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      Democrats are failing against Trump. We need a new generation in 2026 | Alexandra Rojas

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      After more than 100 days of the Trump administration, it’s clear how unprepared Democratic leadership has been for this moment.Words can hardly describe just how far Donald Trump, Elon Musk and the administration have gone to serve the interests of their fellow billionaires, undermine our economy and kill hundreds of thousands of jobs while dragging our basic civil liberties and constitution through the buzzsaw to illegally disappear countless immigrants and send them to privately funded domestic prisons and torture camps abroad.It’s why the absence of true oppositional leadership has been deafening. After spending an entire campaign cycle naming Trump as an existential threat to our democracy and rule of law – which he is – the party’s leadership has folded at the first chance to wield the power they have, revealing hypocrisy and cowardice.Chuck Schumer surrendered the entire federal budget and Marco Rubio, who is now championing the administration’s campaign of disappearing immigrants, was confirmed unanimously to Trump’s cabinet by the US Senate.Every choice Democratic leadership has made to sacrifice its base and become more like the bad guys we were supposed to be fighting has led us here. And now, people are losing faith in Democrats’ ability to solve our country’s biggest problems – the party is polling at a historic low.Americans have long been ready for the political revolution Bernie Sanders has talked about, but the party and the DC elite haven’t been. Aside from the many polls that highlight the national popularity of Sanders and the policies he supports over the last eight years, voters have made it abundantly clear that it’s time to usher in a new generation of leaders who won’t act like doormats for Trump and Elon Musk. They see this party – just like our government and our economy – as captured by the wealthy few.Waiting for 2028 is not the answer – no president alone can provide the change we need. Massive transformation in this country has never happened without a Congress willing to act – from FDR’s New Deal to the Civil Rights Movement. As the 2026 midterm elections approach, we have an opportunity to take action.When I first started at Justice Democrats in 2017 under Trump’s first presidency, we had a vision as big as a presidential-sized campaign. What if we ran a 50-state campaign to run people in Democratic primaries and take back Congress? Though we haven’t been successful in every race, over the last four cycles, Justice Democrats has been a part of unseating five 15+ year incumbents who collectively served 108 years in office, we have beaten the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) and corporate Democrats in open seats, and we have gone up against hundreds of millions of dollars of opposition spending.Our mission since the beginning has been simple and focused: to build a mission-driven team of working-class leaders in Congress who champion solutions as big as the problems we face. We have recruited and elected leaders like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Jamaal Bowman, Cori Bush, Summer Lee and more over the years.Our work towards this mission has not been perfect, and there has been so much we have learned along the way from the thousands of volunteers, organizers, staff, leaders, donors and allies we have met along the way. But together we have built a powerful bench of progressives in Congress who are the most politically courageous and working-class people to ever walk the halls of one of the most powerful bodies in the world.We know it’s not 2017 any more and the forces we are up against – in the White House and the billions spent to influence our media, our elections, our politicians – are even greater than they once were. It still probably sounds far-fetched to clean up the House and Senate – replace every bought-and-paid-for Democrat and Republican we have in Congress. But we believe it is our collective duty to try.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionLast month, we announced our first new Democratic congressional primary candidate since the 2022 cycle: Donavan McKinney, a working-class Detroiter and state representative, against the incumbent US representative Shri Thanedar, AKA Detroit’s Elon Musk. Thanedar is a self-funded multimillionaire businessman who since 2021 alone spent over $17m of his own wealth to bankroll his congressional campaigns while spending more taxpayer money than any other member of Congress on ads to promote himself last year.This race embodies the fight for the future of the Democratic party. Are we going to elect more multimillionaires backed by corporate lobbies to play possum in the face of fascism, or are we going to elect people who will fight to fix America’s crises with the urgency of someone who has lived through them?A new world needs new leaders. The 2026 cycle presents a historic opportunity for generational and working-class transformation in the Democratic party and in our politics.

