Saturday, June 6, 2026
Judge Says Government Must Restart Asylum and Immigration Processing (NYT) A slate of the Trump administration’s immigration policies were struck down on Friday by a federal judge, who rejected the government’s indefinite holds on asylum applications globally and on immigration applications from people from 39 countries who had been unable to obtain green cards and citizenship. In a searing 135-page opinion, Judge John J. McConnell Jr. wrote that actions to lock eligible asylum seekers out of the immigration system and deny others temporary work permits had made it functionally impossible for a broad swath of people to remain in the country. The resulting squeeze, he wrote, “placed the lives of countless individuals on hold—solely by virtue of their countries of birth.” The freeze resulted in many immigrants inside the United States waiting indefinitely for decisions on their applications, disrupting their ability to legally work and leaving them to question whether they could remain in the country. “Over six months later, many of those individuals remain without work, without legal status, and without any meaningful ability to plan for their futures,” Judge McConnell wrote. Judge McConnell wrote that the burden of the changes fell hardest on people who had followed all the procedures demanded of them, rather than immigrants who entered the country illegally, whom the Trump administration routinely vilifies. “The court is reminded of a line often repeated in discussions around immigration policy: If people wish to immigrate to the United States, they ought to ‘follow the law’ and ‘do things the right way,’” he wrote. “This case serves as a perfect example of immigrants doing just that.”
Trump administration has separated dozens of children from their parents for a second time, AP finds (AP) Eleven-year-old Ederson Galicia Alva had just stepped off the plane and into the Miami airport’s dim hallways when federal agents pulled his mother aside for questioning. Again. Panic welled up. His excitement at soon being back at recess with his Florida classmates fell away. Would the government take her away again? This was not his first trauma. In 2018, when he was just 3 years old, Ederson was taken from his mother’s arms at the U.S.-Mexico border under the first Trump administration’s family separation policy and kept apart from her in a government facility for months. They were finally reunited after lawyers intervened. Then, in June of last year, he and his mother were separated a second time, despite legal protections meant to keep them and families like theirs together. He later joined his mother in Guatemala. After a destitute, torturous 11 months in the indigenous highlands, Ederson’s family was allowed to return to Florida last week, following a federal judge’s order that the government had acted illegally. Now, eight years after President Donald Trump’s forcible border separations came to an official halt following global outrage, an Associated Press investigation has found that the government has re-separated dozens of children from their families, despite a landmark legal settlement meant to reunify them. Some of their parents have been locked in immigration detention facilities for months, others deported back to their home countries after being taken from their families once again. In some cases, immigration officials conducting interior arrests deported people despite discovering they were legally off limits for removal, according to emails obtained by AP.
Protests and last-minute construction work disrupt Mexico City ahead of World Cup (Reuters) Eight days before Mexico City kicks off the World Cup, mass protests by teachers and retired judges, road closures and last-minute construction work caused chaos in the capital on Wednesday for millions of residents who face long delays and complex rerouting of their daily commutes. On June 11, Mexico City will host the inaugural World Cup match between Mexico and South Africa at Azteca stadium in the capital. With Mexico in the global spotlight, teachers and other groups have staged marches and blocked major avenues. They have said their protests, which are unrelated to the tournament, could intensify unless President Claudia Sheinbaum’s government addresses their demands.
European companies flee Cuba as US sanctions go into effect (Politico) European companies from Spanish hotels to German shipping lines are ending their Cuban operations as Washington on Friday moved to intensify its decades-old embargo, expanding its focus from the regime in Havana to EU business ties to the island. Among the hardest hit are Spain’s Meliá and Iberostar hotel groups. For decades, the lush resorts they operated on Cuba’s most idyllic beaches were the crown jewels of their global portfolios. Faced with the risk of asset freezes and exclusion from the U.S. financial system, European companies active in sectors ranging from shipping and logistics to energy and agriculture are desperately offloading their interests on the island and rushing for the exits.
Catholics hope Pope Leo’s visit to Europe’s migration hot spots will ease political tensions (AP) Pope Leo XIV is delving into the hotly contested issue of migration by visiting two flashpoints—Spain’s Canary Islands in the Atlantic next week, and Italy’s Lampedusa island in the Mediterranean in early July. These rocky, remote outposts of Europe have struggled with the arrival of tens of thousands of mostly African migrants through some of the world’s deadliest migration routes. Even as numbers decreased this year, especially in the Canaries, the issue continues to roil politics in these historically Catholic countries. Many Catholics and migrants hope the upcoming papal trips will refocus attention on solidarity and support—and away from divisive political debate that is splitting the right in addition to pitting it against the left. “Stuck in the middle are the migrants,” said the Most Rev. José Mazuelos, the bishop of Canarias, whose diocese includes several of the islands. “So the church says, ‘Let’s give them a face, because we’re talking about people, not numbers.’”
