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Category: Politics

Former Trump campaign chief funneled millions of Israeli govt money to longtime allies’ companies

Former Trump campaign chief funneled millions of Israeli govt money to longtime allies’ companies

The Intercept reports: A company run by former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale, hired by the Israeli government to push pro-Israel views on a major conservative media network, has directed $13 million from Israel to several Republican digital strategy firms and allies, according to a previously unreported document filed under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Parscale was hired in part to influence major right-wing Christian media company Salem Media Group, where he is also an executive. His firm spent hundreds…

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Israeli minister confirms goal of large-scale expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza

Israeli minister confirms goal of large-scale expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza

The Guardian reports: Israel’s defence minister has said he is committed to the ethnic cleansing of Gaza through large-scale migration of Palestinians as part of Israel’s long-term plans for the territory. Israel Katz said the government would implement a plan for large numbers of Palestinians to leave Gaza “at the right time and in the right manner”, in a statement on Wednesday marking the targeted killing of Mohammed Odeh, Hamas’s most recent military commander. Pushing for mass departures violates Donald…

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Rats, raw sewage, skin diseases: Israel’s siege is ravaging Gaza’s displaced

Rats, raw sewage, skin diseases: Israel’s siege is ravaging Gaza’s displaced

+972 reports: Eman Abu Jame had counted her family among the lucky ones. Israel bombed their home in the southern Gaza Strip at the beginning of the war, forcing them to move from one shelter to another. But throughout the first two years of the genocide, neither she, her husband, nor her children suffered any serious health problems. That all changed in October 2025, when they took refuge in a crowded tent camp in Khan Younis. By the time they…

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Judge will investigate whether ‘the court was the victim of a fraud’ by Trump and the DOJ

Judge will investigate whether ‘the court was the victim of a fraud’ by Trump and the DOJ

The New York Times reports: A federal judge in Miami reopened President Trump’s $10 billion case against the I.R.S. in a striking turnabout, saying that she wanted to investigate “grievous allegations” that the hasty deal to resolve it was “premised on deception.” The ruling by the judge, Kathleen M. Williams, on Friday to revive the case shortly after closing it was a significant blow both to Mr. Trump, who had voluntarily dismissed the suit last week, and to the Justice…

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Trump’s $1.8 billion settlement fund sparks alarm inside White House

Trump’s $1.8 billion settlement fund sparks alarm inside White House

The Wall Street Journal reports: President Trump’s top aides have discussed whether he should kill the administration’s nearly $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund in exchange for getting immigration enforcement funding passed next month, according to people familiar with the matter. More than a dozen Republican senators have privately urged top Trump aides to drop the fund since its creation last week, said people familiar with the outreach, including Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who is usually supportive of the president’s…

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Could Anti-Weaponization Fund payments be False Claims Act violations with treble damages?

Could Anti-Weaponization Fund payments be False Claims Act violations with treble damages?

The Associated Press reports: David Johnston was a licensed attorney when he illegally entered the Capitol with a mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters on Jan. 6, 2021. More than five years later, the South Carolina man is offering to help fellow “J6ers” apply for payouts from the Trump administration’s nearly $1.8 billion new fund for people claiming to be victims of a weaponized government. He’ll do it for a 10% cut of any award, capped at $5,000 apiece. “I…

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ICE may use massive troves of data collected by advertisers for surveilling everyone in America

ICE may use massive troves of data collected by advertisers for surveilling everyone in America

Politico reports: The trillion-dollar industry that amasses and shares troves of Americans’ information is confronting a new ethical quandary — the Trump administration’s interest in wielding this data to potentially further its sweeping immigration agenda. Immigration and Customs Enforcement published a request for information in January seeking input on how “commercial Big Data and Ad Tech providers can directly support investigations,” a request that came as the administration was pursuing efforts to expand the United States’ immigration enforcement capabilities. It…

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Why $1bn in Balkans energy contracts are going to an obscure company connected to Donald Trump

Why $1bn in Balkans energy contracts are going to an obscure company connected to Donald Trump

The Guardian reports: On a graffitied Sarajevo backstreet, a path leads past an overgrown patch of garden to a white door. Beyond is the registered office of a company that is on the brink of winning contracts worth more than $1bn. AAFS Infrastructure and Energy is close to securing a concession to build and operate a pipeline across the Balkans to allow fossil gas shipped from the US to replace supplies that come from Russia. “This could be the most…

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Rock-bottom immigration rates may cause longterm harm to the U.S. economy

