Trump's Iran Stalemate, ICE Raids on Haitians, Netanyahu Attacks Mamdani
Russia is suffering from "narrative collapse" in its war against Ukraine, a journalist told Semafor, as Kyiv turns the tide on the front lines and in American right-wing media. MAGA influencer and Trump whisperer Laura Loomer traveled to Ukraine to interview President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, The Raw Story reports.
Trump remains trapped in a stalemate over Iran, left "genuinely shocked" by an enemy he cannot simply pay off, conservative commentator Charlie Sykes told AlterNet. Behind the scenes, Trump's team is largely "too scared" to tell the president a "massive" escalation won't work, sources told Zeteo; the president is "not ready to fully wave the white flag" but has no f*cking way out.
Meanwhile, Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to ramp up operations to arrest Haitian immigrants whose Temporary Protected Status is expected to end soon, Bloomberg reports, citing federal sources relayed through Fox News.
The repression extends to the ballot box. A federal appeals court kept in place an injunction blocking key provisions of Trump's executive order aimed at restricting mail-in voting, Truthout reports. Salon confirms the court continues blocking the order, siding with states' rights and the Constitution.
The Atlantic details how Delaney Hall, a privately run immigration jail in Newark, New Jersey, reopened last year as the only sizable detention facility in the Northeast, becoming a flashpoint in the fight over Trump's deportation campaign.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani of "hate speech" after the mayor called for the federal government to arrest Netanyahu for war crimes, The New York Times reports. The Guardian notes Netanyahu dismissed ICC war-crime charges as "bogus" and plans to attend the UN General Assembly this fall.
The Trump administration wants to hold the world's first deep-sea mining lease sale in federal waters near American Samoa, Daily Kos reports, directly adjacent to a national wildlife refuge.
Nearly 400,000 people have fled heatwave wildfires ripping through Europe, with France conducting what its interior minister called probably the biggest peacetime civilian evacuation it has ever seen, the World Socialist Web Site reports. PBS confirms 220,000 forced from their homes in one French region alone as flames approach Bordeaux. The Tour de France shortened its final stage due to wildfires, Time notes. NPR reports the route was altered as security personnel were diverted to fight fires in southwest France.