      Alexandra Rojas is executive director of Justice Democrats More

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      Keep calm (but delete your nudes): the new rules for travelling to and from Trump’s America

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      Kindness doesn’t cost a thing. Putting up a big “no foreigners welcome” sign, threatening to annex your neighbour, and throwing visitors to your country into detention for minor visa infractions, however? Such actions are expensive. The United States is on track to lose $12.5bn (£9.4bn) in international travel spending this year, according to a study published on Tuesday by the World Travel and Tourism Council.If the Trump administration is concerned that its aggressive rhetoric is costing tourist dollars, it’s not showing it. During a recent press conference about the 2026 Fifa World Cup, which will be jointly hosted by the US, Mexico and Canada, vice president JD Vance joked about deporting football fans who outstay their welcome. “We’ll have visitors from close to 100 countries. We want them to come…” Vance said. “But when the time is up, they’ll have to go home, otherwise they’ll have to talk to [Homeland Security] secretary Noem.” That’s Kristi Noem, the woman who shot her own dog. Not someone you want to talk to when she’s in a bad mood.Judging by the drop-off in visitors, many people have decided that a trip to the US just isn’t worth the risk right now. As a green card holder – and someone with family in the UK who have been thoroughly put off coming to visit the US – this is a question I’ve been wrestling with for the past few months. So, for somewhat selfish reasons, I spoke to a number of immigration lawyers and civil rights experts to try to figure out the new rules, across different demographics, for travelling to and from Trump’s America.View image in fullscreenFirst, though: the big picture. It is hard to quantify exactly how much things have changed at the border since the start of Trump’s second term. There have been plenty of scary stories in the news but that might not reflect a policy shift – it could just mean the media is paying more attention to the subject. Murali Bashyam, an immigration lawyer based in North Carolina, believes that while “there are more issues at the port-of-entry than before”, fears of being detained “are overblown to some extent”.Other immigration lawyers are more worried. Camille Mackler, executive director of a legal service provider collaborative called Immigrant Arc, stresses: “Things have fundamentally shifted – although whether that shift is happening systematically at the airport level or on an individual officer level is harder to say.” But, she says, there seems to be a clear trend: “The Trump administration wants to increase deportation numbers, and they’re going after any case they can. Enforcement has become much more aggressive.”According to Golnaz Fakhimi, legal director of Muslim Advocates, one of the biggest shifts is “the targeting of non-citizens based on viewpoints and ideology”. There are two executive orders that set the stage for this targeting: EO 1461 Protecting the United States from Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats, and EO 14188, Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism. The first EO lays the groundwork to deport or deny entry to foreigners based on their political and cultural views. The second uses a broad definition of antisemitism that includes criticism of Israel’s policies or government.Since Trump passed those orders, says Fakhimi, “there’s been a lot of rhetoric reinforcing those policies and we’ve seen actual instances of what looks like viewpoint-based scrutiny. All of this points to a kind of risk that non-citizens – including lawful permanent residents – should be aware of, especially when it comes to ideological expression.”View image in fullscreenCriticism of the Israeli government or support for Palestinian rights seems to be at the “forefront of what’s being targeted” now, says Fakhimi. “But many of us worry that the scrutiny won’t stay limited to those viewpoints. It may already be expanding. There was one case reported in the media involving a French researcher who was denied entry, possibly because of content on their phone that was critical of the US president. Inside the US, we’ve also seen targeting of immigrant-rights activists – Jeanette Vizguerra in Colorado for example.”Kseniia Petrova, a Russian-born researcher at Harvard Medical School who has been detained since February, may have been targeted because of her political views. “So it’s important for non-citizens to be clear-eyed about what viewpoints they’ve publicly expressed – especially online – when considering the risks of international travel.”View image in fullscreenIt’s also prudent to assume that your social media activity has been examined. “Social media identifiers are now required on forms like the visa application or Esta [for the visa waiver programme],” says Sophia Cope, senior staff attorney on the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s civil liberties team. “We’ve heard anecdotal reports of agents referencing social media during questioning.”It is not only non-citizens who should be worried. Hasan Piker, a left-wing YouTuber and US citizen, was recently held and questioned for hours by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials in Chicago after returning from France. In a video, Piker says the agents seemed to know who he was and asked about his political beliefs, including repeated questions about his views of Hamas. A CBP official called the suggestion that Piker was targeted for his political views “baseless”.View image in fullscreenAmir Makled, a Lebanese-American lawyer representing one of the University of Michigan pro-Palestine campus protesters, was recently stopped at Detroit Metro airport and interrogated by a tactical terrorism response team agent. Makled has said the agents knew exactly who he was; his phone was searched and they asked about his contacts. Eventually, he was allowed to go home.The Makled case was very troubling, says Cope, because it suggests targeting based on political association. “CBP denied this, but during the inspection, they asked to see his contact list. That implies they weren’t interested in him, but in who he knew. That’s outrageous. We litigated a case on this for four years – unfortunately, the courts didn’t rule in our favour – but we learned that CBP believes it has the authority to search devices not just when the traveller is a suspect, but also to gather intelligence on someone else the traveller may be connected to … It’s a form of dragnet intelligence gathering.”When it comes to intelligence gathering at the border, officials have carte blanche. After your international flight lands on US soil and before you clear customs, you are in something of a no man’s land in relation to civil rights. “The normal fourth amendment requirement of a warrant or individualised suspicion doesn’t apply,” says Nate Freed Wessler, a lawyer at the American Civil Liberties Union. Some states offer slightly more protection than others, however. In the ninth circuit, which covers the western US, the rules are “most protective”, says Wessler. “For a manual search (where an agent is just scrolling through your phone), no individual suspicion is needed, but the search must be for digital contraband – like classified documents.