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In court, Trump team backs away from its public deportation claims

In court, Trump team backs away from its public deportation claims

Aaron Blake writes: Amid all the controversy over the Trump administration’s deportations, it’s always important to emphasize where these undocumented migrants are being sent. It’s not just that the administration has deported people without legal due process; it’s that it has deported people without legal due process to a brutal prison in El Salvador. The administration says these are gang members and even “terrorists.” But its evidence has been suspect. It has made established mistakes. And a “60 Minutes” report…

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Waltz was seen as more closely aligned with Netanyahu than with Trump

Waltz was seen as more closely aligned with Netanyahu than with Trump

The Washington Post reports: Waltz’s troubles built up over time, and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles increasingly felt he was not a good fit for the president, according to a senior White House official, a Trump adviser and one additional person familiar with the matter on Friday. They and others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal personnel considerations. In announcing the shift, Trump on Thursday vowed in a social media post that “together, we will…

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The State Department is using Elon Musk’s ‘Twitter files’ playbook

The State Department is using Elon Musk’s ‘Twitter files’ playbook

Charlie Warzel writes: Darren Beattie, a senior official at the State Department, is concerned that his agency has abused its powers under previous Democratic administrations. To rectify that, he has decided to marshal the power of his office—in what his fellow State Department employees reportedly described as “unusual” and “improper” ways—to conduct a political witch hunt. Yesterday, the MIT Technology Review revealed that, in March, Beattie made a request to gain sweeping access to communications between and about the State…

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A drop in maritime traffic suggests that the worst is yet to come

A drop in maritime traffic suggests that the worst is yet to come

Juliette Kayyem writes: The economy, and the supply chains that allow it to function, can adjust fairly quickly to certain shocks, including weather disasters and even a pandemic. Early in the COVID shutdowns, toilet paper was in short supply as Americans spent more time at home and less at workplaces and schools. The problem eased as manufacturers ramped up production, transportation systems adapted, and consumer anxiety decreased. But Trump’s trade war is different because it is unpredictable and indefinite. Even…

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Ketanji Brown Jackson: It can take ‘raw courage to remain steadfast in doing what the law requires’

Ketanji Brown Jackson: It can take ‘raw courage to remain steadfast in doing what the law requires’

Politico reports: Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson forcefully condemned attacks by President Donald Trump and his allies on judges who have blocked Trump administration policies, warning Thursday that the increasingly hostile rhetoric poses a dire threat to the country’s political fabric. “The attacks are not random. They seem designed to intimidate those of us who serve in this critical capacity,” Jackson told a judges’ conference in Puerto Rico. “The threats and harassment are attacks on our democracy, on our system of…

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These judges ruled against Trump. Then their families faced attacks

These judges ruled against Trump. Then their families faced attacks

Reuters reports: When U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ruled in April that Trump administration officials could face criminal contempt charges for deporting migrants in defiance of a court order, the blowback was immediate. The president’s supporters unleashed a wave of threats and menacing posts. And they didn’t just target the judge. Some attacked Boasberg’s brother. Others blasted his daughter. Some demanded the family’s arrest – or execution. U.S. District Judge John McConnell’s family endured similar threats after he ruled that…

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Trump’s space budget rewards Elon Musk and SpaceX

Trump’s space budget rewards Elon Musk and SpaceX

The New York Times reports: Elon Musk and SpaceX are big winners in Donald J. Trump’s 2026 spending plan. President Trump is delivering on Mr. Musk’s wish list at both NASA and the Pentagon to reorient federal spending on space in a way likely to drive billions of dollars in new business to Mr. Musk’s space technology company, if Congress signs off on the budget plan. At the Pentagon, Mr. Trump is calling for a massive jump in spending, an…

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Public media executives push back against ‘blatantly unlawful’ targeting of NPR and PBS by Trump

Public media executives push back against ‘blatantly unlawful’ targeting of NPR and PBS by Trump

Politico reports: Public media executives are pushing back against President Donald Trump’s late Thursday executive order seeking to strike federal funding for NPR and PBS, arguing it is unlawful. Trump’s Thursday order directed the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private nonprofit that Congress awards more than $500 million annually to fund public media, to “cancel existing direct funding to the maximum extent allowed by law” to NPR and PBS. But in a statement Friday, Patricia Harris, the president and CEO…

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Brendan Carr is turning the Federal Communications Commission into Trump’s censoring machine

Brendan Carr is turning the Federal Communications Commission into Trump’s censoring machine

Wired reports: Carr’s background indicates that he might have been a straightforward leader of the agency. After several years as a legal adviser, he became a commissioner in 2017 and Joe Biden reappointed him in 2023. (Three of the five FCC commissioners, including the chair, are to be from the president’s party.) As a lifelong Republican—his father was once one of Nixon’s lawyers—he would be expected to champion conservative stances, like fighting net neutrality and sucking up to big telecom…

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For the last two months, absolutely no supplies have been entering Gaza

For the last two months, absolutely no supplies have been entering Gaza

Isaac Chotiner writes: In mid-January, Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire, putting a temporary stop to the war in Gaza, which began after the attacks of October 7, 2023, and which has killed more than fifty thousand Palestinians. (The combined Israeli death toll from the Hamas attack and the ensuing war is around three thousand people.) Throughout the first fifteen months of the conflict, Israel’s behavior, specifically in refusing to allow sufficient amounts of aid into Gaza, drew international…

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Antisemitism Awareness Act on hold after fiery Senate hearing

Antisemitism Awareness Act on hold after fiery Senate hearing

Jewish News Syndicate reports: The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labour and Pensions has postponed votes on a pair of measures designed to combat antisemitism after a tense hearing as well as the passage of amendments that threaten to kill the measures if brought to a vote. The Antisemitism Awareness Act would enshrine the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of antisemitism into law under the Civil Rights Act of 1965. But a testy hearing on Wednesday covered objections to…

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Federal judge in Texas strikes down Trump’s use of alien enemies act to deport Venezuelans

Federal judge in Texas strikes down Trump’s use of alien enemies act to deport Venezuelans

The New York Times reports: A federal judge on Thursday permanently barred the Trump administration from invoking the Alien Enemies Act, an 18th-century wartime law, to deport Venezuelans it has deemed to be criminals from the Southern District of Texas, saying that the White House’s use of the statute was illegal. The decision by the judge, Fernando Rodriguez Jr., was the most expansive ruling yet by any of the numerous jurists who are currently hearing challenges to the White House’s…

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In messy process of deporting Venezuelans to El Salvador, eight women were sent, then returned

In messy process of deporting Venezuelans to El Salvador, eight women were sent, then returned

The New York Times reports: As they addressed reporters inside the Oval Office in mid-April, President Trump and his Salvadoran counterpart appeared to be operating in lock step. The United States had just deported more than 200 migrants to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador, and President Nayib Bukele said his country was eager to take more. He scoffed at a question from a reporter about whether he would release one of the men who a federal judge said had…

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Orders to investigate Columbia protesters raised anger and alarm inside Justice Department

Orders to investigate Columbia protesters raised anger and alarm inside Justice Department

The New York Times reports: A top Trump appointee in the Justice Department ordered an aggressive investigation in the last several months of student protesters at Columbia University, raising anger and alarm among career prosecutors and investigators who saw the demand as politically motivated and lacking legal merit, people familiar with the episode said. The demand for the inquiry into students who protested Israel’s conduct of the conflict in Gaza also prompted pushback from a federal magistrate judge, who believed…

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