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‘I don’t care about the midterms,’ Trump claims as Iran deal remains elusive and he threatens Oman

‘I don’t care about the midterms,’ Trump claims as Iran deal remains elusive and he threatens Oman

Jonathan Lemire and Nancy A. Youssef write: In 2015, then–Secretary of State John Kerry testified before a Senate committee about a new deal to restrict Iran’s nuclear development. After more than a year of talks, with Iran on one side and several nations—including the U.S., China, and Russia—on the other, an agreement was on the table, full of hyper-technical details about what Tehran could and couldn’t do for the next two-plus decades. The U.S. had plenty of other complaints about…

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‘It’s the West Bank’: Lebanese villagers on life inside Israel’s ‘yellow line’

‘It’s the West Bank’: Lebanese villagers on life inside Israel’s ‘yellow line’

The Guardian reports: For hours, Hussein Abdel al-El and his wife, Um Alaa, did not move. They sat in the bathroom in the dark, not daring to touch their phones; the faint glow of the screen might give them away to the Israeli soldiers outside. It was 1am, the Israelis were raiding their neighbours’ house, and the septuagenarian couple did not want their door knocked on next. In the next house over, Israeli soldiers had forced residents against the wall…

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The State Department’s ‘Office of Remigration’ is a shady operation, lacking oversight or accountability

The State Department’s ‘Office of Remigration’ is a shady operation, lacking oversight or accountability

Wired reports: The State Department doesn’t seem to want anyone to know that it has an Office of Remigration. There’s no mention on the department’s social media feeds or even on the official website. There aren’t many details about when it was established, who is running the office, or what work it is carrying out. When WIRED reached out to ask if the office exists, the State Department wouldn’t share specific details about the office and its work. But the…

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Former judges urge inquiry into slush fund deal Trump struck with IRS

Former judges urge inquiry into slush fund deal Trump struck with IRS

The New York Times reports: A bipartisan group of 35 former federal judges on Wednesday asked the judge who oversaw President Trump’s remarkable lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service to reopen the case and conduct an inquiry into whether the hasty deal to resolve it could be challenged as an act of fraud. The move by the former judges was one of an increasing number of legal efforts to attack the validity of the two extraordinary benefits that emerged from…

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Trump wants all federal employees to sign NDAs

Trump wants all federal employees to sign NDAs

Don Moynihan writes: Scott Kupor, the Director of the Office of Personnel Management, explained why nearly every federal employee should sign a Non Disclosure Agreement In much of the private sector, employees handling sensitive business or customer information are routinely required to sign confidentiality agreements, and the federal government should not be held to a lower standard. Set aside the small problem that Kupor — previously a longtime executive at Andreessen Horowitz — does not work in the private sector…

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The Democratic Party cannot continue giving unconditional support to Israel

The Democratic Party cannot continue giving unconditional support to Israel

Sen. Chris Van Hollen writes: Democrats need to face a hard truth. While Republicans’ approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has failed, so has ours. The Democratic Party has provided reflexive and unconditional support to Israeli governments, even as their actions have increasingly undermined American interests and values. For decades, we have called for a two-state solution, but we’ve failed to use our leverage to make it real. It’s past time that we use that leverage to end the occupation and…

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Israel escalates Lebanon offensive as U.S. pushes for Iran peace deal

Israel escalates Lebanon offensive as U.S. pushes for Iran peace deal

The New York Times reports: Israel intensified its military campaign against Hezbollah on Tuesday, striking targets across Lebanon and advancing deeper into Lebanese territory after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered the military to “increase the blows” against the Iran-backed group. The Israeli military said it had struck more than 100 Hezbollah sites overnight in southern and eastern Lebanon, including weapons storage facilities and command centers. It also issued an evacuation warning on Tuesday for the entire city…

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Iran threatens to renew strikes against U.S. amid ongoing push for diplomatic deal

Iran threatens to renew strikes against U.S. amid ongoing push for diplomatic deal

The New York Times reports: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said on Tuesday that it would launch a “decisive reciprocal response” to any attack that violated the cease-fire, injecting more uncertainty into fragile diplomatic efforts a day after the U.S. military struck targets in southern Iran. Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, also suggested that the country could renew strikes on U.S. military installations in the Persian Gulf, which Tehran had repeatedly targeted after the United States and Israel started bombing…

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Southern Poverty Law Center seeks dismissal of ‘vindictive’ Justice Department indictment

