US politics

US politics

President Donald Trump has hit the pause button on deploying the National Guard to New York City, with the commander-in-chief on Saturday saying there are other American cities that need it more right now. The president's comments came a day after he welcomed Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist who will be New York City's next mayor, to the White House. Trump has said previously that New York was on his list of Democrat-run cities that he would deploy the National Guard to, saying in August he would help fight crime in the Big Apple after he was done in Chicago.

The U.S. Coast Guard has released a new, firmer policy addressing the display of hate symbols like swastikas and nooses just hours after it was publicly revealed that it made plans to describe them as "potentially divisive" - a term that prompted outcry from lawmakers and advocates. "Divisive or hate symbols and flags are prohibited," the latest Coast Guard policy, released late Thursday, declared before adding that this category included "a noose, a swastika, and any symbols or flags co-opted or adopted by hate-based groups."

In April 2023, a federal jury convicted Michel of 10 counts, including conspiracy and acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government. Justice Department prosecutors said federal sentencing guidelines recommended a life sentence for Michel, whom they said "betrayed his country for money" and "lied unapologetically and unrelentingly to carry out his schemes." "His sentence should reflect the breadth and depth of his crimes, his indifference to the risks to his country, and the magnitude of his greed," they wrote.

Never before have I been so uncertain about the future. Think of all the giant issues that confront us: artificial intelligence, potential financial bubbles, the decline of democracy, the rise of global authoritarianism, the collapse of reading scores and general literacy, China's sudden scientific and technological dominance, Russian advances in Ukraine. I could go on and on. So what has America's political class decided to obsess about over the last several months?

Last week, Leonardo Williams, the mayor of Durham, North Carolina, received a call from the office of Governor Josh Stein. Stein's office had heard that the Trump administration was going to launch an immigration-enforcement operation in Charlotte and possibly in Raleigh, but it didn't have much more information. Over the weekend, Customs and Border Protection agents swarmed Charlotte, ultimately arresting about 370 people.

Although they did not specify which orders might be illegal, Trump has come under fire for sending the US military into American cities for poorly defined reasons, including amid peaceful protests against a massive and aggressive deportation campaign. Seditious behavior, punishable by death! Trump responded in a post on Truth Social. Each one of these traitors to our Country should be arrested and put on trial. He also reposted a message from another user reading: Hang them George Washington would!

A year after the most openly misogynist presidential candidate in modern U.S. history defeated, for the second time, an ultracompetent woman and brought a politics of unabashed male dominance to the White House and country writ large, it can feel like something of a quaint throwback to remark on why it's important to have women in positions of power.