The Political Thread

[Chris]

Live Updates: India’s Election Results Suggest a Setback for Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s governing alliance may be headed toward a narrower majority in Parliament, based on early results.

www.nytimes.com

Prime Minister Narendra Modi claimed a third term in office on Tuesday as early results in India’s general election delivered a far narrower than expected victory for the country’s most powerful leader in generations.

Mr. Modi, who would be only the second Indian leader to secure a third consecutive term, hailed “a historical feat in India’s history,” even as his party appeared likely to lose a significant number of seats in Parliament, meaning it would need to rely on smaller parties in its coalition to form a government.

The outcome was a surprising setback for Mr. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, which exit polls had suggested would again win an outright majority on its own. The B.J.P. was still set to win a plurality of parliamentary seats.

 

[Chris]

Biden signs executive order dramatically tightening border

He has faced political pressure as migrants have continued to arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border.

www.nbcnews.com

WASHINGTON — Facing mounting political pressure over the migrant influx at the U.S. southern border, President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed an executive order that will temporarily shut down asylum requests once the average number of daily encounters tops 2,500 between official ports of entry, according to a senior administration official.

 

[Chris]

Wisconsin attorney general files felony charges against attorneys, aide who worked for Trump in 2020

Wisconsin's attorney general has filed felony forgery charges against two attorneys and an aide who helped submit paperwork falsely saying that former President Donald Trump had won the battleground state in 2020.

apnews.com

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul filed felony forgery charges Tuesday against two attorneys and an aide who helped submit paperwork falsely saying that former President Donald Trump had won the battleground state in 2020.

The charges were filed against attorneys Kenneth Chesebro, 62, and Jim Troupis, 70, and former Trump aide Mike Roman, 51, who allegedly delivered Wisconsin’s fake elector paperwork to a Pennsylvania congressman’s staffer in order to get them to then-Vice President Mike Pence on Jan. 6, 2021.

 

[Chris]

https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/03/europe/ukraine-western-weapons-hit-russian-territory-intl-latam/index.html

Ukrainian forces claimed Monday that they had successfully hit a Russian S-300 missile system using Western-supplied weapons inside Russian territory.

“It burns beautifully. It’s a Russian S-300. On Russian territory. The first days after permission to use Western weapons on enemy territory,” Ukrainian government minister Iryna Vereshchuk posted on Facebook alongside a picture purporting to show the strike.

This comes just days after US President Joe Biden gave Ukraine permission to carry out limited strikes using US weapons in Russian territory around Kharkiv, after several European nations had removed restrictions on how the weapons can be used.

 

[Chris]

Immigration Measure Added to the Ballot in Arizona

Republicans are hoping a proposal revisiting some of the tough immigration policies of a decade ago will turn out their voters.

www.nytimes.com

Republican lawmakers in Arizona voted on Tuesday to put a ballot measure before voters in November that would make unlawfully crossing the border from Mexico a state crime. The proposal would give local police officers the power to arrest and jail unauthorized migrants, and would allow state judges to order deportations.

While immigration is the focus of campaigns across the country, the measure in Arizona is significant because it places the border crisis directly onto the ballot in a swing state that is seen as crucial in the presidential race.

 

[Chris]

Israel Secretly Targets U.S. Lawmakers With Influence Campaign on Gaza War

Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs ordered the operation, which used fake social media accounts urging U.S. lawmakers to fund Israel’s military, according to officials and documents about the effort.

www.nytimes.com

Israel organized and paid for an influence campaign last year targeting U.S. lawmakers and the American public with pro-Israel messaging, as it aimed to foster support for its actions in the war with Gaza, according to officials involved in the effort and documents related to the operation.

The covert campaign was commissioned by Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, a government body that connects Jews around the world with the State of Israel, four Israeli officials said. The ministry allocated about $2 million to the operation and hired Stoic, a political marketing firm in Tel Aviv, to carry it out, according to the officials and the documents.

The campaign began in October and remains active on the platform X. At its peak, it used hundreds of fake accounts that posed as real Americans on X, Facebook and Instagram to post pro-Israel comments. The accounts focused on U.S. lawmakers, particularly ones who are Black and Democrats, such as Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader from New York, and Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia, with posts urging them to continue funding Israel’s military.

 

[Chris]

Gunman captured after shootout outside US Embassy in Lebanon

A video that surfaced on social media showed a gunman in a parking lot across the embassy’s entrance shooting with what appears to be an assault rifle.

apnews.com

AUKAR, Lebanon (AP) — A gunman who attacked the U.S. embassy near Beirut was shot and captured by Lebanese soldiers after a Wednesday morning shootout that injured an embassy security guard, the military and embassy officials said.