“For a forensic search, where they plug your phone into a device to extract and analyse the entire contents, there must be reasonable suspicion that the phone contains digital contraband. And if the purpose is anything else, like gathering intelligence or helping another domestic agency, then a warrant would be required.”For most of the country, however, it’s anything goes. “The only minimal protection CBP has in their policy is distinguishing between manual and forensic searches. For a forensic search, they say they need reasonable suspicion, but they don’t define what that means. For a manual search, there are no guardrails. They argue it’s less invasive, but that’s just not true. They can still do keyword searches and spend hours combing through your device.”View image in fullscreenThey don’t have access to everything on your phone, however. Customs and Border Protection policy requires agents to put devices in flight mode before searching, to avoid accessing cloud data. It’s not a bad idea to put your phone in flight mode before you travel to understand what is stored on the cloud and what is local.What if you refuse to give your passcode to officers or say you don’t consent to a search? Consequences differ depending on your immigration status. If you’re a green card holder or citizen they can still take your phone. “They can’t compel you to give your passcode, but they can seize the phone and send it to a forensic lab, where it might sit for weeks or months while they try to break into it,” says Wessler. “For visa holders, it’s trickier. If you refuse to unlock your phone, they may just deny you entry, claiming you’re not cooperating in assessing admissibility.” And in the very worst scenario they might throw you into a detention centre before sending you home.Searches, to be clear, are still very rare. “Claims that CBP is searching more electronic media due to the administration change are false,” CBP assistant commissioner of public affairs Hilton Beckham said in a statement last month. “CBP’s search numbers are consistent with increases since 2021, and less than 0.01% of travellers have their devices searched … Allegations that political beliefs trigger inspections or removals are baseless and irresponsible.”If you’re worried these allegations aren’t quite as baseless as CBP insists, Wessler says: “The safest approach is not to travel with data you wouldn’t want the US government to access.”Let’s say you’re a British citizen who has been outspoken, on social media and elsewhere, about your pro-Palestinian or anti-Trump views. Would it be a foolish idea to travel to the US right now? “I wouldn’t say ‘don’t come,’ but I’d say evaluate your risk and risk tolerance,” says Wessler. “The government is being extremely aggressive with students and activists, and there’s always a chance a border agent might act on something they find politically disagreeable. Most travellers are still fine – but the risk is real and well above zero.” So, basically, nothing is very clear? Pretty much, says Wessler. “The law is a complete mess, and people’s options are a complete mess. People just have to make a risk assessment based on extremely imperfect information.”The first step in making that risk assessment is to thoroughly understand the rules for the specific visa you’ll be travelling on or your immigration status. “The Foreign Affairs Manual is a great resource,” says immigration lawyer Tahmina Watson. “It’s what consular officers use, and it’s publicly accessible. It lays out what officers are looking for, visa by visa. We’re now advising clients more than ever to understand the B1/B2 visa rules. B1 is for business, B2 for tourism. When CBP asks why you’re here, they’re listening for key phrases – ‘I’m visiting my grandmother,’ ‘I’m going to Disneyland,’ etc. The manual also talks about proof of ties to your home country – job, house, bills. That stuff matters.”Having any sort of criminal record or contact with the criminal legal system is a major part of a risk assessment. “I just spoke with a US citizen who had married a green card holder,” says Watson. “They were returning from their honeymoon when he was detained. He had a conviction from when he was 18, served his time, and had travelled internationally for more than 30 years since without issue. But this time, he was detained, and it will be very difficult to get him out.”If you’re a green card holder with a criminal record, Watson strongly advises against leaving the country. “Not until you’ve spoken with a lawyer. Even a long-ago conviction can result in detention now.” If you’ve ever overstayed a visa, even for a day, you should also speak to a lawyer before travelling.Students have their own set of issues to look for. “For students or others with campus affiliations, we’d want to know if there’s been any scrutiny or disciplinary action at the university level,” says Fakhimi. “Another factor is whether any third parties have tried to spotlight or mischaracterise your views to attract federal attention. Groups like Betar US, for example, have devoted resources to building lists of political protesters they want deported.”And then, of course, you’ve got to think about any public statements you’ve made and whether you can or should delete them. “For some, minimising the visibility of their views might feel like the right way to reduce risk,” says Fakhimi. “For others, staying publicly vocal and visible with their beliefs might feel too important to compromise. It’s really about what trade-offs someone is willing to make, and what decision they can live with.”One thing that sustains Fakhimi, she says, is how many people are unwilling to censor themselves for their safety. “I’ve been incredibly moved and inspired by the courage of non-citizens – people with precarious status, even undocumented – who continue to speak out on a range of injustices. They see these issues as interconnected, and despite the risks, they’re standing firm.” Sometimes, staying true to your beliefs is more important than a trip to Disney World. More

