New Biden Asylum Policy Will Hurt LGBTQ+ Migrants and Others, Activists Say

Human rights groups are criticizing President Joe Biden’s new policy on asylum-seekers, saying it’s as restrictive as the one enacted by Donald Trump or possibly more so.

Advocate

Jordan Neely Killing: Debates About Mental Health, Crime Are Misguided

America talks a lot about fear, but we seldom ask whose fear is it that America cares about. We don’t ask because we’d quickly discern that it’s not those who should be most afraid, those who this country beats down and discards. It’s obviously not those who have nowhere to lay their head at night, who are treated as subhuman, and whose government would rather give them a prison cell than a home. 

Teen Vogue

Some Christian leaders say it’s an ‘abomination’ to use the Bible to cause harm with anti-trans laws

“As a Christian leader, it’s horrifying to me that Christianity and the Bible are being used by the religious right to bludgeon people through these many bills,” Rev. Dr. Serene Jones, the president of Union Theological Seminary in New York City, told The Associated Press. 

Insider

Possibility of ‘popular revolt’ about gun control, Sen. Chris Murphy says

“If the Supreme Court eventually says that states or the Congress can’t pass universal background checks or can’t take these assault weapons off the streets, I think there’s going to be a popular revolt over that policy,” Murphy, an outspoken gun control advocate, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“A court that’s already pretty illegitimate, is going to be in full crisis mode,” Murphy added.

Politico

Mayorkas defends border policies against bipartisan backlash, cites drop in border encounters

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Sunday defended the country’s border policies, insisting the Biden administration was taking a strong enough stance on a surge of migration while batting away claims it was being overly strict.

Mayorkas took issue with criticism from progressives who compared President Joe Biden’s policies to those of former President Donald Trump, who required migrants to apply for asylum in countries they passed through before applying for it the U.S.

ABC News

Border chief says it’s ‘too early’ to know if migrant surge has peaked

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Sunday that it is “too early” to know whether the surge in migrants at the US southern border has peaked since the expiration of Title 42 last week.

“The numbers we have experienced over the past few days are markedly down over what they were prior to the end of Title 42,” he told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union.”

CNN

America and immigration: How did we get where we are today?

The COVID-era law that effectively allowed both the Trump and Biden administrations to expel migrants back into Mexico before they could ask for asylum is no more; it expired. In its place, the Biden administration has imposed more restrictions on those seeking asylum, but it’s only a footnote to the larger border law that was designed for the Cold War, and in no way fits the misery of this moment.

“U.S. refugee policy in the 1950s and 1960s was for Europeans,” said Yael Schacher, a historian and director of Refugees International. “Remember, this was a time when a refugee was primarily defined as somebody who was fleeing Communism.”

Our immigration policies have almost always been tied to the times, if not behind them. Schacher said up until the Civil War we didn’t even have a federal immigration policy; it was all left to the states.

“On the East Coast in New York and Massachusetts there was actually quite a bit of anti-Irish sentiment,” said Schacher. “And on the West Coast starting in the 1850s and the 1860s, especially in California, you start to see the anti-Chinese sentiment.”

CBS News

When We All Vote: In My Voting Era Encourages Teens to Get Registered and Involved Before They Turn 18

In this op-ed, a high school junior explains how she got engaged in political organizing.

Teen Vogue

Supreme Court Ruling on Trans Immigrant Celebrated for Correct Pronoun Use

In the Wednesday decision that gave a transgender immigrant another chance to appeal a deportation order, the U.S. Supreme Court did something unprecedented: It used her proper pronouns and name.

Advocate

Trump Changed GOP Rules to Make Winning the Nomination Even Easier — for Trump

Republicans seeking to keep Donald Trump from becoming their party’s nominee will have to overcome rules even more favorable to the former president than the ones that helped him clinch the 2016 nomination.

In 2024, more states will award delegates through winner-take-all primaries — a system that helped Trump when opponents divided the vote, allowing him to be awarded all or most of the delegates with less than majority support. 

Bloomberg

Why presidential records are quickly becoming the ‘dark archives’ of America’s past

Beyond the disputes over paper records found at the homes of Donald Trump and Joe Biden, the National Archives deals with the explosive growth in emails and attachments despite a flat budget.

USA Today

Biden world goes to the mat to get Julie Su confirmed

The Biden White House is ramping up its pressure on Senate Democrats to confirm Labor nominee Julie Su and deploying some big guns to get her nomination over the line.

Over the past two weeks, White House chief of staff Jeff Zients has placed calls to key senators who are considering her nomination, according to a White House official who asked not to be named to speak freely about the outreach. In recent days, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm have also joined the effort, calling moderate Democrats who have been noncommittal about supporting Su, according to three people familiar with the calls.

Politico

North Carolina’s governor vetoed a 12-week abortion ban, setting up an override fight

In front of an exuberant crowd, North Carolina’s Democratic governor vetoed legislation Saturday that would have banned nearly all abortions in his state after 12 weeks of pregnancy.

Abortion-rights activists and voters watched on a plaza in the capital of Raleigh as Gov. Roy Cooper affixed his veto stamp to the bill in an unconventionally public display. The veto launches a major test for leaders of the GOP-controlled General Assembly to attempt an override vote after they recently gained veto-proof majorities in both chambers. The bill was the Republican response to last year’s U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

NPR

‘We’re going to America’: Border hope and fear as Title 42 ends

The rule blocked 2.3 million people seeking asylum since the pandemic era policy was implemented.

