02 U.S. Politics

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Rama Duwaji, the wife of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, left the country ahead of America’s 250th birthday celebration to attend an Islamic “spiritual wellness” retreat on a Spanish resort island.

Duwaji, a 29-year-old Texas-raised, Dubai-educated Syrian-American artist, was spotted Monday at Newark International Airport before boarding an eight-hour flight to Palma on the island of Mallorca, according to the New York Post.

The trip came as New York City marked the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Mamdani remained in the city on July Fourth and attended the lighting of the Empire State Building in red, white, and blue for Independence Day.

But Duwaji’s decision to leave the country for the retreat drew immediate criticism, especially given her history of anti-American social media posts and Mamdani’s own attacks on America during the holiday week.

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Attorneys for the Little Sisters of the Poor will appear before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit tomorrow to ask the court to block a nationwide ruling that rejected the Catholic nuns’ protection from the federal government’s abortion mandate.

The Little Sisters have spent more than a decade defeating government efforts to force them to provide abortifacient contraceptives in their healthcare plan or face tens of millions of dollars in fines.

That winning streak features three Supreme Court victories, including a 2020 ruling in Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania upholding the federal conscience rule that protects the Sisters from the mandate.

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I started my career as a high school history teacher back in 1985. I taught my students about the Holocaust every year and was fortunate enough one summer to be selected for a special National Endowment for the Humanities seminar for teachers, led by Professor Lawrence Langer, a leading Holocaust scholar. Professor Langer came up with the term the “choiceless choice” to describe the no-win situations Jews were put in during the Holocaust, when there was simply no real choice to be made in the face of the genocidal Nazis. The idea has stuck with me for four decades.

It came to mind again when I read a recent Washington Post article following the Supreme Court’s adverse ruling in our case, BPJ v. West Virginia, on June 30, in which Julian Mark writes, “Critics, including some trans rights advocates, say the movement has rushed to tee up causes that the court’s 6-3 conservative majority is not ready to embrace.” While elements of the article were thoughtful, it is based on a flawed premise that warrants exploration.

First of all, the idea that “the [LGBTQ+] movement has rushed to tee up [trans] causes” is completely off the mark. There have been 2,446 bills designed to limit the rights of LGBTQ+ people introduced into state legislatures since 2022 — at least one in every single one of our 50 states — and 255 of them have become law in 27 states. The large majority of these laws are aimed at trans people. The LGBTQ+ movement didn’t “tee up” these laws: the opponents of the LGBTQ+ movement did, because they saw a political advantage to be won by picking on a small and relatively powerless minority and cynically exploited it. In other words, we didn’t pick this fight. We didn’t “tee up” trans issues. Our opponents did.

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A federal court has blocked the Trump administration from firing 19 intelligence officers assigned to DEI programs.

 

In a 2-1 decision, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Trump administration’s firings were illegal because they did not allow for an appeal or the opportunity for the 19 intelligence officers to request a reassignment.

The Court further ruled that the Trump administration illegally made the decision based on the anti-DEI executive order signed by President Donald Trump upon entering office rather than “workplace misconduct” or “performance concerns.”

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The math does not add up for the left, and polling data show they will have a much harder time picking up leads than they originally thought. This is because most sensible Americans do not appreciate how radical the party has become. And if you are surprised by this, you are probably a leftist buffoon.

According to CNN’s Data Analyst Harry Enten, the Democrats will need to pick up four seats and lead in at least one GOP-held seat in North Carolina if they hope to take back the Senate. The GOP currently leads six points in the key six swing states, with 53% saying the Democratic Party has gone too far left.

“On the mathematical march to four seats, there really is only one seat at this point that Democrats can look like they can count on,” Enten said.

While it is entirely possible they could win one or two of these seats, they need four, making this a “math problem,” according to Enten.

“These are states that are just very hard to win because, bottom line, what is holding them back is the fundamentals. And when you put it all together, and you look at the prediction marks, the chance to win the Senate, the environment is getting a little bit better for Republicans. There are seats on the table, but the fundamentals are against them,” Enten said. “Simply put, they have a statistical math problem.”

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Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) laid out details on a new bill that would expand the U.S. Supreme Court, under a hypothetical Democrat president and Democrat-controlled Senate, by four justices in order to swing the court’s balance of power to the left.

“The Republicans stole two Supreme Court seats in 2016 and 2020. That’s what’s giving them their supermajority. The only way to solve this problem in a very short period of time is to expand the Supreme Court by four seats, up to 13,” Markey said during a recent appearance on MS-NOW.

