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Category: Politics

Stephen Miller leads sweeping push to accelerate removal of migrant children

Stephen Miller leads sweeping push to accelerate removal of migrant children

The Guardian reports: Stephen Miller is leading an unprecedented and intense White House drive across a host of government departments to accelerate the removal of undocumented immigrant children from the US, using tactics that critics say are cruel and racist and, in some cases, flout federal law, the Guardian has learned. As deputy chief of staff at the White House, focused on immigration policy, Miller is seen as the mastermind and enforcer behind Donald Trump’s hardline anti-immigration agenda. He is…

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Alligator Alcatraz’s tiny cages were probably even tinier

Alligator Alcatraz’s tiny cages were probably even tinier

The American Prospect reports: The Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the Department of Homeland Security released a scathing report last Friday about the shuttered Florida concentration camp built on an abandoned airstrip known as “Alligator Alcatraz,” concluding the camp failed to meet numerous health and safety standards, and that the use of “small metal enclosures” was “unprecedented” and posed “significant risks to detainee health and safety.” The report included photos, taken by OIG inspectors during an “unannounced” visit in…

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Jewish leaders in Michigan urge support for El-Sayed’s Senate bid and for democracy

Jewish leaders in Michigan urge support for El-Sayed’s Senate bid and for democracy

The New York Times reports: A group of Jewish voters in Michigan is urging support for Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the state’s Democratic nominee for Senate, in an open letter that acknowledges concerns among some Jewish voters about his candidacy and his criticism of Israel. The letter, signed by more than 500 people who identify as Jewish leaders or voters in the state, says that the election of Dr. El-Sayed, a staunch critic of Israel, is “clearly the better choice for…

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How AI ‘almost started a war’ between the U.S. and China with ‘entirely false’ intelligence

How AI ‘almost started a war’ between the U.S. and China with ‘entirely false’ intelligence

CNN reports: The intelligence report, circulated across the US military this spring in the midst of the war with Iran, immediately set off alarm bells: A Chinese ship in the Middle East was transporting components of a nuclear weapons program. The US military swung into action with plans to intercept the vessel, according to four sources familiar with the episode. According to two of the sources, armed members of the US military were preparing to board the ship. Military planes…

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Trump is considering more data centers on public lands than was previously known

Trump is considering more data centers on public lands than was previously known

The Washington Sun reports: The Trump administration is considering proposals for at least 12 data centers and data center-related infrastructure projects to be built on federal public lands — far more than previously known. The Bureau of Land Management is reviewing data center-related proposals covering at least 17,600 acres of public land across six states — Arizona, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming, according to public records of right-of-way proposals reviewed by The Washington Sun. Many of the projects under…

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Trump’s ambition is always personal but the damage is global

Trump’s ambition is always personal but the damage is global

Philip Kennicott writes: To borrow a Greek term from classical theater, the Kennedy Center fiasco has brought us to what might be called a Trumpian moment of anagnorisis, the unmasking and full discovery of the motivations and inner workings of a character. Even Trump himself seems to have realized how childish he looks because in comments Wednesday that again threatened demolition, he seemed to suggest renaming the center for his administration, not himself personally: “I think that the Trump administration…

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China presses Iran to help rein in Houthis after Saudi appeal, sources say

China presses Iran to help rein in Houthis after Saudi appeal, sources say

Reuters reports: China has privately asked Tehran to help rein in Yemen’s Houthis after an appeal to Beijing by Saudi Arabia following the Iran-backed group’s military blitz in the past week, according to three Iranian sources familiar with ​the matter. Riyadh turned to China for help after the Houthis made rapid advances along the Red Sea coast and around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, moves that have left Saudi oil exports and ‌shipping more exposed, the sources said. China has publicly…

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Why Latin America is key to Israel’s diplomatic impunity

Why Latin America is key to Israel’s diplomatic impunity

+972 reports: On Aug. 10, just three days after taking office, Colombia’s new government under President Abelardo de la Espriella formally recognized Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights. The announcement was all the more conspicuous coming on the same day that Colombia confronted one the largest earthquakes in its recent history, which killed more than 300 people and left extensive damage across the country. Even before taking office, de la Espriella’s incoming administration had agreed with Israel to restore…

