The Supreme Court grapples with post-congressional politics

The justices weigh the use of nationwide injunctions in an era of swelling presidential power.

The Washington Post

One Thing Helping Trump’s Approval Rating: Some People Are Not Paying Attention

Voters were more likely to approve of President Trump’s job performance if they had not been following some of the major news stories of his first 100 days in office, a recent New York Times/Siena College poll found.

The New York Times (Gift)

Bruce Springsteen Again Calls Out ‘Unfit President’ Trump at Second Manchester Concert

“Things are happening right now that are altering the very nature of our country’s democracy, and they’re too important to ignore,” singer says, days after president’s threatening social media tirade

Rolling Stone

Trump is threatening every one of us—including the Supreme Court

But will they get it in time?

The Farce

These Democratic governors are trying to curb health care for unauthorized immigrants

As states grapple with budget holes, efforts to limit access to the programs are becoming a common thread. Debates about rolling back coverage or eliminating it entirely come as Congress considers a proposal that would reduce state Medicaid funds from 90% to 80% if they offer health insurance coverage to immigrants without proper authorization.

NPR

How fentanyl has poisoned relations between the US and Canada

While Trump complains about an unfair trade imbalance with Canada, when it comes to illicit economies, the shoe is on the other foot. There are far more drugs flowing into Canada from the US than in the other direction, particularly methamphetamine, cocaine and fentanyl. Illicit firearms are also an issue of concern, as a surge in gun crime in Canada in recent years has been linked to the smuggling of US weapons across the northern border.

Global Initiative

Most Americans don’t earn enough to afford basic costs of living, analysis finds

The analysis, from the Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity (LISEP), looks beyond whether people can afford daily necessities like food and shelter to consider whether they have the means to pay for things like the technology tools necessary for their jobs, higher education, and health and child care.

CBS News

Let’s Start Talking About Jail Time for Trump and His MAGA Enablers

Trump is the head of a criminal syndicate, and he should be treated accordingly.

The New Republic

Trump the Grifter

The framers of the Constitution were trying to prevent exactly this sort of corruption.

The Atlantic (Gift)

Midpoint of Trump Tariff Hiatus to Reveal Increasingly Unsettled World

“The international trading environment clearly remains highly uncertain amid worries over the impact of the surviving tariffs levied by the US and mainland China, which are widely expected to dampen global growth and raise inflation,” Chris Williamson and Jingyi Pan, economists at S&P Global, said in a report.

Bloomberg (Archive.ph)

‘Big Money, Little Victims’ 50 years on

The Daily News investigative series “Big Money, Little Victims,” published 50 years ago, set in motion a cascade of city actions, philanthropic investment and advocacy that changed the course of child welfare in New York City. 

Daily News

The Group Behind Project 2025 Has a Plan to Crush the Pro-Palestinian Movement

Even before President Trump was re-elected, the Heritage Foundation, best known for Project 2025, set out to destroy pro-Palestinian activism in the United States.

The New York Times (archive.ph)

Grok Pivots From ‘White Genocide’ to Being ‘Skeptical’ About the Holocaust

Elon Musk’s Grok AI bot said Friday, “My skepticism about Holocaust figures was due to an unauthorized change to my programming”

Rolling Stone

Trump Justice Dept. considers removing key check on lawmaker prosecutions

The Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section is charged with ensuring cases against elected officials are not politically motivated. The Trump administration is considering changing that.

The Washington Post (Gift)

FBI says primary suspect in Calif. fertility clinic bombing likely died in the blast

“We are working through some other technical means to positively identify the decedent here, but we believe at this moment based on the evidence that we’ve gathered that that is Mr. Bartkus as the decedent here,” Akil Davis, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, said at a Sunday morning press conference.

NPR

US threatens maximum tariffs as it takes tougher line on trade talks

Treasury secretary Scott Bessent says rates will jump to the high levels set on ‘liberation day’ if countries do not negotiate

Financial Times (archive.ph)

Not so ‘beautiful’ bill: GOP cuts Medicaid, SNAP to give billionaires a handout | Opinion

Our bill embraces preserves the 2017 Trump tax cuts that helped save millionaires and billionaires money, all of which we imagine trickled down to less valuable people like yourselves.

USA Today

Why Many Celebrate The Burning Of Largest Southern Plantation

The romanticization of southern plantations offers a striking contrast to how other nations treat historical landmarks associated with inhumane treatment. No one uses former concentration camps, such as Auschwitz in Poland, as wedding venues. The fact that World War II-era German Nazis tortured Jewish people there would make such an arrangement distasteful and cruel to the descendants of Holocaust survivors. It is now a museum where visitors can learn about this historical tragedy. Curators do not attempt to soften the harm that was committed. Yet, southern plantations in the United States are not treated with the same reverence. Despite their history as forced labor camps where white people brutalized Blacks for profit, there is an effort to whitewash their history. They have become playgrounds for wealthy, predominantly white people, allowing them to bask in the allure of this period while overlooking the brutality of the system that produced it.

Level

Trump Asked EPA Employees to Snitch on Colleagues Working on DEI Initiatives. They Declined.

EPA staff didn’t use a tip line set up by the Trump administration to identify and assist in slashing programs focused on diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility.

ProPublica

Doctors save baby’s life with first-ever gene fix for deadly rare disease

The rare genetic disease kills 50% of babies diagnosed with it by early infancy.

ABC News

Bukele’s crackdown pushes top Salvadoran journalists to flee

El Salvador’s top independent investigative news outlet moved its headquarters to Costa Rica in 2023. More of its journalists left the country this month.

The Washington Post

Japan ‘bumping gang’ deliberately collides with pedestrians, mostly women, to vent frustrations

One man admits his behaviour began after he accidentally brushed against a woman’s chest, feeling ‘wonderful’, he repeated

SCMP

German, UK defence ministers meet in Berlin to discuss ways to further support Ukraine

The European Union military chief announced that the bloc plans to double its heavy calibre ammunition delivery to Ukraine this year to better equip Kyiv in its fight against Moscow.

euronews.

What El Salvador’s Bukele, a hero for the American right, isn’t showing the world

But for all his modern trappings — his embrace of Bitcoin, TikTok and slick promotional videos — Bukele’s critics say he’s just following the playbook of previous Latin American strongmen, including the military leaders who ruled El Salvador as a dictatorship from 1931 until the early 1980s.

Los Angeles Times

Tens of thousands of pro-Palestine protesters march on Downing Street for Nakba anniversary

The demonstration, organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, began at Embankment before heading down to Big Ben, across the river to Waterloo, then over the bridge and down to the doors outside Downing Street.

Independent

Nine killed in Russian strike on civilian bus in Ukraine

Regional military leaders said seven others were also injured in the attack on Saturday morning in Bilopillia as a minibus travelled to Sumy, the regional capital close to Russia’s border.

BBC

On a remote Australian island, the birds are so full of plastic they crunch

Seabirds have been fishing plastic from the ocean and feeding it to their chicks, researchers say. One bird was found to have ingested nearly 800 pieces.

The Washington Post (Gift)

To ban or not to ban AfD? German democracy at a crossroads

Germany’s domestic intelligence agency has officially designated the country’s main opposition party a right-wing extremist group

The Week

British surgeon working in Gaza says it is now ‘a slaughterhouse’ amid Israeli bombardment

Dr Tom Potokar, who is based in southern Gaza, says he is treating “awful explosive injuries”.

Sky News

2,300-year-old Chinese silk books return to Beijing after decades in US museum

Ancient Zidanku Silk Manuscripts are older than Dead Sea Scrolls and were illegally taken from China in 1946

SCMP