US immigration officials have faced a major surge in assaults against them this year, the US Department of Homeland Security has said Read Full Article at RT.com

At least three children were injured after a Ukrainian drone crashed into a residential building in the southern Russian city of Voronezh Read Full Article at RT.com

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. abruptly fired two of his top aides, rattling his department’s leadership team amid his broader attack on the nation’s public health apparatus. The two ousted officials—chief of staff Heather Flick Melanson and deputy chief of staff for policy Hannah Anderson—were dismissed after only a few months on the job. CNN, which first reported the firings, said Kennedy had lost confidence in both, though it’s unclear what triggered the move. In a statement to CNN, an HHS spokesperson confirmed the departures and said White House liaison Matt Buckham would serve as acting chief of staff effective immediately.  “He brings valuable experience in personnel strategy and organizational management to this new role,” the spokesperson said. “Secretary Kennedy thanks the outgoing leadership for their service and looks forward to working closely with Mr. Buckham as the Department continues advancing its mission to Make America Healthy Again.” No permanent replacements have been named. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in Atlanta, shown in 2013. HHS oversees the work of major federal health agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes of Health—institutions now squarely in the crosshairs of Kennedy’s largely anti-science agenda. The leadership churn hasn’t stopped with Kennedy’s own staff, either. According to The Washington Post, NIH’s chief operating officer, Eric Schnabel, was recently fired as well.  The various shakeups come mere months into Kennedy’s tenure and leave him scrambling to fill key leadership roles amid mounting scrutiny of his radical plans to reshape health policy, gut vaccine programs, and overhaul the structure of the department itself. Flick Melanson was one of Kennedy’s more seasoned Washington players, having previously served as acting general counsel and senior adviser to then-HHS Secretary Alex Azar during Trump’s first term. Anderson, a former GOP Hill staffer and policy adviser to Senate Republicans, had recently worked on health care at the America First Policy Institute, a pro-Trump think tank. Politico reported that Flick Melanson had been viewed by some as a steadying hand—someone who understood the functions of the department, given concerns about how aggressively Kennedy might pursue his anti-science agenda. And yet, backed by President Donald Trump, Kennedy has charged ahead with his “Make America Healthy Again” crusade. Not only did he fire all 17 members of the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel and replace them with loyalists, but he also published a widely criticized, error-filled report on childhood illnesses. And he’s moved to axe 20,000 HHS staffers and slash dozens of agency divisions—all while facing a wave of legal challenges. His war on synthetic food dyes faces industry changes. And under his watch, HHS has taken a series of anti-vaccine actions that experts say have eroded public confidence in immunizations. More chaos at HHS under Kennedy. No surprise there.

President Donald Trump is celebrating an enormous win: allegedly getting Coca-Cola to switch its sweetener from high fructose corn syrup to real cane sugar in the United States.  “I have been speaking to Coca-Cola about using REAL Cane Sugar in Coke in the United States, and they have agreed to do so,” he wrote on Truth Social Wednesday. “I’d like to thank all of those in authority at Coca-Cola. This will be a very good move by them — You’ll see. It’s just better!” The official White House X account even shared a bizarre Coke-inspired promotion of the very dumb announcement.  Despite being a Diet Coke drinker himself—with his very own “Diet Coke button” in the Oval Office—Trump’s move of getting U.S. Coke to be made with cane sugar effectively makes it the same as Mexican Coke.  And for a man who has touted mass deportations and a U.S.-Mexico border wall while claiming that people coming into the United States are murderers and rapists, his promotion of the Mexican drink is certainly an interesting move.  Then again, this is the same man who celebrated Cinco de Mayo in 2016 by hunching over a taco bowl and declaring, “I love Hispanics.”  So anything is possible.

A cartoon by Pedro Molina. Related | Trump and MAGA turn on each other over Epstein files

A daily roundup of the best stories and cartoons by Daily Kos staff and contributors to keep you in the know. Trump really, really wants to tank the economy And like so much of Trump’s agenda, it’s probably illegal. Democrats slam Trump and GOP for cover-up of Epstein files “Did anyone really think the sexual-predator president who used to party with Jeffrey Epstein was going to release the Epstein files?” 👀 Pentagon scales back its invasion of Los Angeles Who knew TACO also applied to domestic military campaigns? Bye-bye, Big Bird: GOP inches closer to gutting public media Trump’s agenda will hit rural America the hardest. Trump is gutting Medicaid—but rural America still won’t wake up Seriously, it’s like the guy is trying to crush his rural base. Cartoon: Tanks for nothing First, Trump tanks the economy, then he tanks education. Click here to see more cartoons.