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Massive security vulnerability: Trump operatives are prepping an AI takeover of government services

Massive security vulnerability: Trump operatives are prepping an AI takeover of government services

The Washington Sun reports: The aim is for a chatbot feature to be the main way Americans use the website [dubbed America.gov], which the administration intends to be a catch-all digital destination meant to make the user experience of Americans interacting with the government online more cohesive. The White House declined to comment. The State Department and Treasury Department did not respond to requests for comment. Former DOGE official and Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia’s White House unit, called the National…

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Trump’s Minnesota surge created ‘a grave threat to the rule of law,’ says federal court’s chief judge

Trump’s Minnesota surge created ‘a grave threat to the rule of law,’ says federal court’s chief judge

The New York Times reports: Judge Patrick J. Schiltz’s warning was stark. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had violated nearly 100 orders issued by Minnesota’s Federal District Court during the month of January, including some mandating the release of undocumented immigrants from detention. The violations needed to stop immediately. “ICE is not a law unto itself,” Judge Schiltz wrote in his Jan. 28 order. Judges around the country took notice, not only of the scale of the allegation but because such…

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Carney to Trump: No one tells Canadians what to do

Carney to Trump: No one tells Canadians what to do

Politico reports: Canada’s warming relationship with the EU “is a positive” process and Ottawa will not be cowed into abandoning the relationship, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Thursday. Carney’s comment came after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to slap “serious tariffs” on the EU if Canada became an associate member, an idea floated by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in her State of the Union speech on Wednesday. “This alliance is a positive process. That’s my response to the…

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Corporate cowardice: Universal is getting cold feet on releasing the new Elon Musk documentary

Corporate cowardice: Universal is getting cold feet on releasing the new Elon Musk documentary

The Hollywood Reporter reports: If Universal opts against releasing the movie, it would mark an extraordinary reversal at a moment when media companies are already under scrutiny for bowing to various forms of political pressure. Amazon backed out of releasing Artificial as it got into business with Sam Altman’s OpenAI, while ABC News and Paramount/CBS News each paid millions to settle lawsuits with the Trump administration many legal experts felt would be quickly dismissed. Universal would be required to pay…

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Follow the money: Democrats demand to know where Venezuelan oil revenue is going

Follow the money: Democrats demand to know where Venezuelan oil revenue is going

The Washington Post reports: Three Democratic senators are pressing the Trump administration for transparency on billions of dollars in oil revenue from Venezuela believed to be in a U.S. government-controlled account. In a letter obtained by The Washington Post, Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island) are asking Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Secretary of State Marco Rubio for information about the status and use of this revenue, which is being disbursed from an account…

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Deep in Trump country, a revolt against corporate money could reshape political spending

Deep in Trump country, a revolt against corporate money could reshape political spending

Reuters reports: More than 15 years after the U.S. Supreme Court reshaped American politics with its Citizens United campaign finance ruling, Montana voters will decide this November whether to make their state the first in the nation to bar corporations from spending money on ​elections through a ballot initiative. It’s a test case for a novel legal strategy that sidesteps the 2010 ruling rather than challenging it head-on — and taps into growing, bipartisan anger over the pervasiveness of so-called…

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The world economy is becoming wary of the U.S.

The world economy is becoming wary of the U.S.

The New York Times reports: Global investors are balking at U.S. bonds. Talk of the dollar’s dwindling power is getting louder. Foreign governments are hauling their gold out of American vaults. Almost two years into President Trump’s second term, the world economy is increasingly looking for ways to distance itself from America. Concerns about a $40 trillion debt burden, the excessive use of sanctions to solve foreign policy problems and Mr. Trump’s penchant for pushing the limits of the rule…

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Thanks, Trump: Why Canada may become the European Union’s first ever ‘associate member’

Thanks, Trump: Why Canada may become the European Union’s first ever ‘associate member’

By Stewart Prest, University of British Columbia Can a country change continents? Canada seems set to try. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has announced an intention to seek some novel form of associate membership in the European Union. It’s no mere flight of fancy, either, as Ursula von der Leyen, president of the EU Commission, has already endorsed the idea. It’s a proposal that manages to be both absurd and eminently logical, depending on how you frame it. Geographically, Canada…

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