Relax, "New America" is just a post, he hasn't renamed New Mexico yet

Written by Yiannis Damellos

September 7, 2026

And who cares anyway? When we get rid of him, we will bring back the old names and make more jokes about it.

There is an almost delicious historical paradox in “New America,” for obvious political reasons: New Mexico itself is already the product of centuries of colonial naming. So replacing it with “New America” does not remedy the malaise of colonial history. Instead, it adds another layer of post-colonial naming on top of it. Which is so Trump! But really, don’t you know this is simply his way of provoking his opponents and generating headlines? New Mexico’s governor has treated it as an unserious distraction.

Major pieces of Post Office’s mail voting rule missing while Justice Department presses Supreme Court to move it forward

News / Election Administration / 

Litigation / Voting
By Brentin Mock
September 6, 2026

The Justice Department’s (DOJ) various court filings defending the U.S. Postal Service’s (USPS) new voting restrictions remain mum on when important components of the rule necessary to comply will become available, even as states start sending out ballots.

The Justice Department is pressing the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) to lift a lower court block and allow the rule to take effect, arguing the states shouldn’t have problems complying despite the missing components.

Iran-US war latest: Tehran attacks ships in Strait of Hormuz after US strikes Iranian oil tankers

The latest exchange of attacks followed an escalation in the past week which threatens to deepen the conflict

Dan Haygarth 

Monday 07 September 2026 01:00 BST

Photo: US strikes three Iranian oil tankers in response to attacks on warships

The US and Iran have traded strikes on ships, the latest round of attacks since the conflict flared a week ago after a period of relative calm.

Opinion: Do Germans Remember What They Are Being Asked to Become?

September 6, 2026

By Yiannis Damellos

EUROPE / GERMANY

Source: DEUTSCHE WELLE

“Imagine there’s no countries; it isn’t hard to do. 

Nothing to kill or die for.”

Tell that to the Germans, Johnnie boy. In an imaginary world, perhaps there are no borders. But in this space and time, there are borders, Trump walls, ICE agents and the hunting of immigrants—all justified by the perfectly legitimate principle that nations have the right to control their borders. The million-euro German question, however, is this: What happens when immigration becomes the doorway through which national identity begins to reshape the state? And here is the question Germany's history forces us to ask: Does historical memory still serve the Germans well, or is it time to refresh it?

German startup makes European space history with first successful orbital launch

Isar’s rocket launch comes amid Europe’s attempts to reduce its reliance on American industry

September 6, 2026, 12:59 pm CET
By Sebastian Starcevic

BRUSSELS — A German startup successfully sent a rocket into orbit, marking a major milestone for Europe’s push to develop its own commercial space-launch industry.

Trump's approval drops among Republicans ahead of midterms, new poll shows

Jay Stahl
USA TODAY
Sept. 6, 2026, 9:01 a.m. ET

Full Summary

A new NBC News Decision Desk poll shows President Donald Trump's approval among Republican voters has fallen sharply, with strong approval dropping from 52% to 41% and overall approval hitting a record low of 36% as the 2026 midterm elections approach.

President Donald Trump's support among Republican voters dropped in a new poll less than two months from November's crucial midterm elections.

Greeks promised tax relief, wage hikes as protesters take to the streets over cost of living crunch

By COSTAS KANTOURIS and DEREK GATOPOULOS
Updated 12:23 PM PDT, September 5, 2026
THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) — Greece’s conservative government promised sweeping tax breaks and pay hikes before a general election next year, as thousands gathered in protest late Saturday over the high cost of living.

U.S.-Russian Talks Yield No Breakthrough as Moscow Keeps Pounding Ukraine

September 5, 2026 

Diplomatic discussions between U.S. envoys and Russian President Vladimir Putin produced no significant breakthrough Saturday, CNN and Reuters reported.

Putin held more than three hours of talks in Moscow with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, in an effort to address the war in Ukraine. Kremlin officials described the meeting as “useful.” Witkoff and Kushner were expected to carry what they learned in Moscow to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. But despite the diplomatic niceties, no agreement emerged that appeared capable of moving the sides toward a broader ceasefire or a lasting peace.

The Secret IRS Files: Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax

The Secret IRS Files

ProPublica has obtained a vast cache of IRS information showing how billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Warren Buffett pay little in income tax compared to their massive wealth — sometimes, even nothing.

by Jesse Eisinger, Jeff Ernsthausen and Paul Kiel

June 8, 2021, 5:00 am

In 2007, Jeff Bezos, then a multibillionaire and now the world’s richest man, did not pay a penny in federal income taxes. He achieved the feat again in 2011. In 2018, Tesla founder Elon Musk, the second-richest person in the world, also paid no federal income taxes.

Trump’s “Beautification” Plan Has Turned Community Parks Into Policing Traps

News | Prisons & Policing

Trump’s plan to “make D.C. beautiful again” means more policing for the city’s residents

By Nick Fulton , Truthout

Published September 5, 2026 

The expenditures are enormous: $16 million toward a failed paint job on the National Mall reflecting pool. $5 million for bronze horse statues. Over $900 million toward White House renovations. Trump’s plans to “make D.C. beautiful again” are costing taxpayers well over a billion dollars and leaving local community members wondering who the renovations are really for.