The Trump administration has been deporting immigrants to random countries, and they couldn’t be more proud. On Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security’s Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin boasted on X that “a safe third country deportation flight to Eswatini in Southern Africa has landed,” with 5 immigrants aboard. “This flight took individuals so uniquely barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back,” she wrote. “These depraved monsters have been terrorizing American communities but thanks to Trump and [Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem], they are off of American soil.” To back up the assertion, McLaughlin posted some photos of the alleged barbarians, along with their criminal convictions. Of course, their names are not provided, so as per usual, there’s no way to fact check the now-standard assertion that the people being deported are the very worst of the worst.  King Mswati III of Eswatini Similarly, when the Trump administration deported immigrants to South Sudan, McLaughlin made an almost identical statement, saying that it was necessary because “no country on earth wanted to accept them because their crimes were so uniquely barbaric.” Just as the Trump administration decided it was fine to deport people to South Sudan despite warning people not to travel there because it’s too dangerous, it’s also content to ignore government reports on the human rights crisis in Eswatini.  The State Department’s 2023 report found “significant human rights issues” in Eswatini, including torture by the government, extrajudicial killings, lack of independence of the judiciary, trafficking, and child labor. Of course, neither immigrants nor their lawyers have any idea what exactly they will endure, but the report detailed overcrowding, nutrition deficiencies, lack of health services equipment, and gang violence in Eswatini’s prisons.  A spokesperson for the Eswatini government confirmed that the 5 immigrants are imprisoned in “isolated units” and that both Eswatini and the U.S. government will work with the United Nations to “facilitate the transit” of the men to their countries of origin.  It’s not entirely clear what that means, as it makes it sound like somehow the Trump administration deported people to Eswatini only to work jointly with that country to eventually send them home. Of course, that does not at all seem like the intent. According to a report from The New York Times report last month, the Trump administration has explored these trafficking arrangements with dozens of countries, many beset by violence, poverty, and human rights abuses. And of the 58 countries the administration has approached, many are covered by or are being considered for President Donald Trump’s latest travel ban.  Related | Rubio callously revokes visas for entire country over US mistake So it’s too dangerous to allow people from those countries into the United States, but it’s totally safe and cool to send people to their prisons. And in case countries were on the fence, the State Department told diplomats that these countries could possibly evade the travel ban if they take deportees.  We can expect much more of these blatant human rights violations, thanks to the Supreme Court blocking a lower court order requiring immigrants to have a reasonable chance to challenge their deportations. Now, people can be deported to any random country of Trump’s liking with as little as 6 hours’ notice.  The conservatives on the Supreme Court knew full well that their decision would open the floodgates to these evil actions. They just don’t care.

Barack Obama joked that they were «touch and go» while appearing on his wife's podcast

Stevie Wonder told the crowd at his UK show last week that he's blind, confirming what we already know

Public media is made possible through contributions from scumdogs like you

Maurene Comey was terminated from her position as a federal prosecutor in Manhattan, per reports

The latest GOP push to defund public media won't save much cash. But it will disadvantage poor and rural kids

The US president has reiterated that he is “disappointed” with Moscow when it comes to the settlement of the Ukraine conflict Read Full Article at RT.com

Brussels is reportedly considering sending an additional €100 billion to Ukraine Read Full Article at RT.com

Emmanuel Gonquoi has delivered a sharp critique of Donald Trump’s recent remarks to African leaders Read Full Article at RT.com

Germany is ready to buy US-made air defense systems for Ukraine, Chancellor Merz has claimed Read Full Article at RT.com

The US president has indicated that some American weaponry could be bought by European countries and sent to Ukraine Read Full Article at RT.com

