作者： root

Inside Trump’s scramble to get White South Africans to the US as refugees

2026-07-13T09:00:26.018Z / CNN

Weeks into his second term, President Donald Trump announced that nearly all refugees admitted to the United States would be White South Africans, radically reshaping a decades-long program that had largely serviced people fleeing war, persecution, or other dangers.

Eighteen months later, the US has admitted more than 7,700 Afrikaners — but the effort has hit some notable bumps along the way.

The refugee program, largely shuttered for the rest of the world, has sparked diplomatic spats, prompted a scramble to open a processing site in South Africa, generated highly unusual requests from applicants and produced high denial rates, due in part to criminal records among some applicants, according to more than a dozen people familiar with the program.

While the processing of refugees can be a difficult task, particularly in urgent situations, the people familiar with the program told CNN that the hurdles it has faced stem from the administration’s desire to bend the program to only benefit Afrikaners.

“It’s clear to us that the designation of one population over literally all others does not represent the actual humanitarian need,” said Beth Oppenheim, president & CEO of HIAS, a refugee assistance organization that is part of an ongoing lawsuit challenging the administration’s suspension of the refugee program.

“It doesn’t mean there aren’t White South Africans who deserve protection. Of course, there are. But when you say they’re the only one population that needs protection that doesn’t reflect the reality in our world,” Oppenheim said. She noted that the program has historically been reserved for some of the world’s most vulnerable populations who have already fled their home countries and are often living in refugee camps.

Trump’s move to narrow the US refugee program to only include Afrikaners stunned career officials in the early days of the administration, prompting discussions over who exactly would be eligible to enter the United States and whether they needed to be White or other minorities in South Africa would be eligible.

“They carved out this group out of nowhere,” one of the sources said. “That’s why the back and forth took place.”

Officials landed on a broad definition that doesn’t specify race and notes that to be eligible for consideration, individuals must be of South African nationality, must be of Afrikaner ethnicity or be a member of a racial minority in South Africa, among other requirements. The overwhelming majority of those who have come to the US are White South Africans.

Meanwhile, Homeland Security officials charged with training refugee officers before they interview people for potential resettlement in the US scrambled to find materials to substantiate the president’s claims that White South Africans faced persecution.

The administration wanted the resettlement to happen “so fast,” that if someone is approved, they should be able to get on a plane the next day, former US officials told CNN. One source said that administration officials made clear that staff “needed to pull out all stops to support the president’s priority of resettling this group of people.”

Another source familiar with the program told CNN: “They’re building the plane as they’re flying it.”

Some Afrikaners are arriving to the United States in a matter of weeks, while others are being denied over issues with criminal history, and denial rates are hovering in the teens, higher than the single-digit percentages that are typical for other refugee populations, sources told CNN.

“What you’d have is a case of an individual who suffered three or four incidents that involved criminality, sometimes even violent crime, but the question was — what indication was there that this was on account of a protected ground?” another source told CNN.

Others were approved to come to the US but sought to delay their departure from their home country for a variety of reasons, sources explained.

“Afrikaner families would try to renegotiate in terms of their departure dates, because they were selling land, they were making arrangements, they were waiting for kids to graduate,” a former US official said. “There were a lot of delays, and that is so abnormal.”

In a statement to CNN, US Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesman Zach Kahler maintained that DHS is “committed to resettling Afrikaner refugees who are being persecuted by the South African government.”

“USCIS makes all decisions on U.S. Refugee Admissions Program applications on a case-by-case basis to ensure individuals are eligible for admission,” Kahler said.

Tensions and a charter flight

The program caused tensions on the ground late last year when the South African government briefly held, then released, two US government employees on assignment in South Africa. US officials have since moved their operations to a diplomatic site where temporary structures have also been stood up for processing, sources told CNN.

A State Department spokesperson told CNN, “This was not a mere diplomatic spat —the South African government raided the processing center and doxxed and harassed American officials in an attempt to delegitimize the plight of Afrikaners and intimidate those at the processing center.”

In a statement to CNN at the time, South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs said it had carried out an operation at a center processing refugee applications over suspected immigration violations concerning Kenyan nationals on site, noting that “the presence of foreign officials apparently coordinating with undocumented workers naturally raises serious questions about intent and diplomatic protocol.”

The Trump administration has highlighted its efforts to admit Afrikaners to the US, including at a welcome event at a DC-area airport last May for new arrivals with the US Deputy Secretary of State.

Sources said the government, at significant expense, paid to charter a plane to bring the inaugural group of Afrikaners to the US. Former officials said there was immense pressure to try to fill the charter flight, including discussions about potentially waiving medical exams to help do so. There were ultimately 59 people on board the flight.