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      Supreme court to hear birthright citizenship dispute that could expand Trump’s power

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      The US supreme court will hear arguments on Thursday in a dispute that could significantly expand presidential power despite ostensibly focusing on Donald Trump’s contentious executive order ending birthright citizenship.The trio of cases before the court stem from the president’s January executive order that would deny US citizenship to babies born on American soil if their parents aren’t citizens or permanent residents. The plan is likely to be ultimately struck down, as it directly contradicts the 14th amendment, which grants citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States”.But Trump’s legal team isn’t asking the supreme court to rule on whether his policy is constitutional. Instead, they are challenging whether lower court judges should be able to block presidential orders nationwide – a move that could overall weaken judicial checks on executive power.Three federal judges have blocked the policy nationwide, including US district judge Deborah Boardman, who ruled that “no court in the country has ever endorsed the president’s interpretation.”But the justice department argues these “nationwide injunctions” unfairly tie the president’s hands. “These injunctions have reached epidemic proportions since the start of the Trump Administration,” the department wrote in a March filing. The administration is asking for the scope of the injunctions to be narrowed, so they only apply to the people, organizations or states that sued.If Trump prevails, his administration could potentially enforce his desired citizenship policy in parts of the country where specific courts haven’t blocked it – creating different citizenship rules in different states while legal challenges continue.The supreme court’s conservative majority, which includes three Trump appointees, has previously signaled skepticism about nationwide injunctions. Justice Neil Gorsuch called the issue a “question of great significance” requiring the court’s attention.Critics warn that limiting judges’ power to block policies nationwide would force people to file thousands of individual lawsuits to protect their rights.“If you literally have to bring separate cases for every single plaintiff, you are limiting the ability of courts to declare what the law is and protect people,” Colorado attorney general Phil Weiser, who joined legal challenges to Trump’s order, told NBC News.By the end of March, Trump had faced at least 17 nationwide injunctions since returning to office in January, according to the Congressional Research Service. His first term saw 86 such rulings – far more than other presidents including Joe Biden, who saw 28; Barack Obama who saw 12; and George W Bush who saw six. Trump has also faced at least 328 lawsuits nationwide as of 1 May, with judges blocking his actions more than 200 times, according to a Bloomberg analysis.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe administration has said that universal injunctions “have reached epidemic proportions since the start of” Trump’s second term, and claims they have prevented the executive branch “from performing its constitutional functions before any courts fully examine the merits of those actions”.Several Democratic attorneys general urged the court not to restrict judicial power at a time when “the government is aggressively issuing executive orders of dubious legality”.Three separate lawsuits have been consolidated into one challenge before the court on Thursday, which came via an emergency appeal in the court’s so-called “shadow docket”. The court’s ruling is expected by early July. More

