curated citations to news sources
Christina Pagel: America’s retreat from science has far-reaching implications for global research and innovation
The immediate impact on US science and global health is devastating, but the implications for global science go further and we need to protect it.
Since January 2025 the US government has terminated or frozen hundreds of grants across the health, the climate, the environment, and NASA. Thousands of researchers have been dismissed and entire research programmes disrupted including climate change, vaccine development, social-media misinformation studies.
Universities are under sustained attack. Elite universities have had the most federal funding cut, are threatened with investigations over student Gaza protests, and are being asked to give up independence in hiring and curriculum decisions. Visa approvals for new international students and staff have slowed or been revoked outright.
International collaboration has been devastated. For instance, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been ordered to stop working with the World Health Organization, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has halted grant funding involving foreign partners, and threatened the prestigious international Fulbright scholarship.
The attacks on US science have been devastating for those working in science or considering science careers in the US. But the rest of the world is poorer for it as well.
(Christina Pagel more…)
Economist: Trump’s attack on science is growing fiercer and more indiscriminate
It started as a crackdown on DEI. Now all types of research are being cancelled
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – July 14, 2025
…In 1965, Congress passed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, or the Hart-Celler Act. It opened immigration to all nations, setting a general cap on total immigration levels.
But southern congressmen, appalled at the idea of Black immigration, introduced a provision that privileged family migration, arguing that “family unification” should be the nation’s top priority. They expected that old-stock immigrants from western Europe would use the provision to bring over their relatives, which would keep the effect of the 1924 law without the statute. But their provision had the opposite effect. It was new immigrants who wanted to bring their families, not old ones. So immigration began to skew heavily toward Asia and Latin America.
…Trump was reelected in part because of his promise to strengthen border security, but now his administration is using attacks on immigrants to impose a police state. As Andrew Perez and Asawin Suebsaeng reported Saturday in Rolling Stone, the administration is fighting to impose its will on wrongly-deported Maryland man Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whom it rendered to a terrorist prison in El Salvador, because if they are forced to back down, “it could set a precedent that opens the floodgates to other legal challenges” to Trump’s other executive power grabs.
“The last thing you want to do here is contribute to a domino effect of decisions where suddenly you’re admitting you’re wrong about everything,” a close Trump advisor told the reporters. “That is why you gotta stand your ground on everything against the left, including on the [Abrego Garcia] situation.”
But it appears the American people simply want to fix a sixty-year-old mistake in the nation’s immigration laws.
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)Robert Reich: What do Rosie O’Donnell, Lula, John Brennan, and James Comey have in common?
The Poisoning of Presidential Power
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Jess Piper: The Epstein Files Fallout Will Not Touch Him
And I am very sorry to say that…
When he said he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue, and not lose any voters, he was telling the truth. He’s leading a cult and doing what every cult leader does: whatever he wants, including telling his supporters for years that he would release the Epstein files and the dirt on high-level pedophiles, only to reverse it and tell them to stop talking about the Epstein files.
…There is anger on the right about the Epstein mess, but it’s not trickling down to the everyday Trump supporter.
The people who are mad and posting rants and burning their Trump hats and claiming they are done with MAGA are influencers. They are likely angry, but the reason they have such outbursts is because they are paid for views. It’s outrage, but it’s also a paycheck. Don’t think for a minute that the influencer is the regular MAGA voter.
(Jess Piper more…)Wired: It’s Not Just Epstein. MAGA Is Angry About a Lot of Things
Pockets of Donald Trump’s most loyal base are increasingly angry at what they view as the administration’s failure to fulfill its promises.
When President Donald Trump loses the support of posters on The Donald, it’s notable, to say the least. The ultra-pro-Trump message board, whose members were accused of helping plan the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, has been one of the most loyal corners of the internet for the president.But just like many other parts of the MAGA universe as of late, many users have had enough.
(Wired more…)Bulwark: The Five MAGA Factions Waging an Epstein Civil War
A taxonomy of truculent Trumpists.
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Rebecca Solnit: Today Is the Original No Kings Day/Happy Bastille Day
(Rebecca Solnit more…)
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Congressman Lloyd Doggett: Floods that have broken hearts in a largely preventable catastrophe
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Despite the best efforts of a dedicated NWS team, nobody had been named to replace the Warning Coordination Meteorologist, a 32-year veteran, who had previously maintained contact with local communities. No local hydrologist, who evaluates rainfall, runoff, and rain gauges, was presentthat night, and four other positions were unfilled because of Trump’s hiring freeze. Apparently, the direct contact to Kerr County was limited solely to one local emergency manager, not directly to the camps or others. The first flood warning came at 1:18 am when most of Kerr was asleep, and the flood emergency was declared at 4:03 am after Camp Mystic and other areas had been inundated.
(Congressman Lloyd Doggett more…)
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Your Local Epidemiologist: A plague death, floods’ health impact, vaccine injuries hearing at Senate today, Covid still low, and more
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Reuters: Trump administration leaves Congress in dark on spending decisions
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Independent: Trump kept FIFA Club World Cup trophy for himself – leaving champions Chelsea to lift a replica
The FIFA Club World Cup trophy is currently in the Oval Office, President Donald Trump revealed
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emptywheel: John Roberts Subjects America’s School Children to the Whims of a Wrestling Promoter
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404 Media: Hugging Face Is Hosting 5,000 Nonconsensual AI Models of Real People
Users have reuploaded 5,000 models used to generate nonconsensual sexual content of real people to Hugging Face after they were banned from Civitai.
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Borowitz: Something Amazing Just Happened
… and I had to tell you.
Timeline: Tracking the Trump Justice Department’s Anti-Voting Shift
Tracking the Lawsuits Against Trump’s Agenda
Tracking the Lawsuits Against Trump’s Agenda
Trump Pardons Database
Project 2025 Tracker
DOGE Tracker
ProPublica: Elon Musk’s Demolition Crew
Wired: 6 Tools for Tracking the Trump Administration’s Attacks on Civil Liberties
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