Political Heat

First, it was Canada; now, it's Australian voters delivering a sharp rebuke to President Donald Trump's assertions that he's a "world leader." The center-left Labor Party in the country from "down under" has retained control of the government, winning the parliamentary elections on Saturday — a dramatic turnaround, given that the conservative coalition was previously projected to win . The rosy outlook for conservatives flipped after the tariffs imposed by Trump on the country — initially at 25 percent, then down to the (as for now) 10 percent rate — shifted public sentiment away from the conservative coalition and back toward Labor. It's a near-identical outcome to what happened in Canada last month . From The Washington Post : With roughly half of the votes counted, Labor appeared on track to increase its majority in the lower chamber of Parliament from 78 seats to at least 87, with more than a dozen races yet to be called. In a shock that ap...

President Donald Trump is sharing images on his social media alleging that a tattooed hand, purportedly belonging to Kilmar Abrego Garcia (the man wrongfully deported from the U.S. by the administration) is evidence that he is part of a violent gang and thus deserves to remain out of the country. Users online are split over whether that's actually the case — but even if it were true, it ignores the crux of this entire debate. Indeed, the pics are meant to distract from a larger issue. Maybe the tattoos are legitimate. So what? Abrego Garcia was denied his right to defend himself when he was deported last month to an El Salvador mega-prison, without a court's review or oversight. Image via Donald Trump/X Trump can use these images to make a case against him — but that should be done in a courtroom, where the legitimacy and meaning of these tattoos can be examined and discussed, not in a social media post after the fact, after the irreparable harm to a person's rights h...