Zelensky Mixes Taunts and Peace Talks Offer in Letter to Putin (NYT) On the heels of a flurry of Ukrainian drone strikes deep in Russia and recent shifts in Ukraine’s favor on the battlefield, President Volodymyr Zelensky published on Thursday an open letter to President Vladimir V. Putin. The letter, posted on the Ukrainian president’s website, offered to resume peace talks—but taunted the Russian leader over wartime setbacks, inflation and Russia’s dependence on China. It also made note of Mr. Putin’s advancing age. Mr. Zelensky noted that Mr. Putin has by now spent about half of his 26 years in power as Russia’s paramount leader fighting Ukraine. The timeline counts the Russian military intervention in eastern Ukraine that began in 2014 and the full-scale invasion launched in 2022. He offered a cease-fire if Mr. Putin wanted one. Mr. Zelensky said he would meet for direct talks outside the Trump administration’s negotiating process. He has offered direct meetings with Mr. Putin before, without result.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping will travel to North Korea next week in first visit since 2019 (AP) hinese leader Xi Jinping will travel to North Korea next week, both countries announced Friday, in what will be his first visit in nearly seven years. His trip will be the latest in a series of steps by China to reinforce its close ties with its nuclear-armed neighbor. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has reached out to Russia in recent years, notably by sending troops and conventional weapons to support its war against Ukraine. “As North Korea builds closer ties with Russia, China seeks to use Xi’s trip to reassert its influence over Pyongyang and safeguard its strategic interests in northeast Asia,” said William Yang, an analyst for the International Crisis Group.
Hezbollah rejects latest ceasefire agreement as Israeli strikes kill 4 in Lebanon (AP) Hezbollah on Thursday rejected the latest ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Lebanese government, and the militant group demanded a complete Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon as more fighting there hampered efforts to end the Iran war. The Hezbollah announcement came as Israeli strikes killed at least four people, according to local authorities, and a U.N. peacekeeper was killed in the crossfire. An Israeli soldier was also killed in combat in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah leader Naim Kassem, in a written statement read on TV, called the negotiations “absurd, humiliating and insulting.” “What we are concerned about is an end to the aggression, ceasefire and Israel’s withdrawal,” he said. “So long as our villages are not safe and are being bombed and destroyed and our people are killed,” he said, northern Israel “will not be safe.”
Israel’s Ultra-Orthodox Riot Against Military Draft Outside Judge’s Home (NYT) Dozens of ultra-Orthodox extremists in Israel staged a violent riot outside the home of a top judge on Wednesday night in protest against the country’s military draft, shocking many Israelis and adding to a fraught atmosphere ahead of national elections. The police said on Thursday that 65 of the protesters were detained for questioning. The rioters damaged property at the home of Supreme Court justice, Noam Sohlberg, in Alon Shvut, a West Bank settlement, police said, though no injuries were reported. It was unclear why that particular judge’s house was targeted, but it was the Supreme Court that had issued a ruling two years ago, formally ending the decades-long military draft exemption for ultra-Orthodox Jewish men, known in Hebrew as Haredim. Despite the court ruling, most Haredi men still do not show up for service.
Why You Don’t Slash Humanitarian Aid (Nicholas Kristof/NYT) After Elon Musk “spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper,” as he put it last year, he and President Trump scoffed that American humanitarian aid was, in effect, woke nonsense. Yet in reality American humanitarian aid not only saved one life every 10 seconds but was also safeguarding the world from epidemics. So now we face a rapidly increasing outbreak of Ebola, and the Trump administration is finding that some of the things that went into the wood chipper were the very tools needed to tackle the virus. One was the destruction of U.S.A.I.D. Jeremy Konyndyk, who oversaw the response to the 2014 Ebola epidemic for the agency, noted that it used to have a major presence in Ituri, Democratic Republic of Congo, where the Ebola outbreak appears to have begun. But most of the aid to Congo was cut, and Ebola spread widely by the time anyone realized that it was present.
Anthropic Urges Global Pause in AI Development, Flags ‘Self-Improvement’ Risk (WSJ) Anthropic is calling for top artificial intelligence labs to weigh slowing the pace of development, suggesting that AI systems are advancing so rapidly that they may soon be able to improve themselves without human intervention in ways that could pose significant societal risks. The ability to slow global AI development would “likely be a good thing,” the company said Thursday in a blog post that disclosed internal data documenting how quickly its most advanced models are improving.