Mayorkas defends Biden’s executive action — but doesn’t say when it might start working

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Sunday defended the Biden administration’s new executive action on the border — an order that aims to get the average of migrant encounters at the border to 1,500 or less.

Politico

Mayorkas defends new asylum restrictions: ‘We stand by the legality of what we have done’

“Our intent is to really change the risk calculus of individuals before they leave their countries of origin and incentivize them to use lawful pathways that we have made available to them and keep them out of the hands of exploitative smugglers,” Mayorkas told “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz.

ABC News

Some nationalities escape Biden’s sweeping asylum ban because deportation flights are scarce

The policy, which took effect Wednesday, has an exception for “operational considerations,” official language acknowledging the government lacks the money and authority to deport everyone subject to the measure, especially people from countries in South America, Asia, Africa and Europe who didn’t start showing up at the border until recently.

AP News

Biden’s asylum order takes shape along U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego with uptick in deportations

Rather than release many of the asylum seekers that Border Patrol encounters, the agency appears to have begun detaining and returning some of them — either back across the border to Mexico or putting them on planes to home countries that will accept them.

The San Diego Union Tribune

Concerns over Biden’s order to halt asylum requests at U.S. border

According to an investigation by NBC News, one of the main doubts for the national forces working on the border with Mexico is how the new policy will work without additional funding from Congress.

The Latin Times

Biden nears huge next move on immigration as he tries to win over Latinos in key states

Looking to shore up Latino votes in Nevada and Arizona for his reelection campaign, President Joe Biden is on the verge of soon following up last week’s executive action aimed at curbing border crossings with another move focused on providing legal status for long-term undocumented immigrants who are married to American citizens.

Though final details have not been decided, officials are reviewing an existing legal authority known as “parole in place” that would shield select undocumented immigrants from deportation and allow them to work legally in the country as they seek citizenship. The orders have not yet been presented to Biden himself for review.

CNN

Critics see Biden evolution in new border order

“We’ve been here before. The policies announced today are near replicas of Trump-era asylum bans. Only now, they come from an administration that vowed to protect the right to seek protection and support immigrant communities,” the National Immigrant Justice Center said in a statement after the order was released.

NewsNation

Does it really matter if Marsha P. Johnson was at the Stonewall Uprising when it started?

This year marks the 55th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising, which galvanized the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement. In commemoration, queer historian Eric Marcus is re-releasing the fifth season of his podcast Making Gay History, which looks inside the 1969 uprising with interviews from the people who were actually there.

LGBTQ Nation

The Real Story of Reagan’s 11th Commandment

On the surface, it was an idealistic call to Republican unity. But Reagan also had self-serving reasons for his famous decree.

Politico

Graham says he supports the US training forces in Ukraine

“Yes, I do support us training inside the country. The delay and weapons because of House inaction, we did lose momentum. But from the very beginning, the Biden administration, they did not impose pre-invasion sanctions to deter Putin. They didn’t give weapons to Ukraine early on to deter Putin. And now we got a chance to reset this war that they have the weapons,” Graham said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

The Hill

JFK’s unfinished legacy of peacemaking, a dream during the Cold War

Kennedy’s lofty rhetoric, coupled with his energetic youth, propelled the nation into what he termed the “New Frontier,” the campaign slogan he used to inspire ordinary citizens to make the world a better place at a time of Cold War nuclear tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

“Let us begin anew … remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof,” Kennedy said during his inaugural address in 1961. “Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.”

The Conversation

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas Admits Failing To Report Free Trips From GOP Billionaire

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas acknowledged for the first time on June 7 during a financial disclosure filing that he failed to report two different free vacations that he received from Dallas billionaire Republican Harlan Crow.

The two vacations took place in 2019, one to Indonesia and the other to Bohemian Grove — which is an all-male luxury retreat in northern California, ABC News reports.

Black Enterprise

How a California Democrat hopes to become Little Saigon’s first Vietnamese House member

That would be Derek Tran, a micro-celebrity of sorts in Southern California’s Vietnamese community who posed for Memorial Day selfies and shook hands with people interested in meeting the Democratic candidate for an Orange County-based U.S. House seat that his party sees as a critical part of its pathway to winning back the majority in November. The area he’s running to represent is home to Little Saigon, a district with one of the largest Vietnamese populations outside of Vietnam itself.

USA Today

Why Robert F. Kennedy’s Jr.’s current presidential polling numbers might not hold up into November

It is pretty common for third-party candidates to look like they have polling momentum in the months before an election, only to come up far short at the ballot box, according to an Associated Press analysis of Gallup data going back to 1980.

AP News

Biden barely mentioned Trump in France. He didn’t have to.

