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2:00 AM ET, May 21, 2025

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 Top Items: 
STAT:
STAT+: FDA will limit Covid vaccines to people over 65 or at high risk of serious illness, leaders say  —  The Food and Drug Administration announced Tuesday that it will limit access to Covid-19 vaccines going forward to people 65 and older and others who are at high risk of becoming seriously ill …
RELATED:
Associated Press:
Trump officials set new requirements for COVID vaccines in healthy adults and children
Michael Gold / New York Times:
Noem Incorrectly Defines Habeas Corpus as the President's Right to Deport People  —  The right allows people to legally challenge their detentions by the government and is guaranteed in the Constitution.  —  Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, bungled answers on Tuesday about habeas corpus …
RELATED:
Devlin Barrett / New York Times:
Justice Dept. Opens Inquiry Into Cuomo, Singling Out Another Political Target  —  After killing a criminal case against Mayor Eric Adams, the Trump administration has begun investigating his chief rival in the New York City mayoral race over his testimony about the pandemic.
Camilo Montoya-Galvez / CBS News:
U.S. put Asian migrants on deportation flight to South Sudan, lawyers allege  —  Immigration lawyers told a federal judge on Tuesday that they received information indicating the U.S. government may have put migrants from countries like Myanmar and Vietnam on a deportation flight to South Sudan …
RELATED:
Kyle Cheney / Politico:
Trump admin deports Asian immigrants to South Sudan in violation of court order, lawyers say  —  Their lawyers say they learned of the deportation plan after receiving an abrupt notice Monday evening.  By Tuesday morning, the men were already on a plane.  —  The Trump administration …
NBC News:
Senate unexpectedly passes the ‘No Tax on Tips Act’ in a unanimous vote  —  Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., called up the bipartisan bill for immediate passage, and no senator objected.  The measure now goes to the House.  —  WASHINGTON — In a surprise move, the Republican-led Senate quickly passed the …
RELATED:
Freddy Brewster / The Lever:
CEO Says Trump's IRS Pick Promised Big Benefits  —  Former Rep. Billy Long (R-Mo.), President Donald Trump's pick to head the Internal Revenue Service, was invited to attend Trump's inauguration as the guest of a financial services CEO who said Long promised him benefits for his company, according to a recording obtained by The Lever.
RELATED:
Tobias Burns / The Hill:
Democratic senator says he has recordings of favors ‘promised’ by Trump's IRS pick  —  Sen. Ron Wyden (Ore.), the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said Tuesday he has recordings of business associates of President Trump's pick to lead the IRS, former Rep. Billy Long (R-Mo.) …
Discussion: The United States …
Jose Pagliery / NOTUS:
The ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ Has a Tiny Provision That Could Tax the Trump Legal Resistance  —  A measure in the reconciliation bill would force judges to impose security bonds on organizations seeking injunctions.  — Copy  —  Congressional Republicans slipped a little-noticed measure into their massive …
RELATED:
New York Times:
U.S. Debt Is on Pace to Set a Record High, Going All the Way Back to 1790  —  If Republicans pass their tax and spending megabill, the record will arrive even sooner — putting America's debt at more than 113 percent of the size of its entire economy.  —  The United States hit its record debt level …
Discussion: Politico and UPI
RELATED:
Eleanor Pringle / Fortune:
U.S. economy is experiencing ‘death by a thousand cuts’, says Deutsche Bank, as confidence in national debt management erodes  —  Trump has flagged national debt as a concern for the economy, but analysts are concerned by his spending bill  — America's soaring national debt …
Discussion: New Republic, Axios, CNN and Raw Story
Theodore Schleifer / New York Times:
Democrats Throw Money at a Problem: Countering G.O.P. Clout Online  —  At private gatherings, strategists and donors are swapping ideas to help the party capture the digital mojo that helped President Trump win.  Yes, there's a price tag.  —  Six months after the Democratic Party's crushing 2024 defeat …
Hafiz Rashid / New Republic:
Marco Rubio Says No Judge Has Authority Over Him in Alarming Testimony … Secretary of State Marco Rubio flippantly said he does not have to listen to court orders at a Senate hearing Tuesday.  —  Senator Chris Van Hollen asked Rubio about the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia …
RELATED:
Laura Kelly / The Hill:
Rubio faces wrath of former colleagues in testy Senate hearing
Jeremy Herb / CNN:
‘What are we doing here?’:  Democrats were shocked at Biden's decline but stayed quiet, according to new book  —  In the final two years of his presidency, Joe Biden had private moments where he could not recall the names of top aides, had an increasingly limited private schedule …
RELATED:
Mark Leibovich / The Atlantic:
Biden's Age Wasn't a Cover-Up. It Was Observable Fact.
