Department of Defense. Kingsley’s leadership has been integral to the DoD’s success & we look forward to her continued service to President Trump!… — Sean Parnell (@SeanParnellATSD) May 23, 2025 In March, Military.com reported: Kingsley Wilson, the Pentagon’s new deputy press secretary, has a yearslong history of making social media posts that traffic in a variety of extremist…

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Trump executive order targeting Jenner law firm ruled as unconstitutional

Trump executive order targeting Jenner law firm ruled as unconstitutional

NBC reports: President Donald Trump’s executive order against the Jenner & Block law firm is unlawful because it violates the First Amendment, a judge ruled late Friday. U.S. District Judge John Bates said going after law firms the way Trump has “is doubly violative of the Constitution” because it targets Jenner & Block due to the causes the firm champions, the clients they represent, and a lawyer they once employed. “This order, like the others, seeks to chill legal representation…

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The opposite of making America great

The opposite of making America great

A lead editorial in the Wall Street Journal, in response to the Trump regime’s attempt to destroy Harvard University by excluding foreign students, says: Non-citizens accounted for more than half of doctoral degrees in AI-related fields in 2022. Many have gone to work at U.S. companies like Nvidia or started their own. The National Foundation for American Policy finds that “immigrants have founded or cofounded nearly two-thirds (65% or 28 of 43) of the top AI companies in the United…

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Trump’s memecoin dinner welcomed guests holding tokens linked to alt-right symbols and racist language

Trump’s memecoin dinner welcomed guests holding tokens linked to alt-right symbols and racist language

Wired reports: As US president Donald Trump left the stage at his golf club near Washington, DC, on Thursday night, he pointed to the crowd, brought his index finger to his temple—as if to say: You know what’s coming—then began to dance. To the beat of “Y.M.C.A” by The Village People, Trump shimmied, gyrated, and pumped his arms above his head. Looking on were more than 200 people who had been invited to the Trump National Golf Club for a…

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Why one branch on the human family tree replaced all the others

Why one branch on the human family tree replaced all the others

Nick Longrich writes: On the western slope of Mount Carmel, in Israel, lies the cave of Es-Skhul. About 140,000 years ago, during the Ice Age, nomadic hunter-gatherers made camp here. The sea to the west had receded, exposing a broad plain covered with groves of live oak, almond and olive, meadows filled with asphodel and anemone. Herds of fallow deer, rhinoceros and aurochs roamed the plains. People hunted animals with stone-tipped spears, and foraged wild mustard and olives. And when…

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Ignorance is the handmaiden of tyranny

Ignorance is the handmaiden of tyranny

In a commencement address given to graduates from U. Cal. Berkeley’s School of Education earlier this week, Robert Reich said: Throughout history, tyrants have understood that their major enemy is an educated citizenry. Slaveholders prohibited the enslaved from learning to read. Nazis burned books. Putin and Xi censor the media. Ignorance is the handmaiden of tyranny. America’s founders knew this. They saw how easily emperors and kings could mislead uneducated publics. The survival of the new nation required a public…

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The Heritage Foundation’s Christian nationalist effort that claims to combat antisemitism

The Heritage Foundation’s Christian nationalist effort that claims to combat antisemitism

The National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, created by the Heritage Foundation and spearheading Project Esther, is a group dominated by right-wing Christians. The ongoing assault by the Trump regime targeting Harvard University, along with other colleges and universities across America is at the core of NTFCA’s mission. Shortly before the November presidential election, Religion Dispatches reported: Following a time-honored Israel advocacy tradition, Project Esther frames its McCarthyist crusade as an effort to ensure the safety of Jews. But as Jewish Insider reported,…

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Fear on campus: Harvard’s international students in ‘mass panic’ over Trump move

Fear on campus: Harvard’s international students in ‘mass panic’ over Trump move

The Guardian reports: Harvard’s foreign students described an atmosphere of “fear on campus” following an attempt by the Trump administration to ban international scholars at the oldest university in the US. On lush, grassy quads filled with tents and chairs ready for end of year graduation celebrations, international students said there was “mass panic” after Thursday’s shock announcement by the Department of Homeland Security. The move triggered cancelled flights home for the summer, scrambles for housing to stay in the…

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Losing international students could devastate many colleges and hurt the U.S. economy

Losing international students could devastate many colleges and hurt the U.S. economy

In April, the New York Times reported: Xiaofeng Wan, a former admissions officer at Amherst College, now works as a private consultant to international students who want to come to the United States. This week, as he held meetings in China with prospective students, he sensed a deep uncertainty among their parents. “They really don’t know whether they should send their children to a country where they don’t welcome Chinese students or they see China as a hostile competitor,” Dr….

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Trump calls for 50% tariff on EU, says he’s ‘not looking for a deal’ with bloc

Trump calls for 50% tariff on EU, says he’s ‘not looking for a deal’ with bloc

CNBC reports: President Donald Trump on Friday said he is “recommending a straight 50% Tariff on the European Union” after complaining that trade negotiations have stalled. The steep new import duties would start June 1, Trump wrote on Truth Social. The EU “has been very difficult to deal with,” Trump wrote of the 27-nation bloc. “Our discussions with them are going nowhere!” Asked later Friday if he was looking to cut a deal with the EU in the next nine…

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Netanyahu accused of slander after criticising Macron, Carney and Starmer

Netanyahu accused of slander after criticising Macron, Carney and Starmer

The Guardian reports: Benjamin Netanyahu was accused of slander and pursuing a war without end after he claimed the leaders of France, Canada and the UK were stoking antisemitism and siding with Hamas by demanding he end the two-month blockade of food and aid into Gaza. In what has become an extraordinary standoff with some of Israel’s closest allies, Netanyahu appeared to deliberately raise the stakes on Thursday night by accusing his western critics of abandoning Israel in a war…

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Hypernormalization: Why the United States increasingly feels like the Soviet Union

Hypernormalization: Why the United States increasingly feels like the Soviet Union

Adrienne Matei writes: In January, the comedian Ashley Bez posted an Instagram video of herself, trying to describe a heavy mood in the air. “How come everything feels all …?” she says, trailing off and grimacing exaggeratedly into the camera. Digital anthropologist Rahaf Harfoush saw the video, and got it immediately. “Welcome to the hypernormalization club,” Harfoush said in a response video. “I’m so sorry that you’re here.” “Hypernormalization” is a heady, $10 word, but it captures the weird, dire…

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