This federal judge ruled against Trump. Then the death threats rolled in

This federal judge ruled against Trump. Then the death threats rolled in

  CBS News reports: Federal District Judge John Coughenour was unprepared for what happened after he temporarily blocked President Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order last year and called it “blatantly unconstitutional.” He said he faced “dozens if not hundreds” of death threats. “I’ve been at this for 44 years. I have never encountered the hostility toward the judiciary that has existed in this country in the last year,” Coughenour said. “And I don’t think it’s because we’re making bad decisions….

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Strait of Hormuz: If the Iran conflict shuts world’s most important oil chokepoint, global economic chaos could follow

Strait of Hormuz: If the Iran conflict shuts world’s most important oil chokepoint, global economic chaos could follow

By Sarah Schiffling, Hanken School of Economics The reported sinking of several Iranian warships by US missiles in the Gulf of Oman serves as a reminder of the maritime aspect of the conflict which began February 28 with a barrage of Israeli and American missiles targeting Iran. Two other vessels, believed to be tankers, have also been reported as having been hit by missiles, of an as yet undetermined source, in the vicinity of the Strait of Hormuz, underlining the…

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‘Dubai’s nightmare’: Iranian missile and drone strikes shatter calm of Arabian Gulf business hub

‘Dubai’s nightmare’: Iranian missile and drone strikes shatter calm of Arabian Gulf business hub

Middle East Eye reports: Iran unleashed a furious missile and drone assault across the Arabian Gulf on Saturday in response to a surprise US-Israeli attack, but one city in particular appeared to bear the brunt of it: Dubai. The Gulf emirate, one of seven in the UAE, is the region’s good-time capital, where lucrative business deals can be sealed and celebrated. On Saturday, it was engulfed in billowing smoke and flames as missiles and drones rained down on it. The…

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Epic Fury: Death toll from girls’ elementary school bombing in southern Iran reportedly rises to 165

Epic Fury: Death toll from girls’ elementary school bombing in southern Iran reportedly rises to 165

The Guardian reports: The death toll from a missile strike on a girls’ school in southern Iran has risen to 165, according to state media. The IRNA news agency also cited a local prosecutor as saying that 96 people had been wounded in Saturday’s strike in Minab. The strike on school appears to be the worst mass casualty event of the US-Israeli-led bombing campaign on Iran so far. Video and photographs of the aftermath, which have been verified as authentic…

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Ayatollah Ali Khamenei brought his country and regime to ruin

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei brought his country and regime to ruin

Barbara Slavin writes: Many if not most successful revolutions boast inspirational leaders followed by less charismatic figures who serve to entrench the new ideology and system of government. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the second-ever supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, exemplified that latter role. Khamenei never had the fervent following of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, and he became increasingly unpopular as his rule dragged on. But after succeeding Khomeini in 1989, Khamenei managed to…

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AI executive Dario Amodei on the red lines Anthropic would not cross

AI executive Dario Amodei on the red lines Anthropic would not cross

  CBS News reports: “It’s about the principle of standing up for what’s right,” said Dario Amodei, CEO of the artificial intelligence firm Anthropic, who has found himself at the center of a new kind of firestorm. What’s wrong, in his view, is why the AI company he co-founded has been banned from the federal government. “It feels very punitive and inappropriate, given the amount that we’ve done for U.S. national security,” he said. Anthropic created Claude, an AI chatbot…

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Judges in a Trump stronghold condemn ICE tactics as ‘an assault on the constitutional order’

Judges in a Trump stronghold condemn ICE tactics as ‘an assault on the constitutional order’

Politico reports: Federal judges in one of the Trumpiest states in the country have suddenly become a firewall against President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda. District court judges in West Virginia describe rampant lawlessness by masked ICE agents, defiance of court orders and a wanton infliction of fear and intimidation by the federal government after the Trump administration deployed a targeted immigration enforcement operation in the state last month. “Operation Country Roads,” a partnership with federal and local law enforcement…

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How Jeffrey Epstein sought to infiltrate the justice system

How Jeffrey Epstein sought to infiltrate the justice system

Miami Herald reports: Jeffrey Epstein didn’t beat the justice system by accident. For decades, the New York financier curated a network of influential people — politicians, business titans, media figures and academics — whom he leveraged to build his fortune and restore his reputation after he had been accused of preying on underage girls in South Florida in 2008. While much of the spotlight has been on the elite heavyweights who hitched themselves to Epstein’s orbit even after he was…

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Push from Saudis and Israel helped move Trump to attack Iran

Push from Saudis and Israel helped move Trump to attack Iran

The Washington Post reports: President Donald Trump launched Saturday’s wide-ranging attack on Iran after a weeks-long lobbying effort by an unusual pair of U.S. allies in the Middle East — Israel and Saudi Arabia — according to four people familiar with the matter, as Israeli and U.S. forces teamed to topple Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei after nearly four decades in power. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman made multiple private phone calls to Trump over the past month advocating…

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Trump’s strikes on Iran are an illegal war of choice — and Europeans should speak out

Trump’s strikes on Iran are an illegal war of choice — and Europeans should speak out

Ellie Geranmayeh writes: The US and Israel have jointly launched an unprecedented military campaign against Iran, in violation of international law. President Donald Trump’s announcement of the war leaves no doubt that his end-goal, at least for now, is regime change. He has left no off-ramps but complete surrender for Iran’s leadership. A cornered Iran is now fulfilling its threats to respond with widespread counter-strikes on targets across the Middle East. This is Trump’s war of choice. But that does…

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Iran built the appearance of a deterrent without the substance of one

Iran built the appearance of a deterrent without the substance of one

Nicole Grajewski writes: For decades, Tehran calibrated its enrichment activities as a form of what strategists call “coercive ambiguity,” maintaining a threshold position that was threatening enough to matter politically without being unambiguous enough to justify an overwhelming response from adversaries. The logic was straightforward: Stay below the red line, use the program as leverage in negotiations, and extract concessions from a West that preferred a deal to a war. This approach worked, up to a point. The JCPOA [Joint…

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MAGA reacts to Trump’s strikes on Iran: ‘Absolutely disgusting and evil’

MAGA reacts to Trump’s strikes on Iran: ‘Absolutely disgusting and evil’

Rolling Stone reports: Major figures associated with the Make America Great Again movement — including former GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, conservative commentator Tucker Carlson, far-right figure Alex Jones, and infamous manosphere influencer Andrew Tate — are fuming at Donald Trump over the military strikes against Iran that began overnight on Saturday. Tucker Carlson, who visited the White House just last week, told ABC News’ Jonathan Karl that the choice to attack Iran is “absolutely disgusting and evil.” Greene, meanwhile,…

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How Israel lost Americans

How Israel lost Americans

Michelle Goldberg writes: It’s been obvious for some time that Americans are souring on Israel, but a Gallup poll that came out on Friday marks a turning point. For the first time in the poll’s 25-year history, it found, more Americans sympathize with the Palestinians than with the Israelis. The shift wasn’t just among Democrats, whose opinion of Israel has been in free fall in recent years. According to Gallup, only 30 percent of independents now sympathize with Israel; 41…

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Trump officials attended a summit of election deniers who want the president to take over the midterms

Trump officials attended a summit of election deniers who want the president to take over the midterms

By Doug Bock Clark This story was originally published by ProPublica Several high-ranking federal election officials attended a summit last week at which prominent figures who worked to overturn Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 election pressed the president to declare a national emergency to take over this year’s midterms. According to videos, photos and social media posts reviewed by ProPublica, the meeting’s participants included Kurt Olsen, a White House lawyer charged with reinvestigating the 2020 election, and Heather Honey,…

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