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Trump tries to bypass the Senate in executive power grab

Trump tries to bypass the Senate in executive power grab

TPM reports: The Trump White House has taken its attempt to seize direct control over the entire executive branch to a new level and laid out a startling legal rationale for the move in a previously unreported email obtained by TPM. If successful, Trump would be making a dramatic end run around the Senate’s advice and consent power for certain appointed positions. Trump’s wide-ranging effort to bring independent agencies firmly under his control provoked a dramatic confrontation this week at…

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Justice Amy Coney Barrett under attack by MAGA influencers after Supreme Court ruling on USAID

Justice Amy Coney Barrett under attack by MAGA influencers after Supreme Court ruling on USAID

The Guardian reports: Amy Coney Barrett, the Donald Trump-appointed conservative supreme court justice, has been branded a “DEI judge” by furious rightwing figures, after she voted to reject Trump’s attempt to freeze nearly $2bn in foreign aid. Coney Barrett, part of the court’s rightwing majority, split with her fellow conservative justices this week. She and John Roberts, the chief justice, voted to leave in place a ruling from a US district judge which ordered the Trump administration to unfreeze the…

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Fears of a looming ‘Trump recession’

Fears of a looming ‘Trump recession’

The Associated Press reports: With his flurry of tariffs, government layoffs and spending freezes, there are growing worries President Donald Trump may be doing more to harm the U.S. economy than to fix it. The labor market remains healthy with a 4.1% unemployment rate and 151,000 jobs added in February, and Trump likes to point to investment commitments by Apple and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company to show that he’s delivering results. But Friday’s employment report also found that the number…

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Elon Musk’s entire empire mapped by Wired magazine

Elon Musk’s entire empire mapped by Wired magazine

  There’s barely a place left on Earth outside the gravitational pull of Elon Musk’s empire. How far does Elon’s clout really stretch—and what conflicts of interest are emerging as he wields the power of the federal government? WIRED pulled the data and mapped out the key places that shape Elon’s Empire.

‘Hundreds of dead’ resulting from Trump’s Ukraine intelligence pause

‘Hundreds of dead’ resulting from Trump’s Ukraine intelligence pause

Time reports: The U.S. decision to suspend the flow of military intelligence to Ukraine this week has aided the Russian advance along a critical part of the front, weakening the negotiating position of President Volodymyr Zelensky and killing many Ukrainian soldiers in recent days, according to five senior Western and Ukrainian officials and military officers familiar with the situation. “As a result of this pause, there are hundreds of dead Ukrainians,” one of the officers told TIME in an interview…

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Trump’s imperialist shakedown of Panama hits a raw nerve in Latin America

Trump’s imperialist shakedown of Panama hits a raw nerve in Latin America

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard writes: The president of Panama is a brave man. José Raúl Mulino has continued to defy the White House with open contempt even after watching the punishment beating of Ukraine. “Donald Trump is lying again. In the name of Panama and all its people I reject this fresh assault on the truth and the dignity of our nation,” he said, in response to Trump’s latest outrage, a fresh set of fabrications and threats to retake the Panama Canal….

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What happens if Trump defies the courts?

What happens if Trump defies the courts?

Erwin Chemerinsky writes: It is not hyperbole to say that the future of American constitutional democracy now rests on a single question: Will President Trump and his administration defy court orders? Federal judges have issued more than a dozen temporary restraining orders and preliminary injunctions against Trump administration actions. But it is unclear whether the government will comply, and in at least two cases, judges have said their orders were ignored. The Trump administration is already facing at least 100…

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Trump allies launch a bid to take control of Washington D.C. Bar Association

Trump allies launch a bid to take control of Washington D.C. Bar Association

NBC News reports: Two of President Donald Trump’s allies have launched bids for leadership roles with the D.C. Bar Association, an under-the-radar effort that would give them more control over the influential legal group. The push comes amid bar associations’ confrontations with the Trump administration, and some federal attorneys have looked to their state groups for ethical guidance amid Trump’s rapid reshaping of government. Bradley Bondi — a lawyer who is Attorney General Pam Bondi’s brother — and Alicia Long…

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White House cuts $400 million in grants for Columbia — ‘this is just the beginning’

White House cuts $400 million in grants for Columbia — ‘this is just the beginning’

Politico reports: Columbia University faces the immediate loss of grants and contracts totaling about $400 million for failing to address antisemitism, a Trump administration task force said Friday. The Justice Department task force to combat antisemitism, led by Leo Terrell, has been probing 10 institutions because of their responses to antisemitic incidents on campuses since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel. But Columbia, which faced intense scrutiny for its students’ high-profile antiwar encampment and building occupations last spring,…

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Voice of America Ukrainian correspondent fired in DOGE crackdown

Voice of America Ukrainian correspondent fired in DOGE crackdown

The Kyiv Independent reports: Ostap Yarysh, a Ukrainian correspondent at Voice of America (VoA), was dismissed on March 7, reportedly following an inspection by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). DOGE is an unofficial cost-cutting group that U.S. President Donald Trump has granted broad authority to reduce government spending and dismiss employees. DOGE’s head, U.S. billionaire Elon Musk, has previously called for the shutdown of U.S.-funded media outlets Radio Free Europe and Voice of America. Yarysh joined the VOA’s Ukrainian…

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Election officials say cuts to federal cybersecurity agency (CISA) are affecting operations

Election officials say cuts to federal cybersecurity agency (CISA) are affecting operations

Democracy Docket reports: Ever since President Donald Trump’s victory in November, election officials at every level and voting rights advocates have worried that he would gut the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) — the little-known federal agency responsible for the nation’s cybersecurity and protecting critical infrastructure from digital threats. And now that those cuts have come to fruition, election officials are already experiencing the loss of crucial CISA resources they said are integral to voting security. In the seven…

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Trump’s imperial designs on Canada trigger a surge of patriotism

Trump’s imperial designs on Canada trigger a surge of patriotism

The New York Times reports: In candid remarks to a group of business leaders last month that was captured by a microphone, Mr. Trudeau offered a theory for Mr. Trump’s Canada obsession that is widely shared in the country. “Not only does the Trump administration know how many critical minerals we have, but that may be even why they keep talking about absorbing us and making us the 51st state,” Mr. Trudeau told the gathering in Toronto. “They’re very aware…

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In ‘a watershed moment for Europe,’ EU leaders agree on plan for huge rise in defense spending

In ‘a watershed moment for Europe,’ EU leaders agree on plan for huge rise in defense spending

The Guardian reports: European leaders holding emergency talks in Brussels have agreed on a massive increase to defence spending, amid a drive to shore up support for Ukraine after Donald Trump halted US military aid and intelligence sharing. But the show of unity was marred by Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, failing to endorse an EU statement on Ukraine pushing back against Trump’s Russia-friendly negotiating stance. The 26 other EU leaders, including Orbán’s ally Robert Fico, the Slovakian prime minister,…

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Timothy Snyder: Trump’s message to Ukraine — ‘concede to Russia now in exchange for nothing at all’

Timothy Snyder: Trump’s message to Ukraine — ‘concede to Russia now in exchange for nothing at all’

  Donald Trump has read out a letter from Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying Ukraine is ready to negotiate and the president says he’s getting strong signals from Russia that it is also ready for peace, but – if that deal boils down to Ukraine surrendering territory, American mining companies extracting minerals from Ukraine, and no security guarantee – is that real peace? And would a deal like that hold? In this new world of strong man politics, has Ukraine been bullied…

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