How 48 federal judges describe Trump’s actions, in their own words

How 48 federal judges describe Trump’s actions, in their own words

The New York Times: Many Americans in positions of power, including corporate executives and members of Congress, seem too afraid of President Trump to stand up to his anti-democratic behavior. Federal judges have shown themselves to be exceptions. “Judges from across the ideological spectrum are ruling against administration policies at remarkable rates,” said Adam Bonica, a political scientist at Stanford University. These rulings have halted Mr. Trump’s vengeful attempts to destroy law firms, forestalled some of his budget cuts and…

Read More Read More

Trump claims ‘nobody cares about’ Jeffrey Epstein. MAGA supporters vehemently disagree

Trump claims ‘nobody cares about’ Jeffrey Epstein. MAGA supporters vehemently disagree

Fox News reports: MAGA supporters are not pleased with President Donald Trump following his full-throated defense of Attorney General Pam Bondi, whose Department of Justice denied the existence of a Jeffrey Epstein client list after years of Trump surrogates vowing to reveal the disgraced financier’s secrets. Longtime conservatives and supporters of Trump sounded off on social media this weekend, as well as in person during a convention in Florida, with various messages pledging that the Epstein scandal will not “go…

Read More Read More

What it feels like to laugh when the world expects you to disappear

What it feels like to laugh when the world expects you to disappear

Hanif Abdurraqib writes: I sometimes say that I consider myself a junior-varsity Muslim. Whether this comes off as a joke or as an invitation for scolding (spoken or unspoken, loving or otherwise) depends entirely on the other Muslims in the room. But, hey, I say hands up and palms out: I take Ramadan very seriously, more seriously than I take anything. Inside me is still a child of rigorous routine. I don’t drink, or smoke, or use drugs, though I…

Read More Read More

Overwhelming majority of Americans have a positive view of immigration

Overwhelming majority of Americans have a positive view of immigration

Gallup reports: When asked if immigration is generally a good thing or bad thing for the country, a record-high 79% of U.S. adults call it a good thing; a record-low 17% see it as a bad thing. This is consistent with the long-term pattern of more Americans viewing immigration as helpful than harmful to the country. But today’s endorsement is up from 64% last year and represents a reversal of the downward trend seen in this view from 2021 to…

Read More Read More

Kristi Noem’s negligence led to thousands of calls to FEMA from flood survivors going unanswered

Kristi Noem’s negligence led to thousands of calls to FEMA from flood survivors going unanswered

The New York Times reports: Two days after catastrophic floods roared through Central Texas, the Federal Emergency Management Agency did not answer nearly two-thirds of calls to its disaster assistance line, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times. The lack of responsiveness happened because the agency had fired hundreds of contractors at call centers, according to a person briefed on the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss internal matters. The agency laid…

Read More Read More

George Mason is the latest university under fire from Trump. Its president fears an ‘orchestrated’ campaign

George Mason is the latest university under fire from Trump. Its president fears an ‘orchestrated’ campaign

By Katherine Mangan, special to ProPublica This story was originally published by ProPublica When the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights notified George Mason University on July 1 that it was opening an antisemitism investigation based on a recent complaint, the university’s president, Gregory Washington, said he was “perplexed.” Compared with other campuses, where protesters had ransacked buildings and hunkered down in encampments, George Mason had been relatively quiet over the past year, he said. His administration had taken extensive…

Read More Read More

The Trump regime’s contempt for the rule of law has roots in America’s pre-civil rights era

The Trump regime’s contempt for the rule of law has roots in America’s pre-civil rights era

Steve Chapman writes: America is supposed to be the land of the brave, but under the second administration of Donald Trump, it’s fallen under a climate of fear. Universities and law firms have been punished for their perceived disloyalty. Foreigners have been abducted by masked agents and shipped to foreign gulags without due process. News organizations have been bullied for performing honest journalism. Federal employees have been cashiered by the thousands. Corporations harmed by his trade policies have been vilified for telling the truth…

Read More Read More

How Netanyahu prolonged the war on Gaza so that he could remain in power

How Netanyahu prolonged the war on Gaza so that he could remain in power

The New York Times reports: Six months into the war in the Gaza Strip, Benjamin Netanyahu was preparing to bring it to a halt. Negotiations were underway for an extended cease-fire with Hamas, and he was ready to agree to a compromise. He had dispatched an envoy to convey Israel’s new position to the Egyptian mediators. Now, at a meeting at the Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv, he needed to get his cabinet onboard. He had kept the plan…

Read More Read More

Nanoplastic pollution of oceans found on a vast scale

Nanoplastic pollution of oceans found on a vast scale

The New York Times reports: What do human brains, placentas and dolphin breath have in common? Signs of plastic pollution in the form of tiny particles known as microplastics. The ocean is also polluted with plastic, and the issue may be even more extensive than previously thought. A study published Wednesday in the journal Nature estimates the volume of nanoplastics, which are even smaller than microplastics and invisible to the naked eye, to be at least 27 million metric tons…

Read More Read More

Scientists discover what’s driving record die-offs of America’s honeybees

Scientists discover what’s driving record die-offs of America’s honeybees

The Guardian reports: Bret Adee is one of the largest beekeepers in the US, with 2 billion bees across 55,000 hives. The business has been in his family since the 1930s, and sends truckloads of bees across the country from South Dakota, pollinating crops such as almonds, onions, watermelons and cucumbers. Last December, his bees were wintering in California when the weather turned cold. Bees grouped on top of hives trying to keep warm. “Every time I went out to…

Read More Read More

Trump has become an agent of chaos disrupting global trade

Trump has become an agent of chaos disrupting global trade

The New York Times reports: Six months into his new administration, President Trump’s assault on global trade has lost any semblance of organization or structure. He has changed deadlines suddenly. He has blown up negotiations at the 11th hour, often raising unexpected issues. He has tied his tariffs to complaints that have nothing to do with trade, like Brazil’s treatment of its former president, Jair Bolsonaro, or the flow of fentanyl from Canada. Talks with the United States were like…

Read More Read More

Judge blocks Trump birthright citizenship order; DOJ caught lying about men sent to El Salvador

Judge blocks Trump birthright citizenship order; DOJ caught lying about men sent to El Salvador

  A federal judge in New Hampshire has issued a nationwide injunction against President Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship for children born in the United States since February 20. In a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of immigrant parents, the ACLU argued that the order would leave children born to undocumented parents “effectively stateless.” We speak to ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt about the case, which he calls “cruel” and without merit, as well as new evidence that the Trump…

Read More Read More

DHS promotes police state tactics to clamp down on protests

DHS promotes police state tactics to clamp down on protests

Wired reports: The Department of Homeland Security is urging local police to consider a wide range of protest activity as violent tactics, including mundane acts like riding a bike or livestreaming a police encounter, WIRED has learned. Threat bulletins issued during last month’s “No Kings” protests warn that the US government’s aggressive immigration raids are almost certain to accelerate domestic unrest, with DHS saying there’s a “high likeliness” more Americans will soon turn against the agency, which could trigger confrontations…

Read More Read More

Trump seeks to cut basic scientific research by one-third, report shows

Trump seeks to cut basic scientific research by one-third, report shows

The New York Times reports: President Trump’s budget plan guts federal science funding for the next fiscal year, according to an overview published by an external group. Particularly at risk is the category of basic research — the blue-sky variety meant to push back the frontiers of human knowledge and sow practical spinoffs and breakthroughs in such everyday fields as health care and artificial intelligence. The group says it would fall by more than one-third. The new analysis, made public…

Read More Read More