“They didn’t get close to filling the plane,” one former official said. Another said that career officials raised concerns about using taxpayer money for that purpose. Another former official recalled thinking it “wasn’t fair” to the Afrikaners that they were being rushed to leave “just to get them there for a photo opp.”

“We would never have picked a date for people to arrive before we explicitly knew that they could leave,” the second former official recalled.

The State Department spokesperson noted that “every admitted refugee meets all requirements under U.S. law, including security and medical screenings.”

Another event was planned for this summer until being abruptly scrapped, according to a source.

The administration has also started distributing welcome bags to new arrivals that include materials aligned with Trump and his policies, the source said.

A former US government official told CNN that in prior administrations, refugees would typically get a so-called “cultural orientation” before arriving to the United States. That included preparing people for their first flight and a brief introduction to living in the US.

But last year, political appointees decided those existing materials could no longer be used, claiming they didn’t reflect Trump’s policy views, the official said.

Those who have already arrived in the US also face hurdles as they navigate life as a refugee with limited resources provided by the federal government, fueling pushback from some Afrikaners who came in with different expectations, sources say.

“The expectations set on the other side are unrealistic. They’re coming to a situation that is not as nice as they’re used to,” one source familiar with the resettlement process told CNN.

Unlike other refugee populations who arrive with very little, some White South Africans also have means, so they’re able to put children in private school or buy a car shortly after arrival.

Fringe claims and shifting standards

More than 3 million refugees have been admitted to the United States since the program was established in 1980. Applicants must prove that if they return to their home country, they’ll face persecution because of their race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or their political opinion. They are generally already outside of their country and unable or unwilling to return home over fear.

While there have been exceptions, processing refugees in their own country — as is happening in South Africa — is unusual, according to experts, because they are residing in the place where they’re claiming to be persecuted. Typically, situations are so urgent and dangerous that people are forced to flee their homes to another country.

For that reason, refugee advocates couldn’t recall a time that people applying for refuge in the United States were also willing to return to the country they were fleeing after being resettled — and that has occurred with some arrivals: They have come to the US, grown disillusioned, and decided to return to South Africa.

Trump has repeatedly amplified fringe claims that White farmers in South Africa are having their land seized and are being killed in massive numbers. He also confronted South Africa’s president with those claims in an Oval Office meeting last year. CNN has investigated the claims of White “genocide” in South Africa and found no evidence to back them up.

“President Trump has provided a lifeline for Afrikaners, who are being raped, maimed, killed, and driven off their property across South Africa. While the South African government and many in the media have brushed off the horrific lived experiences of this community, the Trump administration continues to process applications for refugee status because the President has a humanitarian heart,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a statement.

While presidential administrations must consult with Congress on refugee caps, the president has immense power in deciding who and how many people can come through utilizing that avenue.

“What’s different about this moment is not that Trump has put his particular spin on this program. That’s not unusual. What is unusual in this moment is the how and the why,” Oppenheim said.

In a recent move to up the number of Afrikaners allowed in the US, the Trump administration cited remarks from the South African president and an incident last year when the South African government questioned US personnel on assignment in the country.

“This escalating hostility heightens the risks to Afrikaners in South Africa, who are already subject to far-reaching government-sponsored race-based discrimination,” the report stated, justifying the need to revise the ceiling to 17,500. More Afrikaners are expected to arrive in the coming months as a result.

Experts who spoke with CNN stressed that there may be individual cases that fit the criteria for refugee status, but overwhelmingly, they said, Afrikaners’ cases are based on discrimination, which is short of what’s required by US and international law to qualify as a refugee.

“The most strident difference in the US refugee program is it was dominated by people who met the international definition of refugee, and none of these are,” a refugee advocate told CNN. “It’s changed the real purpose of that.”

