“White House officials are unable to cite any part of U.S. law that dictates the separations, which were initiated in April after Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced “zero tolerance” for unlawful border crossings. Adults apprehended after crossing the border outside an official port of entry are to be arrested and prosecuted under Sessions’ decree, which leads to their children being removed.” More …
Biopharma Deploy Trump’s Tax Windfall to Buy Back Billions in Stock
“Large-cap biopharmaceutical companies took advantage of repatriation of overseas profits and lower corporate tax rates to push share repurchases to the highest level in at least 10 years.” More …
Trump signs executive orders to make it easier to fire federal employees
“A series of executive orders, signed by President Trump on Friday, will make it easier to lay off federal government employees and “[roll] back the prerogatives of unions that represent them … ” More…
Supreme Court rules employers can ban class action lawsuits in arbitration
“In a 5-4 ruling on a trio of cases penned by Justice Neil Gorsuch, the court’s Republican majority sided with businesses whose employment contracts include mandatory arbitration clauses that prevent class action lawsuits. Instead, workers who take to the courts against an employer must do so as individuals.” More …
Trump Is Fulfilling Russia’s Dream of Splitting the West
“One of Russia’s principal foreign-policy goals for decades has been to split the United States from is allies. Whether by accident or by design, President Trump appears intent on bringing that dream to fruition.” More …
Web of elite Russians met with NRA execs during 2016 campaign
“Several prominent Russians, some in President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle or high in the Russian Orthodox Church, now have been identified as having contact with National Rifle Association officials during the 2016 U.S. election campaign, according to photographs and an NRA source.” More …
Trump hit Mexico with steel tariffs: Mexico is hitting back
“Overall, the new penalties will affect about $3 Billion worth of US goods. The tax rates vary depending on the product, but most of them are high: There’s a 20 percent tariff on US pork shoulder and legs, and some bourbons and cheeses will be hit with 20 to 25 percent tariffs… Those kinds of taxes will make US goods a lot more expensive in the Mexican market and can dampen demand for them over time. That, in turn, would deal a blow to the US businesses that export them, forcing them to downsize operations and lay off workers.” More …
Trump flouts national security advice in bid to save Chinese tech company ZTE
“The Pentagon was so concerned about the “unacceptable risk” posed by the Chinese tech giant ZTE in April that it banned sales of its cellphones on military bases. The same month, British officials cautioned that using ZTE equipment was so problematic that national security concerns ‘cannot be mitigated.’ … Yet the Trump administration’s willingness to reverse a Commerce Department ban forbidding American companies from selling to ZTE doesn’t protect U.S. customers from surveillance, hacking or digital espionage, say experts and lawmakers.” More …
Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats: Russia is Attempting to Influence US Midterms, Divide Transatlantic Alliance
“Coats said Russia had already undertaken an “unprecedented influence campaign to interfere in the US electoral and political process” in 2016. Russia, Coats pointed out, has also meddled in France, Germany, Norway, Spain, and Ukraine. “It is 2018, and we continue to see Russian targeting of American society in ways that could affect our midterm elections,” he said.” More …
Trump administration is shutting down practice-guidelines clearinghouse for doctors
“Diagnostic and treatment guidelines aren’t sexy, but they play a vital role in the practice of medicine. Physician societies, government agencies, and others issue detailed recommendations for everything from who should receive cardiac stents to which antibiotics patients should get to avoid infections after knee surgery… After roughly a decade of budget cuts, however, the government’s Agency for Health Care Research has defunded the repository, effective July 16, 2018.” More …