Extra, Extra
Don’t Even Think It: Rubio “said that while Khalil’s activities were ‘otherwise lawful,’ letting him remain in the country would undermine ‘U.S. policy to combat anti-Semitism around the world and in the United States, in addition to efforts to protect Jewish students from harassment and violence in the United States.” AP: Pressed for evidence against Mahmoud Khalil, government cites its power to deport people for beliefs. NBC: 130 Jewish Georgetown members slam Trump for ‘weaponizing’ faith in arresting professor. The question isn’t whether you agree with the views being espoused, but whether you believe views should be allowed to be espoused. Yair Rosenberg in The Atlantic (Gift Article): Trump’s Jewish Cover Story. “Presented as an attempt to protect Jews on campus, these threats are actually part of a much wider war against American higher education, which Trump and his allies perceive as a citadel of hostile cultural power.” (Here’s a tought for your Passover Seder this weekend: Don’t trust people who think Heiling is funny to protect Jewish interests.)
+ Yale Tide: Yesterday, I shared my concern about Timothy Snyder and Jason Stanley leaving the United States. Obey Watch. It’s definitely worth reading Snyder’s take on the matter: On leaving Yale. “I did not leave Yale because of anything Trump is doing; the chronology and the psychology are all wrong; I was not and am not fleeing anything.”
+ Whoops: “Doctors, researchers and public health experts warn that the measles outbreak, which has grown to more than 600 cases, may just be the beginning. They say outbreaks of preventable diseases could get much worse with falling vaccination rates and the Trump administration slashing spending on the country’s public health infrastructure.” “Not Just Measles”: Whooping Cough Cases Are Soaring as Vaccine Rates Decline.
+ Gov in the Time of Cholera: “At least five children and three adults with cholera died as they went in search of treatment in South Sudan after aid cuts by the Trump administration shuttered local health clinics during the country’s worst cholera outbreak in decades, the international charity Save the Children reported this week.” NYT (Gift Article): Children Seeking Cholera Care Die After U.S. Cuts Aid, Charity Says.
+ Space Force Feeding: Space Force Colonel Removed After Disavowing JD Vance’s Comments About Acquiring Greenland.
+ Commencement Speech: “Does it do justice to what she’s witnessing — to the Trump administration’s abandonment of, and indifference to, a man consigned to a hellhole in El Salvador because of an administrative error? To Trump’s morally perverse rewrite of history, in which Ukraine is evil and Russia rightly aggrieved? To his pardoning of the savages who smashed their way into the Capitol and bloodied police officers on Jan. 6, 2021? To his veneration of autocrats and his administration’s fervent efforts to turn him into one? To its conception of power not as a blessing that compels you to be generous but as a bludgeon that allows you to be cruel?” Frank Bruni in the NYT: What Do You Tell a College Student Graduating Into This America? (Maybe it’s safest to just say, “Congrats.”)
+ Lightning Crashes: “Lightning strikes kill millions of trees each year — but it turns out that some large tropical trees can not only survive a strike, but also benefit from its effects, according to a recent study.”
+ Blowin’ in the Wind? People in Northern China have a more pressing concern than the building trade war. The building winds. Millions told to stay indoors as China braces for strong winds. State media has warned that “some people weighing less than 110lbs may be ‘easily blown away.'”
