Thomas Jefferson recorded the weather on July 4, 1776. It was in the 60s and 70s. Today's forecast? Around 100 degrees. Here's a fascinating look at the weather on the day America declared its independence — and how it compares with today: www.capitalweather.com/july-4-weath...

It appears the world's richest man, born in South Africa and whose money courses through politics, is questioning whether Americans should be able to vote on the nation's 250th birthday.

Largest US power grid operator after a federal alert to cut consumption amid generator outages, ​massive overloading of transmission lines ⁠and a surge in air conditioning ​use, instructs utilities to reduce electricity to customers who are under contract to reduce consumption during ​emergencies.

And here is the second batch of Indie-Penance games! kotaku.com/indie-penanc... Thank you so much for sending in games - the selection has been the best ever - and I'm so sorry to everyone I couldn't include. This is the most eclectic, original bunch of brilliant ideas. Please do repost this!

An Idaho Department of Labor employee has been identified as a neo-Nazi propagandist.

FT: Joe Biden “made 13 transactions over four years.” In 2025 alone, “Trump made more than 22,000.” @financialtimes.com www.ft.com/content/9067...

NEW: JD Vance told Fox News that the Vatican’s views on immigration are “troubling.” He said he hopes Pope Leo XIV has learned from what Trump has said about migrants. Two days earlier, ICE agents stopped a Texas nun on her way to Mass, handcuffed her, and held her in a detention center for hours.

Fugitive slaves were literally not accused of a crime, this was a rather important point in the 1850s.

Do they even have the E4 Mafia in the Marines like they do in the Army? I don’t think so. (I’m aware of the related Lance Corporal Underground for E3s.) Guessing that’s why the joke fell flat…cultural illiteracy about your own military branch…

Some news. Bellingcat is launching a membership program. If you like what we do, please think about joining and supporting us. Membership starts at whatever level you feel comfortable. Find out more here: www.bellingcat.com/donate/?utm_...

Being American has little to do with how long your family has been in America. JD Vance disagrees, but, then, 1 in 6 immigrants have been here longer than him. www.ctinsider.com/columnist/ar...

More so than any vanity monument in DC, this attack on a school full of children will be one of POTUS’s defining legacies. The pointless mass slaughter of kids in a war waged for personal amusement. apnews.com/article/iran...

Given Gorsuch's dissent, I think it's fair to say today's decision on constitutionality is more 5.5-3.5 than 5-4. Gorusch seems like he is saying that he thinks children born to long-time undocumented immigrants (the majority) are probably citizens, whereas recent entrants and tourists are not.

Reading the dissents now, and an interesting note: Justice Gorsuch places his primary dissent on the idea that birthright citizenship requires "domicile," and openly muses that many undocumented immigrants are probably domiciled here. So he does NOT go as far as Thomas, Alito, or Kavanaugh.

really cannot be emphasized enough that the drafters of the birthright clause very much considered cases analogous to undocumented immigrants and *included them too*

NPR has removed its story about Justice Alito's retirement from its frontpage, and SCOTUSBlog says the article's author says it was posted in error. (I'll note it wasn't just posted; it was a top story on npr.org.) In short, no retirement announcement for now.

Donald Trump came one vote away from getting the Supreme Court to say that the 14th Amendment does not guarantee birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented and temporary immigrants, a view held only by fringe far-right nativists until VERY recently. This is shocking. I am stunned.

anyway i think the proper takeaway here is that a bare majority of the court thinks the plain words of the 14th amendment mean what they say, that four members believe there is a secret hidden meaning only recently discovered by hack lawyers

The outcome is thus: 5–4 that the Constitution protects birthright citizenship for the children of all immigrants. 6–3 that Trump's order is unlawful (because Kavanaugh says it violates a statute, NOT the 14th Amendment.) www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...

Kavanaugh concurs and dissents in part: He holds that Trump's order does NOT violate the 14th Amendment, but does violate a federal statute. He says Congress could change the statute to effectuate Trump's order in the future. Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch dissent. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...

The Supreme Court strikes down Trump's attack on birthright citizenship. By a 5–4 vote, it holds that the 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship to children born of unauthorized and temporary immigrants. Roberts and Barrett join the three liberals. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...

Notably, FOUR justices would have rewritten the Constitution by fiat. Kavanaugh only concurred because he thinks the law Congress passed in the 1950s granting birthright citizenship governs the case, but he thinks Congress could eliminate birthright citizenship along Trump's lines if they wanted.

BREAKING: The Supreme Court in a 6-3 vote UPHOLDS birthright citizenship, affirming the default rule that all persons born in the United States (with narrow exceptions) are U.S. citizens at birth. A total LOSS for President Trump and the effort to rewrite the 14th Amendment.

