curated citations to news sources
Waging Nonviolence: A new youth-led lawsuit is challenging Trump’s fossil fuel orders
This summer, kids are taking the climate crisis to the courts. The 22 plaintiffs of Lighthiser v. Trump, a lawsuit filed in May, range from 7 to 25 years old. They are challenging three of President Donald Trump’s most controversial executive orders to “unleash” fossil fuels and revoke renewable energy initiatives. The orders roll back critical investments in sustainable technologies and climate science, declare a “National Energy Emergency” to increase fossil fuel use, and prop up the coal, oil and gas industries through deregulation.
The case will hinge on the youth’s constitutional rights — a pivotal angle in recent environmental suits. When hearings begin in September in the U.S. District Court of Montana, the Lighthiser plaintiffs will argue that the three executive orders violate their Fifth Amendment rights to life and liberty. Additionally, they allege the president exceeded his authority by attempting to override laws like the Clean Air Act. As the case unfolds, it will have sweeping implications for the legal resistance to the Trump administration, and for the climate movement at large.
(Waging Nonviolence more…)
Guardian: Top UN court singles out fossil fuels as part of states’ climate duty
Landmark opinion says those that fail to prevent climate harm could be liable for compensation and restitution
-
Dean Blundell: Macron vs MAGA: MAGA Podcaster Candace Owens Just Got Sued By The French President and His Wife. LOL.
France’s President just did what world leaders never do: sued a U.S. right-wing troll in American court. And now, the floodgates might be open—for Obama, Clinton, and Comey to strike back.
When the First Lady of France is accused of being a man named Jean-Michel by a MAGA podcaster, and the president of France sues for defamation in the U.S., you’re not just watching a lawsuit. You’re watching a global legal trap get set—for Trump, and every propagandist orbiting his disinformation death star.
From Birtherism to Brigitte
On Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, First Lady Brigitte Macron, filed a 22-count defamation lawsuit against American far-right influencer Candace Owens in Delaware Superior Court. The charge? That Owens launched a sustained, vicious campaign alleging Brigitte Macron is secretly a man named “Jean-Michel Trogneux.”
(Dean Blundell more…)
-
ProPublica, The Texas Tribune, Alianza Rebelde Investiga and Cazadores de Fake News: The Men Trump Deported to a Salvadoran Prison
On March 15, President Donald Trump’s administration sent more than 230 Venezuelan immigrants to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador. Without providing evidence, Trump has called the men “some of the most violent savages on the face of the Earth.”
Last week, the men were released as suddenly as they’d been taken away. Now, the truth of all their stories — one by one — will begin to be told.
Starting here.
(ProPublica, The Texas Tribune, Alianza Rebelde Investiga and Cazadores de Fake News more…)Allison Gill: Judges Deliver a One-Two Punch to DOJ in Abrego Cases
Judge Xinis bars ICE from detaining him in Tennessee, and Judge Crenshaw orders Mr. Abrego released on bail, calling DOJ’s evidence that he’s a member of MS-13 “fanciful.”
-
El País: US defends repatriation of triple murderer who slipped into the prisoner exchange with Venezuela: ‘Many reported being subjected to torture’
Dahud Hanid Ortiz was serving 30 years in a Venezuelan prison for a triple homicide he committed in Spain in 2016. But the State Department applauds that there are no more Americans ‘wrongfully detained’ in the Latin American country
(El País more…)
-
Independent: Pentagon watchdog told Hegseth’s leaked Signal chat info came from email classified ‘secret’
The classified message was also headed as ‘NOFORN’ – meaning that it was not to be seen by foreign nationals
-
Guardian: Trump push to ban birthright citizenship unconstitutional, US court rules
Appeals court’s verdict echoes decision from federal judge blocking president’s executive order nationwide
-
Register: IRS has lost one-quarter of its IT staff since Trump took office
-
Verge: Trump unveils his plan to put AI in everything
The Trump administration wants to create a “‘try-first’ culture for AI”
…The plan recommends deleting “references to misinformation, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and climate change” in federal risk management guidance and prohibiting the federal government from contracting with large language model (LLM) developers unless they “ensure that their systems are objective and free from top-down ideological bias” — a standard it hasn’t yet clearly defined. It says the US must “reject radical climate dogma and bureaucratic red tape” to win the AI race.
It also seeks to remove state and federal regulatory hurdles for AI development, including by denying states AI-related funding if their rules “hinder the effectiveness of that funding or award,” effectively resurrecting a failed congressional AI law moratorium. The plan also suggests cutting rules that slow building data centers and semiconductor manufacturing facilities, and expanding the power grid to support “energy-intensive industries of the future.”
(Verge more…)
-
Michael Fanone: I defended the Capitol on January 6. The rioters think they’ve won.
I didn’t face the mob on January 6 just to back down now.
-
Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – July 23, 2025
…
Despite her claims that it is a damning bombshell, the material in the newly released report in fact does not challenge the conclusion of the U.S. intelligence agencies, the Mueller report, and the Senate Intelligence Committee that Russia preferred a Trump presidency to a Clinton presidency and worked to get Trump elected in part by attacking Clinton and spreading lies about her health.What the report did do was deliver red meat to the MAGA base by spreading the same sorts of rumors about Clinton the Russians spread in 2016.
