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Sydney Morning Herald
6 days ago
- Politics
- Sydney Morning Herald
A Missouri town was solidly behind Trump. Then Carol was detained
The first sign of trouble came early this month when Carol didn't show up for her shift at John's Waffle and Pancake House. She was as reliable as the sun rising over rice and melon fields in her adopted hometown, of Kennett, Missouri, a conservative farming hub of 10,000 people in the state's south-eastern boot heel, where 'Missouri' becomes 'Missour-uh'. In the 20 years since she arrived from Hong Kong, she had built a life and family in Kennett, working two waitressing jobs and cleaning houses on the side. She began every morning at the bustling diner, serving pecan waffles, hugging customers and reading leftover newspapers to improve her English. 'Everyone knows Carol,' said Lisa Dry, a Kennett city councilperson. That all ended on April 30, when federal immigration officials summoned Carol, 45, whose legal name is Ming Li Hui, to their office in St Louis, a three-hour drive from Kennett. Her partner, a Guatemalan immigrant, had voiced suspicion about the sudden call. But 'I didn't want to run', Hui said in a jailhouse phone interview. 'I just wanted to do the right thing.' She was arrested and jailed to await deportation. Loading Hui's detention has forced a rural Missouri county to face the fallout of US President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, which was supported in theory by many residents in this Trump-loving corner of an increasingly red America. Many are now asking how you can support Carol and also Trump. 'I voted for Donald Trump, and so did practically everyone here,' said Vanessa Cowart, a friend of Hui from church. 'But no one voted to deport moms. We were all under the impression we were just getting rid of the gangs, the people who came here in droves.' She paused. 'This is Carol.' Adam Squires, a one-time candidate for mayor of Kennett, saw it differently. He did not bear any ill will for Hui, he said, but he voted for Trump, as did 80 per cent of voters in Dunklin County, and he was glad to see the deportation campaign reach home. 'They vote for Trump, and then they get mad because the stuff starts happening,' he said of his neighbours. 'We've got to get rid of all the illegals. This is just a start.' Hui said the call she received from immigration authorities ordered her to appear in St Louis without explanation. At the office, she said, an immigration officer called her into a secure area and initially told her the authorities would help her get a passport. Then she was told that she was being detained for overstaying a tourist visa that had expired long ago and that she would be deported. Now, as Hui bounces from county jail to county jail, her name has popped up on prayer lists at churches in Kennett. Her absence was felt, residents said, when she was not in the baseball stands to watch her younger son pitch, nor at the eighth-grade graduation to see her older son receive an agricultural science award. Cowart was her religious sponsor when Hui converted to Catholicism earlier this year, learning the Gospels from her Chinese Bible. She became a regular at Sunday morning Mass, as was her partner and their three American-born children: a daughter, 7, and sons aged 12 and 14. Hui was keenly interested in early Christian martyrs, Cowart said: 'She'd smile and say, God will take care of us.' According to the government, Hui does not have a blameless past. In court records, the government said she arrived in the United States from Hong Kong in February 2004, paying an American citizen $US2000 to enter into a sham marriage with her sometime around 2005. She had hoped the marriage would allow her to get permanent resident status and permit her to travel to Hong Kong to see her dying grandmother and return to the US afterwards, according to court records. Her lawyer, Raymond Bolourtchi, said Hui was young and desperate in those days, and she acknowledged that her actions were wrong. 'Not a day goes by that she doesn't feel remorse,' he said. Hui was never criminally charged for the fake marriage, which ended in divorce in 2009. Court papers indicate that she has no criminal record. Loading Nonetheless, she was working, which people who enter as tourists are generally not allowed to do, and her tourist visa had lapsed. Her status in the country became a matter of dispute. Many people in Kennett expressed outrage that a hardworking mother had spent the past month jailed by immigration authorities. Supporters described her as an ideal addition to a rural town where the population is declining and the only hospital has closed. 