法国枫丹白露附近林火狂烧 当局派灭火飞机扑救

2026年7月13日 17:48 / 联合早报

枫丹白露附近一片林地当地时间星期天（7月12日）下午发生野火，火势到午夜时分仍未得到控制，林中火光冲天。 （法新社）

法国巴黎以南的枫丹白露附近野火狂烧，数百名消防员彻夜奋战，仍未控制火势。当局现已出动两架灭火飞机参与扑救。

路透社报道，枫丹白露（Fontainebleau）周边高速公路旁的一片林地，于当地时间星期天（7月12日）下午起火。当地距离法国首都巴黎仅70公里。

法国近日迎来5月以来的第三轮热浪。大火在热风助推下狂烧不止，截至星期天午夜，已烧毁800多公顷林地。

连接巴黎与法国南部地区的A6高速公路被迫关闭，当地还有其他小规模火灾，导致高速列车服务中断。

消防部门星期一（13日）说，灭火行动仍在继续。参与救火的两架灭火飞机，须从流经巴黎市中心的塞纳河汲水。

枫丹白露的同名宫殿，即枫丹白露宫，是法国历代君王的狩猎行宫和秋季行宫。由于发布红色高温预警，枫丹白露宫在刚过去的周末和当地时间星期一都临时提前闭馆。

欧洲多国接连遭到热浪袭击，6月下旬的热浪可能导致数千人死亡，各国报告的超额死亡人数超过1万人。法国、西班牙和英国气温创下新高，多地电力供应中断，学校停课。

Millions of Americans take on debt and drain savings to afford food

July 13, 2026 / 5:00 AM EDT / CBS News

Millions of Americans are borrowing money or draining their savings to buy groceries, highlighting the financial strain many households face as the cost of living rises, new research has found.

More than a quarter of working-age adults who relied on credit cards to buy groceries were either unable to pay their balance in full or missed their minimum payment, according to the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan think tank. About one in 10 adults relied on so-called “buy now, pay later” loans to cover their groceries — of those, about a third missed a payment last year, the analysis found.

About 20% of working-age adults said they had tapped long-term savings that weren’t intended for everyday expenses, such as an emergency fund, at least once in the last 12 months to pay for groceries, the researchers said.

“Families still need to eat. They will still need to pay for their basic needs,” Kassandra Martinchek, a co-author of the study and public policy expert at the Urban Institute, told CBS News. “Now they have the additional burden of also needing to repay debt — it could constrain their ability to meet their basic needs in the future and get back on their financial feet.”

Over the past five years, grocery prices have jumped 32%, making food affordability a top concern for many Americans, the Urban Institute said. The group’s findings are based on a December survey of 7,500 adults ages 18-64.

The findings underscore the growing affordability pinch that many households are experiencing after five years of elevated inflation. In 2026, price increases have reaccelerated due to the Iran war, which has driven up energy costs and pushed consumer prices to their highest level in more than three years.

In a May CBS News poll, more than three-quarters of Americans said their incomes aren’t keeping up with inflation. Recent inflation numbers have outpaced wage growth, meaning that many households are losing purchasing power.

Falling behind

More adults are using their credit cards to pay for groceries but failing to make the minimum payment to avoid interest charges, with the Urban Institute finding that the share rose by 1.6 percentage points since it last studied the issue in 2023. While that may seem small, it represents a jump in the number of people who are falling into financial distress after paying for everyday items, according to the group.

“What it means is that there are millions more people, when we look at the overall population of Americans, who are struggling to make that minimum payment when they’re putting groceries on their credit card,” Martinchek said. “And that feels meaningful because that financial pressure is affecting a lot of different families.”

Missing a minimum payment can result in a late fee of up to $30 for the first offense, with penalties rising to $41 for each subsequent late payment, according to NerdWallet. Consumers can also face a penalty APR, which carries a higher interest rate of about 30%, compared with the average APR today of about 24%.

The increase in working-age Americans who aren’t making their minimum payments “is obviously a more severe form of financial coping because it’s also often associated with penalty interest rates or additional fees,” Martincheck said. “It’s ultimately a signal of deepening financial distress for families.”

About 12% of low- and middle-income adults who used credit cards to pay for groceries missed a minimum payment last year, triple the rate for higher-income consumers, the study found. Lower-earning households were also about four times as likely to miss a buy now, pay later payment as higher-income households.

During the past year, enrollment in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as food stamps, has fallen sharply following the Republicans’ 2025 “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which introduced new work requirements.

About 37 million people were enrolled in SNAP as of March (the most recent data available), representing a decline of almost 5 million people from a year earlier.

“For low- and moderate-income families, [groceries are] a really big portion of their budget, and so when food prices increase, they have much less breathing room to accommodate that,” Martincheck said.

Edited by Alain Sherter

美媒指日本成俄间谍巢穴 日方称将加强防范

2026年7月13日 18:06 / 联合早报

乌克兰去年4月向日本外务省发出外交信函，详细列出证据显示在遭袭击平民区发现的俄武器含有日制零部件。图为7月11日，乌克兰首都基辅遭俄导弹袭击后留下的弹坑。 （法新社）

（东京/纽约综合电）《纽约时报》报道，俄罗斯已将日本变成一个“间谍巢穴”和武器零部件的主要来源地.日本回应时表明，有必要更有效地防范外国情报活动。

《纽约时报》星期天（7月12日）报道，2022年2月俄军入侵乌克兰后，西方各国将境内数百名俄间谍驱逐，并将与克里姆林宫有联系的公司列入黑名单。这项协同行动旨在使俄罗斯更难以收集情报，以及购买制造武器所需的微晶片、发射器、机械等。

