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Category: Politics

Trump’s Iran debacle could be a an unexpected gift for America

Trump’s Iran debacle could be a an unexpected gift for America

Robert Malley and Stephen Wertheim write: With Iran, Donald Trump has done the impossible once more. In attacking that country in February, he went where his predecessors never dared, joining with Israel in a bid to overthrow or incapacitate the regime in Tehran. Having achieved neither, he appears to have accepted worse terms than he could have obtained through diplomacy. His war was a political albatross as well, garnering, at the start, less support from the public than any other…

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Bernie Moreno and Elizabeth Warren: Our plan to save Social Security

Bernie Moreno and Elizabeth Warren: Our plan to save Social Security

Senators Bernie Moreno and Elizabeth Warren write: One of us is a Republican from Ohio who built a business that generated hundreds of jobs. The other is a Democrat from Massachusetts who built a career protecting consumers from financial tricks and traps. We don’t agree on everything, but here’s one thing we do agree on: Congress must act now to save Social Security for generations of Americans to come. Social Security is a core component of our nation’s promise —…

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New DOJ memo, pushed by Stephen Miller, questions decades of protections for people with disabilities

New DOJ memo, pushed by Stephen Miller, questions decades of protections for people with disabilities

  HuffPost reports: White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller was a driving force behind the Justice Department’s recent memo giving states authority to institutionalize people with disabilities rather than fund community-based care, according to an exclusive report from Bloomberg Law. Miller was reportedly instrumental to the DOJ Office of Legal Counsel’s Thursday opinion that said states may disregard decades of Supreme Court precedent that shields people with disabilities from being forcibly institutionalized. Instead, courts had been encouraged to…

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I cold-called President Trump. Here’s what he told me about an oil tycoon and major donor

I cold-called President Trump. Here’s what he told me about an oil tycoon and major donor

By Alex Cuadros This story was originally published by ProPublica My family’s morning routine is usually pretty ordinary. We wake up early, drink some coffee and get our 1-year-old ready for daycare. But one Wednesday morning last month, I found myself uttering to my wife a sentence that sounded frankly surreal to both of us: “Just to let you know, I’m about to call Trump.” Then, hoping to avoid any urgent diaper events, I ducked into the next room and…

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‘Blatantly unlawful’: Federal judge blocks DOJ subpoenas aimed at Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz

‘Blatantly unlawful’: Federal judge blocks DOJ subpoenas aimed at Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz

Politico reports: A federal judge has thrown out Justice Department grand jury subpoenas aimed at Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and his allies, calling them an abusive and retaliatory process to punish Walz based on his refusal to assist President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. In a blistering ruling, U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz said there was “no doubt” that the subpoenas were issued to damage Walz — part of what he said was a pattern of Trump administration efforts to use…

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‘I’m out’: Tucker Carlson says he’s done with the GOP

‘I’m out’: Tucker Carlson says he’s done with the GOP

Axios reports: Conservative pundit Tucker Carlson says he’s “out” of the Republican Party moving forward, arguing the GOP no longer reflects his views. Why it matters: The public split underscores growing fractures inside the broad MAGA coalition President Trump built, as his Iran war and handling of the economy continue to divide Republicans. What they’re saying: “I’m out,” Carlson said on an episode of the “Can’t Be Censored” podcast that aired Thursday but gained traction online Monday. “And if I’m out, then I think a lot of other people are out.” “I…

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Federal judge blocks Trump admin’s database of Americans’ Social Security numbers and citizenship status

Federal judge blocks Trump admin’s database of Americans’ Social Security numbers and citizenship status

Politico reports: A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from creating a database of millions of Americans’ private information — including Social Security numbers and citizenship status — saying the administration has fed knowingly inaccurate data to states that are now “actively” and “haphazardly” purging purported non-citizens from voter rolls. “The federal government has knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote,” U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan wrote…

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‘A huge grab of power’: Trump is defying Congress on foreign aid

‘A huge grab of power’: Trump is defying Congress on foreign aid

By Anna Maria Barry-Jester This story was originally published by ProPublica After the Trump administration upended the world’s largest foreign aid provider last year, terminating thousands of programs and firing nearly all of its staff, its plan for the agency was clear: Eliminate it entirely. But because it is a congressionally created agency, President Donald Trump needed lawmakers’ permission to do so. So this year, Trump officials asked Congress for permission to shutter the U.S. Agency for International Development and…

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Who is Andy Burnham, the ‘man of the people’ likely to be next UK prime minister?

