Happy Wednesday! A former social worker is currently on an “I Will Listen” tour of Canada, setting up a table and two chairs in cities and towns across the country to lend strangers a sympathetic ear for free. Finally, someone who will listen to Declan’s ruminations on the Cubs.
Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday recalled to Israel the team that had been in Doha, Qatar, to negotiate a ceasefire and hostage deal with Hamas. The decision came amid what Qatar’s prime minister described as “fundamental differences” between the two sides, as the Israeli military continues airstrikes on terrorist targets and expands its ground operations in Gaza. Meanwhile, Israel gave the United Nations permission to transport 93 aid trucks into the Strip on Tuesday, amid mounting international pressure to ramp up the delivery of food and medical supplies to the besieged enclave. On Monday, Canada, the United Kingdom, and France announced plans to undertake “concrete actions” against Israel, including the implementation of sanctions, should it continue the renewed offensive.
- Lawyers for two immigrants from Burma and Vietnam said Tuesday that the Trump administration had deported their clients to South Sudan in defiance of a federal court order. The lawyers made the allegations in an emergency appeal to U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy, who on May 7 issued an order barring the administration from deporting immigrants to any country where they are not citizens without due process. Following an emergency hearing on Tuesday, Murphy ruled that the government must “maintain custody and control” of deportees to South Sudan and other third countries to ensure the “practical feasibility of return” in the event the court deems the removals unlawful, adding that he expects the immigrants to be “treated humanely.”
- A group of 68 illegal immigrants from Honduras and Colombia arrived in their home countries on Monday, the first wave of participants to leave the U.S. under the Trump administration’s “self-deportation” policy. In exchange for self-registering for removal via U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s CBP One app, the migrants were given a free flight, a $1,000 debit card, and the opportunity to apply to legally immigrate to the U.S. at a future point. “If you are here illegally, use the CBP Home App to take control of your departure and receive financial support to return home,” Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said in a press release.
- A panel of the federal 4th Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday denied the Trump administration’s request that an order requiring it to seek the return of a Venezuelan man deported to an El Salvadoran prison be blocked. The original order—from U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher, a Trump appointee—required the administration to facilitate the return of Daniel Lozano-Camargo, ruling that his deportation under the Alien Enemies Act violated a 2024 legal settlement concerning asylum seekers who had entered the U.S. as minors. “The Government cannot facilitate Cristian’s return telepathically — it must express in words to the government of El Salvador that Cristian be released for transport back to the United States,” Judge DeAndrea Benjamin wrote for the court’s 2-1 majority, using a pseudonym to refer to Lozano-Camargo.
- President Donald Trump visited the Capitol on Tuesday in an effort to unite Republicans behind a proposed tax cut and spending bill. He urged swing-district moderates to drop demands to raise the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap and called on conservatives to retreat from their insistence that the bill cut more money from Medicaid than stipulated in its current draft. After a series of closed-door meetings, Trump announced that House Republicans were unified behind the budget plan. However, leaders from both the moderate and conservative factions indicated that the president’s advocacy had not yet persuaded them to vote for the bill, which can afford to lose only three Republican votes amid Democratic opposition.
- Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver of New Jersey is being charged with assaulting federal agents, the Justice Department announced Monday. McIver, along with Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and fellow Democratic Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman and Rob Menendez, had been visiting a newly opened immigration detention center in Newark when she became involved in an altercation between federal law enforcement agents and protesters. Video released by both sides shows McIver making contact with an officer, possibly deliberately. McIver denounced the charges, calling them an act of “political intimidation.”
- The Food and Drug Administration will no longer routinely approve COVID-19 booster vaccinations for healthy individuals under the age of 65, top officials said Tuesday. In an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary and top vaccine official Vinay Prasad announced that large-scale randomized control trials with a placebo population, rather than smaller and much faster trials that test for safety and efficacy in creating COVID antibodies, would potentially be required before the approval of yearly booster shots for healthy non-elderly adults. They claimed that a streamlined process would still exist for approving vaccine boosters for those over the age of 65, children, and younger adults with at least one underlying health condition.
- Rep. Jared Golden, a Democrat from Maine, on Tuesday announced plans to run for reelection to the House in 2026. The congressman, who represents Maine’s battleground 2nd Congressional District, had been considered a possible contender for either of Maine’s statewide races in 2026: an open governor’s race or as the Democratic challenger to Republican Sen. Susan Collins. “I am going to do what it takes to make sure no one like Paul LePage blusters his way into Congress,” he said in a statement announcing the decision, referring to the former governor of Maine from 2011 to 2019, who announced he would run again for Golden’s seat earlier this month.