出人意料的是，数十名被驱逐的间谍后来出现在日本。报道称，由于日本间谍法律薄弱，俄罗斯正把日本作为搜集情报和采购战争所需军民两用技术的重要枢纽。

据乌克兰政府估计，俄罗斯90%的导弹和无人机含有日本制造的零部件。

五个西方情报机构的现任和前任官员透露，俄罗斯一个名为“第20局”（20th Directorate）的军事情报单位以东京为基地，其人员伪装成外交官和商人，在东京采购或窃取战地科技，偷运到俄罗斯。

第20局的负责人是俄情报特工菲利琴科夫（Maksim Vladimirovich Filchenkov），他以俄国营的俄罗斯航空公司（Aeroflot）东京办事处员工的身份作为掩护 。

由于直接向俄罗斯出口受到限制，这个秘密采购网络利用中介公司以及经由越南、乌兹别克斯坦、斯里兰卡等第三国，将零部件输送至俄罗斯。

日本内阁秘书长木原稔星期一（13日）拒绝直接对《纽约时报》的报道置评，但表明东京必须以更严厉态度对待这一问题。

他说，日方认识到，在快速变化的安全环境中，有必要更积极防范威胁日本国家安全的外国情报活动。国会今年已批准一项法案，为建立一个新的国家机构来协调情报活动铺路。

日本长期以来被视为间谍天堂，部分原因在于日本作为二战战败国，其军事能力受到严格限制，导致日本情报力量薄弱，甚至没有对外情报机构。

此前外国政府已多次警告日本，其技术正被偷运到俄罗斯。仅在去年4月一个月内，乌克兰就这一问题向日本外务省发出至少八封外交信函，详细列出证据显示在遭袭击平民区发现的俄武器和军事装备含有日制零部件。

然而，尽管日本政府口头上表明支持乌克兰，却迟迟未采取应对行动。

美媒指日本成俄间谍巢穴 日方称将加强防范

2026年7月13日 18:06 / 联合早报

乌克兰去年4月向日本外务省发出外交信函，详细列出证据显示在遭袭击平民区发现的俄武器含有日制零部件。图为7月11日，乌克兰首都基辅遭俄导弹袭击后留下的弹坑。 （法新社）

（东京/纽约综合电）《纽约时报》报道，俄罗斯已将日本变成一个“间谍巢穴”和武器零部件的主要来源地.日本回应时表明，有必要更有效地防范外国情报活动。

《纽约时报》星期天（7月12日）报道，2022年2月俄军入侵乌克兰后，西方各国将境内数百名俄间谍驱逐，并将与克里姆林宫有联系的公司列入黑名单。这项协同行动旨在使俄罗斯更难以收集情报，以及购买制造武器所需的微晶片、发射器、机械等。

出人意料的是，数十名被驱逐的间谍后来出现在日本。报道称，由于日本间谍法律薄弱，俄罗斯正把日本作为搜集情报和采购战争所需军民两用技术的重要枢纽。

据乌克兰政府估计，俄罗斯90%的导弹和无人机含有日本制造的零部件。

五个西方情报机构的现任和前任官员透露，俄罗斯一个名为“第20局”（20th Directorate）的军事情报单位以东京为基地，其人员伪装成外交官和商人，在东京采购或窃取战地科技，偷运到俄罗斯。

第20局的负责人是俄情报特工菲利琴科夫（Maksim Vladimirovich Filchenkov），他以俄国营的俄罗斯航空公司（Aeroflot）东京办事处员工的身份作为掩护 。

由于直接向俄罗斯出口受到限制，这个秘密采购网络利用中介公司以及经由越南、乌兹别克斯坦、斯里兰卡等第三国，将零部件输送至俄罗斯。

日本内阁秘书长木原稔星期一（13日）拒绝直接对《纽约时报》的报道置评，但表明东京必须以更严厉态度对待这一问题。

他说，日方认识到，在快速变化的安全环境中，有必要更积极防范威胁日本国家安全的外国情报活动。国会今年已批准一项法案，为建立一个新的国家机构来协调情报活动铺路。

日本长期以来被视为间谍天堂，部分原因在于日本作为二战战败国，其军事能力受到严格限制，导致日本情报力量薄弱，甚至没有对外情报机构。

此前外国政府已多次警告日本，其技术正被偷运到俄罗斯。仅在去年4月一个月内，乌克兰就这一问题向日本外务省发出至少八封外交信函，详细列出证据显示在遭袭击平民区发现的俄武器和军事装备含有日制零部件。

然而，尽管日本政府口头上表明支持乌克兰，却迟迟未采取应对行动。

How ‘colorblind Constitution’ went from conservative notion to legal pillar

2026-07-13T09:00:00.000Z / The Washington Post

When John G. Roberts Jr. was a young lawyer in the Reagan administration, he repeatedly invoked the view that the Constitution is “color-blind” and forbids the government to make decisions based on race, even to combat the effects of discrimination.