 

[Chris]

Pro-Palestinian protesters arrested and suspended after barricading inside Stanford University president's office

Students and alumni entered President Richard Saller’s office and will “remain inside the building and are refusing to leave until their demands are met,” according to the group.

www.nbcnews.com

More than a dozen pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested on Wednesday after they briefly took over the president's office at Stanford University, authorities said.

In the latest provocative campus action calling for divestment from Israel in the wake of the country's war with Hamas, students and alumni entered President Richard Saller's office at about 5:30 a.m. PT, according to the group’s spokesperson.

 

[Chris]

Judge Reshuffles Hearings in Trump Documents Case

The new schedule set by Judge Aileen Cannon reflects the array of legal issues that she has yet to resolve amid efforts by the former president’s legal team to delay the trial.

www.nytimes.com

The federal judge overseeing former President Donald J. Trump’s classified documents case abruptly changed the proceeding’s schedule on Wednesday, reshuffling the timing for hearings on an array of important legal issues.

The move by the judge, Aileen M. Cannon, was unlikely to have much impact on the overall trajectory of the case, but it reflected the substantial number of unresolved legal motions she is juggling. Last month, Judge Cannon scrapped the case’s trial date, saying she could not yet pick a new one because of what she described at the time as “the myriad and interconnected” questions she had still not managed to consider.

 

[Chris]

Gilgo Beach killings: Alleged serial killer Rex Heuermann set to appear in court today to face charges on two more killings, sources say

Heuermann, 60, of Massapequa Park, faces arraignment for the July 2003 dismemberment death of Jessica Taylor and the November 1993 death of Sandra Costilla.

www.newsday.com

Alleged Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex A. Heuermann has been indicted on two counts of second-degree murder in the killings of two additional women, including a Queens resident whose remains were found in Southampton Town more than 30 years ago and who had only recently been connected to the Gilgo Beach investigation, court papers show.

 

[Chris]

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www.usnews.com

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Steve Bannon, a former top adviser to Donald Trump, must report to prison by July 1 to serve a four-month sentence for contempt of Congress, a federal judge said on Thursday.

 

[Chris]

Live Updates: Israeli Strike Kills Dozens at School Complex Where Civilians Sought Shelter

The Israeli military said it had targeted Hamas operatives at a U.N. school complex. Palestinian officials said the dead included women and children.

www.nytimes.com

An Israeli airstrike early Thursday hit a United Nations school complex in central Gaza that had become a shelter for thousands of displaced Palestinians, killing dozens of people. Israel’s military said the attack had targeted Hamas operatives. Palestinian officials said it had killed civilians.

 

[Comrade Khan]

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www.usnews.com

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Steve Bannon, a former top adviser to Donald Trump, must report to prison by July 1 to serve a four-month sentence for contempt of Congress, a federal judge said on Thursday.

I hope he gets shanked

 

[Chris]

Latest jobs report shows accelerating job growth despite high interest rates

The US economy added 272,000 jobs in May, according to Labor Department data released Friday. The unemployment rate rose to 4% from 3.9%.

www.cnn.com

The US economy added a blockbuster 272,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate rose to 4% from 3.9%, the Labor Department reported Friday.

That data far outpaced economists’ expectations for 180,000 jobs and an unemployment rate of 3.9%.

The Federal Reserve, in its battle to bring down inflation, is looking for a slow-but-steady cooldown in the labor market as the economy comes off the boil. However, Friday’s data showed the exact opposite.

Markets were hoping for a “Goldilocks” report that was neither so hot that it pushes the Fed to hold off on a rate cut, nor so cold that it shows a steep drop-off in employment levels.

Stock futures immediately dropped after the report was released, with Dow futures falling by around 140 points.

 

[Chris]

Clarence Thomas, in Financial Disclosure, Acknowledges 2019 Trips Paid by Harlan Crow

The justice amended an earlier filing to include vacations to Bali and an exclusive California club paid for by the Texas billionaire Harlan Crow.

www.nytimes.com

Justice Clarence Thomas acknowledged on Friday additional luxury travel he had accepted from a conservative billionaire, amending a previous financial disclosure to reflect trips he had taken to an Indonesian island and a secretive all-male club in the Northern California redwoods.

The trips, taken in 2019, were earlier revealed by ProPublica, but it is the first time that Justice Thomas has included them on his financial disclosures.