Southern Poverty Law Center seeks dismissal of ‘vindictive’ Justice Department indictment

The Independent reports: A Justice Department indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center is part of a “top-down” campaign of retribution against President Donald Trump’s perceived political enemies and constitutes a vindictive prosecution that must be dismissed, lawyers for the nonprofit argued Tuesday in urging a judge to toss the case out. The Alabama-based nonprofit was indicted in April on fraud and money laundering charges that accuse it of misleading donors by paying informants inside white supremacist and other extremist…

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As Trump politicizes the DOJ, prosecutors struggle with grand juries

As Trump politicizes the DOJ, prosecutors struggle with grand juries

The New York Times reports: Grand juries are the heart of the criminal justice system, the inner sanctum where prosecutors, working unchecked and in secret, have enormous power to indict their fellow citizens. But under President Trump, the Justice Department has had serious difficulties presenting cases to grand juries, running into problems that would have seemed unthinkable a year ago. In the past several months, prosecutors have repeatedly failed to persuade grand juries that the cases they have brought warrant…

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Pope Leo just schooled the tech bros on Tolkien

Pope Leo just schooled the tech bros on Tolkien

Miles Klee writes: Nobody was surprised that Pope Leo XIV cited well-known saints and previous pontiffs in his first encyclical, or papal letter of spiritual guidance, “Magnifica humanitas,” released Monday. But the name that immediately jumped out to many readers is one synonymous with high fantasy literature: J.R.R. Tolkien, the Catholic author of The Lord of the Rings. Leo’s letter is concerned with “safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial intelligence,” a major theme of his first year…

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Pope Leo denounces ‘culture of power’ and new forms of ‘colonialism’ driving rise of AI

Pope Leo denounces ‘culture of power’ and new forms of ‘colonialism’ driving rise of AI

Pope Leo writes: Even today, colonialism assumes new forms. It no longer dominates only bodies, but appropriates data, transforming personal lives into exploitable information. Entire regions, especially those marked by structural fragility and limited geopolitical relevance, are currently subjected to a new mindset of extraction: that of health data, epidemiological profiles, genetic maps and demographic information. These have become the new “rare earths” of power: vital data which, once aggregated and analyzed, can be used to train predictive models, guide…

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‘If Iran gets a bomb it will be Bibi’s’: Trump’s deal outline sparks alarm in Israel

‘If Iran gets a bomb it will be Bibi’s’: Trump’s deal outline sparks alarm in Israel

The Guardian reports: When Donald Trump launched a pre-emptive war on Iran with Israel in February, many in the country hailed the campaign as the crowning triumph of Benjamin Netanyahu’s political and diplomatic career. Three months on the regime is still in power in Tehran, Trump is chasing a deal that will reopen the strait of Hormuz to oil tankers, and the reported terms have provoked alarm, dismay and anger in Israel. “Israel is completely beholden to the decisions of…

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Trump’s pressure campaign had little effect on Iran’s terms for a peace deal

Trump’s pressure campaign had little effect on Iran’s terms for a peace deal

The New York Times reports: Since President Trump announced a cease-fire with Iran in April, he has sought to force Tehran to accept his terms for a peace deal with a mixture of threats and limited military operations. But more than a month later, the contours of a deal emerging this week to end the war reflected how Mr. Trump’s pressure campaign does not appear to have decisively shifted Iran’s stance on its nuclear program. The impending deal could reopen…

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The world is heading toward a financial crisis. ‘The political fundamentals are really bad’

The world is heading toward a financial crisis. ‘The political fundamentals are really bad’

Eduardo Porter writes: A bona fide financial crisis has not broken out since the US housing meltdown of 2007. Even the Covid pandemic and subsequent upsurge in inflation didn’t lead to financial upheaval. The jitters produced by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in 2023 were soon forgotten. Given this stability, it might take some effort to convince financial markets that another big one is around the corner. But it is. Financial markets and their regulating governments may believe they…

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Lawyers, policy experts, and business leaders react to Trump’ green card crackdown

Lawyers, policy experts, and business leaders react to Trump’ green card crackdown

Business Insider reports: President Donald Trump’s latest immigration crackdown is triggering alarm, confusion, and fierce debate among lawyers, advocates, and many in the business world who rely on visa holders for skilled labor. On Friday, US Citizenship and Immigration Services announced it would grant “adjustment of status” — the process that allows some immigrants already in the US to apply for a green card without leaving the country — “only in extraordinary circumstances,” potentially forcing many applicants to return to…

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