Roberts spelled out that position in a 1982 memo before a meeting on school busing. “You should reiterate our commitment to the color-blind principle, and our commitment to seek more effective desegregation remedies than the failed experiment of busing,” Roberts wrote.

More than four decades later, the “color-blind principle” is rapidly becoming a pillar of the law, ushered in by the Roberts-led Supreme Court, particularly over the past few months. The rise in the notion of legal colorblindness undergirds the court’s historic rightward shift on civil rights issues, according to an analysis conducted by three legal scholars for The Washington Post.

The “colorblind Constitution” concept has been cited in at least four recent Supreme Court opinions, including the landmark cases upholding birthright citizenship and rolling back much of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

In a case last month, the majority emphasized “our colorblind Constitution” in the first sentence of an opinion letting Alabama conduct its midterm elections with one, instead of two, majority-Black districts. It was the first time in history the court had cited the concept so prominently, according to legal experts.

“This is not a new debate — I think what’s new is the conservatives have a majority,” said Josh Blackman, a professor at the South Texas College of Law, who wrote in a recent article that the colorblind Constitution is now the “supreme law of the land.”

For conservatives who have long pushed it, describing the Constitution as colorblind reflects the obvious point that America’s founding document forbids dividing people by race.

Andrea Lucas, the Republican chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, said in an interview its adoption is long overdue. Lucas has regularly invoked the language as her agency targets diversity, equity and inclusion programs at the nation’s largest companies.

It is “a reflection that the conservative legal movement has won the battle in a lot of ways that they’ve been working for 40 years to do,” she said.

Liberals say the Constitution’s authors, on the contrary, explicitly addressed race. Provisions like the 14th Amendment — whose guarantee of “equal protection of the laws” was adopted after the Civil War — were consciously intended to remedy racial inequality, they say.

“As a matter of fact and of history, our Constitution is not colorblind,” said Sherrilyn Ifill, former head of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. “The court is essentially making up a doctrine that does not exist and that is not supported by the text or the history of the Constitution.”

Legal analysts say the Supreme Court’s growing embrace of the phrase could hasten the end of race-conscious policies in education, housing, employment, redistricting and other areas.

Trump administration officials have seized on the language.

“‘Our colorblind constitution.’ There it is, in a Supreme Court opinion without objection from any dissenter,” cheered GianCarlo Canaparo, a deputy assistant attorney general, in a social media post shortly after the Alabama opinion.

Soon after, the Justice Department issued a memo arguing that EEOC regulations on affirmative action and disparate impact should be changed because they are not “colorblind.” It likewise invoked “our colorblind Constitution” in saying that preferences for “socially disadvantaged” groups in federal agriculture programs violate the Constitution.

The debate often boils down to whether it’s acceptable to use racial remedies to cure racial injustice. Civil rights leaders contend that after centuries of slavery, segregation and Jim Crow — often enshrined in law — it is irrational to claim the American legal system should be blind to the country’s racial injustices.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson has argued in detail that the effects of slavery and Jim Crow continue today, as evidenced by vast gaps in educational opportunities, income and medical care between Black and White Americans.

Ifill, currently a law professor at Howard University, said the decades-long quest by conservatives to implement a colorblind vision of the law reached an “apex” this year. “What it has done is it has completed a rhetorical project that a number of these justices have been set on for some time,” Ifill said.

Conservatives respond that policies like affirmative action and race-based gerrymandering do not remedy prejudice, but rather perpetuate it by bolstering racial stereotypes and by discriminating against a different set of disfavored groups, such as White people who took no part in the eras of slavery and Jim Crow.

That view is embodied in a much-quoted sentence from a 2007 opinion by Roberts striking down race-conscious placements in Seattle grade schools: “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.”

‘A sordid business’

As a young Justice Department attorney, Roberts’s advocacy for legal colorblindness reflected the Reagan administration’s broad opposition to race-conscious measures.

“We want a colorblind society — a society that, in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., judges people not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character,” President Ronald Reagan said in a 1986 speech opposing quota-based affirmative action.

His administration attempted to revoke affirmative action requirements for government contractors and initially opposed Congress’s expansion of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, although Reagan ultimately signed it into law. (The Supreme Court this year walked back those amendments.)