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin might be stripping away billions of dollars in grants, but at least he’s delivering hard-hitting information on beloved MAGA conspiracies.  After posting a video on X Thursday in which Zeldin announced a new website dispelling the concerns over chemtrails and contrails, he seems to be butting heads with his fellow Cabinet members. “The Trump EPA is committed to total transparency. I tasked my team @EPA to compile everything we know about contrails and geoengineering to release to you now publicly. I want you to know EVERYTHING I know about these topics, and without ANY exception!” he wrote in the caption. x YouTube Video The new website lists contrails as a “normal” effect left behind by jets and the right-wing conspiratorial chemtrails as "inaccurate.” But while Zeldin is shutting down conspiracies, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. might not be too pleased.  Kennedy has been adamant about his mission to stop the “crime” of chemtrails since last year. And in April, the MAHA guru even took the conspiracy to Dr. Phil. “That is not happening in my agency. We don’t do that. It’s done—we think—by DARPA, and a lot of it now is coming out of the jet fuel. Those materials are put in jet fuel,” he said. “I’m going to do everything in my power to stop it. We’re bringing on somebody who’s gonna think only about that, find out who’s doing that and hold them accountable.” Related | RFK Jr. fails to solve yet another MAGA conspiracy Of course, Kennedy’s not the only MAGA supporter pushing the idea. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia has been a longtime supporter of weather modification, like cloud seeding and chemtrails In the wake of the recent Texas flooding, the conspiracy that extreme weather is caused in some capacity by some sort of weather modification has taken hold in the online zeitgeist.  And while Zeldin didn’t directly address that in his video, it’s likely that he’s trying to quell some of those theories. Time will tell if he’s successful.

A daily roundup of the best stories and cartoons by Daily Kos staff and contributors to keep you in the know. Watch Trump being creepy—and dumb—again There are many things you can call Trump—”appropriate” or a “feminist” is not one of them. Texas Republicans are trying to rig the map for the next election Sure, Texas just suffered a catastrophic flood, but the GOP wants to focus on gerrymandering instead. Look just how much red counties depend on the government they hate Red states are like those grown-up kids who yell about how much they hate their parents while living in their basement. Cartoon: MAGAvision Everything is upside-down. You won't believe how badly Kristi Noem bungled Texas flood response When in doubt, blame fake news. Outgoing GOP senator finally finds his spine and shreds Pete Hegseth Laying blame is easy when you have one foot out the door. Transportation secretary takes his lack of expertise to NASA So many jobs, so much incompetence. Click here to see more cartoons.

The U.S. Army is facing increasing backlash from families of the 67 people killed in January’s catastrophic midair collision over the Potomac River, with relatives accusing military officials of evasion, stonewalling, and refusing to take responsibility. In a letter sent this week to Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, 168 family members of the victims expressed their profound disappointment with the Army’s conduct during the ongoing investigation. According to The Washington Post, they criticized the military’s pattern of silence and secrecy, especially compared to the responsiveness shown by other agencies. “The Army’s approach contrasts sharply with the more collaborative stance taken by other organizations involved in this incident and raises serious questions about its commitment to transparency and accountability,” the letter reads. Salvage crews recover wreckage near the site in the Potomac River of the midair collision between an American Eagle jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter. At the heart of the families’ frustration is the Army’s refusal to engage meaningfully with them, even though other parties involved in the tragedy—such as the National Transportation Safety Board and the Department of Transportation—have been more forthcoming. The crash happened when an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided with American Eagle Flight 5342 as the commercial jet was making its final approach to Reagan National Airport. The letter highlights the Army’s particularly egregious decision to withhold an unclassified ADS-B policy memo from Congress, only releasing it under threat of subpoena. The equipment, which detects and helps avoid potential collisions, was reportedly not transmitting from the Army helicopter during the accident, a detail uncovered by the NTSB. “These actions demonstrate the Army’s willingness to circumvent official processes and resist oversight when deflecting scrutiny. At the same time, the Army has cited process while persistently refusing to accept responsibility or even acknowledge the families throughout these ordeals,” the letter continues.  According to relatives, Army officials held a single initial meeting after the crash but then disappeared. They added that updates, when they came, were often dropped during holidays, which they suspect was meant to minimize press coverage. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump, who initially pledged support for the victims, only fueled more outrage. In the days following the tragedy, he offered a series of bizarre and baseless theories, blaming everything from diversity, equity, and inclusion programs to President Barack Obama and dwarfism. None of these claims had any connection to the crash, nor were they supported by evidence. Related | Trump transportation flunky tries to blame plane crashes on Biden Even as the NTSB continues its investigation, families say that the Army has failed to meet the moment. A defense official confirmed to the Post that senior Army leaders now plan to meet with affected families later this month, alongside the NTSB’s public hearings. But for many relatives, this may come far too late. Some families, like that of co-pilot Sam Lilley, are especially outraged. Lilley’s father, Tim—himself a former Black Hawk pilot—said that the crash reveals training shortcomings and a culture of complacency within the military unit involved.  The Army’s inspector general has refused to open an independent audit into the incident, despite bipartisan support and congressional pressure, another sore point raised in the letter. “Given that this is the deadliest incident involving U.S. civilian casualties caused by the military in modern history, the Army has a heightened responsibility to ensure full public transparency and urgent implementation of meaningful safety reforms,” the letter reads. “The scale of this tragedy demands complete cooperation and accountability from all parties involved—including the U.S. Army.”  Their requests are straightforward: Appoint a family liaison, hold a full meeting with families, and support the congressional audits.  It’s a simple ask after an unspeakable loss. But once again, the Trump administration—and its military leadership—appear more interested in covering their tracks than confronting hard truths.