Trump Took His Status. ICE Took His Dignity. He Took His Life.

Huddled Masses

This promising young Haitian immigrant was humiliated and tormented until he lost hope

Adrian Carrasquillo

September 4

(Photo illustration by Sarah Rogers/The Bulwark | Photos: Instagram)

PIERRE DAMAS BEL CAME TO THE UNITED STATES legally, using the Biden-era CBP One app that allowed migrants to request asylum upon arrival. A temporary protected status (TPS) recipient from Haiti, he migrated in 2024 at the age of 18, joining his parents who had fled the violence-torn country.

Francis Fukuyama: The American Right Has Gone Off the Deep End

Interview with Francis Fukuyama 

Francis Fukuyama tells Jacobin that decades of suspicion of the state, from both the Left and the Right, helped produce America’s current crisis

Interview by John-Baptiste Oduor

In 1989, Francis Fukuyama wrote a sweeping philosophical polemic in which he argued that liberal democratic capitalism was the only viable economic and political system. Countries would either converge on its model or drift into dysfunction. What prevented states and individuals from accepting this fate was a fear of being the Last Man, a Nietzschean term for the individual living without ideas worth dying for. A world in which liberal democracy was triumphant was, Fukuyama argued in “The End of History?,” one without the tragedy and pathos of the era of great ideologies — safe but boring.

Senior aides to U.K.'s Nigel Farage step down in donation scandal where reporter posed as wealthy American's son

By Inaya Folarin Iman, Kamal Afzali

Updated on: September 4, 2026 / 9:07 PM EDT / 

CBS News

Two senior aides to Nigel Farage, the firebrand leader of the U.K.'s populist Reform party, have stepped down after the party was accused of breaking British electoral law concerning foreign funding in the wake of an investigative news report in which a journalist posed as a wealthy American's son who wanted to donate to the party.

“We’ve Never Seen Anything Quite Like This”: A Strange Ten-Sided “Structure” Has Been Spotted on Saturn’s North Pole

Ryan Whalen·

September 4, 2026

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has glimpsed a strange ten-sided atmospheric wave at Saturn’s south pole, the first regular-sided jet pattern ever observed there.

In a recent paper published in Science Advances, researchers examined Saturn’s peculiar decahedron, detecting signs of an entirely new atmospheric phenomenon for the gas giant. A similar hexagon-shaped wave resides at Saturn’s north pole but differs in noticeable ways.

From Shell Shock to PTSD, From War to “Military Conflict”: George Carlin Would Have Loved This

August 4, 2026

Edited by Yiannis Damellos

"Ladies and gentlemen, the Department of War and Love is proud to announce that the English language has been ordered to retreat"

There are moments when George Carlin seems less like a comedian who died in 2008 and more like a man who somehow managed to escape into the future, look around, and leave us a warning. One of his great routines was about Euphemisms, the way language gradually changes reality by making unpleasant things sound less unpleasant. Take war, for example. The same combat trauma that was once called “shell shock” became “battle fatigue,” then “operational exhaustion,” and eventually “post-traumatic stress disorder.” Carlin’s point was devastatingly simple: the condition had not changed; only the language had. And as the words became longer, softer, and more bureaucratic, the human misery underneath them became easier to ignore. He was making us laugh, but the joke had teeth. Now, watching the White House struggle to find a word for the war in Iran, you can almost hear Carlin clearing his throat.

Live Updates: Iran war is "small potatoes" for U.S., Trump says

By Tucker Reals, Khaled Wassef

Updated on: September 4, 2026 / 5:16 PM EDT / 

CBS News

What to know about the Iran war today:

• President Trump called the war with Iran "small potatoes" and defended his vice president, who said Thursday it shouldn't be called a war, saying, "A lot of people don't call it a war. I call it a military conflict."
• U.S. gas prices surged ahead of Labor Day weekend, with diesel hitting a record $5.85 a gallon Friday and AAA predicting travelers will face the highest prices ever seen over the holiday weekend.
• Despite President Trump insisting the amount of oil flowing out of the Persian Gulf has rebounded, traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains well below pre-war levels. Shipping data firm Lloyd's showed 102 ships transited the waterway last week, compared with 126 the week before — and that's compared with pre-war levels of at least 130 tankers daily.

Federal judge extends block on Trump executive order seeking to limit mail voting in the midterms

Associated Press

Politics
By NICHOLAS RICCARDI 

and LINDSAY WHITEHURST
Updated 5:03 PM PDT, September 4, 2026

A federal judge on Friday extended her prohibition against the U.S. Postal Service implementing President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to limit mail voting during the midterms, putting another major obstacle in the way of the administration as the first states begin sending out mail ballots.

ICE officer pleads not guilty to lying about shooting and is released from custody

Associated Press

Photo: FOX News
By VALERIE GONZALEZ 

and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER
Updated 4:03 PM PDT, September 4, 2026

McALLEN, Texas (AP) — A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer was released from federal custody Friday after pleading not guilty to lying to investigators about the circumstances that led to the shooting of a Venezuelan man during the Minnesota immigration crackdown last winter.