Rock-bottom immigration rates may cause longterm harm to the U.S. economy

Axios reports: President Trump’s immigration crackdown is causing one of the sharpest slowdowns in U.S. population growth in decades. Economists are beginning to tally the effects, with some warning that the damage will stick around. Why it matters: The policy-driven immigration reversal underway has few modern parallels. The immediate result is evident in monthly employment figures, with the economy cranking out fewer jobs. But over time, fewer immigrants could be a productivity drag lasting well into the second half of this…

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Senator Sheldon Whitehouse is pushing back against ‘climate hushing’

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse is pushing back against ‘climate hushing’

Elizabeth Kolbert interviews Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse: For the last 15 years, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, has been Congress’s most outspoken member on climate change. In 2012, he had a sign made up that showed the Earth as seen from space. “Time to Wake Up,” it said. The sign became a prop for a series of speeches the senator delivered on the urgency of the climate crisis. Not long ago, Whitehouse gave his 307th “Time to Wake Up”…

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It’s not just high gas prices – inflation is now spreading through the economy

It’s not just high gas prices – inflation is now spreading through the economy

As the cost of gas stays high due to Middle East tensions, it’s spilling over into U.S. consumer spending more broadly and creating a conundrum for the Federal Reserve. AP Photo/David Zalubowski By D. Brian Blank, Mississippi State University and Brandy Hadley, Appalachian State University Americans don’t need a press release to know that inflation is rising. Gasoline is above $4 per gallon amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East and closure of the Strait of Hormuz, and the…

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Trump clears way for companies to dodge taxes in havens like Malta, Bermuda, and Cyprus

Trump clears way for companies to dodge taxes in havens like Malta, Bermuda, and Cyprus

The New York Times reports: A year ago, the Trump administration withdrew from a global effort to curb offshore tax-dodging by multinational companies. That decision has been a huge gift to corporate America, enabling companies to avoid at least $40 billion in income taxes since the beginning of 2025. A New York Times review of securities filings from nearly 500 companies showed that they avoided taxes by attributing hundreds of billions of dollars in earnings to low- or no-tax foreign…

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The UAE’s secret role in the war involved dozens of strikes on Iran

The UAE’s secret role in the war involved dozens of strikes on Iran

The Wall Street Journal reports: The United Arab Emirates carried out dozens of airstrikes against Iran beginning in the early days of the war and continuing through the day after the April cease-fire was announced, people familiar with the matter said, a deeper involvement than was previously known in the air campaign led by the U.S. and Israel. The extent of the strikes is further evidence of the country’s growing willingness to protect what it sees as its strategic interests,…

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Sen. Andy Kim: Nothing’s improved since Minnesota — except private prison profits

Sen. Andy Kim: Nothing’s improved since Minnesota — except private prison profits

Mother Jones reports: “I certainly didn’t see anything at Delaney Hall that gives me a sense that things have changed since Minnesota,” Andy Kim told me. The New Jersey senator, a first-term Democrat, drew headlines Monday after he and other protesters were pepper-sprayed by ICE agents during a rally outside Delaney Hall, a private prison in Newark, New Jersey that ICE has repurposed to detain immigrants—nearly 900 as of early April, according to agency data reviewed by NBC News. Kim…

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‘It’s over’: Staffers reveal how Bari Weiss is gutting 60 Minutes

‘It’s over’: Staffers reveal how Bari Weiss is gutting 60 Minutes

The New Republic reports: CBS News chief Bari Weiss has hacked up 60 Minutes to the point that even show staffers have lost faith in the famed magazine show. Weiss’s recent shakeup at 60 Minutes has involved the exit of several of the show’s major personalities, including correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi (who criticized Weiss’s decision to delay her report on a notoriously brutal CECOT mega-prison in El Salvador), correspondent Cecilia Vega, executive producer Tanya Simon, and executive editor Draggan Mihailovich. Correspondent…

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Judge orders removal of Trump graffiti from Kennedy Center

Judge orders removal of Trump graffiti from Kennedy Center

Reuters reports: A judge on Friday ordered the removal of President ​Donald Trump’s name from the Kennedy Center for the Performing ‌Arts, ruling that the iconic Washington venue cannot be renamed without an act of Congress. U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper in Washington directed the Trump administration ​to take down all physical signage bearing Trump’s name and ​to eliminate any references to a “Trump Kennedy Center” from official ⁠materials within 14 days. “The Kennedy Center’s organic statute makes crystal clear…

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