Discussion: Bloomberg, The Forward and The Hill
Reuters:
Trump selects $175 billion Golden Dome defense shield design, appoints leader  —  President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he had selected a design for the $175 billion Golden Dome missile defense shield and named a Space Force general to head the ambitious program aimed at blocking threats from China and Russia.
RELATED:
Politico:
Trump to announce $25B funding for Golden Dome project
New York Times:
Elon Musk Plans ‘a Lot Less’ Spending as He Edges Away From Politics  —  He spent hundreds of millions to elect President Trump.  But now he's less visible in Washington, says he'll spend less on future elections and is even posting less about Mr. Trump on social media.
RELATED:
Jason Koebler / 404 Media:
Chicago Sun-Times Prints AI-Generated Summer Reading List With Books That Don't Exist  —  Update: We have published a follow-up to this article with more details about how this happened.  —  The Chicago Sun-Times newspaper's “Best of Summer” section published over the weekend contains a guide …
Jennifer Bendery / HuffPost:
National Science Foundation Ends 196 Grants To Harvard Amid Feud With Trump  —  “Pure retribution,” one NSF staffer said of the administration axing $46 million in unfinished research.  “We as a nation are shooting ourselves in both feet.”  —  WASHINGTON ― The National Science Foundation …
Christopher Palmeri / Bloomberg:
Barry Diller Feels Sorry for Shari Redstone Facing Trump Lawsuit  —  Media mogul Barry Diller feels sorry for Paramount Global Chair Shari Redstone, who is trying to sell her company while fighting a lawsuit by President Donald Trump that may be holding up the deal.
Ilya Somin / Reason:
Most Migrants Deported to Imprisonment in El Salvador Under the Alien Enemies Act Had no Criminal Record and Many had Entered the US Legally  —  An important new study by my Cato Institute colleague David Bier shows that most of the Venezuelan migrants deported to imprisonment in El Salvador …
Wall Street Journal:
Inside Kristi Noem's Polygraph Operation  —  The information that DHS employees are accused of sharing with media often isn't classified  —  WASHINGTON—In a small interrogation room in Virginia with a one-way mirror, employees from across the Department of Homeland Security are being summoned and hooked up to a polygraph machine.
Miami Herald:
State prosecutor's office launches a criminal investigation related to Hope Florida  —  Leon County prosecutors say there is an open criminal investigation relating to information a lawmaker provided concerning the Hope Florida Foundation.  —  In response to a request by the Herald/Times …
Dan Primack / Axios:
Tesla, SpaceX reputations crater in new Axios Harris Poll 100  —  Tesla Motors and SpaceX saw their brand reputations crater in the past year, according to new Axios Harris Poll 100 survey results.  —  Why it matters: Elon Musk's polarizing political activism appears to have come at the expense …
Discussion: The Independent and The Hill
Rolling Stone:
Why Trump Is Threatening to Investigate Bruce Springsteen  —  It's not just Oprah and Springsteen.  The president has long wanted to weaponize campaign finance laws against an array of celebs and Democrats  —  Early Monday morning, when much of the White House press corps was fast asleep …
Discussion: New Republic
Kim Zetter / ZERO DAY:
UAE Recruiting US Personnel Displaced by DOGE to Work on AI for its Military  —  Former workers with the Defense Department's Defense Digital Service (DDS), who resigned en-masse last month from their jobs due to encroachment by the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency …
Le Monde:
EU pledges emergency funding for Radio Free Europe after US cuts … The European Union agreed Tuesday, May 20 to provide emergency funds to help keep Radio Free Europe afloat after the Trump administration stopped grants to the pro-democracy media outlet, accusing it of promoting a news agenda with a liberal bias.
 
 
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 More Items: 
Manolo Serapio Jr / Bloomberg:
US, Philippine Coast Guards Join Navy Drills Amid China Tensions
Discussion: Reuters
Jonathan Cohn / The Bulwark:
The GOP's Big Medicaid Idea Was Tried Before—And Failed Badly
Discussion: Crooked Media, The Hill, Newsweek and KFF
Jeff Nesbit / The Contrarian:
Don't lose sight of the pain Trump is passing on to American consumers
 Earlier Items: 
The Atlantic:
The Congressman Who Saw the Truth About Biden
Discussion: The Independent
Pluralistic:
The meritocracy to eugenics pipeline (permalink)
Katherine Tully-McManus / Politico:
DOGE sought access to Government Publishing Office
Bloomberg:
Trump Reverses NY Wind Farm Stance in Pipeline Deal With Hochul