But the Supreme Court did not always fully embrace the colorblind view. In a 1993 case involving race-based redistricting in North Carolina, then-Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote that the high court “never has held that race-conscious state decision-making is impermissible in all circumstances.”

That began to change after Roberts joined the court as chief justice in 2005. He wrote several decisions endorsing the colorblind principle’s reasoning, including his majority opinion in the Seattle case. In a 2006 opinion involving racial gerrymandering in Texas, Roberts wrote, “It is a sordid business, this divvying us up by race.”

Justice Clarence Thomas, who has served on the court since 1991, has likewise invoked the colorblind Constitution, using the language as far back as a 1994 opinion concurring in a judgment in a case involving voter dilution allegations.

The concept gained momentum in 2020, as the ascension of a new cadre of conservative justices appointed by President Donald Trump cemented a conservative majority on the court. It was most prominently advanced when the court in 2023 overturned affirmative action in admissions at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, prompting a broad retreat of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

As the justices increasingly introduced the colorblind Constitution into their opinions, they often cited its origin: a dissent against the infamous 1896 Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson, which upheld racial segregation through the “separate but equal” doctrine.

In the dissent, Justice John Marshall Harlan attacked “separate but equal” as inherently discriminatory. “Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens,” Harlan wrote. “In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law.”

But in a significant shift last month, the court’s conservatives referred to the colorblind Constitution in a majority opinion without quoting Harlan — a first that legal experts said cements the principle as a core legal tenet.

The justices’ views are undergirded by their conflicting assessments of how far the country has come in eliminating racism.

In the court’s decision rolling back Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote that “vast social change has occurred throughout the country and particularly in the South.” Roberts made a similar point in a 2013 majority opinion invalidating a separate portion of the Voting Rights Act, writing, “Things have changed dramatically.”

Kagan, in dissent, shot back that advancements in Black voter participations are largely because of the Voting Rights Act — but “it is a separate question whether those gains will endure once the Act’s protections are gone.”

The dispute erupted anew last month when the court upheld the guarantee of birthright citizenship in the 14th Amendment and affirmed that almost everyone born on U.S. territory is an American citizen.

While joining the majority opinion, Jackson lamented that the colorblind Constitution has “loomed large” in the court’s interpretation of the amendment, adding in a footnote that there “are myriad ways in which the Court’s adherence to color-blindness is mistaken.”

She added, “The Fourteenth Amendment is not color-blind; rather its core principle is that our Nation does not tolerate racial caste. … Our Nation did not undergo something as profound and world-shifting as ‘Reconstruction’ for naught.”

VFW cartoon showing veterans facing a firing squad sparks calls for an investigation

2026-07-13T10:30:25.428Z / CNN

A cartoon depicting a firing squad of bureaucrats and media with rifles aimed at US veterans has prompted a powerful congressman to call for an investigation into one of America’s oldest veterans advocacy groups, stoking a debate over free speech for political satire.

Rep. Mike Bost, the chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, has asked VA Secretary Doug Collins to investigate the Veterans of Foreign Wars after the satirical cartoon meant to protest cuts to veterans benefits appeared on T-shirts being sold on behalf of the group, which has about 1.3 million members.

The VFW, which was founded in 1899, says it has used the cartoon in different variations since the 1930s to protest efforts to cut veterans benefits. The most recent version features a pair of men in business suits, labeled “bureaucrats” and “media,” pointing rifles at two veterans in military fatigues, with the the phrase “Honor the Contract” printed below. The phrases “Punishing Service,” “Removing Benefits” and “Waste and Fraud” are included in the image.

The VFW says it rolled the T-shirts on June 30, with the Grunt Style military apparel company handling the sale and proceeds meant to fund veterans mental health and suicide prevention initiatives. The following day, Bost, an Illinois Republican, wrote to Collins and issued a news release criticizing the image.

In the letter, which was obtained by CNN, Bost and Rep. Jack Bergman, a Michigan Republican, wrote: “VFW has repeatedly authorized the use of its name, trademarks, and likeness on commercial merchandise depicting graphic, inflammatory, politically charged imagery surrounding pending veterans’ legislation.”

Bost and Bergman say the imagery “can reasonably be interpreted as glorifying or normalizing political violence,” and that “regardless of intent, such messaging risks inflaming public anger toward public officials” at a time when threats against public officials and journalists “are at an all-time high.”

Bost and Bergman also ask the VA to “review whether VFW’s accreditation, and the good standing of its representatives, remain consistent with the responsibilities imposed upon accredited organizations and their representatives” under federal statutes governing such organizations. The letter asks the VA to obtain information from the VFW about its financial arrangements for selling merchandise.

