babysandpiper

The US president is more willing to listen to Israel than his predecessors were and is also deeply suspicious of the CIA

When Donald Trump ordered the US military to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities over the weekend, the debate among intelligence officials, outside experts and policymakers over the status of Tehran’s nuclear program had largely been frozen in place for nearly 20 years.

That prolonged debate has repeatedly placed the relatively dovish US intelligence community at odds with Israel and neoconservative Iran hawks ever since the height of the global war on terror.

Trump underscored his skepticism of the experts when he recently told reporters that “I don’t care” about the US intelligence community’s latest assessment that Iran still wasn’t building a bomb.

Denmark is set to have the highest retirement age in Europe, after lawmakers voted to raise it to 70.

Parliamentarians passed a bill mandating the rise on Thursday, with 81 votes in favor and 21 against.

The new law will apply to people born after December 31, 1970. The current retirement age is 67 on average, but it can go up to 69 for those born on January 1, 1967, or later.

The rise is needed in order to be able to “afford proper welfare for future generations,” employment minister Ane Halsboe-Jørgensen said in a press release Thursday.

Trump’s proclamation had barred foreign students from studying at top university, citing national security concerns

A federal judge on Monday blocked Donald Trump’s administration from implementing his plan to bar foreign nationals from entering the United States to study at Harvard University.

US district judge Allison Burroughs in Boston issued an injunction barring Trump’s administration from carrying out its latest bid to curtail Harvard’s ability to host international students amid an escalating fight pitting the Republican president against the prestigious Ivy League school.

The preliminary injunction extends a temporary order the judge issued on 5 June that prevented the administration from enforcing a proclamation Trump signed a day earlier that cited national security concerns to justify why Harvard could no longer be trusted to host international students.

The Supreme Court's conservative majority on Monday delivered a significant win for the Trump administration's immigration policy, clearing the way for officials to resume deportation of migrants to third countries without additional due process requirements imposed by a district court judge.

The nation's hight court did not explain the decision, but it said the stay of Judge Brian Murphy's mandate would terminate should the administration ultimately lose an appeal on the merits.

Litigation is ongoing, but is expected to take years to complete.

Immigrants to Germany and the European Union are more highly educated than ever before, according to a new German study.

The Rockwool Foundation Berlin (RFBerlin) reports that 32.1% of migrants from non-EU countries had a university degree or equivalent qualification in 2024 — up from 30.9% in 2023.

The study, released Monday, describes this as a "record level" and part of a continued upward trend over the past decade.

In Germany, the share of highly educated non-EU migrants rose from 29.4% to 31.1% over the same period. For migrants from other EU member states, the percentage holding a tertiary qualification climbed from 33.8% to 35.2% EU-wide, and from 28.6% to 30.1% in Germany.

Dust settles after impassioned protests but military presence unnerves California leaders – and threatens to inflame already tense situation

The Trump administration said a Salvadoran man who was mistakenly deported and then brought back to the US on criminal charges will "never go free" on American soil, even though a judge ordered his release.

Kilmar Ábrego García was deported in March as part of an immigration crackdown. Government officials said he was removed in error, but they were unable to bring him back.

Earlier this month, he was sent to the state of Tennessee, where the justice department charged him with human smuggling.

The judge overseeing the case said on Sunday that Mr Ábrego García should be released from custody while he awaits trial. But she noted immigration officials would still have the power to detain him.

How well — or how poorly — Americans are managing their Buy Now, Pay Later loans soon could be reflected in their credit scores.

FICO plans to launch a suite of credit scores later this year that incorporate BNPL data, providing lenders a window into what’s been a big blind spot: consumers’ repayment behavior on these increasingly popular installment loans.

BNPL loans can serve as an alternative to credit cards and are used by consumers who are seeking more flexible payment options, who want to overcome a tight financial spot, or who are looking to smooth out some bigger transactions to better meet their budgets.

In the wake of the U.S. airstrikes on Iran, Democrats are pointing to Trump's own promises that he wouldn't ensnare the country in foreign conflicts.

Democrats are seizing on Donald Trump’s surprise attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities to make the case that the world is becoming more dangerous on his watch, not less, and that he is reneging on a promise to avoid foreign military interventions.

The argument strikes at Trump’s contention that his blend of negotiating skills and toughness is enough to keep the United States safe.

In the space of a few days, Trump has made the United States a combatant in another Middle East war that exposes soldiers to potential deadly reprisals, Democrats contend.

In a statement, Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin pointed to Trump's inaugural address, in which he said he would measure his success by “the wars we never get into.”

Qatar has temporarily closed its airspace after the US and the UK told their citizens in the country to shelter in place "until further notice".

The US embassy in Qatar suggested in a notice online that Americans do so "out of an abundance of caution". The UK government said it was issuing its warning in response to the US alert.

The warnings come after the State Department told US citizens in international locations to "exercise increased caution," after the US bombed three nuclear sites in Iran on Saturday. Iran has threatened to retaliate.