US Tries To Deport Student Who’s Lived in US Since Age 7

Full video (timestamp: 35:19)

NEW YORK (AP) — Another Columbia University student said Monday that the Trump administration has targeted her for deportation over her pro-Palestinian views, accusing immigration officials in a lawsuit of employing the same tactics used on Mahmoud Khalil and other college activists.

US Tries To Deport Student Who’s Lived in US Since Age 7

Previously:

First They Came for Mahmoud Khalil…

The ADA Is Turning 35—And It’s in Trump’s Crosshairs + More

The ADA Is Turning 35—And It’s in Trump’s Crosshairs

Since the bill was signed into law, disabled Americans have benefited from a much wider array of protections in the workforce, in education, and in the ability to access public places and private spaces open to the public, such as stores and restaurants. But in a world where disability rights victories, and disabled people themselves, are being attacked by anti-DEI activists who have President Donald Trump’s ear, disability civil rights feel a little more fragile. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, another essential and wide-ranging item of civil rights legislation, is also in peril, most notably through a lawsuit filed by 17 Republican state attorneys general and led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, as my colleague Sarah Szilagy reported in October.

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How Musk Sold Out America’s Veterans – OpEd

How Musk Sold Out America’s Veterans – OpEd

Former service members around the country already feel the repercussions, which include cuts to transportation programs for disabled veterans, reduced telephone support for caregivers, and the postponement or cancellation of suicide prevention trainings.

Other veterans report the cancellation of therapy groups and longer wait times for appointments as well as disruptions to medical studies, including a clinical trial on a new medication with the potential to treat cancers of the mouth and throat. Some facilities eliminated staff members especially trained or certified to perform certain roles, delaying the requisition and delivery of medical supplies.

As always happens amid Musk’s ham-handed raids, the cuts at the VA commenced without the slightest foresight or sense. Among many other examples, officials summarily canceled hundreds of contracts with outside providers, only to immediately scale back the reckless decision after realizing they needed the help performing essential work like physician recruitment and burial services.

Kaldahl, who receives hearing aids, eye care, and other services from the VA, has to travel to larger cities, such as Superior, Wisconsin, or Minneapolis, to receive care unavailable at a clinic near his home.

USAID Updates

Trump aides circulate plan for complete revamp of foreign aid programs

— Placing the Millennium Challenge Corporation and the U.S. Trade and Development Agency under the auspices of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation. The combined entity would focus on promoting private sector investment, especially in areas such as infrastructure, energy and technology. The document says the new approach would be a powerful counterweight to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which Beijing has used to gain economic and diplomatic footholds in many countries.

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Trump’s Billionaire Commerce Secretary: Only ‘Fraudsters’ Will Complain If Social Security Checks Don’t Arrive

One group noted who would actually complain: “Someone who depends on Social Security to buy groceries. Someone who depends on Social Security to pay rent. Someone who depends on Social Security to survive.”

Trump’s Billionaire Commerce Secretary: Only ‘Fraudsters’ Will Complain If Social Security Checks Don’t Arrive

Palantir Goes to the Frankfurt School

Since the election of Donald Trump, a growing body of research has examined the role of digital technologies in new right wing movements (Lewis 2018; Hawley 2017; Neiwert 2017; Nagle 2017). This article will explore a distinct, but related, subject: new right wing tendencies within the tech industry itself. Our point of entry will be an improbable document: a German language dissertation submitted by an American to the faculty of social sciences at J. W. Goethe University of Frankfurt in 2002. Entitled Aggression in the Life-World, the dissertation aims to describe the role that aggression plays in social integration, or the set of processes that lead individuals in a given society to feel bound to one another. To that end, it offers a “systematic” reinterpretation of Theodor Adorno’s Jargon of Authenticity (1973). It is of interest primarily because of its author: Alexander C. Karp.

Moira Weigel — Palantir Goes to the Frankfurt School

Related:

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Concerns over MEK’s potential Influence in Congress + More

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and the Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) are synonymous.

The Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) has renewed its efforts to position itself as a credible opposition movement to the Islamic Republic. The recent outcome of the group’s lobbying activities has been a resolution submitted by 160 congressmen. However, a comprehensive new report from the Congressional Research Service [CRS] critically assesses these ongoing efforts, underscoring significant concerns regarding the MEK’s extremist ideological origins, historical involvement in terrorism, documented human rights abuses, and notably weak popular support among Iranians both domestically and within the diaspora.

Concerns over MEK’s potential Influence in Congress (archived)

Related:

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Noboa Taps Blackwater’s Prince to Battle Ecuador’s Chaos

“An image of Erik Prince meeting with Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa shared on Noboa’s official X account.” – CNN

President Daniel Noboa shocks the world, revealing a strategic alliance with Erik Prince, Blackwater’s founder, to tackle Ecuador’s security crisis.

Noboa Taps Blackwater’s Prince to Battle Ecuador’s Chaos (archived)

Related:

US and European armies should join our war on gangs, Ecuador president tells BBC

Noboa has already ordered the foreign ministry to seek cooperation agreements with “allied nations” to support Ecuador’s police and army, and is also seeking parliamentary approval to change the constitution to allow foreign military bases in Ecuador again.

The Latest on Colby’s Strategy of Denial

There’s little in Elbridge A. Colby’s past to suggest that President Trump’s most loyal and fierce allies would embrace him.

Mr. Colby, 45, has deep roots in the foreign policy establishment that Mr. Trump is trying to destroy. He is the grandson of the former C.I.A. director William Colby; a product of Groton, Harvard and Yale Law School; someone who has spent much of his career working across party lines on some of the most complex national security issues: nuclear weapons strategy, China’s military buildup, the commercialization of space.

A Pentagon Nomination Fight Reveals the New Rules of Trump’s Washington

Related:

US Army War College: Adapting US Defense Strategy to Great-Power Competition

USNI: A Forward Denial Defense: Inside the First Island Chain

Colby-Pottinger document

Europe Hatches Plans for Ukraine Peacekeepers Without U.S.

Europe Hatches Plans for Ukraine Peacekeepers Without U.S.

Western allies are trying to hash out a bold European idea: sending 10,000 to 30,000 troops to Ukraine to help enforce any eventual peace deal with Russia.

As things stand, the chance of this force ever heading to Ukraine is a long shot, says Bence Németh, a defense expert at King’s College London. European leaders say they will only send troops if there is a lasting peace in Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin has so far ruled out signing a peace deal that includes Western forces in Ukraine. 

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