News From Around the Web
#1 Federal Judge Strikes Down Trump’s $100,000 Fee on New H-1B Visas - Michael Casey for AP, Eric Daugherty, Upstate Federalist/Kyle Cheney, CNN, NY AG James, and Eric Schmitt on X
A federal judge on Monday struck down the Trump administration’s $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas, contradicting an earlier federal court ruling upholding the fee hike. The administration announced the much-higher fee as a way of preventing foreign workers from taking American jobs. But U.S. District Court Judge Leo Sorokin in Boston sided with 20 states and struck down the visa policy, concluding that the executive branch exceeded its authority and violated the Administrative Procedure Act, which governs how federal agencies develop and issue regulations. “The Court finds that the Policy imposes a tax on H-1B petitions without the requisite delegation by Congress,” Sorokin wrote...
#2 Trump Urges Thune to Fire Senate Parliamentarian to Pass Save - NEWSMAX, Elena, LindellTV, Forbes, Holly Parrish/Kate, Eric Daugherty, and Bannon's WarRoom on X
President Donald Trump is calling on Senate Majority Leader John Thune to fire the chamber's parliamentarian "immediately," escalating pressure on Republican leaders after a series of rulings blocked key parts of the Trump-backed "SAVE America Act," according to Bloomberg. The demand reflects frustration inside Trump's orbit that the Senate's rules referee has repeatedly ruled major sections of the election overhaul package ineligible for fast-track budget reconciliation. The move forces Republicans to scale back provisions they had hoped to pass with a simple majority vote... Two Supreme Court justices stepped away from two cases on Monday, as Newsweek reported. Amy Coney Barrett and Samuel Alito decided to sit out federal appeals cases involving firearm convictions and pension payments, though it isn't entirely clear why. The federal recusal statute (28 U.S. Code § 455) demands that federal judges and top justices must recuse themselves if their impartiality might reasonably be questioned or if their spouse has a financial or other interest that could be substantially affected by the outcome of a proceeding. Over the past several years, there have been several questions about cases the public and judicial critics believe justice should have recused themselves from... President Donald Trump received a massive reaction from a sold-out crowd at Madison Square Garden for Game 3 of the NBA Finals between the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs on Monday night. As the national anthem was being sung, Trump was shown on the MSG big screen above the court, and a mixed reaction from the crowd ensued. While there was some cheering, as Trump saluted the crowd from his suite, the boos from those in attendance rang louder before the video panned back to NYPD officers holding flags on the court... Days after sharing a shortened list of religious affiliations for service members, the Pentagon has issued a new list removing the "Christian" category. The change was apparently spurred by backlash that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was not originally listed in that category. Last week, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell shared a list of 31 religious affiliations from which service members could choose. This was a change from the prior list of 200. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth earlier called the lengthier list of faith codes "impractical and unusable" and said the Pentagon would shorten it. If you've been thinking it seems like there are more wars raging in the world these days, it turns out you're right, and the data proves it. A new study by researchers at a university in Sweden recorded the highest number of conflicts between states in 2025 since World War II, and the highest number of fatalities recorded since the Rwandan genocide. There were 65 active conflicts in 2025, according to researchers at the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) at Uppsala University, regarded as a leading source of information on violence worldwide. Out of that total, the number of direct conflicts between individual states doubled from the previous year to eight in 2025 — the highest number of such conflicts since UCDP began collecting data in 1946...
#3 Vance Refers Gov. Tim Walz and Minnesota Attorney General to DOJ for Fraud Investigation - Raquel Coronell Uribe and Tara Prindiville for NBC News, JD Vance/Oversight Committee, Jesse Watters, Eric Daugherty, Fox News, and C3 on X
Vice President JD Vance announced Monday that he is referring Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and state Attorney General Keith Ellison — both Democrats — to the Justice Department for a criminal fraud investigation involving social services programs. “Minnesota state officials are not above the law, and if they facilitated fraud, lied under oath about what they knew, or harassed and intimated whistleblowers, they must face justice,” Vance wrote on X, adding that his referral was prompted by a letter and a report from the Republican-led House Oversight Committee.
#4 Questions Swirl After 2 Supreme Court Justices Recuse Themselves From Cases - Sarah K. Burris for Alternet, susan pennington, Newsweek, Rep. Mike Levin,
#5 Trump Draws Much Different Reaction at NBA Finals Than He Did at CFP National Title Game - Scott Thompson for Fox News, Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, CBS News, Shadow of Ezra, New York Post, and ABC News on X
#6 Pentagon Updates List of Recognized Religious Affiliations After Backlash From Mormon Lawmakers - Jill Keppeler for UPI, NowThis Impact, Daily Mail US, Vox, Off The Press, and Hemant Mehta on X
#7 Voters go to the polls in Maine, South Carolina, Nevada, and North Dakota - NBC News, T. Brandon Long/Acyn, Jerry Ostergaard, Newser, Hi, I'm KellyJo, and Patricia, and Washoe County Republican Party on X
PRIMARY DAY: Voters head to the polls today for primary elections in Maine, South Carolina, Nevada, and North Dakota. The races for governor in Maine and South Carolina are the most competitive on the ballot, while Maine’s Senate race has captured national attention. Track live results from the Decision Desk.
#8 Tommy Tuberville Threatens to Sue Alabama Journalist Who Posted Redacted Tax Returns - Ruth Serven Smith for AL.com, David Preston, Grady Donaldson, Scott Johnson, Alabama Daily News, and Mike Morton on X
U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville has threatened to file a lawsuit against an Alabama news outlet after a journalist posted personal information gathered from his tax records. Tuberville, who is running for governor, sent a cease and desist letter to the Lagniappe Daily on June 6. Tuberville’s lawyers said the outlet improperly accessed and published Tuberville’s confidential information in a June 5 article.
#9 Parsing the Trumps’ Crypto Profits, Investors’ Losses - Tom Bergin for Reuters, Cointelegraph, Flash Feed Macro, Briefly News, fabiano.sol and Satoshi Talks on X
For years, Donald J. Trump has followed a simple playbook for making money: He lent his marquee name to a product, a company, or a real estate project, often invested little to no money in it, touted it heavily, and waited for the cash to pour in. Since mid-2024, when he was campaigning for what would become his second presidential term, Trump and his family have applied the same template to the freewheeling world of cryptocurrency – with spectacular results. Reuters set out to determine just how much money the Trumps have made from their four main crypto projects, how much of their own cash they staked on those projects, and how outside investors in those projects have fared...
#10 Conflicts on Rise Globally, Highest Level Since WWII, Data Shows - Kate Bartlett for npr, mary gill, Ruslan Trad, News Hub, Eric Vanderburg, Arab News Pakistan, and The Daily Star on X
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