Who is Andy Burnham, the ‘man of the people’ likely to be next UK prime minister?

Daniel Boffey writes: In the story that Andy Burnham tells about himself, “the turning point” in his political life came in 2009 when he was booed at a football ground in the north-west of England. He had been an ideologically reliable middle-ranking minister under Tony Blair, the centrist New Labour prime minister between 1997 and 2007, and had gone on to be appointed as secretary of state for culture, media and sport under Blair’s successor, Gordon Brown. On the 20th…

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Tulsi Gabbard, the Manchurian DNI

Tulsi Gabbard, the Manchurian DNI

Reporting for the Washington Post, Jon Swaine writes: [Rebecca] Saltzburg [former staffer for Tulsi Gabbard and former member of a breakaway Hare Krishna group to which Gabbard also belonged] told me [Chris] Butler [founder of the Science of Identity Foundation (SIF)] did not use a computer. Instead, he delivered his advice for Gabbard verbally, she said, sometimes to her directly over the phone and other times to his secretaries or other followers. The secretaries transcribed his remarks and turned them…

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Trump imagines that if Iran regime can’t be dislodged by force, maybe it can be bribed

Trump imagines that if Iran regime can’t be dislodged by force, maybe it can be bribed

Karim Sadjadpour writes: Donald Trump’s war against Iran began with one gamble and ended with another. Initially, the president bet that he could stop Iran’s nuclear ambitions by bombing Iran’s revolutionary regime out of existence. So he spent tens of billions of dollars, and upended the global economy, only to sign a memorandum of understanding undoubtedly weaker than any deal he could have struck before the war. Embedded in this document is a new gamble: that if Iran’s revolutionaries can’t…

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For cash-strapped farmers, deal that might end Iran war comes too late

For cash-strapped farmers, deal that might end Iran war comes too late

The Washington Post reports: The possible end of the Iran war will not cure the drought that has stunted the wheat crop. It won’t secure soybean export orders caught in the U.S.-China trade war. And it will do nothing to promote competition in agriculture, which would help farmers like Jeff Tyson earn a living. Like other growers, Tyson, 55, has seen costs outrun sales this year as the rain grew scarce and government policies added to his burdens. Now, the…

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Syria rules out intervening in Lebanon after Trump again suggests it fight Hezbollah

Syria rules out intervening in Lebanon after Trump again suggests it fight Hezbollah

The Times of Israel reports: Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Sunday ruled out intervening militarily in the Israel-Hezbollah conflict in Lebanon, after US President Donald Trump again suggested Damascus could get involved and expressed frustration with Israel’s fight against the Iran-backed terror group. Trump’s comments to Fox News on Sunday came as the conflict in Lebanon has threatened to derail US-Iranian negotiations underway in Switzerland. On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu doubled down on the Israeli military’s need to maintain…

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Russian-occupied Crimea completely suspends gas sales to civilians as Ukrainian drone strikes squeeze peninsula

Russian-occupied Crimea completely suspends gas sales to civilians as Ukrainian drone strikes squeeze peninsula

The Kyiv Independent reports: Gas stations in Russian-occupied Crimea have been instructed as of June 21 to completely suspend sales of fuel to civilians, as Ukraine steps up medium-range drone strikes on energy infrastructure across the peninsula. “Fuel will only be dispensed to state services that ensure the vital activities and security of the Republic of Crimea,” Sergey Aksyonov, the Russian-appointed governor of occupied Crimea, said in a video address on the morning of June 21. The ban is effective…

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How a German-U.S. corporate giant became the world’s largest foreign financier of Israel’s wars

How a German-U.S. corporate giant became the world’s largest foreign financier of Israel’s wars

Middle East Eye reports: At the height of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, one company became the single largest foreign financier of the Israeli state – holding more in Israeli government bonds than the US, the UK, France and every other country put together. That company is Allianz, the German insurance and financial services giant, alongside its California-based bond management subsidiary PIMCO, the world’s largest active bond manager. Data shared with Middle East Eye by Profundo, an Amsterdam-based sustainability research…

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Before SpaceX IPO, investors in China secretly acquired stakes

Before SpaceX IPO, investors in China secretly acquired stakes

By Justin Elliott and Joshua Kaplan This story was originally published by ProPublica A businessman with ties to Chinese military contractors was among the overseas investors who acquired stakes in SpaceX while it was still a private company. An entity linked to the Qatari royal family also took a stake. The new details come from a private investor list obtained by ProPublica that sheds light on a particularly delicate issue for Elon Musk’s rocket company: which people in countries like…

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