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Category: Politics

Trump admin forces Asheville to remove ‘DEI’ language to access hurricane relief aid

Trump admin forces Asheville to remove ‘DEI’ language to access hurricane relief aid

Ja’han Jones writes: The Trump administration recently denied a funding request from the city of Asheville, North Carolina, to help its recovery from Hurricane Helene, telling the city it must cut a program meant to aid female and minority contractors. The mayor said the city has cut the reference to the program and now expects the plan to win approval. During the presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly used the devastation Helene wrought on North Carolina to spread lies and conspiracy theories…

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Outside America, Musk’s X is a foreign influence threat

Outside America, Musk’s X is a foreign influence threat

Tom Uren writes: We have consistently argued for TikTok to be banned in the U.S. as it could be a powerful tool for the Chinese government to interfere with American political discourse. For U.S. allies, a similar argument now applies to X. Commentators in Canada and the United Kingdom have already floated the idea of banning X. Meanwhile, in France, prosecutors have announced they’ve opened an investigation into X over alleged algorithmic bias. The investigation was launched after the prosecutor’s office received complaints about X’s interference in French democratic debate….

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At DOJ, Trump anoints himself as the ‘chief law enforcement officer in our country’

At DOJ, Trump anoints himself as the ‘chief law enforcement officer in our country’

Politico reports: President Donald Trump on Friday walked into the Department of Justice and labeled his courtroom opponents “scum,” judges “corrupt” and the prosecutors who investigated him “deranged.” With the DOJ logo directly behind him, Trump called for his legal tormentors to be sent to prison. “These are people that are bad people, really bad people,” the president said in a rambling speech that lasted more than an hour. “The people who did this to us should go to jail.”…

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Trump tries to dictate what Columbia can teach and who it can admit — ‘a hallmark of autocracy’

Trump tries to dictate what Columbia can teach and who it can admit — ‘a hallmark of autocracy’

The New York Times reports: The Trump administration on Thursday demanded that Columbia University make dramatic changes in student discipline and admissions before it would discuss lifting the cancellation of $400 million in government grants and contracts. It said the ultimatum was necessary because of what it described as Columbia’s failure to protect Jewish students from harassment. The government called for the university to formalize its definition of antisemitism, to ban the wearing of masks “intended to conceal identity or…

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White House oversaw arrest of Mahmoud Khalil. Now another Palestinian has been arrested

White House oversaw arrest of Mahmoud Khalil. Now another Palestinian has been arrested

The Associated Press reports: On Thursday, Khalil’s lawyers filed new court documents describing how he was rushed from New York to Louisiana last weekend in a manner that left the outspoken Columbia University graduate student feeling like he was being kidnapped. The experience reminded Khalil of when he left Syria shortly after the forced disappearance of his friends there during a period of arbitrary detention in 2013, the lawyers wrote. According to the lawsuit, Khalil repeatedly asked to speak to…

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DOGE operatives inside the Social Security Administration have access to ‘everything, including source code’

DOGE operatives inside the Social Security Administration have access to ‘everything, including source code’

Wired reports: Experts with decades of experience at the agency are now worried that DOGE operatives working across multiple agencies increases the risk of SSA data being shared outside of the agency, or that their inexperience will lead to them breaking systems entirely. In the SSA filing [in federal court in Maryland opposing a motion for a temporary restraining order filed by unions that would prevent DOGE from accessing SSA records], lawyers for the agency claim that the DOGE operatives…

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The beginning of the end of the trading system that built the modern world

The beginning of the end of the trading system that built the modern world

Phil Gramm and Donald J. Boudreaux writes: Equities markets roared in anticipation of the deregulation, tax cuts and fiscal restraint the second Trump administration promised. But the tariff war with Mexico and Canada has destroyed that optimism and wiped out the increase in the value of American equities that had accrued since November. On April 2, President Trump plans to take his protectionist policies global. If he does, it will be the beginning of the end of the trading system…

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Mark Zuckerberg wants ‘all the good, bad and ugly’ on display except when it’s about him

Mark Zuckerberg wants ‘all the good, bad and ugly’ on display except when it’s about him

Meta’s Joel Kaplan announced in January, “Meta’s platforms are built to be places where people can express themselves freely. That can be messy. On platforms where billions of people can have a voice, all the good, bad and ugly is on display. But that’s free expression.” Steven Levy writes: It was Meta itself that first told me about the new book attacking Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg, and the allegedly bankrupt morals of their company. On March 7, a Meta PR…

