Monday, June 1, 2026
White House trims tariffs on agricultural equipment
United States President Donald Trump signed a proclamation reducing tariffs on some agricultural equipment, like combines and harvesters, from 25% to 15%.
The proclamation also expands the category of industrial equipment subject to a 15% tariff to include "mobile industrial equipment, like bulldozers and forklifts, when imported from trade deal countries that are entitled to such treatment." Additionally, it allows foreign companies to qualify for a 10% duty rate if their "capital equipment includes at least 85% US melted and poured or smelted and cast steel or aluminum by weight."
These tariff reductions will last until December 31, 2027, with the aim of spurring "near–term investments that will rebuild the Nation's industrial base," the White House said.
https://breakingthenews.net/Article/White-House-trims-tariffs-on-agricultural-equipment/66413418
IAEA's Grossi says moving Iran's uranium abroad is hard but possible
IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi told Al Jazeera that President Donald Trump’s proposal to transfer Iran’s enriched uranium abroad was “difficult but not impossible” to implement.
Iran is estimated to possess around 440 kilograms of uranium enriched to about 60%, a level well above civilian requirements but below weapons-grade enrichment.
Grossi noted that transporting the material would be technically complex because it is stored in gaseous form and requires special handling.
“It's not easy, because this is in gas form, highly contaminant, and it's not an easy operation,” he said.
He added that alternatives under discussion include “downblending” the uranium into a less enriched form.
“All of these things are the things we have been discussing,” Grossi said.
Well-stocked anti-ICE coalition tent raided by feds near Delaney Hall, where rioters enjoy puzzles, games
A well-stocked anti-ICE coalition tent outside New Jersey’s embattled Delaney Hall immigration detention center was raided by federal authorities Monday — exposing what activists were keeping inside as mayhem continues to plague the area.
Eye-catching photos revealed cases of Spindrift seltzers, puzzles and games, plush toys, books, keffiyeh scarves and assorted signs stuffed into boxes or scattered around the Eyes of ICE mutual aid tent outside the Newark detention center.
Planters with wilting flowers were abandoned on foldable tables. Other boxes were overflowing with handwarmers and blankets, while some unused posters reflected Catholic imagery and references to the Virgin Mary.
Kathy O’Leary, president of the coalition, said her team is one of the few groups helping people reach detainees as detention centers impose more stringent visitation rules in response to the disastrous protests.
O’Leary told the New Jersey Monitor that detainees’ families and loved ones visit the volunteer tent to receive food and connect with attorneys or social workers. She said that she hadn’t been able to reach the tent since police blocked the street off to pedestrians.
“The facility has never given accurate or complete information to the families about how things work,” she separately told Gothamist, scoffing at the idea of police escorts for visitors.
“People are not going to want to do it. They’re not going to be comfortable with it.”
The Post reached out to the FBI and Department of Homeland Security for more information on the raid.
Chaos engulfed the immigration detention facility over Memorial Day weekend after top Democratic officials, including New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill, raised concerns about inhumane conditions in the facility and the lack of visitation hours.
Mobs of unhinged anti-ICE thugs — whose identities are largely hidden beneath gas masks and keffiyeh scarves — descended on the area, clashing with federal agents and unleashing 10 straight days of mayhem.
The demonstrations were sparked by ICE detainees’ purported hunger strike in protest against alleged deplorable living conditions at the 1,000-bed facility.
The Trump administration has countered that the standard of living at Delaney Hall is higher than most US prisons.
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka instituted a 9 p.m.-to-6 a.m. curfew for the half-mile area around the detention center until further notice.
Protesters and residents alike caught violating the curfew will receive an initial warning before they’re removed — and could face legal action if they refuse to comply, Baraka said in a statement.
As the pandemonium continues, Sherrill brazenly announced an early win and claimed that officials bartered for the restoration of visitation rights — one of the grievances that incited the hunger strike.
Sherrill’s victory lap did little to quell the protest. At least 20 protesters were arrested outside of Delaney Hall on Sunday, and one was even charged for allegedly threatening to kill an ICE officer and his family.
