Calder McHugh writes: They said last year they were done with Donald Trump. They didn’t know what more they could say about him. But in the return to the airwaves of Comedy Central stalwart South Park — the first episode since March 2023 — the creators of the irreverent, long-running cartoon series just couldn’t resist. Trump is skewered for his connections to Jeffrey Epstein, and he is depicted as a man who has lined the walls of the White…
The New York Times reports: Amid rising starvation in the Gaza Strip, an Israeli government minister said on Thursday that Israel had no duty to alleviate hunger in the territory and was seeking to expel its population. Amichay Eliyahu, a far-right lawmaker who leads Israel’s Heritage Ministry, said in a radio interview that “there is no nation that feeds its enemies,” adding that “the British didn’t feed the Nazis, nor did the Americans feed the Japanese, nor do the Russians…
Shane Burley writes: Joshua Shanes, the director of the Center for Israel Studies at the College of Charleston in South Carolina, says that while the rightward shift among American Jews (Orthodox Jews in particular) began in the 1980s, it has been supercharged under Trump. Yet he notes that there is a voluntary blindness within the community to the obvious antisemitism of the conspiratorial right. “American Jews don’t understand what actually threatens their lives,” Shanes told New Lines, adding that many…
David Pozen writes: Earlier this evening, Columbia University announced an agreement with the Trump administration in which Columbia makes a host of concessions in order to restore its eligibility for federal funding. The agreement is already being described as “unprecedented,” “the first of its kind.” These descriptions are true but ambiguous, because the agreement breaks new ground on any number of levels. For instance, the agreement marks the first time that antisemitism and DEI have been invoked as the basis…
Mark Joseph Stern writes: The Supreme Court expanded Donald Trump’s power yet again on Wednesday, granting him the authority to fire Democratic members of the Consumer Product Safety Commission in direct violation of federal law. Over the liberal justices’ dissent, the conservative supermajority greenlit the first step of Trump’s systematic destruction of the agency—a plan that collides with many other federal statutes. The court’s action imperils the CPSC’s ability to ban products that may maim or kill consumers, including children,…
The Washington Post reports: Silicon Valley’s risky bet on President Donald Trump is starting to pay dividends. Trump on Wednesday revealed the White House’s plan to help the United States lead a global race to develop artificial intelligence. He also signed three executive orders that will facilitate exports of U.S. technologies and boost the build-out of data centers — advancing the agenda of executives and investors seeking to cash in on an AI gold rush. Trump delivered the plan at…
The New York Times reports: The Trump administration has drafted a plan to repeal a fundamental scientific finding that gives the United States government its authority to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions and fight climate change, according to two people familiar with the plan. The proposed Environmental Protection Agency rule rescinds a 2009 declaration known as the “endangerment finding,” which scientifically established that greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane endanger human lives. That finding is the foundation of the federal government’s…
Inside Climate News reports: Tuesday’s landmark advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice on climate change came as residents of some island nations are already “scraping barnacles off our grandfathers’ graves” as sea-level rise accelerates, said Julian Aguon, an Indigenous human rights lawyer and writer from Guam, in a poem he recited outside the Peace Palace as the judges started their two-hour presentation. That sense of urgency for action also came through in the 15-judge panel’s unanimous opinion. The…
The Guardian reports: Mohammed’s skeletal arms stick out of a romper with a grinning emoji-face and the slogan “smiley boy”, which in a Gaza hospital reads as a cruel joke. He spends much of the day crying from hunger, or gnawing at his own emaciated fingers. At seven months old, he weighs barely 4kg (9lbs) and this is the second time he has been admitted for treatment. His face is gaunt, his limbs little more than bones covered in baggy…
City Desk ABQ reports: Mayor Tim Keller signed an executive order July 21 reaffirming Albuquerque as a city of refuge, directing police to help residents identify immigration agents and limiting city cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. Unveiled at City Hall with immigrant advocates, city councilors and state leaders, the order puts new limits on how the city works with federal immigration enforcement. It tells police to clarify when immigration agents are in the area and bars city departments from helping…
The Wall Street Journal reports: When Justice Department officials reviewed what Attorney General Pam Bondi called a “truckload” of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein earlier this year, they discovered that Donald Trump’s name appeared multiple times, according to senior administration officials. In May, Bondi and her deputy informed the president at a meeting in the White House that his name was in the Epstein files, the officials said. Many other high-profile figures were also named, Trump was told. Being mentioned…
NBC News reports: Once fighting a lonely battle against President Donald Trump, GOP Rep. Thomas Massie has found an issue that is winning him more Republican friends and political allies than he has had all year: his push to release the Jeffrey Epstein files. Many of Trump’s MAGA allies on and off Capitol Hill are frustrated with Trump and top officials in his administration for dragging their feet in releasing the government’s remaining documents and records related to Epstein, the…
The New York Times reports: The Trump administration’s recent decision to backtrack on releasing new details about the investigation into the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has prompted something exceedingly rare: Republican voters have begun to break with the president. Mr. Trump has long engendered unwavering loyalty from his followers, who tend to shrug off even his most extreme controversies. But recent public polling suggests even such fervent support may have a limit. While 40 percent of Republicans approve of…
David Pressman writes: As the most recent U.S. ambassador to Viktor Orban’s Hungary, I’m often asked if the Trump administration’s tactics and policies feel familiar. The short answer is yes. But the more important — and unsettling — question is this: Does the way Americans are responding feel familiar, too? After years watching Hungary suffocate under the weight of its democratic collapse, I came to understand that the real danger of a strongman isn’t his tactics; it’s how others, especially…
The American Prospect reports: The federal agents stationed outside immigration courtrooms at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan wore face coverings, either medical masks or neck gaiters pulled up over their noses. Some obscured their identity further with sunglasses and baseball hats. None displayed their names or badge numbers, though one wore a T-shirt with a picture of a skull and the words “we the people defend liberty.” Assembled in three separate groups, they lingered casually as they waited for their…
Carroll Doherty writes: Throughout Donald Trump’s decade in politics, his critics have reacted predictably, almost reflexively, to his string of seeming career-ending statements, precedent-shattering policies and perceived missteps. This is it. This time, Trump has finally done something so outrageous, so over the line, that his popularity will plunge and never recover. But it’s never really happened. Compared with past presidents, Trump’s job approval ratings have, for the most part, moved within a narrow range. The reason is simple: He…