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      Trump news at a glance: President shrugs off Qatar jet fury, announces $96bn Boeing deal

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      As Donald Trump brushed off fierce criticism over his plan to accept a $400m luxury jet from the Qatari government, the president announced a lucrative deal for Boeing to supply the Gulf nation with 210 planes.Trump announced the $96bn contract – the largest-ever order of widebody Boeing planes – during a trip to Doha on Wednesday. The White House claims the aviation agreement will support 154,000 American jobs annually, though it was unclear how those figures were calculated.Trump has said Qatar’s offer for a Boeing 747-8 jetliner to use as Air Force One was too good to refuse, complaining the current presidential aircraft in underwhelming.“The plane that you’re on is almost 40 years old,” Trump told the Fox News host Sean Hannity during an interview on Air Force One. “When you land and you see Saudi Arabia, you see UAE and you see Qatar, and they have these brand-new Boeing 747s, mostly. You see ours next to it – this is like a totally different plane.”US-Qatar strike deals worth $243bnThe Qatar Airways purchase of Boeing jets formed the centrepiece of several economic agreements signed in Doha valued at more than $243bn. Trump also secured a statement of intent for more than $38bn in future defense investments from Qatar, further intertwining America’s economic and security relationships with the Gulf state now offering him a luxury aircraft.Read the full storyTrump meets Syria’s ‘attractive’ president Trump met Syria’s president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, in Saudi Arabia, telling the former jihadist he had an “extraordinary opportunity” and said Washington is exploring normalizing ties with Damascus. His comments come a day after he announced all US sanctions on Syria would be lifted.Read the full storyRFK Jr tells Congress ‘people shouldn’t take medical advice from me’The US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, refused to say whether he would vaccinate his children if he had to choose today, and defended Republicans’ proposal to cut healthcare to fund tax cut extensions.While he said he would “probably” vaccinate his children for measles, he added that his “opinions about vaccines are irrelevant … I don’t want to seem like I’m being evasive, but I don’t think people should be taking advice, medical advice, from me.”Read the full storyJudge orders release of Indian academic held by IceA Virginia federal judge has ordered the immediate release of Georgetown academic Badar Khan Suri from Ice detention during a hearing. Khan Suri was among several individuals legally studying in the US who have been targeted by the Trump administration for pro-Palestinian activism. He has spent two months in detention.Read the full storyTrump official scrutinized for links to El Salvador crypto Trump administration’s commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, and his family have had extensive business interests linked to El Salvador, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and Office of Government Ethics, as well as public records in the US and El Salvador. The country’s authoritarian leader, Nayib Bukele, has grown close to the White House and has courted controversy by allowing the imprisonment of people deported in the US’s immigration crackdown to a notorious Cecot prison.Read the full storyRepublican tax bill may exclude millions of families from creditsRepublicans’ newest tax bill threatens to exclude millions of families from a tax credit meant to ease household financial burdens, even as conservatives are increasingly claiming policies designed to entice families to have more babies.Read the full storyLindsey Graham to brief European leaders on Russia sanctionsUS senator, Lindsey Graham, a close ally of Donald Trump, is expected to brief European leaders on Thursday in Antalya on his plans to push through Congress sanctions designed to devastate the Russian economy if Vladimir Putin does not show a willingness to negotiate the future of Ukraine in good faith.Read the full storyWhat else happened today:

      California’s governor wants his state to stop enrolling more low-income immigrants without legal status in a state-funded healthcare program in 2026.

