[guest post by Dana]
Let’s go!
First news item
Another lawsuit filed:
President Donald Trump’s Justice Department sued New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ administration in federal court Thursday, alleging the city’s “sanctuary” policies interfere with the enforcement of federal immigration law. . .
In the complaint, filed in Brooklyn federal court, the Justice Department contends New York’s policies violate the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause and asks the court to issue a permanent injunction prohibiting the city from enforcing them.
Second news item
Because we live in an incredibly stupid time:
In March, conservative commentator Candace Owens revived an absurd conspiracy theory with a YouTube video titled “Is France’s First Lady a Man?” according to the complaint.
Promoted widely on X, Owens said the conspiracy theory was, “likely the biggest scandal in political history.”
Since then, Owens has produced numerous videos about Brigitte Macron for her nearly 4.5 million YouTube subscribers, including a multi-part series called “Becoming Brigitte.”
The Macrons responded by filing a lawsuit against Owens:
French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, filed a 22-count defamation lawsuit in the United States against right-wing podcaster Candace Owens Wednesday over the claim that Brigitte could be a man.
The lawsuit filed in Delaware Superior Court alleges Owens has broadcast “a relentless year-long campaign of defamation against the Macrons” according to a statement from Tom Clare, the Macrons’ lawyer.
Owens is a disgrace. I hope the Macrons win in court.
Third news item
Speaking of Macron: Symbolic, but still:
French President Emmanuel Macron announced Thursday that France will recognize Palestine as a state, in a bold diplomatic move amid snowballing global anger over people starving in Gaza. Israel denounced the decision.
Macron said in a post on X that he will formalize the decision at the United Nations General Assembly in September. “The urgent thing today is that the war in Gaza stops and the civilian population is saved,” he wrote.
The mostly symbolic move puts added diplomatic pressure on Israel as the war and humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip rage.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio reacted to the announcement:
“The United States strongly rejects [President Macron’s] plan to recognize a Palestinian state at the UN general assembly. This reckless decision only serves Hamas propaganda and sets back peace. It is a slap in the face to the victims of October 7th.”.
Fourth news item
The prevention of speech:
This is the strange paradox about invoking threats to democracy as a reason for censorship, as so many at this forum—some explicitly, many implicitly—have done over the last day: By and large, the crackdown on free speech that we citizens of democratic countries have tolerated over the last decades is motivated by genuine concern about the rise of extremism in our politics. But ironically, the result of this crackdown has been to make many citizens more mistrustful of democratic institutions, more mistrustful of the media that won’t let them think for themselves, and more mistrustful of politicians who claim that they can decide for others what they should be able to say or read. And that mistrust, in turn, is one of the main reasons why more and more people are voting for these extreme political forces.
Fifth news item
Deportee fights back:
A Venezuelan migrant who was deported from the U.S. to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison in March filed an administrative claim Thursday over what he says was his wrongful removal from the U.S. without due process.
Neiyerver Adrian Leon Rengel is one of more than 250 Venezuelan nationals who were released to their home country from CECOT in a prisoner swap last week after they were removed from the U.S. under the Alien Enemies Act.
Rengel’s claim, filed with the Office of the General Counsel for the Department of Homeland Security, came on the same day that U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ordered a status report on the men as the judge seeks to determine if their due process rights were violated when they were removed from the U.S.
. . .
“Federal officials lied to Rengel, telling him he was being sent to his country of origin, Venezuela,” the claim states. “Instead, for more than four months, Rengel languished in El Salvador — which is not his country of origin and a place where he has no ties — where he suffered physical, verbal, and psychological abuse.”
I suspect there will be more claims filed.
Related:
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg said on July 24 he may initiate disciplinary proceedings against Justice Department lawyers for their conduct in a lawsuit brought by Venezuelans challenging their removal to a high-security Salvadoran prison in March.
. . .
Boasberg also raised the prospect of referring Justice Department lawyers to state bar associations, which have the authority to discipline attorneys for unethical conduct.
Sounds good.
Sixth news item
Columbia University ponies up:
olumbia University will pay a $200 million fine to settle allegations from the Trump administration that it failed to do enough to stop the harassment of Jewish students, part of a sweeping deal reached on Wednesday to restore the university’s federal research funding, according to a statement from the university.
In exchange for the return of hundreds of millions in research grants, Columbia will also pledge to follow laws banning the consideration of race in admissions and hiring, and follow through on other commitments to reduce antisemitism and unrest on campus that it agreed to in March.
The author of the piece says out loud what she clearly believes to be the quiet part:
The deal is a significant milestone in the Trump administration’s quest to bring elite universities to heel.
Seventh news item
Death threats against former President Obama spiked on social media:
The threats started after Gabbard released a report on Friday alleging that Obama and members of his administration manufactured intelligence regarding Russian interference in the 2016 election to “lay the groundwork for what was essentially a yearslong coup against President Trump.”
She said she would refer the officials to the Justice Department for prosecution.
Then on Sunday Trump weighed in and posted an AI-generated video to his social media platform, Truth Social, which showed Obama being arrested and put in jail.
Since then, between July 17 and July 20, comments targeting Obama have surged on Truth Social, Gab and Telegram, the researchers found.
Wow. Great job, MAGA. Is there nothing you won’t do, no matter how harmful it might be, to protect your little god from what’s in the Epstein Files?
Eighth news item
Protests against Zelensky decision:
President Volodymyr Zelensky has signed a bill that critics say weakens the independence of Ukraine’s anti-corruption bodies, sparking protests in several cities and drawing international criticism.
The new law grants the prosecutor general control of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (Nabu) and Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (Sap), and critics say it undermines their authority.
In an address on Wednesday, Zelensky said both agencies would still “work” but needed to be cleared of “Russian influence”.
After the bill passed, hundreds of people gathered in Kyiv for the biggest anti-government protest since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Meanwhile, the terroristic nation showed the world how they feel about any lasting peace with Ukraine:
Russia is a ghoulish nation of terror:
Russia is forcing children abducted from Ukraine to fight against their own country when they turn 18, Ukrainian officials have told The Times.
An estimated 35,000 children have been taken from Ukraine’s eastern occupied territories so far since 2014, including at gunpoint.
New evidence is now emerging that when the children turn 18, they are being conscripted into Russian battalions and sent to the front line, to potentially face their friends, fathers or brothers on the battlefield.
It is not known how many have been conscripted, but by some estimates there are thousands.
MISCELLANEOUS
This is funny. A bull moose is blocking a popular hiking trail, and won’t move:
A big bull moose has spent the summer lingering around a popular Adirondack mountain hiking trail, prompting New York state wildlife officials to close the path as they monitor the potentially ailing animal.
The Goodman Mountain trail in the Horseshoe Lake Wild Forest has been temporarily closed since June 6 due to the oddly behaving animal. The moose is staying on or around the trail near the summit, sometimes sitting and sometimes foraging in a small area, according to the Department of Environmental Conservation.
(Photo is from NBC New York)
Have a good weekend.
—Dana