‘We All Got Rolled’
Over the weekend, former President Joe Biden’s personal office announced that the 82-year-old was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer on Friday. “Cancer touches us all,” Biden said on X. “Like so many of you, Jill and I have learned that we are strongest in the broken places. Thank you for lifting us up with love and support.”
The difficult news arrived as Biden’s health was already in the spotlight. Ahead of Tuesday release of Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again, the highly anticipated book by CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson, excerpts published in major outlets provided alarming accounts of Biden’s cognitive decline while in office—and his inner circle’s attempts to conceal it ahead of and during the 2024 election.
Those excerpts offered a behind-the-scenes look at Democratic efforts to shield a physically feeble Biden, who forgot longtime acquaintances and appeared “catatonic” at fundraisers, from ...
As a non-paying reader, you are receiving a truncated version of The Morning Dispatch. You can read our 1,886-word item on new revelations about Biden’s cognitive decline in the members-only version of TMD.
Today’s Must-Read
President Joe Biden’s staff imposed tight limits on his daily schedule, often restricting his meetings and activities to midday hours when Biden was thought to be at his best. As his gait became more unsteady, and after some embarrassing falls, his team sought to shorten distances he’d walk and recommended changes to his footwear that would provide the president with additional stability. Biden’s fundraisers were reprogrammed with strict limits on the number of questions Biden took from his audiences and little time for spontaneous interaction with those funding his reelection. All the while, top Biden advisers insisted to reporters that the president was fine—as sharp as ever, in command of facts, energetic in meetings, perfectly capable not only of running for reelection but serving another four years.
Toeing the Company Line
The Truth Is Out There. Isn’t it?
How will conspiracy theorists cope with a government they trust?
Low-Energy Leninism
Donald Trump runs his mouth, not the economy.
Cover-Up of Biden’s Decline Shows Media Should Be More Skeptical
History shows presidents have a knack for hiding their health problems.
India-Pakistan Hostilities Complicate India’s Diplomatic Options
Will Washington be able to successfully navigate India’s evolving outlook?
Red Hot Soviet Nationalism
Nuts and borscht.
Worth Your Time
- Some people view the proliferation of artificial intelligence as a doomsday event for education. But in Miami, the nation’s third-largest public school district, educators are embracing the new technology, Natasha Singer reported for the New York Times. “Miami-Dade County Public Schools, the nation’s third-largest school district, is at the forefront of a fast-moving national experiment to embed generative A.I. technologies into teaching and learning. Over the last year, the district has trained more than 1,000 educators on new AI tools and is now introducing Google chatbots for more than 105,000 high schoolers — the largest U.S. school district deployment of its kind to date. It is a sharp turnabout from two years ago, when districts like Miami blocked A.I. chatbots over fears of mass cheating and misinformation,” she wrote. “If the classroom A.I. crusade succeeds, it could remake teaching and learning, in part by casting chatbots as the intermediaries that students turn to first for tutoring and feedback—before teachers see their work. The A.I. gambit could also end up eroding important skills like critical thinking, researchers say, or lead students to over-rely on chatbots.”
Presented Without Comment
The New York Times: Noem Incorrectly Defines Habeas Corpus as the President’s Right to Deport People
Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, bungled answers on Tuesday about habeas corpus, incorrectly asserting that the legal right of people to challenge their detention by the government was actually the president’s “constitutional right” to deport people.
…
At a Senate hearing, Senator Maggie Hassan, [a] Democrat of New Hampshire, asked Ms. Noem about the issue. “Secretary Noem,” she asked, “what is habeas corpus?”
“Well,” Ms. Noem said, “habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country and suspend their right to—”
“No,” Ms. Hassan interjected. “Let me stop you, ma’am. Excuse me, that’s incorrect.”
Also Presented Without Comment
Politico: Musk to Step Back From Political Spending: ‘I Think I’ve Done Enough.’
In the Zeitgeist
George Wendt, the award-winning actor best known for playing Norm Peterson on Cheers, died Tuesday at the age of 73. Here’s a compilation of every time he entered the Bull & Finch Pub. NOOORM!!
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