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Trump lashes out at Spain: ‘Cut off all trade.’ Here’s why that’s unlikely to happen

Trump lashes out at Spain: ‘Cut off all trade.’ Here’s why that’s unlikely to happen

The New York Times reports: President Trump, venting his longstanding animus toward Europe at the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, singled out Spain with particular spleen on Wednesday. “I don’t want anything to do with Spain,” he said of the European Union’s fourth-largest economy. “Cut off all trade with Spain, please, including visits.” “They’re hopeless, bad people,” he added. Whether Mr. Trump has the desire or the power to follow through on his threat to treat a European ally as…

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U.S. strikes Iran and reimposes sanctions in retaliation for tanker attacks

U.S. strikes Iran and reimposes sanctions in retaliation for tanker attacks

The New York Times reports: The United States carried out airstrikes against several targets in Iran on Tuesday, hours after revoking a waiver allowing the sale of Iranian oil around the world, in a dual response to what the Pentagon said were Iranian attacks on three commercial ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz. The military’s Central Command said on social media that U.S. forces “have begun launching a series of powerful strikes against Iran to impose heavy costs for targeting…

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Listen hard to the people telling you what you don’t want to hear

Listen hard to the people telling you what you don’t want to hear

Michelle Goldberg writes: Hopefully, by the time you read this, Graham Platner will have dropped out of the Senate race in Maine. If he hasn’t, he needs to, immediately. His campaign, which started with such excitement and inspired so many people in Maine, has become a shameful catastrophe. What’s left — besides finding a Democrat to run in his place — is figuring out what, if anything, can be learned from this debacle. As you probably know by now, Politico…

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ICE agent fatally shoots motorist in Houston vehicle stop, agency says

ICE agent fatally shoots motorist in Houston vehicle stop, agency says

Reuters reports: A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot a motorist in Houston on Tuesday while officers were trying to stop the ‌man’s vehicle, the agency said in a statement, in the midst of an escalating federal crackdown on migrants. The man shot to death was identified as Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, described by ICE as a Mexican national and “illegal alien” who attempted to evade arrest during a “targeted enforcement operation” by federal immigration officers. Ronaldo Salgado, who…

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Ken Paxton vowed to crack down on ‘illegal voting.’ He may have violated Texas election law

Ken Paxton vowed to crack down on ‘illegal voting.’ He may have violated Texas election law

Zach Despart This story was originally published by ProPublica Two weeks before this year’s primary elections, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced the creation of a tip line for the public to report people or groups suspected of voter fraud. “Free and fair elections are a cornerstone of a thriving republic, and with the authority granted to my office by the Legislature, we will stop at nothing to uncover and stop any illegal voting activity,” Paxton said in a February…

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Judge rejects Justice Department attempt to get names of 2020 election workers in Fulton County

Judge rejects Justice Department attempt to get names of 2020 election workers in Fulton County

The Associated Press reports: The U.S. Department of Justice cannot have the names and personal contact information for every person who worked during the 2020 election in Georgia’s Fulton County, a federal judge ruled Tuesday. The Justice Department in April served a grand jury subpoena seeking the names and personal contact information of county employees and volunteer poll workers. President Donald Trump has long claimed without evidence that widespread voter fraud in Georgia’s most populous county, a Democratic stronghold, cost…

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DOJ crackdown on a problem that doesn’t exist: widespread noncitizen voting

DOJ crackdown on a problem that doesn’t exist: widespread noncitizen voting

The New York Times reports: The Justice Department sent letters to all 50 states and the District of Columbia on Tuesday threatening criminal prosecution of top election officials if ballots cast by noncitizens were counted in upcoming elections. The letters arrived in the midst of an ongoing campaign by President Trump and his allies to tighten election rules to prevent a problem that doesn’t exist: widespread noncitizen voting in American elections. The effort has, however, continued to sow doubt and…

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Rahm Emanuel goes to Israel, now a ‘pariah,’ to say that the era of unconditional U.S. support is over

Rahm Emanuel goes to Israel, now a ‘pariah,’ to say that the era of unconditional U.S. support is over