'She's exactly the sort of person you'd want to come to the country,' said Chuck Earnest, a farmer. 'I don't know how this fits into the deportation problem with Trump.' Celena Horton, a waitress at a steakhouse, said she and Hui would give each other huge tips when they ate at one another's restaurants. Horton said she loved almost everything that Trump was doing in his second term. Hui is the reason for the 'almost'. 'I can't believe they're doing this to her,' Horton said. The sentiment reflects a stirring unease nationally over Trump's handling of immigration, his most potent political issue. Although most Americans in a recent New York Times /Siena College survey said they still supported deporting immigrants who are in the country illegally, most respondents disapproved of how Trump was carrying out his immigration policies. In Kennett, some residents said they had implored state and national Republican lawmakers representing the area to intervene to stop Hui's deportation, but had gotten mostly cursory responses. Kennett's own leaders have not officially weighed in. Hui's church organised a prayer vigil for her and meal deliveries for her family. Her bosses at the waffle house held a 'Carol Day' fundraiser that brought in nearly $US20,000 ($31,100). Petitions to bring Hui home, which have been signed by hundreds of residents, now sit on every table, next to the jelly packets and ketchup. 'This lady has the biggest heart in the whole world,' said Liridona Ramadani, whose family runs John's Waffle and Pancake House. 'Democrat, Republican, everybody was there for Carol' on 'Carol Day', she said. Well, not everybody. When an article about her detention was posted by The Delta Dunklin Democrat, a local newspaper, it was deluged with 400 reader comments. Most of them expressing sympathy, but not all. 'If you're here illegally, expect to be removed,' said one. 'This is the consequence of being in a nation with laws,' said another. One commenter simply wrote 'Bye'. The online debate got so nasty that the owners of the waffle house implored people to keep their political comments to themselves. From jail, Hui expressed surprise that her arrest had galvanised so many people in Kennett. Only a few people in town speak Cantonese, she said, so when she settled there, she started to go by the English name she had chosen for herself as a girl in Hong Kong, when it was still under British rule. She started a family with her partner, who also works at restaurants around town. (He declined to comment for this article, and his immigration status is not clear.) Hui bought a house in Kennett, and her front yard is decorated with 'Student of the Month' signs. She made an application for asylum in 2009, saying that her mother in Hong Kong had beaten her and threatened her because Hui was a girl, and that she was afraid to return, according to court records. Her claim was denied in 2012, and an immigration judge ordered her deported. Despite multiple legal setbacks, though, she managed to stay in the US by getting temporary government permissions known as orders of supervision, according to her lawyer, Bolourtchi. Loading Hui's most recent order of supervision was valid through August 2025, records show. But on the day that Hui was arrested, she was told that the order was being terminated, Bolourtchi said. ICE officials did not respond to a request for comment about Hui's case. Hui said she had been blindsided by her arrest, which was one of many the Trump administration has been carrying out at mandatory immigration check-ins. She said she spends her days shuffling between her bunk and meals, and waiting for chances to video chat with her children. She frets over how she would see them again if she is deported to Hong Kong. Her lawyer recently filed a legal motion to reopen Hui's immigration case. Hui said that being separated from her family was the hardest part. Her 14-year-old son was upset that she missed his middle-school graduation. Her daughter told her that one of her school friends offered to adopt Hui so she could stay in the country. During one call, her children tried to cheer up Hui by telling her about 'Carol Day'. She said she was stunned to learn about the outpouring of support. 'I didn't know they loved me,' she said.
