curated news excerpts & citations
Borowitz: Xi Humiliates Trump by Reading Aloud From Epstein Files
BEIJING—President Xi Jinping’s humiliation of Donald J. Trump peaked on Thursday when the Chinese leader used a joint appearance to read aloud from the Epstein Files.
Standing at a podium barely three feet away from his American counterpart, a stony-faced Xi recited a series of damning allegations about Trump that the DOJ’s redaction team had somehow missed.
While the assembled press listened with rapt attention, Trump appeared oblivious to Xi’s audacious effort to embarrass him.
“He’s a true friend,” Trump later said of Xi. “He said my name many, many times.”
Joyce Vance: Forgetting About Jeffrey Epstein
Jaidyn Bridgeforth @ Atlanta Black Star: ‘An Abomination’: A Congresswoman Just Tore Apart the System That Let Epstein Walk Free for Years, and What She Revealed About Who Protected Him Is Absolutely Damning
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – May 14, 2026
Vice President J.D. Vance was in Maine today to tout what the Trump administration claims is its push to combat fraud in public services. Vance blamed Democrats for fraud in Medicaid programs and vowed that the Trump administration would stop such fraud by refusing to distribute funds to states that were not cooperating with the federal government’s anti-fraud efforts. He announced yesterday the administration intends to withhold $1.3 billion in Medicaid payments from California.
This alleged push against fraud is part of an old playbook the Republicans have used since at least 2000 in which they accuse the Democrats of their own weak points and misdeeds.
This play was often associated with Republican strategist Karl Rove, but in 2024, Caroline Wazer of Snopes noted that it is most usually associated with Nazi propaganda in the 1930s. Accusing opponents of what you, yourself, are doing, muddies the waters and makes it hard for real accusations against you for the same thing to stick.
Experts say fraud in federal programs is a real problem but that it is carried out primarily by transnational criminal organizations, not by individual recipients. …
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
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Borowitz: Trump Tours Chinese Factory that Manufactures his Bibles
SHANGHAI—Donald J. Trump accomplished what he called “the main goal” of his trip to China on Thursday by inspecting the printing plant where his $60 Trump Bibles are printed.
Accompanied by Chinese President Xi Jinping, Trump said he wanted “to be sure that the Chinese printed the lyrics to ‘God Bless the USA’ right, because those are Jesus’s most important words.”
President Xi praised his American counterpart, telling him, “You have created more Chinese jobs than I have.”
Trump cancelled plans to visit the factory that manufactures gold Trump Mobile phones after learning that it did not exist.
J.D. Wolf @ Meidas News: Trump Mobile Hit With Community Note Claiming Phone Is Chinese-Made Rebrand
Fact Check: “Retails on Amazon currently for $126.”
John Hudson @ Washington Post: China gains major edge on U.S. amid Iran war, intelligence report finds
A confidential U.S. intelligence analysis details how China is exploiting the war in Iran to maximize its advantage over the United States across military, economic, diplomatic and other fields, said two U.S. officials who have read the report.
Lily Kuo, Pei-Lin Wu, Pablo Robles @ NY Times: What China’s Choice of Airport Greeter Says About Trump
Beijing welcomed President Trump with a high-ranking vice president, but the choice of a ceremonial leader suggests China is trading symbolism for substance.
Richard Spencer @ Times of London: Xi’s imperial aura now outshines Trump on the world stage
Alexander Ward, Annie Linskey, Brian Spegele @ WSJ: Xi’s Taiwan Warning to Trump Highlights Tensions in Beijing Summit
Paul Krugman: A Failing, Flailing President Supplicates Xi
Why China has contempt for Donald Trump
Robert Reich: The Most Important Thing You Should Know About the CEOs Traveling to China with Trump
They all have something in common, and it’s not the interest of America
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Heather Delaney Reese: Trump is about to pull off the biggest con in American history
… The New York Times reported that the Justice Department, run by the President’s former personal defense attorney, Todd Blanche, is in active internal discussions about whether to settle the President’s $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service. A settlement that would effectively give the man who runs the executive branch of the United States of America a multi-billion-dollar taxpayer payout, with his own former personal lawyer signing the check.
…And that is exactly why the Justice Department is racing to settle before May 20. If they settle privately before the judge rules, she cannot stop them. Legal experts told the Times that even if Judge Williams ultimately concluded the settlement was collusive or made in bad faith, she likely could not unwind the money once it changed hands. They are trying to get this done before a judge can call it what it is.
(Heather Delaney Reese more…)
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Emily Atkin @ Heated: Hantavirus is a climate story
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Thomas Copeland @ BBC: ‘Floating armoury’ ship reportedly seized by Iran
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Decoding Fox News: Sean Hannity: Let’s Arm the Iranians! What’s the Worst that Can Happen?
A condensed overview of 20 hours of Fox News for the week ending 5/10/26
resources tracking the “Andes” hantavirus outbreak
Apocalypse Early Warning System
Al Jazeera Death toll and injuries live tracker
ICE Accountability Project
Sergio Martínez-Beltrán, Ximena Bustillo, Jasmine Garsd @ NPR: Deaths of migrants in ICE custody hit record high under Trump
- April 16: Aled Damien Carbonell-Betancourt
- March 25: Jose Guadalupe Ramos-Solano
- March 16: Royer Perez-Jimenez
- March 14: Naseer Paktiawil
- February 25: Nurul Amin Shah Alam
April 1 – Jennifer Peltz and Jake Offenhartz @ AP: Death of a refugee left at a Buffalo doughnut shop by Border Patrol is ruled a homicide - January 24: Alex Pretti
- January 14: Heber Sanchaz Dominguez
- January 14: Victor Manuel Diaz
- January 9: Parady La
- January 7: Renée Good
- January 6: Luis Beltran Yanez-Cruz
- January 5: Luis Gustavo Nunez Caceres
- January 3: Geraldo Lunas Campos
- December 31, 2025: Keith Porter
Suffering Under President Obama
NACDL Criminal Case Tracker
Texas Tribune: A Walk for Peace: photos of Fort Worth monks’ journey to Washington
Walk for Peace – Dhammacetiya – The Ancient Sacred Buddhist Scripture Stupas
Margaret Chase Smith: Declaration of Conscience
NPR: January 6, 2021: A visual archive
Accountability Initiative ICE List
GriftMatrix
Trump Action Tracker
Timeline: Tracking the Trump Justice Department’s Anti-Voting Shift
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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