“That would then restore the 7-6 majority, which should be in place right now. And we have to fight for that, and we can do that statutorily. It does not require a constitutional amendment,” he added. “That has to be at the top of the agenda, and that’s what I’m talking to my colleagues about right now.”

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“Attacks on law enforcement are unacceptable and those responsible will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. The safety of our residents and visitors remains our highest priority.”

A chaotic block party in North Charleston, South Carolina, led to multiple arrests after several police officers were assaulted while responding to reports of gunfire.

The North Charleston Police Department released a statement following the circulation of a viral video showing a female officer being attacked by a black mob. Police said the violence that erupted during a neighborhood block party in the Chicora-Cherokee community spiraled out of control, resulting in multiple arrests and the seizure of several firearms and a makeshift spear.

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For all its B-movie trappings, Citizen Vigilante is the first of its kind: a film that sees the migrant crisis in Europe as a crisis for Europeans.

It is politically incorrect in the most provocative sense and, as such, was probably destined to be made by two people (director Uwe Boll and actor Armie Hammer) who have been routinely dragged through the mud and probably feel like they have nothing left to lose.

If the oft-ridiculed Boll and the scandal-plagued Hammer are both at a point where they have stopped caring what people think of them, then the strident tone of Citizen Vigilante reflects a growing outrage many people are feeling with regard to the migrant situation in Europe. The film is unambiguous in the way it opens with the superimposed location title “EUROPE” and closes with the stark dedication: “To the thousands of rape and murder victims in Europe who were betrayed by our legal system.”

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Federal immigration enforcement data and reporting indicate a notable increase in arrests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in recent days.

According to a report from the New York Times, ICE detained more than 10,000 individuals over the last five days of June. This figure reflects a doubling of the daily arrest rate to approximately 2,000 arrests per day, compared to roughly 1,000 per day earlier in the year.

Arrests reached a peak of more than 2,400 on one Saturday during this period, according to documents reviewed by the outlet.

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Key Takeaways

  • A federal judge blocked the Trump administration’s restrictions on the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, citing violations of free speech rights for borrowers engaging in lawful activities such as supporting immigrants and teaching inclusion.
  • Judge Joun criticized the lack of justification for the rule, which could potentially disqualify borrowers based on vague accusations of illegal activity, asserting that the administration cannot create new criminal prohibitions through rulemaking.
  • The PSLF program, which provides loan forgiveness for government and non-profit workers after ten years of service, has helped over one million borrowers since its inception, while the recent ruling aligns with a broader legal challenge from multiple states and organizations against the administration’s policies.

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The Office of Congressional Workplace Rights (OCWR) provided no information on whether it has undisclosed information regarding taxpayer funds used to pay out lawmakers’ sexual misconduct settlements.

The House passed Republican Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie’s resolution on June 30 that directed the OCWR and House Ethics Committee to release a list of congressional members subject to sexual misconduct investigations and disclose cases that resulted in taxpayer-funded monetary settlements. The OCWR told the Daily Caller News Foundation Thursday it will fully comply with the resolution, though they refused to provide further comment.

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The massive funeral event in Iran over the weekend for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei included calls for murdering President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, from both members of the crowd and official speakers at the events.

The UK Guardian noted that the first official day of the elaborately staged funeral on Saturday was a bit smaller, more subdued, and less “militant” than the angry crowds swarming the street on Sunday.

The crowd was treated to such inducements as a government-authorized presentation from poet Mohammad Rasouli, who mixed his poetry with a call for Trump’s murder.

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Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow withdrew from the Democratic Senate primary on Sunday. Once running neck and neck with her rivals for the seat being vacated by Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI), who is retiring, McMorrow had plummeted to a distant third after revelations about previously deleted tweets and a series of other campaign missteps.

While McMorrow is considered far-left, she stops short of being a democratic socialist.

She did not endorse either of the two candidates remaining in the race: Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), who is backed by both the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the United Democracy Project, the primary super PAC affiliated with AIPAC; or the radical Abdul El-Sayed, who has been endorsed by democratic socialists Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).

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America’s collapsing birth rate is being driven largely by people with left-wing beliefs, according to new research.

The study suggests that political beliefs are closely tied to how many children Americans choose to have.

Led by researchers at the University of Vienna in Austria, the study was published in “Scientific Reports”

The findings show that people on the Left tend to have fewer children, while conservatives have maintained birth rates closer to historical averages.

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Xbox is handing the pink slip to 3,200 of its employees, or 20 per cent of the total workforce, over the next year. The move comes as part of the Microsoft-owned company’s broader AI-led layoffs, with Xbox being affected the most as its “business is not healthy”, Chief Executive Officer Asha Sharma said in a letter to employees.