Five days commemorating D-Day and America’s alliances were all about drawing a contrast.

Politico

Far-right fossil fuel company allies pressure US supreme court to shield firms in unprecedented campaign

Far-right fossil fuel allies have launched a stunning and unprecedented campaign pressuring the supreme court to shield fossil fuel companies from litigation that could cost them billions of dollars.

Some of the groups behind the campaign have ties to Leonard Leo, the architect of the rightwing takeover of the supreme court who helped select Trump’s supreme court nominees. Leo also appears to have ties to Chevron, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

The Guardian

Country’s first documented gay rights organization started 100 years ago in Old Town

A century ago, Henry Gerber founded America’s first documented gay rights organization in a boardinghouse at 1710 N. Crilly Court in Chicago.

Chicago Tribune

Rob Schneider ‘Roundly Booed,’ Ends Comedy Set Early After LGBTQ and Anti-Vax Jokes at Hospital Charity Gig

“Everyone in the room was groaning, saying, ‘What is going on?’ Like whispering to themselves. Not a single laugh at times,” Tynan Allan, who attended the event, told the CBC. “It was just very apparent how uncomfortable everyone felt and how unacceptable the things he was talking about were.”

The Wrap

Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar’s federal corruption trial delayed until 2025

U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar‘s (D-TX) federal corruption trial has been delayed until after Election Day, a Texas judge ruled on Friday. 

Judge Lee Rosenthal approved the request made by both Cuellar’s defense team and federal prosecutors. The trial will take place sometime next year in Houston. 

Washington Examiner

Biden and Macron pledge support to Ukraine at start of state visit

President Joe Biden pledged continuing US support to Ukraine on meeting French President Emmanuel in Paris on Saturday at the start of a state visit.

The United States was firmly at the side of Ukraine and other allies, Biden said. Macron also said France would continue its support for Ukraine for as long as it was necessary.

dpa International

The right could win big in Europe – thanks to young people

“It’s a very big opportunity for us, because it gives us a voice we never had before,” says Mare Verlinde, a 17-year-old student from Belgium.

“I think Europe needs to step up and be stronger – we can’t always rely on Nato,” her friend Auguste Duchene says, earnestly.

BBC

At least 10 dead after militants shoot at bus in Indian-controlled Kashmir

The bus was carrying pilgrims to the base camp of the famed Hindu temple Mata Vaishno Devi when it came under attack in the region’s Reasi district on Sunday, authorities said.

Euronews

New Haitian Prime Minister Conille hospitalized days after arriving to lead country

Haiti’s newly selected prime minister, Garry Conille, was hospitalized late Saturday in the capital of Port-au-Prince just days after arriving in the country, the government said.

PBS

German Greens leader disappointed at EU election result

The situation today is very different to the previous European elections in 2019, Lang said. People are unsettled, the issue of war and peace was hugely important to voters this time, she said.

dpa International

India’s Narendra Modi sworn in for third term as prime minister

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office for a third consecutive term on Sunday, but it may hold more challenges for the popular-but-polarizing leader than his past decade in power.

His Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, which won by landslides in 2014 and 2019, failed to secure a majority to govern on its own this time, though his National Democratic Alliance coalition with the BJP and other parties won enough seats for a slim parliamentary majority.

CBS News

As Benny Gantz expected to quit Israeli government, Ben-Gvir seeks greater influence

Ben-Gvir issued comments welcoming Gantz’s upcoming departure from the government, saying he needed to regain his status as a leading coalition figure.

The New Arab

Israeli joy at hostage rescue undiminished by regret over Palestinian casualties

Civilian deaths during operation have seldom been mentioned, but public support for a deal with Hamas is still strong

The Guardian

Yemen’s Houthi Rebels, Undeterred by American Air Strikes, Launch Fresh Attacks on Shipping in the Gulf of Aden

The Houthis have launched more than 50 attacks on shipping, killed three sailors, seized one vessel and sunk another since November.

The New York Sun

Sinn Féin leader has ‘no plans to step down’ after election

Mary Lou McDonald has said she has no plans to step down as leader of Sinn Féin, following disappointing election results for the party.

Ireland’s main opposition party have performed worse than expected in local elections amid concerns that they had run too many candidates in certain areas.

BBC

Bulgaria holds national elections, sixth in three years

Voting is under way for a new parliament in Bulgaria, making it the sixth parliamentary election in just over three years.

dpa International

Iran announces final list of approved presidential candidates

Iran’s election headquarters spokesman, Mohsen Islami, announced on June 9 the final list of candidates approved to run in the country’s upcoming 14th presidential election on June 28.

The list approved by the Guardian Council for the snap general election follows the death of former Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in May in a helicopter crash close to the border of Azerbaijan.

BNE Intellinews