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U.S. buys 4 million barrels of oil a day from Canada but Trump says, ‘We don’t need anything they have’

U.S. buys 4 million barrels of oil a day from Canada but Trump says, ‘We don’t need anything they have’

CNBC reports: President Donald Trump on Thursday doubled down on his escalating tariff plans, even as his economic agenda continued to rattle investors and contribute to a weekslong stock market sell-off. “I’m not going to bend at all,” Trump said when asked about his tariff plans during an Oval Office meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. “We’ve been ripped off for years, and we’re not going to be ripped off anymore,” he said. Trump specifically said he would not…

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Heritage Foundation draft report calls for ending U.S. aid to Israel

Heritage Foundation draft report calls for ending U.S. aid to Israel

Jewish Insider reports: The Heritage Foundation has composed a new proposal calling for the U.S. to cut off aid to Israel by 2047 and require the Jewish state to increase its purchasing of U.S. defense materials, Jewish Insider has learned. It was set to announce the report at an event on Wednesday, which has since been canceled, a source familiar with the situation said, after at least one of the headline speakers withdrew from participating. A draft of the report…

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Most Americans believe that Musk’s DOGE cuts are harming the country, poll finds

Most Americans believe that Musk’s DOGE cuts are harming the country, poll finds

Politico reports: Over half of voters believe Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency are hurting the country, a new Quinnipiac University poll finds. Fifty-four percent of voters believe DOGE, which the Trump administration has charged with slashing government spending, is harming the country. In comparison, 40 percent say Musk’s office is helping, according to the Quinnipiac poll. And 60 percent of voters disapprove of how Musk and DOGE deal with the federal workforce, while 36 percent approve. The…

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Judge orders reinstatement for most fired probationary federal workers; the firings were ‘based on a lie’

Judge orders reinstatement for most fired probationary federal workers; the firings were ‘based on a lie’

Government Executive reports: The Trump administration must reinstate to their jobs federal employees it has fired in the last month at six large departments after a judge on Thursday called the terminations unlawful. The reinstatements are to take immediate effect, Judge William Alsup of the U.S. District Court for Northern California said when issuing his preliminary injunction from the bench, and agencies were directed not to make any excuse for delaying the rehirings. Roughly 24,000 federal employees in their probationary…

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Inside Musk’s ‘digital coup’

Inside Musk’s ‘digital coup’

Wired reports: As America’s most decorated civil servants sipped cocktails in the presidential ballroom of the Capital Hilton, worrying about their table assignments and wondering where they fell in the pecking order between US senator and UAE ambassador, Elon Musk sat staring at his phone, laughing. Few of the guests at the Alfalfa Club banquet in Washington, DC, on January 25 knew what he knew: that a crew of senior executives and young Musk loyalists was preparing to occupy the…

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Republican lawmakers ‘just call Elon’ to avoid DOGE cuts

Republican lawmakers ‘just call Elon’ to avoid DOGE cuts

The Boston Globe reports: At Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, there is no official help line for members of Congress to call with questions about how the billionaire’s far-reaching effort to slash federal spending might affect their constituents. But many Republicans have something better: Musk’s personal cell phone number, or failing that, the numbers of some of his top aides. “I just call Elon,” said Senator Rick Scott, a Florida Republican, when asked how he tracks down answers to…

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From Canada to Europe, a movement to boycott American goods is spreading

From Canada to Europe, a movement to boycott American goods is spreading

Peter Beaumont writes: The renowned German classical violinist Christian Tetzlaff was blunt in explaining why he and his quartet have cancelled a summer tour of the US. “There seems to be a quietness or denial about what’s going on,” Tetzlaff said, describing his horror at the authoritarian polices of Donald Trump and the response of US elites to the country’s growing democratic crisis. “I feel utter anger. I cannot go on with this feeling inside. I cannot just go and…

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WSJ editorial board says they were being ‘kind’ calling Trump’s trade war ‘the dumbest in history’

WSJ editorial board says they were being ‘kind’ calling Trump’s trade war ‘the dumbest in history’

The Wall Street Journal editorial board says: President Trump wanted a trade war with the world, and Americans are getting it, good and hard. Stock prices continued to decline on Tuesday amid the latest Canada-U.S. tariff tit-for-tat. By the end of the day the two sides were talking about a temporary truce, but who knows which side of the tariff bed Mr. Trump will wake up on Wednesday? North Americans awakened Monday to the news that Ontario premier Doug Ford…

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