#nokings
Security Experts Are ‘Losing Their Minds’ Over an FAA Proposal
The Trump administration is considering hiring foreigners as air traffic controllers.
The Atlantic
Tracking Trump’s overhaul of the federal workforce
CNN is tracking the evolving situation at federal offices in Washington and across the United States. Last week, the Department of Veterans Affairs walked back its plans to conduct mass layoffs, so it is no longer included in the tracker below. This page will be updated as new reporting becomes available.
Here is what we know about the cuts so far, by select federal departments and agencies:
CNN
Mamdani Nets Record Fundraising Haul While Adams and Cuomo Strike Out on Matching Funds
In the weeks before and after Mamdani’s decisive victory, his campaign raised more than $852,000 and won another $1 million in public matching dollars.
The City
‘Direct retaliation’: Hispanic journalist detained by ICE speaks out
“I’m plainly convinced that my situation in this ICE jail is direct retaliation for my coverage,” Guevara said. “I haven’t committed any crimes.
“The government wants to use me as an example, they want to send a message that people can’t be following ICE operatives or expose what’s happening.”
The Atlantic-Journal Constitution
Is Florida Quietly Removing Alligator Alcatraz Contracts from Public Database?
On Tuesday, Orlando lawmaker Anna Eskamani accessed the contract documents on the website. The next day, they were gone.
Miami New Times
Leave your kids to die. Then call anyone who cares ‘evil.’
The abysmal response to the Texas flash floods is the Trump regime’s model for all the disasters they’ll fuel and flub.
The Farce
As Republicans call for transparency into Epstein probe, Trump lashes out
On Wednesday he assailed members of his own party who have been calling for more transparency into the DOJ’s investigation of the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender, whose death by suicide in prison in 2019 has sparked numerous conspiracy theories. And he, without evidence, claimed the case was a “hoax.”
NPR
Nursing homes struggle with Trump’s immigration crackdown
“We feel completely beat up right now,” says Deke Cateau, CEO of A.G. Rhodes, which operates three nursing homes in the Atlanta area, with one-third of the staff made up of foreign-born people from about three dozen countries. “The pipeline is getting smaller and smaller.”
AP News
A MAGA bot network on X is divided over the Trump-Epstein backlash
A previously unreported network of hundreds of accounts on X is using artificial intelligence to automatically reply to conservatives with positive messages about people in the Trump administration, researchers say.
But with the MAGA movement split over the administration’s handling of files involving deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the accounts’ messaging has broken, offering contradictory statements on the issue and revealing the AI-fueled nature of the accounts.
NBC News
RFK Jr. Wants to Overhaul a Vital System That Supports Childhood Immunization
In his crosshairs is the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, a system designed to provide fair and quick payouts for people who suffer rare but serious side effects from shots — without having to prove that drugmakers were negligent. Congress created the program in the 1980s when lawsuits drove vaccine makers from the market. A special tax on immunizations funds the awards, and manufacturers benefit from legal protections that make it harder to win big-money verdicts against them in civil courts.
Kennedy, who founded an anti-vaccination group and previously accused the pharmaceutical industry of inflicting “unnecessary and risky vaccines” on children for profits, has long argued that the program removes any incentive for the industry to make safe products.
ProPublica
Writers’ union urges investigation into Paramount move to cancel Colbert show
Citing the California state senate’s decision in May to launch an inquiry into Paramount’s $16m settlement with Trump as precedent, the unions said: “Given Paramount’s recent capitulation to President Trump in the CBS News lawsuit, the Writers Guild of America has significant concerns that The Late Show’s cancelation is a bribe, sacrificing free speech to curry favor with the Trump administration as the company looks for merger approval.”
The Guardian
The Message Is ‘We Can Take Your Children’
More systematically than in his first term, Trump is rolling back protections for undocumented minors.
The Atlantic
United Church of Christ synod denounces ICE raids as ‘domestic terrorism’
The resolution of witness, titled “Responding to the federal government’s attack on immigrants, migrants, and refugees,” also officially calls for the UCC to divest from “for-profit private detention businesses,” naming three such businesses — CoreCivic, GEO Group, and Management and Training Corp. — without limiting churches’ divestments to those companies.