Consider supporting my work so I can continue creating it: Substack: https://nickanderson.substack.com/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/editorialcartoons Ko-Fi: https://www.patreon.com/c/editorialcartoons Related | Watch Trump make it weird when reporter asks about Epstein

Cue Jeff Goldblum in “Jurassic Park”: The lower courts … find a way. U.S. Federal District Judge Joseph Laplante just did what the Supreme Court conservatives told him to do—and they’re likely furious.  In Barbara v. Trump, one of the cases challenging President Donald Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order, Laplante granted the plaintiffs’ request to provisionally certify a nationwide class and a preliminary injunction blocking the order from applying to everyone in that class. Voila! It’s a nationwide injunction, without being a nationwide injunction.  The class is composed of all children in the country who would potentially be affected by Trump’s executive order, which was set to take effect on July 27. Now, babies born to undocumented parents on or after Feb. 20, 2025, will be protected from having their citizenship stripped away based on nothing but a racist, unconstitutional executive order.  The Trump administration has continued to argue that it’s irreparably harmed by not being able to disregard the Fourteenth Amendment and immediately deport babies, but Laplante was having none of it.  Laplante wrote in his order that he had “no difficulty concluding that the rapid adoption by executive order, without legislation and the attending national debate, of a new government policy of highly questionable constitutionality that would deny citizenship to many thousands of individuals previously granted citizenship under an indisputably longstanding policy, constitutes irreparable harm.” Justice Amy Coney Barrett This complicated maneuver is the only path forward for nationwide relief after last month’s birthright citizenship decision in Trump v. CASA, when the Supreme Court’s conservative majority did Trump’s bidding by barring lower courts from issuing nationwide injunctions in almost all occasions.  In her majority opinion, Justice Amy Coney Barrett justified kneecapping the rest of the judiciary by saying that parties could just file class actions. But Barrett knows full well that federal courts have been making it harder to bring class actions for years. And she certainly was aware that the Trump administration is simply going to oppose class action certification, which is exactly what it did to the plaintiffs in CASA.  When Laplante’s decision inevitably makes its way up to the Supreme Court, Trump knows he has a friend, as per usual, in Justice Samuel Alito, who used his concurrence in CASA to wag his finger at both the plaintiffs and the lower courts and let them know he’s not really interested in class action relief either. “But district courts should not view today’s decision as an invitation to certify nationwide classes without scrupulous adherence to the rigors of Rule 23. Otherwise, the universal injunction will return from the grave under the guise of ‘nationwide class relief,’ and today’s decision will be of little more than minor academic interest,” he wrote. Seriously, man. You already have the Supreme Court gig. You don’t need to toady this hard every time. We get it: You love Trump, you hate immigrants, and you’re going to twist the law into knots to help destroy the Fourteenth Amendment.  But until Trump runs to the Supreme Court to make this go away, this class action stops his birthright citizenship order in its tracks.  Getting nationwide relief this way is complicated, but it’s necessary. The plaintiffs are fighting the Trump administration, but lower court judges have also found themselves locked in a battle with a lawless Supreme Court, which essentially decided that lower courts are enemies who must be stopped from thwarting Trump.  But the lower courts are the ones that are following the rule of law. Someone’s got to.