      A former special counsel prosecutor invoked the fifth amendment during a deposition before a Republican-led committee probing alleged politicization in Trump’s prosecutions.

      The Trump administration’s transportation secretary switched his wife’s flight to help her avoid flying out of troubled Newark Liberty airport, one of the busiest in the New York area.
      Catching up? Here’s what happened on 13 May 2025. More

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      Gabbard fires officials who released memo contradicting Trump’s Venezuela gang claims

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      Tulsi Gabbard, the US director of national intelligence, has fired the two highest-ranking officials at the National Intelligence Council (NIC) just weeks after the council released an assessment that contradicted Donald Trump’s justification for using the Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged Venezuelan gang members without due process.Mike Collins was serving as acting chair of the National Intelligence Council before he was dismissed alongside his deputy, Maria Langan-Riekhof. They each had more than 25 years of intelligence experience.The two were fired because of their opposition to the US president, Gabbard’s office said in an email on Wednesday, without offering examples.“The director is working alongside President Trump to end the weaponization and politicization of the intelligence community,” the office said.The firings follow the release of a declassified memo from the NIC that found no coordination between Venezuela’s government and the Tren de Aragua gang. The Trump administration had given that as reasoning for invoking the Alien Enemies Act and deporting Venezuelan immigrants. The intelligence assessment was released in response to an open records request filed by the Freedom of the Press Foundation.The latest round of intelligence firings comes as Gabbard and her team aim to eliminate what they view as bias and inefficiency within the intelligence community. On Twitter/X, Gabbard’s deputy chief of staff, Alexa Henning, said the NIC officials, whom she referred to as “Biden holdovers”, were removed for “politicizing intelligence”.While it’s not uncommon for new administrations to replace senior officials with their own picks, the firings of two respected intelligence officials who had served presidents of both parties has prompted concern. US congressman Jim Himes of Connecticut, the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said he’s seen no details to explain the dismissals.“Absent evidence to justify the firings, the workforce can only conclude that their jobs are contingent on producing analysis that is aligned with the President’s political agenda, rather than truthful and apolitical,” Himes said in a statement.Though it’s not widely known to the public, the National Intelligence Council plays a key role in the country’s spy services, helping combine intelligence gathered from different agencies into comprehensive assessments used by the White House and senior national security officials.Collins was considered one of the intelligence service’s top authorities on East Asia. Langan-Riekhof has served as a senior analyst and director of the CIA’s strategic insight department and is an expert on the Middle East.Attempts to reach both were unsuccessful on Wednesday. The CIA declined to comment publicly, citing personnel matters.Gabbard also is consolidating some of the intelligence community’s key operations, moving some offices now located at the CIA to buildings for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), her office said. They include the National Intelligence Council as well as the staff who prepare the president’s Daily Brief, the report to the president that contains the most important intelligence and national security information.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe move will give Gabbard more direct control over the brief. While the brief is already ODNI’s responsibility, the CIA has long played a significant role in its preparation, providing physical infrastructure and staffing that will have to be moved to ODNI or recreated.Gabbard oversees and coordinates the work of 18 federal intelligence agencies. She has worked to reshape the intelligence community – eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs under Trump’s orders and creating a taskforce to examine ways to cut costs and consider whether to declassify material relating to Covid-19 and other topics.Gabbard also has vowed to investigate intelligence leaks and end what she said was the misuse of intelligence for political aims.The Associated Press contributed reporting More

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      Elon Musk shows he still has the White House’s ear on Trump’s Middle East trip