Very much worth looking at the large @planet.com SkySat comparison that @msramalho.bsky.social was able to help us set up in this piece. The imagery covers about 15 miles/26km of coast from Mamo/Catia La Mar to Caraballeda, where some of the worst damage took place.

Four days ago: www.aol.com/articles/tru...

Two days ago: www.nytimes.com/2026/06/28/w...

There’s a story like this approximately every other day now. www.cnbc.com/2026/06/29/t...

A lie. Slaughter allows Trump to purge the heads of the MSPB and Office of Special Counsel, which protect civil servants from unlawful firings. When those agencies are paralyzed or corrupted, civil servants’ job protections become worthless. Thomas and Barrett endorsed this outcome just last month.

Satellite Imagery Shows Scale of Venezuela Earthquake Damage Bellingcat has received satellite imagery from Planet Labs PBC that shows one the worst affected areas in the country, including a large number of collapsed buildings and apartment blocks in La Guaira. www.bellingcat.com/news/2026/06...

The Slaughter case, overturning precedent, returns us to a spoils system where a president can “clean house” every four years, destroying our professional, independent civil service.

BREAKING: More than 100 Venezuelans who were deported from the U.S. hours before the earthquakes are missing after their hotel collapsed.

Under-reported element of U.S.-Israel-Lebanon framework agreement – overshadowed by its other sovereignty-negating provisions – is that the U.S. intends to supervise the reconstruction of south Lebanon, to deny any potential benefit to Hizbullah: www.state.gov/releases/off...

Another think that stands out reading Roberts’ opinion is what he thinks the Senate’s advice and consent power is even for. Many agencies, including the FTC, have terms that extend beyond a presidential term. If the Senate wanted to keep unqualified hacks from these positions, it could. 1/

this is absolutely wild. where does roberts think these agencies come from?!? who invested them with authority to act? whose mandate are they designed to execute? the president is the chief EXECUTive. his job is executing the will of Congress as it spells out in its duly-passed laws!

Retreating back to a spoils system, to the detriment of our government and everyone served by it.

We're launching a funding drive on Bellingcat today. It's a tough funding environment at the moment with global funder cuts & the fear of Trump scaring off donors, so support us here www.bellingcat.com/donate/?utm_... A short video about what your donations will fund www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Vzb...

This is bad www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

A new granite walkway. Refinishing the wall to glue those hideous gold accents. Trump claimed he was paying for all of it. He lied. They’ve been looting the National Parks.

I remember following Pezzola's (a Proud Boy) route through the capital shortly after Jan6. He published a video on Telegram smoking a cigar in the Capital crpyt saying "Victory smoke in the Capital boys. This is fucking awesome. I knew we could this motherfucker over if we just tried hard enough."

Fed's gotta hike

Monitoring planes, trains or automobiles in an investigation? Our Bellingcat Toolkit includes a range of resources for transport tracking, geolocation, and movement analysis: bellingcat.gitbook.io/toolkit/cate... Here are a few of the tools we use and how you can get involved 🧵

Worth noting this is the original video, so you know the "enhancement" will be incredibly inaccurate.

Ah, using "AI enhancement" for engagement, with no concerns of the risks it might create for innocent people.

Utterly disgusting. (Both Megyn today and NBC then.)

Colorado Gov Jared Polis (D) released Tina Peters, saying she was remorseful despite obvious evidence to the contrary. “I do show remorse,” Peters said today. “The remorse is that people that should be in prison are not. That's my remorse.”

The situation in Nabatiyeh, #Lebanon, is devastating. Our teams describe conditions that resemble a death trap, with people caught under heavy shelling and rescue teams unable to safely reach them. Read our full statement: www.doctorswithoutborders.ca/lebanon-msf-...

With seven decisions with the *same* 6-3 lineup over the last three days, I really can't wait for all of the hot takes from the folks who keep insisting that #SCOTUS *isn't* defined by its ideological division.

Compare Alito's description of Trump's racist statements (on the left) to Justice Kagan's anthology of Trump's racist statements (on the right). These are passages from this morning's opinions in Mullin v. Doe.

Today's SCOTUS decision means that the Trump administration may prematurely terminate TPS for Haiti, Syria, and any other country it wishes, without bothering to offer any legitimate justification or following the procedures required by Congress, because courts cannot review the decision.

BREAKING: The Supreme Court rules 6-3 in favor of the Trump admin on Temporary Protected Status, blocking the lawsuit on jurisdictional grounds, allowing DHS to strip over 350,000 people of legal status even though they utterly failed to follow the required legal procedures.