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Category: Politics

U.S. immigration and assimilation debates have roots in patterns of settlement that go back centuries

U.S. immigration and assimilation debates have roots in patterns of settlement that go back centuries

Colin Woodard writes: It is said that America is a nation of immigrants, and for a truism, that’s pretty accurate. But it’s also true that the United States hasn’t always been a nation of immigrants — or at least not all at the same time and not in all the same places. These days, the debate over immigration still revolves around age-old issues — whether immigrants can assimilate, whether they must assimilate, whether the nation is augmented by newcomers or…

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Compassion makes people happy

Compassion makes people happy

University of Mannheim: People who treat others with compassion often feel more at ease themselves. This is the key finding of a new study by Majlinda Zhuniq, Dr. Friedericke Winter, and Professor Corina Aguilar-Raab from the University of Mannheim. The study was recently published in the journal Scientific Reports. While the link between self-compassion and well-being is well established, this effect has hardly been researched with respect to compassion for others. In a meta-analysis, the research team analyzed data from…

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For Marco Rubio the Cuba hawk, the road to Havana runs through Venezuela

For Marco Rubio the Cuba hawk, the road to Havana runs through Venezuela

The New York Times reports: A pre-dawn phone call jolted President Trump awake. His national security adviser had urgent news about Venezuela. Protests were erupting, soldiers had defected, and the country’s autocratic leader, Nicolás Maduro, had been hustled to a military compound. It looked like he could be forced from power. “Wow,” Mr. Trump said, according to a memoir by John R. Bolton, the national security adviser at the time. That hopeful moment for Mr. Trump, in his first term,…

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Trump’s dangerous designs on the Fed

Trump’s dangerous designs on the Fed

Catherine Rampell writes: There are many items on President Trump’s agenda that are hurting the U.S. economy: the pointless trade wars, the socialization of the private sector, the mass deportations, and much more. But in the long run, the most damaging policy of all might be one that’s gotten scant attention, at least from non-finance-nerds: Trump’s quest to crush the Federal Reserve. If Trump succeeds, he may doom the United States to high inflation for years, if not decades, to…

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What’s at stake in Trump’s executive order aiming to curb state-level AI regulation

What’s at stake in Trump’s executive order aiming to curb state-level AI regulation

President Donald Trump displays his executive order countering state laws regulating AI. Alex Wong/Getty Images By Anjana Susarla, Michigan State University President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Dec. 11, 2025, that aims to supersede state-level artificial intelligence laws that the administration views as a hindrance to innovation in AI. State laws regulating AI are increasing in number, particularly in response to the rise of generative AI systems such as ChatGPT that produce text and images. Thirty-eight states enacted…

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By rejecting a new voting map, Indiana Republicans refused to be bullied by Trump

By rejecting a new voting map, Indiana Republicans refused to be bullied by Trump

The Guardian reports: The Indiana legislature’s rejection of a new map that would have added two Republican seats in Congress marked one of the biggest political defeats for Donald Trump so far in his second term and significantly damaged the Republican effort to reconfigure congressional districts ahead of next year’s midterm elections. The defeat showed that Trump’s political might is not unlimited. For months, the president waged an aggressive effort to twist the arms of Indiana lawmakers into supporting a…

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The shakedown: Trump’s DOJ pressured lawyers to ‘find’ evidence that UCLA had illegally tolerated antisemitism

The shakedown: Trump’s DOJ pressured lawyers to ‘find’ evidence that UCLA had illegally tolerated antisemitism

By Peter Elkind, ProPublica, and Katherine Mangan, The Chronicle of Higher Education This story was originally published by ProPublica On the morning of Thursday, July 31, James B. Milliken was enjoying a round of golf at the remote Sand Hills club in Western Nebraska when his cellphone buzzed. Milliken was still days away from taking the helm of the sprawling University of California system, but his new office was on the line with disturbing news: The Trump administration was freezing…

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America’s strength is rooted in its people; not its leaders, businesses, or institutions

America’s strength is rooted in its people; not its leaders, businesses, or institutions

Garrett Graff writes: I have always believed that one of America’s greatest strengths is its institutions; they are meant to be the keepers, generation to generation, of long-term values and norms in public life — the pillars of our communities, both local and national. Many of us spend much of our professional lives investing in these organizations — giant long-lasting companies, nonprofits or NGOs, or colleges and universities. Never have we seen so many of them fail the most basic…

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Tina Peters, the last MAGA prisoner