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      Over the course of an eight-minute interview, Elon Musk touted his numerous businesses and vision of a “Star Trek future” while telling the crowd that his Tesla Optimus robots had performed a dance for Donald Trump and the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, to the tune of YMCA. He also announced that Starlink, his satellite internet company, had struck a deal for use in Saudi Arabia for maritime and aviation usage; looking to the near future, he expressed his desire to bring Tesla’s self-driving robotaxis to the country.“We could not be more appreciative of having a lifetime partner and a friend like you, Elon, to the Kingdom,” Saudi Arabia’s minister of communications and IT, Abdullah Alswaha, told Musk.Although Musk has pivoted away from his role as de facto leader of the so-called “department of government efficiency” and moved out of the White House, the Saudi summit showed how he is still retaining his proximity to the US president and international influence. As Musk returns to his businesses as his primary focus, he is still primed to reap the rewards of his connections and political sway over Trump.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionStarlink diplomacyMusk’s Starlink announcement comes after a spate of countries have agreed to allow the satellite communications service to operate within their borders. Several countries that have approved Starlink did so after US state department officials mentioned the company by name or pushed for increased satellite services in negotiations over Trump’s sweeping tariffs, according to internal memos obtained by the Washington Post.Concerns over whether Musk and the Trump administration are leveraging their power to force countries into adopting Starlink has prompted calls for a state department inspector general investigation into whether there is undue influence at play in these agreements. On Wednesday, a group of Democratic senators issued a letter requesting a broad review of the state department’s alleged efforts to assist Starlink.“These reports indicate that Mr Musk may be using his official role and his proximity to the President as leverage for his own personal financial benefit – even if it comes at the expense of American consumers and the nation’s foreign policy interests,” the senators wrote.Musk’s empire expands in Saudi ArabiaThe Saudi-US Investment Forum summit was held in Riyadh and featured top ministers from the kingdom’s government as well as US cabinet secretaries Scott Bessent and Howard Lutnick. Saudi Arabia has been sinking billions into tech and artificial intelligence in recent years as it expands its portfolio of investments, in addition to its already extensive deals in industries such as defense and energy. The White House and Saudi government announced an arms deal worth $142bn following the event.Musk was one of a long list of Silicon Valley moguls and top executives of major US companies to attend the summit. The CEO of Palantir and Musk ally, Alex Karp, took part, as did the OpenAI CEO and Musk rival, Sam Altman. Amazon’s chief executive, Andy Jassy, and Nvidia’s CEO, Jensen Huang, were some of the other tech leaders present. The list also included CEOs from a range of boldface names such as Boeing, Coca-Cola and Halliburton.Earlier on Tuesday, Musk talked with Trump and Prince Mohammed inside the Saudi Royal Court and warmly greeted both leaders. Weeks before Musk’s arrival in Riyadh, his Twitter/X social media platform had managed to refinance some of its billions in debt with help from a Saudi fund. Tesla also launched in Saudi Arabia last month, opening a new showroom in the capital. More

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      Republicans propose prohibiting US states from regulating AI for 10 years

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      Republicans in US Congress are trying to bar states from being able to introduce or enforce laws that would create guardrails for artificial intelligence or automated decision-making systems for 10 years.A provision in the proposed budgetary bill now before the House of Representatives would prohibit any state or local governing body from pursuing “any law or regulation regulating artificial intelligence models, artificial intelligence systems, or automated decision systems” unless the purpose of the law is to “remove legal impediments to, or facilitate the deployment or operation of” these systems.The provision was a last-minute addition by House Republicans to the bill just two nights before it was due to be marked up on Tuesday. The House energy and commerce committee voted to advance the reconciliation package on Wednesday morning.The bill defines AI systems and models broadly, with anything from facial recognition systems to generative AI qualifying. The proposed law would also apply to systems that use algorithms or AI to make decisions including for hiring, housing and whether someone qualifies for public benefits.Many of these automated decision-making systems have recently come under fire. The deregulatory proposal comes on the heels of a lawsuit filed by several state attorneys general against the property management software RealPage, which the lawsuit alleges colluded with landlords to raise rents based on the company’s algorithmic recommendations. Another company, SafeRent, recently settled a class-action lawsuit filed by Black and Hispanic renters who say they were denied apartments based on an opaque score the company gave them.Some states have already inked laws that would attempt to establish safeguards around these systems. New York, for instance, passed a law that required automated hiring systems to undergo bias assessments. California has passed several laws regulating automated decision-making, including one that requires healthcare providers to notify patients when they send communications using generative AI. These laws may become unenforceable if the reconciliation bill passes.“This bill is a sweeping and reckless attempt to shield some of the largest and most powerful corporations in the world – from big tech monopolies to RealPage, UnitedHealth Group and others – from any sort of accountability,” said Lee Hepner, senior legal counsel at the American Economic Liberties Project. The new language is in line with Trump administration actions that aim to remove any perceived impediments to AI development. Upon taking office, Donald Trump immediately revoked a Biden administration executive order that created safety guardrails for the deployment and development of AI. Silicon Valley has long held that any regulation stifles innovation, and several prominent members of the tech industry either joined or backed the US president’s campaign, leading the administration to echo the same sentiment.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“State lawmakers across the country are stepping up with real solutions to real harms – this bill is a pre-emptive strike to shut those down before they gain more ground,” Hepner said. More