Al Jazeera

Ambitious agenda for Biden on upcoming three-nation Indo-Pacific trip as debt default looms at home

President Joe Biden has an ambitious agenda when he sets off this week on an eight-day trip to the Indo-Pacific.

He’s looking to tighten bonds with longtime allies, make history as the first sitting U.S. president to visit the tiny island state of Papua New Guinea and spotlight his administration’s commitment to the Pacific. The three-country trip also presents the 80-year-old Biden, who recently announced he’s running for reelection, with the opportunity to demonstrate that he still has enough in the tank to handle the grueling pace of the presidency.

But as he prepares to head west, Biden finds himself in a stalemate with Republican lawmakers over raising America’s debt limit. If the matter is not resolved in the coming weeks, it threatens to spark an economic downturn.

AP News

California Democrats further torn after seeing Sen. Feinstein’s return to Washington

As she approaches retirement age, Democrat Donna Perkins understands reluctance about telling Sen. Dianne Feinstein what to do as she winds down her career.

After all, California’s senior senator has already announced that she would not seek another term — and some argue that the calls for her to step down earlier are rooted in misogyny and ageism.

But after seeing news coverage of Feinstein’s return to the nation’s capital last week, in a wheelchair and still weak after a nearly three-month absence from Washington as she recovered from shingles, Perkins is more concerned than ever about the 89-year-old senator’s ability to represent 39 million Californians.

“I don’t want to be like that, right? I’m getting ready to turn 65. I want somebody to say, ‘Hey, Donna, you know what? It’s time to pass the torch.’ It’s sad, but it’s not fair either,” said Perkins, 64.

LA Times

Stark warning over Republicans’ ‘dehumanizing’ rhetoric on crime

Republican and rightwing rhetoric over the state of crime in the US could spark a rise in violent incidents and worsen the country’s mass incarceration problem, experts say, as “tough-on-crime” political ads and messaging seem set to play a large role in the 2024 election.

The Guardian

The Mexican-American War: Photos from the 1800s show a young nation’s conflict

In the month of May, two key anniversaries that spurred the Civil War into motion occurred between the United States and Mexico over a conflict that centered on Texas.

USA Today

Labour considers extending voting rights to EU citizens

Labour is considering extending voting rights to some EU citizens living in the UK if the party wins the next general election.

The party is working on a package of proposals, including votes for some EU nationals and 16 and 17-year-olds in general elections.

In 2020, Labour’s leader Sir Keir Starmer called for all EU nationals to be given full voting rights in the UK.

But Labour said no final policy decisions had been made.

BBC

Thailand elections: Opposition receives overwhelming support

Progressive opposition parties look set to secure a stunning victory in Thailand’s general election. It’s the first vote since youth-led pro-democracy protests in 2020.

Deutsche Welle

Land of no return: the Mexican city torn apart by cartel kidnappings

The epidemic in Fresnillo mirrors a nationwide trend: after dipping in 2022, disappearances across Mexico surged by almost 30% in the first three months of this year, compared with the same period last year, government data shows.

The trend is yet another testament to the failure of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s security strategy: while murders have decreased marginally since he took office, the surge in disappearances makes clear that violence persists.

The Guardian

The transgender Indonesian Muslims trying to secure their future

The future of Indonesia’s only Islamic community centre for transgender women is in jeopardy after its leader, Shinta Ratri, died in February – and the government says it cannot support it.

BBC

Ceasefire between Israel and Islamic Jihad appears to hold after days of violence

Life in Gaza quickly appeared to be returning to normal Sunday, the morning after a ceasefire ended five days of intense rocket fire and airstrikes between Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Israel Defense Forces left 35 people dead – all but one of them Palestinians.

CNN

Turkey election vote tracker: Follow live results

More than 64 million people are eligible to vote to elect a president and parliament for a five-year term.

Deutsche Welle

‘Nightmare scenario’ as hundreds of thousands of refugees in path of cyclone

Humanitarian agencies are bracing for the worst as powerful Cyclone Mocha and its Category 5 winds made landfall in Myanmar on Sunday before heading toward the world’s largest refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.

Mocha intensified as it reached Myanmar’s west coast with winds up to 161 mph with gust topping out at 195 mph, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center. The Bangladesh Meteorological Department said the storm is expected to travel north-northeasterly across Rakhine State in Myanmar and cross Cox’s Bazar with hundreds of thousands of refugees.

UPI

Pakistan shut down the internet – but that didn’t stop the protests

The battle between Imran Khan’s supporters and the powerful Pakistani military has this week been raging on two fronts – on the streets and on social media. And on one battlefield, the former prime minister seems to have the upper hand.

BBC

Scholz Welcomes Zelenskiy With Pledge for Long-Term Backing

Chancellor Olaf Scholz made a personal pledge to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that Germany will continue to support the government in Kyiv with military and other assistance for as long as needed.

Scholz hosted Zelenskiy in Berlin for the first time since Russia’s invasion and said the Ukrainian leader’s visit was “a strong signal.” It came a day after the German government announced its biggest package yet of materiel for Ukraine’s armed forces, worth nearly $3 billion.

Bloomberg