Gabbard compounded that effort at the White House press conference by reading material in the report as if it were fact, saying that Russia had “high-level [Democratic National Committee] e-mails that detailed evidence of Hillary’s ‘psycho emotional problems, uncontrolled fits of anger, aggression, and cheerfulness.’ And that then-secretary Clinton was allegedly on a daily regimen of heavy tranquilizers,” along with a number of other charges that Clinton had broken the law. Gabbard did not mention that these allegations were in fact identified in the report as material prepared by Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Services.
Just to be clear: The director of national intelligence for the United States of America is making allegations against a former U.S. presidential candidate based on material from Russia’s intelligence services.
…In any case, the distractions seemed to be for naught, since Sadie Gurman, Annie Linskey, Josh Dawsey, and Alex Leary of the Wall Street Journal dropped a story just after 3:00 this afternoon, reporting that Attorney General Pam Bondi and her deputy informed Trump in May that his name appeared “multiple times” in the Epstein files. They told him they did not plan to release any more documents from the investigation because the files contained both the personal information of victims and child pornography.
Ohio’s David Pepper noted that this timing checks out with the feud between Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, who tweeted on June 5: “Time to drop the really big bomb: [Trump] is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!” Musk followed that tweet with another: “Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out.”
While that “sort of felt like old news,” Pepper wrote, “for the White House, that was Musk revealing something that had only recently been confirmed (and that clearly had hopes to bury). So it was a far more brutal tweet than we realized at the time. And the reason why Musk took it down two days later.”
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)emptywheel: Tulsi Gabbard Teams Up with Russian Spies to Wiretap and Unmask Hillary Clinton
-
Daily Beast: Bombshell Claim on Who Is Hiding Epstein’s Birthday Book
A lawyer who has represented over 200 victims of Jeffrey Epstein says the existence of a book given to the sex offender for his 50th birthday is an “absolute fact.”
Attorney Bradley Edwards says the 2003 birthday book, which allegedly contains a letter from Donald Trump, is in the possession of the Epstein estate in Florida.
-
John Pavlovitz: The Epstein Files Have Already Exposed The American Right
The Jeffrey Epstein files, if and when released, will expose Epstein, detailing his prolific atrocities once and for all.
They will expose the monstrous human beings who collaborated with him in doing irreparable harm to untold numbers of girls and young women.
They will expose a sprawling network of perverts and deviants who used their collective influence and wealth to violate humanity in ways that are unthinkable to decent human beings.
But unless and until that day comes, the Epstein files have already exposed so much more.
(John Pavlovitz more…)
-
Bulwark: The Threat to Free Speech in Trump’s Unprecedented Wall Street Journal Suit
On the merits, this defamation case should be winnable for the newspaper. But the chilling effect is real and dangerous.
WSJ: Justice Department Told Trump in May That His Name Is Among Many in the Epstein Files
-
Fox News: Americans should beware of Gabbard’s ‘dangerous distraction’ with revisionist history of 2016 election
President Trump’s intelligence director is pushing false narratives about Obama officials related to the 2016 election to divert attention from other problems
Gil Duran: Trump’s Epstein Betrayal Triggers MAGA ‘Hero Frame’ Collapse
…
To be clear, Trump’s base continues to support him, but there are signs of fracture.“The base is about evenly split on the administration’s actions, meaning there’s a higher degree of skepticism than we almost ever see with Trump,” reports CNN. “And that might actually undersell the level of lingering GOP concern.”
Trump’s followers didn’t just want the Epstein files for partisan advantage. They wanted them as proof that their entire worldview was correct. When Trump asks them to “move on” from the files, he’s asking them to abandon a key frame that made him their hero.
(Gil Duran more…)ABC: Judge denies Justice Department request to unseal Epstein grand jury records
-
CNN: Judges’ pick to be new US attorney in NJ vows to take office despite being fired by Justice Department
Fox5DC: Alina Habba: Trump administration fights to keep ex-Trump lawyer as NJ federal prosecutor
Above the Law: Trump DOJ’s Keystone Kops Fire Alina Habba Replacement Without Realizing That Has Nothing To Do With It
Reading comprehension not a favored skill in this Justice Department.
-
NY Times: Inquiry Is Opened After Jacksonville Officer Punches Man Through His Car Window
A Black man was beaten by a white officer in Jacksonville, Fla., during a traffic stop. The sheriff’s office said that it was reviewing the episode.
-
ProPublica & Texas Tribune: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton Is Outsourcing More of His Office’s Work to Costly Private Lawyers
-
Public Citizen: Court Orders Trump Administration to Restore Public Database of Federal Spending Information
-
NewsNation: McMahon hopes Columbia deal becomes ‘template’ for other colleges
- Columbia agreed to $220M settlement with Trump administration
- Admin pulled $400M in grants last year after campus protest response
- Education Sec. calls the agreement a ‘big victory’ for students, faculty
NY Times: Columbia’s Deal With Trump: What We Know
The university entered into an agreement to settle claims that it allegedly violated federal anti-discrimination laws.
(NY Times more…)
-
Mark o’Connor: John F. Kennedy Opera House renamed?
Borowitz: Americans Support Renaming Kennedy Center After E. Jean Carroll
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
Leave a Reply