babysandpiper

joined 3 days ago
 

The American strikes are likely to be accepted – and even privately praised – by a Middle East officialdom that has long seen Iran as the primary threat to regional stability.

If Iran had hoped its neighbors would rise to its defense in the wake of unprecedented American and Israeli attacks, that moment may have passed.

On Monday, Iran fired back at the U.S. with a strike on the American Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, in what is already being seen as merely a face-saving gesture. Qatar said it had intercepted the Iranian missiles and condemned the attack, calling it a violation of its sovereignty.

But even as Middle Eastern leaders were quick to criticize Donald Trump’s paradigm-shifting assault on Iran following 10 days of Israeli bombardment, the American strikes are likely to be accepted — and even privately cheered — by an Arab officialdom that has long seen Shia Iran as the primary threat to regional stability.

 

The Trump administration's push to rapidly amass sensitive personal information about hundreds of millions of people living in the U.S. is extending to a rich new vein of information: troves of databases run by states. In some instances, the data could be leveraged to enhance the federal government's immigration enforcement efforts — a break with longstanding norms and practices that also raises legal questions.

"Every week we're seeing new examples of this administration demanding or sharing sensitive government data for unprecedented uses," said Nicole Schneidman, who heads the technology and data governance team at Protect Democracy, a non-profit legal center that describes its mission as "defeating the authoritarian threat."

Schneidman said Americans should understand "the data that they have entrusted to state governments right now is truly a target."

 

Those caring for relatives with severe disabilities say planned Republican cuts will be fatal for some

The bill will cut Medicaid across the US by 7.6 million to 10.3 million people, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates, with the majority of the cuts as a result of work reporting requirements, increasing barriers for enrollment and renewal of Medicaid coverage, and limiting states’ ability to raise state Medicaid funds through provider taxes.

Medicaid recipients and advocates are warning of the negative impacts of work reporting requirements, pointing to the examples of the two states to have already tried work requirements for Medicaid, Georgia and, briefly, Arkansas. In both states, there was a significant increase in individuals without health insurance and medical debt, and no boost in employment, one of the Trump administration’s key arguments for imposing the requirements.

The Medicaid work reporting requirements would begin in December 2026, with proponents of the reporting requirement for able-bodied adults to work, volunteer or attend an education program at least 80 hours a month. The change comes after the Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, claimed Medicaid recipients were “taking advantage”, “cheating” and “defrauding” the system.

 

Shrouded in secrecy, the US law enforcement agency has become a kind of domestic stormtrooper for MAGA’s agenda

Across the US, group chats and community threads have started spiking with warnings. Not just the typical alerts about traffic or out of service subway stations, but where and when an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid was last seen. What places to avoid. What the plainclothes agents might look like.

“Hey all,” a Brooklyn, New York, resident wrote in a closed chat with neighbors last week. “A little birdie just told me ICE is out.” Another person quickly followed suit.

“The witness says they saw 3 people picked up by 2 agents with ICE on their vests,” they said, with details on where the location of the arrests occurred and what the undercover vehicles looked like. “If anyone sees any ICE agents or activity you can drop a description at this link for local rapid-response folks.”

These kinds of exchanges are commonplace now in in America.

 

Donald Trump ripped into Iran and Israel for violating a ceasefire deal within hours of his triumphant announcement.

“You basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f--- they’re doing! Do you understand that?” he told reporters Tuesday morning on his way to the NATO summit in The Hague.

 

A senior Ukrainian lawmaker who put Donald Trump forward for a Nobel Peace Prize has withdrawn his nomination.

Oleksandr Merezhko, the head of Ukraine's parliamentary foreign committee, told Newsweek on Tuesday that he had "lost any sort of faith and belief" in Trump and his ability to secure a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine.

Merezhko said Trump had "virtually no reaction" to large-scale strikes on the Ukrainian capital in recent weeks, adding: "He has chosen the path of appeasement."

 

The Trump administration is rolling back a landmark conservation rule from the Clinton era that prevents roadbuilding and logging on roughly 58 million acres of federal forest and wildlands.

The announcement rescinding the 2001 Roadless Rule comes as the Forest Service is under orders by President Trump to increase logging and thinning in forests to address the wildfire threat. Environmentalists have already indicated they'll sue to prevent its reversal, however.

After Clinton enacted the rule at the end of his term in 2001, it effectively created de facto wilderness protections for scores of forests in the West and Alaska.

 

The home sales slump in the U.S. continues: Last month was the slowest May for existing home sales since 2009.

Existing home sales in May fell 0.7% compared to the same month last year. Measured monthly, sales were up slightly, 0.8%, from the month before — but that marks an increase from the slowest April for existing home sales in 16 years.

 

The US president is more willing to listen to Israel than his predecessors were and is also deeply suspicious of the CIA

When Donald Trump ordered the US military to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities over the weekend, the debate among intelligence officials, outside experts and policymakers over the status of Tehran’s nuclear program had largely been frozen in place for nearly 20 years.

That prolonged debate has repeatedly placed the relatively dovish US intelligence community at odds with Israel and neoconservative Iran hawks ever since the height of the global war on terror.

Trump underscored his skepticism of the experts when he recently told reporters that “I don’t care” about the US intelligence community’s latest assessment that Iran still wasn’t building a bomb.

 

Denmark is set to have the highest retirement age in Europe, after lawmakers voted to raise it to 70.

Parliamentarians passed a bill mandating the rise on Thursday, with 81 votes in favor and 21 against.

The new law will apply to people born after December 31, 1970. The current retirement age is 67 on average, but it can go up to 69 for those born on January 1, 1967, or later.

The rise is needed in order to be able to “afford proper welfare for future generations,” employment minister Ane Halsboe-Jørgensen said in a press release Thursday.

 

Trump’s proclamation had barred foreign students from studying at top university, citing national security concerns

A federal judge on Monday blocked Donald Trump’s administration from implementing his plan to bar foreign nationals from entering the United States to study at Harvard University.

US district judge Allison Burroughs in Boston issued an injunction barring Trump’s administration from carrying out its latest bid to curtail Harvard’s ability to host international students amid an escalating fight pitting the Republican president against the prestigious Ivy League school.

The preliminary injunction extends a temporary order the judge issued on 5 June that prevented the administration from enforcing a proclamation Trump signed a day earlier that cited national security concerns to justify why Harvard could no longer be trusted to host international students.

 

The Supreme Court's conservative majority on Monday delivered a significant win for the Trump administration's immigration policy, clearing the way for officials to resume deportation of migrants to third countries without additional due process requirements imposed by a district court judge.

The nation's hight court did not explain the decision, but it said the stay of Judge Brian Murphy's mandate would terminate should the administration ultimately lose an appeal on the merits.

Litigation is ongoing, but is expected to take years to complete.

view more: ‹ prev next ›