Tina Peters, the last MAGA prisoner

Yvonne Wingett Sanchez writes: Tina Peters is supposed to spend the next eight years of her life in prison. The former Colorado county clerk was convicted last year of charges tied to tampering with voting equipment under her control in 2020. President Donald Trump has repeatedly called for Peters’s release, warning of “harsh measures” if she remains incarcerated. But even a president obsessed with retribution, who granted blanket clemency to people convicted of federal offenses connected to the January 6,…

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The U.S. is engaging in ‘extreme rightwing tropes’ reminiscent of the 1930s, British MPs warn

The U.S. is engaging in ‘extreme rightwing tropes’ reminiscent of the 1930s, British MPs warn

The Guardian reports: The US is engaging in “extreme rightwing tropes” with echoes of the 1930s and threatening “chilling” interference in European democracies, British MPs warned ministers on Thursday. The House of Commons rounded on Donald Trump’s national security strategy, which stated that Europe was facing “civilisational erasure” and vowed to help the continent “correct its current trajectory and promote patriotic European parties”. Matt Western, a Labour MP and chair of parliament’s joint committee on the UK government’s national security…

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The ADL’s efforts to appease Trump and MAGA backfired

The ADL’s efforts to appease Trump and MAGA backfired

Jewish Currents reports: In the weeks after a gunman killed conservative activist Charlie Kirk, influential right-wing figures searched for culprits to blame. Many of those upset about the murder of the Turning Point USA founder zeroed in on one target in particular: the Anti-Defamation League. Critics, including high-profile conservative accounts like Libs of TikTok, highlighted the ADL’s inclusion of Turning Point in its Glossary of Extremism and Hate, containing more than 1,000 terms, groups, and individuals the ADL considers extremist….

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I asked the Pentagon about Pete Hegseth’s mentor, Eric Geressy, then the threats started

I asked the Pentagon about Pete Hegseth’s mentor, Eric Geressy, then the threats started

Dan Friedman writes: Six weeks ago, Jack Posobiec asked me to comment on whether I have a “creepy fetish for Asian women.” That was one of several false and wildly personal allegations that the far-right pundit and newly minted member of the Pentagon press corps said that he planned to include in “a story that I’m writing about you.” I immediately understood his October 28 email to be a threat, though it was not made explicit. The day before, I…

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Fed Chair Jerome Powell says U.S. may be drastically overstating jobs numbers

Fed Chair Jerome Powell says U.S. may be drastically overstating jobs numbers

The Wall Street Journal reports: Fed Chair Jerome Powell pointed on Wednesday to a job-market risk that economists have been worried about for months: Official statistics could be drastically overstating recent hiring. Powell said that Fed staffers believe that federal data could be overestimating job creation by up to 60,000 jobs a month. Given that figures published so far show that the economy has added about 40,000 jobs a month since April, the real number could be something more like…

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How Andrew Tate, a manosphere star accused of rape and trafficking, was freed

How Andrew Tate, a manosphere star accused of rape and trafficking, was freed

The New York Times reports: Days before Donald J. Trump’s return to the White House, Andrew Tate got some good news. Mr. Tate and his brother, Tristan, swaggering influencers in the so-called manosphere, had been under criminal investigation in Romania since 2022, accused of coercing women into pornography. Andrew was also accused of rape and of having sex with and beating a 15-year-old. The brothers, American and British citizens, had been barred from leaving Romania while prosecutors built their case….

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Trump’s new social media rule poses threat to World Cup and U.S. tourism industry

Trump’s new social media rule poses threat to World Cup and U.S. tourism industry

Politico reports: U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to require tourists to hand over their social media data ahead of next year’s World Cup generated outrage on Wednesday. An elected European official, human rights groups and fan organizations condemned the move and urged the world football governing body, FIFA, to pressure the Trump administration to reverse course. Visitors to the U.S. — including those from visa-free countries such as France, Germany and Britain — would have to submit five years of…

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Authorities monitor online criticism of New Orleans immigration crackdown

Authorities monitor online criticism of New Orleans immigration crackdown

The Associated Press reports: State and federal authorities are closely tracking online criticism and protests against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in New Orleans, monitoring message boards around the clock for threats to agents while compiling regular updates on public “sentiment” surrounding the arrests, according to law enforcement records reviewed by the Associated Press. The intelligence gathering comes even as officials have released few details about the first arrests made last week as part of “Catahoula Crunch”, prompting calls for…

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