National Catholic Reporter
Wyoming Is Now Requiring Would-be Voters to Document Their Citizenship
The rules were pushed by Wyoming’s ultraconservative secretary of state despite no pattern of noncitizen voting. A lawsuit warns it risks tripping up eligible citizens who wish to register.
Bolts
We must stop the camps while public opinion still matters
The risks we face so far mostly involve losing one’s job, contracts, funding, TV show, vaccines, or the vast majority of what the government does to keep average Americans safe, healthy, and able to function.
But we’re well past questioning if we’re dealing with fascism. The fascism is going hard, escalating relentlessly. Its only limits come when it crashes into the reality that the lies they used to sell fascism, especially about immigrants, are the opposite of the truth.
The Farce
Firing Powell Would Shatter the Economy’s Inflation Defenses
Without independence, the Fed couldn’t be trusted to give priority to low inflation over the president’s other priorities
The Wall Street Journal
Elon Musk’s Starlink internet works great if hardly anyone uses it
There’s an irony with Elon Musk’s Starlink internet service beamed from space: The more popular it becomes, the worse its speeds and reliability tend to get.
Those limitations are known, but a new analysis estimates the tipping point at which Starlink connections could bog down: With as few as 419 Starlink customers in an area the size of Tacoma, Washington, service for all users in the area could become unusable.
The Washington Post
Trans people can obtain accurate passports again. Here’s how
The 19th spoke with experts about the window of opportunity — and risk — that exists while the State Department complies with a court order.
The 19th
Congress targets hair products with cancer-causing ingredients marketed to Black women
Lawmakers cited mounting evidence linking beauty ingredients to serious health conditions such as breast cancer and learning disabilities.
NBC News
Trump’s ‘Gold Standard’ for Science Manufactures Doubt
By emphasizing scientific uncertainty above other values, political appointees can block any regulatory action they want to.
The Atlantic
#somekings
The World Is Moving Away from Fossil Fuels. Canada Is Holding On for Dear Life
June 2024—a flurry of metaphorical headlines out of Canada’s wealthiest province: “Alberta shuts down energy ‘War Room,’” “Calgary declares state of emergency due to water distribution facility crisis,” “Former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi named Alberta NDP leader in landslide victory,” “Devastated by Stanley Cup loss, Edmonton Oilers fans are still holding hope for team’s next act.” But there was one quieter headline that emerged as a harbinger: “Alberta’s coal power era comes to an end.”
The Walrus
Officials say 73 Palestinians killed in Gaza while seeking aid as Israel widens evacuation orders
“Suddenly, tanks surrounded us and trapped us as gunshots and strikes rained down. We were trapped for around two hours,” said Ehab Al-Zei, who had been waiting for flour. ”I will never go back again. Let us die of hunger, it’s better.”
PBS
“We are on our knees”: U.S. tariffs devastate Lesotho’s garment workers
“AGOA, in effect it’s already sort of been scrapped with the tariffs,” he told NPR in his office in an unassuming old building in Maseru’s small, dusty CBD.
“It’s good value chain and if you cut it, it will surely hit even the U.S. itself,” said the minister, adding that the trade imbalance Trump objects to is because Lesotho simply can’t afford many U.S. products.
NPR
Mark Carney’s ‘build, baby, build’ aspirations face a challenge from Indigenous leaders
“Our rights can’t take a back seat in terms of how decisions are made,” said Terry Teegee, regional chief of the British Columbia Assembly of First Nations, in a press conference the day before the summit. He added, “Free, prior and informed consent cannot be an afterthought.”
The Globe and Mail
The U.S. shouldn’t ignore the starving Rohingya of Myanmar
Myanmar’s junta has cut off food to Rohingya in squalid camps. Those in Bangladesh try to flee by boat.
The Washington Post
Vietnam tour boat survivor describes his escape
At least 35 people were killed in the accident and a search is continuing for four who are still missing, according to Vietnamese state media. Authorities said that an earlier report of 38 dead and five missing was incorrect.
AP News
China Is Poised to Buy More EVs Than Gas-Only Cars This Year
Affordability, charging advances and subsidies are supporting the inexorable rise of electric cars in the world’s biggest auto market.
Bloomberg
Japan’s PM vows to stay on despite bruising exit poll
Voters went to the polls on Sunday for the tightly-contested election, being held at a time of frustration at the coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its junior partner Komeito over rising prices and the threat of US tariffs.
BBC