In her email to workers, Sharma noted that 1,600 employees will be laid off on Monday, while the remaining ones will be let go over FY27. In addition, Xbox will divest four of its gaming studios and is preparing to part ways with another.

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It is an unchallengeable dogma of our post-9/11 civic faith that every Muslim in the United States, from the leaders of national Muslim organizations to the rank-and-file believers in the serried ranks of worshipers at mosques around the country, is a “moderate.” Everyone assumes that Muslims in the U.S. all reject terrorism and violence as a twisting and hijacking of their peaceful faith, and that only racist, bigoted “Islamophobes” would dare suggest that the gentle soul in the next cubicle at work or who runs the store down the street could possibly harbor anything but love for his non-Muslim neighbors.

France National Assembly Passes Bill to Legalize Euthanasia www.lifenews.com
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Sebastien Ostertag reported from France that the French National Assembly voted to support the euthanasia bill by a vote of 295 to 232 against.

The bill will go back to France’s Senate but even if France’s Senate defeats the euthanasia bill again, the National Assembly can over-ride the Senate if they vote to legalize on July 15, 2026.

On May 27, 2025, the French National Assembly passed the euthanasia bill by a vote of 305 to 199. On January 21, 2026, France’s Senate defeated the bill by 181 to 122.

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On February 25, 2026, the French National Assembly passed the euthanasia bill again. France’s Senate once again defeated the bill on Monday May 11, 2026 by a vote of 151 to 118. The Senate then passed, by a vote of 325 to 18, the part of the law that improves access to palliative care.

Ostertag reported that the opposition has two weeks to change 32 votes before the final vote on July 15. Ostertag explains:

  • If the bill passes: Catholic and otherwise Christian retirement homes and medical institutions will likely shut down since there is no conscience clause for religious institutions.
  • Nurses and pharmacists can be forced to participate in euthanasia, since there is no conscience clause for them.
  • Those who are poor and suffering may be pressured into death since access to palliative care isn’t universal.
  • The waiting/reflection period before death is only 48 hours.
  • Estimates from France suggest that, based on France’s population, 50,000 people could die every year from euthanasia.
  • The family won’t be able to ask the court to stop the decision to die.
  • Proponents of the bill will likely push for further expansions, as in other jurisdictions, to allow children to be euthanized, people with mental illness and criminalizing those who try to dissuade someone from being killed.

Unfortunately, the effort to put the question of euthanasia on the ballot through a parliamentary and constitutional procedure was struck down by the Conseil Constitutionnel, (French Supreme Court) which means that the July 15th vote is the last say, at least until after the next presidential election.

France’s government strongly supports the euthanasia bill and has pressured members of the National Assembly to support it. President Emmanuel Macron and the President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet both support legalizing euthanasia.

France needs to examine the experience with euthanasia in Québec and completely reject the bill. Québec legalized euthanasia based on “exceptional circumstances” in 2015. The French Canadian province now has the highest euthanasia rate in the world.

LifeNews.com Note: Alex Schadenberg is the executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition and you can read his blog here.

 

 

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Last week, the Supreme Court voted for the federal government’s ability to remove protections for citizens of Haiti and Syria — and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) isn’t having it.

“We saw today the Supreme Court make a decision that is putting so many people’s lives in jeopardy. And I just came back from a rally with 1199 as I stood alongside a number of Haitian New Yorkers who are concerned about what this means for their status in our city,” Mamdani began in a video statement.

“And frankly, this city, the one that we love, is one that has been built by so many from so many different parts of the world. And that includes our Haitian brothers and sisters, our Syrian brothers and sisters. And we stand here ready to be in solidarity with all of those who are concerned by today’s decision,” he said.

“Now, what that means when it comes to our city is if you are worried about what this means for your status, if you’re worried about what this means for your family, I would encourage you to call our Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs hotline,” he added.

“Notice when the Supreme Court goes on their side, you absolutely must positively follow it. But if it doesn’t go their way, well, then they have all kinds of NGOs that come out of the woodwork to subvert,” Glenn comments.

“Is New York part of the United States or not? Because I’m fine with it. Cut it off … not one federal dollar goes to New York City. I am fine with that,” he continues.

 

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Former lawyer Melat Kiros, 29, has criticised the Democrats for their support of Israel during its genocidal war on Gaza.

Democratic ⁠socialist Melat Kiros has defeated 15-term United States Representative Diana DeGette in the Democratic primary in a Denver-area district in Colorado, according to US media projections, the latest victory of ‌a leftist over an establishment Democrat.

The race on Tuesday was called ⁠by multiple media outlets after 78 percent ⁠of the votes were counted and Kiros had a nearly 7,000-vote lead over DeGette.