One of the most enduring conservative myths is that of the self-reliant, salt-of-the-earth, rural-dwelling American who pulls himself up by his bootstraps, wrestles a steer before breakfast, and builds his own house out of patriotism and chewing tobacco because, by god, they sure do love America!  If that were ever true, it hasn’t been for a while. These days, rural America is largely dependent on the federal government it claims to hate. In fact, far from self-reliant, rural America is subsidized by blue states. And it’s not even close. The Economic Innovation Group, a bipartisan public policy organization, has put together a map tracking the share of every county’s personal income that’s made up of government transfers, which include Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, food assistance, and veterans benefits—money specifically sent or spent on individuals.  I circled some of the country’s largest metropolitan areas to highlight how stark the urban-rural disparity can be. The metros around Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, and San Francisco all show minimal (less than 15% of personal income) or moderate (15% to less than 25%) reliance on government transfers. Rural America, meanwhile, is a glowing sea of government-dependent yellow. The South in particular looks like it took a bath in it. There are reasons for this. Rural regions have a big share of older people, given decades of young people fleeing for big cities. And while there is evidence of that trend reversing since 2020, due largely to the proliferation of remote work, rural areas still tend to be older than large metros. And more older people in a county means a bigger share of that country drawing Social Security and Medicare. And rural areas are more dependent on Medicaid. Government benefits are a good thing, so none of this is inherently bad, per se. But it does mean those rural areas are dependent on the very social safety net that Republicans are gleefully hacking apart with their cuts on Medicaid, food assistance, and the like. They’re also poorer than expensive urban regions, so they rely more on federal food assistance to eat.  But hey, that’s what these voters asked for. Rural areas lean heavily Republican, and farming-dependent counties voted for Trump at an eye-popping average of 78%. Maybe they were just eager to get back to some serious bootstrap-pulling, or maybe they thought the government cheese tasted better if it came with a side of moral superiority and immigrant-blaming. And can anyone actually eat when a handful of trans girls might be playing high school sports? They sure had their priorities!  And don’t worry, rural Republican voters: Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, gets a tax cut. Which he definitely needed. For reasons. 

A cartoon by Pedro Molina. Related | Watch Trump make it weird when reporter asks about Epstein

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's cost-cutting measures at the Federal Emergency Management Agency slowed search and rescue efforts in Texas by 72 hours, possibly costing some of the at least 120 lives lost in the devastating natural disaster, CNN reported. According to CNN, Noem created a new policy that requires her to personally sign off on any costs greater than $100,000. The Urban Search and Rescue crews seeking to be deployed to the Texas Hill Country—where hundreds of people were swept away by the rapidly rising rivers after heavy rainstorms—met that criteria. But CNN reported that Noem didn't approve the deployment of those search and rescue crews until Monday—three days after the floods swept through Texas. From CNN’s report: As central Texas towns were submerged in rising waters, FEMA officials realized they couldn’t pre-position Urban Search and Rescue crews from a network of teams stationed regionally across the country. In the past, FEMA would have swiftly staged these teams, which are specifically trained for situations including catastrophic floods, closer to a disaster zone in anticipation of urgent requests, multiple agency sources told CNN. But even as Texas rescue crews raced to save lives, FEMA officials realized they needed Noem’s approval before sending those additional assets. Noem didn’t authorize FEMA’s deployment of Urban Search and Rescue teams until Monday, more than 72 hours after the flooding began, multiple sources told CNN. DHS tried to deny that Noem’s incompetence hindered the search and rescue efforts. But their denial actually proved the CNN story. DHS said in a post on X, “President Trump approved a Major Disaster Declaration, hours after Governor Greg Abbott’s request. By Tuesday, FEMA had deployed 311 staffers, providing support and shelter for hundreds of people. Under President Trump and Secretary Noem’s leadership, DHS is reforming FEMA to prioritize state-led, locally executed disaster response, as Texas has exemplified.” That means that CNN’s report was correct, that it took until Tuesday for FEMA to deploy the search and rescue teams. Noem appeared on “Fox & Friends” on Thursday, where she was asked about the CNN report. But instead of providing evidence that she swiftly approved the search and rescue teams, she only attacked CNN—classic deflection that did not actually deny the report. “CNN has a report accusing you of slowing the process in Texas,” one of the hosts asked Noem, to which she replied, “Well there you go. Fake news CNN is absolutely trash, what they are doing.” x x YouTube Video Noem, for her part, has implemented the cost-cutting measures in DHS that hamstrung the search and rescue efforts in Texas even as she spends hundreds of millions galavanting around the country and globe cosplaying for PR stunts and visiting the torture camps she's gleefully sending immigrants to. A Wall Street Journal report from April said Noem spent $9 million on a television ad advising immigrants to self-deport. She also sported a $50,000 Rolex watch on a visit to the CECOT prison in El Salvador where the Trump administration illegally deported immigrants against court orders. Noem is also seeking a $50 million private jet to transport her to the stunts she's carrying out. Turns out, Noem cares more about creating torture porn than she does about saving lives.