Kyiv reports injuries, power outages amid Russian attack
A Russian attack injured at least four people, sparked a number of fires and prompted power outages throughout Ukraine's capital of Kyiv on Tuesday, according to local officials.
https://breakingthenews.net/Article/Kyiv-reports-injuries-power-outages-amid-Russian-attack/66413241
Shady immigration attorneys laughed off the law — now they’ll have to pay for their asylum games
This week, the Department of Homeland Security announced a new effort to crack down on asylum fraud — by going after the lawyers who enable it.
DHS will be imposing civil fines on attorneys who file bogus and frivolous protection applications on behalf of their alien clients.
About time: For decades, various administrations have turned a blind eye to those who exploit Americans’ humanitarian instincts for pecuniary gain.
By its nature, fraud generally is one of the hardest crimes to prove — it’s axiomatic in law enforcement that the greatest con artists are the ones who never got caught.
Our generous asylum laws, however, almost encourage fraud.
To ensure immigrants aren’t returned to persecution or torture back home, the US asylum statute is intentionally lax on the evidence applicants must present to support their claims.
Applicants’ testimony alone “may be sufficient to sustain” their burden of proof “without corroboration,” but only if the court finds it credible and concludes there’s no supporting evidence they could and must present.
That overly compassionate evidence standard has been abused for years by aliens who concoct tales of mistreatment and harm, many of which boggle the imagination and strain credulity.
But given that few judges are familiar with police practices in far-off lands, or with the political struggles in remote regions of the world, they don’t have much to go on.
The State Department used to help.
Prior to President Barack Obama’s administration, consular officers would pore over applications, opining on some directly and writing generalized “country conditions” assessments on the most common claims in the rest.
Back then, asylum applications were far more limited, with a backlog of about 106,000 in 2012.
It’s been over a decade since the State Department provided such comments, and in the interim, the backlog — nearly 2.36 million asylum applications in the nation’s 73 immigration courts alone — has grown so large our consular officers abroad would be powerless to respond to more than a sample.
The flood of cases, coupled with the relaxed evidentiary standards and the promise of a work permit for simply filing an application, has created a vulnerability that unauthorized aliens and more than a few attorneys and notarios — hucksters who pass themselves off as lawyers with no license or training — have exploited.
Want proof?
In the first six months of FY 2026 alone, more than 48,000 aliens who had already filed applications were ordered removed in absentia when they simply stopped going to immigration court.
The only reason an immigrant would file an application and not appear thereafter is because the claims therein were worthless.
But going through the motions of making them was precondition to obtaining a work permit — and a Social Security number, which remains valid even after the employment document isn’t.
Critically, and although DHS doesn’t spell it out, the department is not only going after “fraudulent applications” — in which one or more of the claims is false or fabricated — but “frivolous” ones, as well.
A frivolous application is one in which the claims may be true, but they fail to satisfy the strenuous statutory requirements for asylum.
To be granted asylum, an alien must show past persecution or a “well-founded fear of persecution” on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion.
Poverty, common crime and even violent conflict aren’t sufficient — but I have heard of claims from immigrants who argued the police back home give out too many parking tickets, the neighbors look at them funny, or the smog in their hometown causes asthma.
Asylum applicants themselves might not know those claims are woefully insufficient, but licensed attorneys either do or should.
With DHS consequences now in play, expect them to check the law and the facts before hitting send on an iffy application — or not send it at all.
Reviewing nearly 3 million applications will be challenging, but many judges and attorneys — the vast majority of whom are scrupulous and diligent — are fed up with shady practitioners and ready to drop a dime.
And an assist from artificial intelligence will enable DHS to scan through hundreds of files at a time, looking for repeated phrases and scenarios, common markers of fraud in past investigations.
It’s well past time to end the fraud and the frivolity undermining our immigration system.
Andrew Arthur is a fellow in law and policy at the Center for Immigration Studies.