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      Lord Buffalo drummer removed from plane and detained by US border control

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      The Texas-based rock band Lord Buffalo has cancelled its European tour after its drummer, Yamal Said, was detained by US Customs and Border Protection on Monday.Said was removed from a plane en route to the band’s summer tour and has had no contact with his bandmates for two days, according to a message posted to the band’s Instagram account. Said is a Mexican citizen but a legal permanent resident of the United States, holder of a green card and resident of Austin since the 1980s, according to the Austin Chronicle.“We are heartbroken to announce we have to cancel our upcoming European tour,” the band wrote on Instagram on Wednesday. “Our drummer, Yamal Said, who is a Mexican citizen and lawful permanent resident of the United States (green card holder) was forcibly removed from our flight to Europe by Customs and Border Patrol [sic] at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport on Monday May 12. He has not been released, and we have been unable to contact him. We are currently working with an immigration lawyer to find out more information and to attempt to secure his release.“We are devastated to cancel this tour,” the statement continued, “but we are focusing all of our energy and resources on Yamal’s safety and freedom.”An update to the statement on Wednesday afternoon thanked fans for their support, and said Said had “secured the legal representation he needs”.“We are waiting to hear what comes next,” they added. “We want to reiterate that we truly don’t know what’s going on. We have more questions than answers, but we will keep you posted as much as we can. At this time the family asks for privacy as they navigate the situation.”According to the Chronicle, Said is a longtime staple of the music scene in Austin. He formerly played with the band the Black and works as a music instructor for the Texas School for the Blind.The heavy psychedelic-Americana quartet were to embark on an eight-date European tour in support of their latest album Holus Bolus. The tour, alongside the Swedish band Orsak:Oslo, was scheduled to begin on 15 May in the Netherlands and wrap the following Friday in Iceland.In their own statement, Orsak:Oslo, who will continue with the tour, wrote: “No one should be pulled off a plane and jailed for simply trying to travel and make art with their band. We won’t pretend to understand the full complexity of the situation, but this should not happen anywhere.”Said’s arrest comes amid a broader crackdown on immigration and border entry from the Trump administration, which has included searching phones for text messages critical of Donald Trump. In the four months since the US president took office, several professional musicians have had issues leaving or entering the US.In March, members of the British punk band UK Subs said they were denied entry and detained in the US, reportedly due to incorrect visas and a reason agents were unwilling to disclose. Bassist Alan Gibbs, who was sent back to the UK along with bandmates Marc Carrey and Stefan Häublein, speculated on social media “whether my frequent, and less than flattering, public comments regarding their president and his administration played a role – or perhaps I’m simply succumbing to paranoia”.Additionally Bells Larsen, a trans singer-songwriter based in Montreal, told the Guardian that he was canceling a tour because he could not apply for a visa under new US citizenship and immigration services policies that do not recognize transgender identities. The British singer FKA twigs cancelled several North American dates of her Eusexa tour because of unspecified visa issues. And Grzegorz Kwiatkowski, of the Polish rock band Trupa Trupa told NPR that visa delays forced him and his band to miss out on several North American performance opportunities.The Guardian has reached out to Lord Buffalo’s representatives for comment. More