A VFW spokesperson told CNN that Grunt Style is producing the T-shirt and started taking preorders late last month. The VFW plans to sell the shirt at a pop-up store at the organization’s July 25 national convention in Reno, Nevada, the spokesperson said.

The VFW and other veterans service organizations have recently come out against a bill introduced by Bost and his counterpart on the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, Chairman Jerry Moran. The “Take Care of America’s Veterans Act” would cut billions of dollars in benefits to veterans suffering from tinnitus and sleep apnea.

The money saved from those cuts would pay for the “Major Richard Star Act,” a bipartisan piece of legislation that would allow veterans to receive both their retirement benefits and combat injury-related benefits. Veterans are currently allowed to receive one, but not both, of those benefits.

A VFW spokesman told CNN that the recent version of the cartoon was not issued specifically to protest the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act. But the VFW is pushing back vigorously against Bost’s letter to the VA.

VFW general counsel John Muckelbauer said in a statement that “The letter identifies no allegation that the VFW or any of our accredited representatives violated VA accreditation standards, acted unethically, or failed a single veteran. Instead, it seeks to question our fitness because we disagreed with pending legislation. … That should concern every veteran.”

In a news release issued the day after Bost’s letter, the VFW said the cartoon “is not a depiction of violence. It is a symbolic representation of the consequences veterans face when Congress targets the benefits they earned through their service. It is also protected First Amendment speech.”

Democrats in Congress and other veterans advocacy groups have come out in support of the VFW. Rep. Mark Takano, ranking member of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, sent a statement to CNN about Bost’s letter, saying that “these actions look less like oversight and more like retaliation against a veterans’ organization for opposing his bill.”

The group Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, which has about 450,000 members, issued a statement saying it is “disturbed” by Bost’s overture to the VA.

“Attempts by elected officials to use the weight of their office against [veterans service organizations] because they disagree with their advocacy or raise serious concerns about proposed legislation should concern every veteran (and American), regardless of where they stand on this particular issue,” the group said.

It’s unclear how the VA will respond to Bost’s letter. The agency did not respond to an email from CNN that asked whether it will review the VFW’s accreditation, as Bost requested, and whether it will ask VFW for its financial information.

Kathleen McCarthy, spokesperson for the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, said the VA had not yet responded to the letter sent by Bost and Bergman. She added that Bost is not seeking to have the VFW’s charter pulled.

“This is not about silencing any organization or discouraging debate. Chairman Bost welcomes strong policy disagreements and values the role veterans service organizations play in informing Congress,” McCarthy said in an email. “His concern is that our public discourse remains factual, respectful, and free from rhetoric that could be interpreted as encouraging violence.”

德国大众汽车拟扩大裁员范围 或削减约5万岗位

2026年7月13日 18:20 / 联合早报

大众汽车首席执行官在内部通知中说，正在评估集团旗下所有品牌、公司和地区的情况，以便确定实际须要且可行的业务调整规模。 （路透社）

德国大众汽车高管在内部通知中告诉员工，可能在此前的大规模裁员基础上，再裁员约5万人，从而弥补企业的“成本劣势”。

路透社星期一（7月13日）获得的内部备忘录显示，大众汽车首席执行官布鲁姆说，在已同意集团范围内（包括奥迪和保时捷子公司）裁员5万人的基础上，经测算发现，相较于同类企业，大众汽车存在20%的成本劣势，因此必须进一步削减成本，这意味着大众汽车须在全球范围再“理论性削减”5万个岗位。

布鲁姆说：“我们正在评估所有品牌、公司和地区的情况，以便确定实际须要且可行的调整规模。”

大众汽车（Volkswagen，也称福士伟根）近年来利润下滑。根据媒体早前报道，大众汽车集团在6月召开的年度股东大会上出台重磅改革方案，开启品牌创立88年来规模最大的一次业务重组。

按照重组计划，大众汽车集团要在2026年年底前，在德国本土削减1万9000个岗位，到2030年合计精简约5万个岗位，约占德国员工总数的六分之一。

Michigan Dem senator throws support behind candidate to replace him in contentious primary

Sen. Gary Peters reversed neutrality pledge as Democrats scramble to hold seat ahead of clash with Republican Mike Rogers

July 13, 2026 7:44am EDT / Fox News

Democratic candidates’ remarks under scrutiny as party attempts to flip red states

The ongoing Graham Platner scandal in Maine jeopardizes Democratic bids for Senate control, making the midterm elections even more precarious. Chief Congressional Correspondent Chad Pergram analyzes several other crucial Senate races featuring controversial candidates, including Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan and Mary Peltola in Alaska, whose rhetoric and past remarks are drawing scrutiny.

