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Three-time felon and star witness against Abrego García was due to be deported. Now he’s being freed

Three-time felon and star witness against Abrego García was due to be deported. Now he’s being freed

The Washington Post reports: The Trump administration has agreed to release from prison a three-time felon who drunkenly fired shots in a Texas community and spare him from deportation in exchange for his cooperation in the federal prosecution of Kilmar Abrego García, according to a review of court records and official testimony. Jose Ramon Hernandez Reyes, 38, has been convicted of smuggling migrants and illegally reentering the United States after having been deported. He also pleaded guilty to “deadly conduct”…

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‘He’s going to do everything to damage the president,’ former friend of Musk believes

‘He’s going to do everything to damage the president,’ former friend of Musk believes

Politico reports: A former longtime friend of Elon Musk has a word of caution for President Donald Trump about the tech mogul: He doesn’t really move on. Philip Low, an award-winning neuroscientist who partnered with the late, legendary cosmologist Stephen Hawking as a test subject, learned that the hard way in 2021 when he fired Musk, one of his early investors, from the advisory board of the Silicon Valley startup he founded. Over an hour-long interview, Low weaved something of…

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The Democratic Party is ripe for a populist revolt

The Democratic Party is ripe for a populist revolt

Christian Paz writes: The signs have been bubbling up for months: The Democratic base is fed up with the status quo of their party. Democratic voters believe their party leaders are out of touch, and they don’t think they’re rising to meet this moment. They want more confrontation with President Donald Trump, and they’re hungry for an inspiring, forward-looking economic vision. That sentiment comes through in just about all the polling of the party, in focus groups with voters, and…

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Zohran Mamdani has the Palestinian protest movement to thank for his win

Zohran Mamdani has the Palestinian protest movement to thank for his win

Heba Gowayed writes: In a tremendous upset of politics as usual, Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old brown, Muslim, Democratic socialist who had little name recognition in February beat the poster boy of the Democratic party establishment, Andrew Cuomo, by a plurality of votes in the first round of the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City. What makes this win even more remarkable is that Mamdani has refused to back down from his vocal support for Palestinian liberation, a position…

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Trump’s immigration arrests are seeing a wave of resistance

Trump’s immigration arrests are seeing a wave of resistance

HuffPost reports: Recent weeks have seen the Trump administration’s “mass deportation” program kick into overdrive. Militarized federal agents are working hard to meet the White House’s sky-high arrest quotas, and the number of people in immigration detention is surging past record highs. That means focusing even more on otherwise law-abiding people who happen to have irregular immigration statuses ― people who pay taxes, show up to court dates and check-ins, work hard to provide for their families, and followed previous administrations’ rules to apply for humanitarian protections. It also means interrogating people at swap…

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Florida plan for ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ migrant jail sparks chorus of outrage

Florida plan for ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ migrant jail sparks chorus of outrage

The Guardian reports: Environmental groups, immigration rights activists and a Native American tribe have decried the construction of a harsh outdoor migrant detention camp in the Florida Everglades billed by state officials as “Alligator Alcatraz”. Crews began preparing the facility at a remote, largely disused training airfield this week in support of the Trump administration’s aggressive goal of arresting and incarcerating 3,000 undocumented migrants every day. It is among a number of controversial new Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) jails…

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The AI backlash keeps growing stronger

The AI backlash keeps growing stronger

Reece Rogers writes: Before Duolingo wiped its videos from TikTok and Instagram in mid-May, social media engagement was one of the language-learning app’s most recognizable qualities. Its green owl mascot had gone viral multiple times and was well known to younger users—a success story other marketers envied. But, when news got out that Duolingo was making the switch to become an “AI-first” company, planning to replace contractors who work on tasks generative AI could automate, public perception of the brand…

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Study shows that apes are more optimistic after hearing laughter

Study shows that apes are more optimistic after hearing laughter

Indiana University: While laughter is often considered uniquely human, tied to language and sense of humor, all great apes produce remarkably similar vocalizations during play that share evolutionary origins with human laughter. In a new study, an international team led by two Indiana University researchers has discovered that bonobos, our closest living relatives along with chimpanzees, tend to be more optimistic after hearing the laughter of their fellow apes—and these findings have implications for understanding the evolution of positive emotions…

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When did nature burst into vivid color?

When did nature burst into vivid color?

Molly Herring writes: The natural world is awash with color, and many of these vibrant hues are meant to be seen. Apples blush red to coax animals to spread their seeds, lavender blooms are violet to lure in pollinating bees, and male peacocks trailed by flashy blue trains more successfully attract mates. However, the world is colorful only for some of us. These vivid signals can be perceived by animals that can see in color; to organisms that have limited…

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The Supreme Court aligns with Trump against the judiciary

The Supreme Court aligns with Trump against the judiciary

Ruth Marcus writes: The courts cannot protect us from President Donald Trump’s unconstitutional overreach. That is the terrifying lesson of Friday’s 6–3 Supreme Court ruling limiting the power of federal judges to issue broad orders blocking Trump’s policies from taking effect while the lawsuits challenging them make their way through the courts. The case, Trump v. CASA, involved one of the most blatantly unconstitutional of Trump’s orders: his bid to revoke, by executive fiat, the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship….

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The U.S. is about to embark on a terrifying experiment in mass statelessness

The U.S. is about to embark on a terrifying experiment in mass statelessness

Matt Watkins writes: Let’s say a child is born this year in El Paso, Texas. Her parents are undocumented but long-settled, working in construction and child care, respectively. They’ve lived in the United States for over a decade, pay taxes, raise their children, attend church, and volunteer at the elementary school. Their daughter arrives in the early hours of a Tuesday morning, 6 pounds and healthy, her name already chosen. A nurse congratulates the family and hands over an administrative…

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As Mamdani rises, anti-Muslim racist attacks roll in from the right

As Mamdani rises, anti-Muslim racist attacks roll in from the right

The New York Times reports: Even before Zohran Mamdani claimed victory in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary, he had become a target of racist attacks from the far right. Those attacks have only intensified in the wake of his commanding performance on Tuesday, with Republican elected officials and right-wing media figures accusing him of promoting Islamic law, supporting terrorism and posing a threat to the safety of New Yorkers, especially Jews. There has been nothing subtle about it: Stephen…

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Norman Finkelstein: Israel, Zohran Mamdani and the coming class war

Norman Finkelstein: Israel, Zohran Mamdani and the coming class war

  In a fiery and deeply personal return to The Big Picture Podcast, professor Norman Finkelstein explains why Israel and its allies in the West have destroyed the international order, and how the election of a Muslim socialist in New York threatens their grip on power. Finkelstein is a political scientist and one of the world’s foremost scholars on Israel-Palestine, as well as a critic of culture and empire. He is the author of The Holocaust Industry and most recently,…

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The outrage of the plutocrats after they failed to buy an election

The outrage of the plutocrats after they failed to buy an election

Paul Krugman writes: I was enormously cheered by Mamdani’s victory, not because I think he’ll be a great mayor — honestly I have no idea — but because a Cuomo victory would have been deeply depressing. Why? Because it would have been an affirmation of elite impunity and lack of accountability. Cuomo is by all accounts a terrible person, and his bungled response to Covid killed people. For him to make a comeback simply because he’s part of the old…

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