John Harris writes: Rahm Emanuel is in Israel this week to deliver a speech designed to be a thunderclap. The combination of message and messenger should produce a loud echo. The message is that the war in Gaza and shifts in American and world opinion have converged with seismic consequences. Decades in which U.S. policymakers would often fret about Israeli choices and behavior but regard support for its government as absolute and unshakable are at an end. Going forward, Emanuel…

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The divestment drive that could shake Israel’s economic foundations

The divestment drive that could shake Israel’s economic foundations

Aharon Porath writes: In late May, the European Union announced a slew of new sanctions on Israeli settler organizations as well as individuals known for violently attacking Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. This was swiftly followed by six European governments, including Britain and France, imposing additional sanctions targeting “networks of financing and support for settler attacks.” France further announced that it was banning Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich from entering its borders due to his promotion of settlements and…

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The case for impeaching four Supreme Court justices over birthright citizenship

The case for impeaching four Supreme Court justices over birthright citizenship

Larry Woods writes: For 40 years in the constitutional law classes I teach at Tennessee State University, I have asked all my students to raise their hand if they are a citizen of the United States. Usually, after some hesitation, everyone or almost everyone raises their hand and I promptly challenge them,”prove it to me”. Since we do not have membership cards for U.S. citizenship, after thought and discussion, students usually say “I have a birth certificate.” Of course they…

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If Trump is actually trying to cut off the drug supply, how come the flow has increased?

If Trump is actually trying to cut off the drug supply, how come the flow has increased?

Marie-Rose Sheinerman writes: The official line remains the same: The 10-month campaign of strikes on small boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific has nearly stopped the flow of drugs by sea into the United States. In December, President Trump boasted about a 92 percent drop in seaborne shipments. Last month, in an apparent sign of further progress, he said the decline was up to 97.2 percent. But government officials and agencies closest to the action, at sea and on…

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‘There is no going back’: The inside story of Europe’s rupture with America

‘There is no going back’: The inside story of Europe’s rupture with America

The Wall Street Journal reports: It was almost midnight in Brussels and the leaders of Europe were locked in their fifth hour of an emergency meeting with a single theme for discussion: how to manage a breakup with America. The new year was only three weeks old and President Trump, after removing Venezuela’s autocratic strongman, had briefly threatened to seize Greenland from Denmark. Around a circular table in the European Council headquarters known as “The Space Egg,” heads of government…

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The death of Renee Good has yet to be properly investigated

The death of Renee Good has yet to be properly investigated

Quinta Jurecic writes: Nearly six months have passed since federal officers shot and killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti on the streets of Minneapolis. No one has been arrested, the Trump administration has provided no reason to believe that any serious investigation is taking place, and federal officials continue to stonewall state and local investigators in Minnesota. This inaction was predictable. The day after Good’s death, Vice President Vance insisted at a press conference that the agent who shot her…

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ICE’s internal watchdog is now investigating online critics

ICE’s internal watchdog is now investigating online critics

Wired reports: Voting was already underway when the ICE agents arrived at a polling site in Syracuse, New York, during the state’s primaries in June. The agents were there to see Paigelynne Gonyea, a poll worker who says they were concerned about an Instagram post she had supposedly made in January “doxing” an ICE agent. The only post she could find was one she had made crediting the Minnesota Star Tribune for identifying Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who shot…

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America has lost its values. It’s time to go back to the founding text

America has lost its values. It’s time to go back to the founding text

Ted Widmer writes: In 1776, while the ink [on the Declaration of Independence] was still fresh, a young mixed-race veteran named Lemuel Haynes wrote an essay about what the declaration meant to him (it was not discovered until 1983). Another African American, James Forten, was nine years old when he heard the first public reading of the declaration in Philadelphia in 1776, and went on to a long career as an abolitionist. (The constitution inspired far less reverence from Black…

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Five words that changed America

Five words that changed America

Jamelle Bouie writes: There is a moment for every American when she first encounters the Declaration of Independence. For most, it comes to her as scripture — the highest and most sacred text in the nation’s civic religion, encapsulated by its moving assertion of human equality: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of…

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