Retiring Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., has abandoned his neutrality in Michigan’s high-stakes Democratic Senate primary, backing U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens as party leaders rally to stop progressive rival Abdul El-Sayed from winning the nomination.

Peters, who is retiring after two terms in the Senate, announced the endorsement Monday, saying Stevens “will be ready on day one to fight for Michigan.” The move reverses his position from late May, when he told The Associated Press he planned to stay neutral in the Aug. 4 primary.

Democrats are eager to keep the Michigan seat as they try to win back the Senate majority, and many party leaders have lined up behind Stevens, a four-term congresswoman they see as a stronger general election candidate.

DEMOCRATS’ CIVIL WAR HEADS TO MICHIGAN WHERE PROGRESSIVES FACE BIGGEST TEST YET IN HIGH-STAKES SENATE SHOWDOWN

Michigan U.S. Sen. candidate, Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., speaks with media after a debate at WoodTV studios on Tuesday, July 7, 2026, in Grand Rapids, Mich.(AP Photo/Kristen Norman)

Stevens has centered her campaign on manufacturing, jobs and Michigan’s auto industry. El-Sayed, a former Michigan health director who has never held elected office, has run on a more progressive platform that includes Medicare for All and campaign finance reform. He has also made the war in Gaza a central issue in his campaign, highlighting a divide that has surfaced within the Democratic Party.

Michigan U.S. Sen candidate, Abdul El-Sayed, speaks with media after a debate at WoodTV studios on Tuesday, July 7, 2026, in Grand Rapids, Mich.(AP Photo/Kristen Norman)

Peters’ endorsement comes weeks after State Sen. Mallory McMorrow ended her campaign, leaving Stevens and El-Sayed as the only major Democratic candidates in the race.

“Senator Peters knows what it takes to win in Michigan, and he knows what Michigan needs from our next U.S. Senator: grit, effectiveness, hard work, and Michigan common sense,” Stevens said in a statement. “I am honored to have his support.”

Peters has won two Senate elections in Michigan and previously chaired the Senate Democrats’ campaign committee during the 2022 and 2024 election cycles.

Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, the chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, is interviewed by Fox News Digital, at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, on August 19, 2024(Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)

His endorsement follows similar backing for Stevens from Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., and Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev. El-Sayed has been endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.

The campaign has become increasingly personal in recent weeks.

MICHIGAN SENATE HOPEFUL CALLS AIPAC DONATIONS ‘LEGALIZED BRIBERY,’ REMAINS SILENT ON OTHER DONATIONS

El-Sayed has criticized Stevens over tens of millions of dollars in outside spending supporting her campaign, including money from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Stevens has accused El-Sayed of refusing to release his personal financial records. During a July 7 debate, both candidates accused the other of running a negative campaign.

The Democratic nominee will likely face Republican Mike Rogers, a former Michigan congressman who is running unopposed for his party’s nomination. It is expected to be among the nation’s most expensive and closely watched Senate contests in November.

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Michigan has taken on added importance for Democrats after turmoil erupted in another key Senate race in Maine, where Democratic nominee Graham Platner withdrew following a sexual assault allegation. The unexpected vacancy has complicated the party’s efforts to challenge Republican Sen. Susan Collins, increasing the pressure to avoid setbacks in other battleground states such as Michigan.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

德国大众汽车拟扩大裁员范围 或削减约5万岗位

2026年7月13日 18:20 / 联合早报

大众汽车首席执行官在内部通知中说，正在评估集团旗下所有品牌、公司和地区的情况，以便确定实际须要且可行的业务调整规模。 （路透社）

德国大众汽车高管在内部通知中告诉员工，可能在此前的大规模裁员基础上，再裁员约5万人，从而弥补企业的“成本劣势”。

路透社星期一（7月13日）获得的内部备忘录显示，大众汽车首席执行官布鲁姆说，在已同意集团范围内（包括奥迪和保时捷子公司）裁员5万人的基础上，经测算发现，相较于同类企业，大众汽车存在20%的成本劣势，因此必须进一步削减成本，这意味着大众汽车须在全球范围再“理论性削减”5万个岗位。

布鲁姆说：“我们正在评估所有品牌、公司和地区的情况，以便确定实际须要且可行的调整规模。”

大众汽车（Volkswagen，也称福士伟根）近年来利润下滑。根据媒体早前报道，大众汽车集团在6月召开的年度股东大会上出台重磅改革方案，开启品牌创立88年来规模最大的一次业务重组。

按照重组计划，大众汽车集团要在2026年年底前，在德国本土削减1万9000个岗位，到2030年合计精简约5万个岗位，约占德国员工总数的六分之一。