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The Department of Justice has directed federal prosecutors nationwide to intensify investigations and prosecutions involving birth tourism schemes because the practice exploits the U.S. immigration system through visa fraud and other federal crimes.

In a memorandum issued Tuesday, Deputy Attorney General Colin McDonald instructed U.S. attorneys to work with the Department of Homeland Security to make birth tourism cases a higher enforcement priority.

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The Israeli military eliminated several Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) commanders responsible for the October 7 massacre as the counter-terrorism operations in Gaza near the 1000-day mark.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Tuesday announced the elimination of “Ali Qaid Mohammed Stitan, a Nukhba platoon commander in the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization” in a precise aerial strike in central Gaza. “Ali Qaid infiltrated Israeli territory during the October 7th Massacre,” the IDF disclosed. “Throughout the war and in recent days, Ali Qaid attempted to advance terror attacks against IDF troops and Israeli civilians.”

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It appears humans still have the edge over AI.

For now at least.

Ford has announced it has rehired nearly 300 engineers after initially letting them go after replacing them with AI.

The decision by Ford to rehire the engineers comes after its AI system was unable to perform well while conducting quality checks.

BBC had more details to report on Ford’s latest move:

Ford says it has hired back some human engineers after AI failed to match their skills and experience.

In a bid to reap the benefits of the tech, which developers claim can cut costs and boost productivity, the US carmaker adopted it across some parts of its operations including for quality checks.

But, according to Bloomberg, its executives said the firm has rehired more than 300 “veteran” quality inspectors in recent years to make up for the pitfalls of automated systems.

“Artificial intelligence is a fantastic tool, but it’s only as good as the information you use to train it,” Charles Poon, vice president of vehicle hardware engineering, told reporters.

“Over prior years, we didn’t pay as much attention as we should have to the experience of our most knowledgeable engineers that have been with us through many product cycles,” he said.

The US automaker is among many to have seized on the buzz around AI, particularly amid Wall Street fervour about the tech’s potential to increase margins.

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Three people were taken into custody after a CBS News Chicago reporting crew was attacked while preparing for a live broadcast near Chicago’s Adler Planetarium, an incident that authorities say escalated from verbal harassment into a violent assault that damaged news equipment and a station vehicle.

The journalists were not physically injured, but the attack has renewed concerns about the safety of reporters working in the field. The incident unfolded shortly before 4:30 p.m. Monday on East Solidarity Drive, where a CBS News Chicago reporter and photographer were setting up for the station’s afternoon newscast.

According to CBS, three men arrived in a white tow truck and quickly confronted the crew without warning. Witnesses told the station the encounter became hostile almost immediately.

One of the suspects shouted racial slurs directed at one of the journalists before ordering a dog to attack. Police said the animal did not engage, but the confrontation continued to escalate. Witnesses said the dog appeared to be used as a means of intimidation before the other suspects joined the confrontation.

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Experts are sounding alarms after artificial intelligence giant Anthropic hired a notorious economist who argues that a one-in-three chance of ending human existence is an acceptable tradeoff if AI delivers massive economic growth.

The AI company, known for publicly warning about the dangers of the same technology it is racing to build, recently brought on Stanford economics professor Chad Jones.

Jones’s past work is now drawing scrutiny after the Financial Times highlighted a paper in which he calculated what level of existential risk from AI could be considered “optimal” when weighed against potential gains in living standards.

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Do American pharmaceutical companies conducting clinical trials on drugs in China help the CCP’s military capability? A bipartisan group of lawmakers wants to know, and they’ve opened an investigation into drugmakers, including Merck, Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Bristol Myers ⁠Squibb, and AbbVie (a spinoff of Abbott Laboratories), and are demanding that they detail their policies and due diligence efforts in their overseas operations.

Rep. John Moolenaar (MI-02), chair of the China Select Committee, is leading the charge:

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With America’s 250th anniversary approaching this Saturday, just 14 percent of Democrats described themselves as “extremely proud” to be an American, according to a new Gallup poll, as national pride hits a new low.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, national pride was at a high. Through 2004, 65 to 70 percent of poll respondents felt extremely proud, according to Gallup data from the time. Yet, each year since 2018, less than half of respondents reported extreme pride.

As other polls have also shown, this data highlights a widening partisan gap when it comes to national pride. This year, there was a 56-point gap between Republicans and Democrats, with 70 percent of Republicans and 14 percent of Democrats claiming they were “extremely proud.”

Democrats and the propaganda press seem intent on fueling this lack of national pride, as demonstrated by corporate media’s response to the