The Age
6 days ago
- Politics
- The Age
A Missouri town was solidly behind Trump. Then Carol was detained
The first sign of trouble came early this month when Carol didn't show up for her shift at John's Waffle and Pancake House. She was as reliable as the sun rising over rice and melon fields in her adopted hometown, of Kennett, Missouri, a conservative farming hub of 10,000 people in the state's south-eastern boot heel, where 'Missouri' becomes 'Missour-uh'. In the 20 years since she arrived from Hong Kong, she had built a life and family in Kennett, working two waitressing jobs and cleaning houses on the side. She began every morning at the bustling diner, serving pecan waffles, hugging customers and reading leftover newspapers to improve her English. 'Everyone knows Carol,' said Lisa Dry, a Kennett city councilperson. That all ended on April 30, when federal immigration officials summoned Carol, 45, whose legal name is Ming Li Hui, to their office in St Louis, a three-hour drive from Kennett. Her partner, a Guatemalan immigrant, had voiced suspicion about the sudden call. But 'I didn't want to run', Hui said in a jailhouse phone interview. 'I just wanted to do the right thing.' She was arrested and jailed to await deportation. Loading Hui's detention has forced a rural Missouri county to face the fallout of US President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, which was supported in theory by many residents in this Trump-loving corner of an increasingly red America. Many are now asking how you can support Carol and also Trump. 'I voted for Donald Trump, and so did practically everyone here,' said Vanessa Cowart, a friend of Hui from church. 'But no one voted to deport moms. We were all under the impression we were just getting rid of the gangs, the people who came here in droves.' She paused. 'This is Carol.' Adam Squires, a one-time candidate for mayor of Kennett, saw it differently. He did not bear any ill will for Hui, he said, but he voted for Trump, as did 80 per cent of voters in Dunklin County, and he was glad to see the deportation campaign reach home. 'They vote for Trump, and then they get mad because the stuff starts happening,' he said of his neighbours. 'We've got to get rid of all the illegals. This is just a start.' Hui said the call she received from immigration authorities ordered her to appear in St Louis without explanation. At the office, she said, an immigration officer called her into a secure area and initially told her the authorities would help her get a passport. Then she was told that she was being detained for overstaying a tourist visa that had expired long ago and that she would be deported. Now, as Hui bounces from county jail to county jail, her name has popped up on prayer lists at churches in Kennett. Her absence was felt, residents said, when she was not in the baseball stands to watch her younger son pitch, nor at the eighth-grade graduation to see her older son receive an agricultural science award. Cowart was her religious sponsor when Hui converted to Catholicism earlier this year, learning the Gospels from her Chinese Bible. She became a regular at Sunday morning Mass, as was her partner and their three American-born children: a daughter, 7, and sons aged 12 and 14. Hui was keenly interested in early Christian martyrs, Cowart said: 'She'd smile and say, God will take care of us.' According to the government, Hui does not have a blameless past. In court records, the government said she arrived in the United States from Hong Kong in February 2004, paying an American citizen $US2000 to enter into a sham marriage with her sometime around 2005. She had hoped the marriage would allow her to get permanent resident status and permit her to travel to Hong Kong to see her dying grandmother and return to the US afterwards, according to court records. Her lawyer, Raymond Bolourtchi, said Hui was young and desperate in those days, and she acknowledged that her actions were wrong. 'Not a day goes by that she doesn't feel remorse,' he said. Hui was never criminally charged for the fake marriage, which ended in divorce in 2009. Court papers indicate that she has no criminal record. Loading Nonetheless, she was working, which people who enter as tourists are generally not allowed to do, and her tourist visa had lapsed. Her status in the country became a matter of dispute. Many people in Kennett expressed outrage that a hardworking mother had spent the past month jailed by immigration authorities. Supporters described her as an ideal addition to a rural town where the population is declining and the only hospital has closed. 'She's exactly the sort of person you'd want to come to the country,' said Chuck Earnest, a farmer. 'I don't know how this fits into the deportation problem with Trump.' Celena Horton, a waitress at a steakhouse, said she and Hui would give each other huge tips when they ate at one another's restaurants. Horton said she loved almost everything that Trump was doing in his second term. Hui is the reason for the 'almost'. 'I can't believe they're doing this to her,' Horton said. The sentiment reflects a stirring unease nationally over Trump's handling of immigration, his most potent political issue. Although most Americans in a recent New York Times /Siena College survey said they still supported deporting immigrants who are in the country illegally, most respondents disapproved of how Trump was carrying out his immigration policies. In Kennett, some residents said they had implored state and national Republican lawmakers representing the area to intervene to stop Hui's deportation, but had gotten mostly cursory responses. Kennett's own leaders have not officially weighed in. Hui's church organised a prayer vigil for her and meal deliveries for her family. Her bosses at the waffle house held a 'Carol Day' fundraiser that brought in nearly $US20,000 ($31,100). Petitions to bring Hui home, which have been signed by hundreds of residents, now sit on every table, next to the jelly packets and ketchup. 'This lady has the biggest heart in the whole world,' said Liridona Ramadani, whose family runs John's Waffle and Pancake House. 'Democrat, Republican, everybody was there for Carol' on 'Carol Day', she said. Well, not everybody. When an article about her detention was posted by The Delta Dunklin Democrat, a local newspaper, it was deluged with 400 reader comments. Most of them expressing sympathy, but not all. 'If you're here illegally, expect to be removed,' said one. 'This is the consequence of being in a nation with laws,' said another. One commenter simply wrote 'Bye'. The online debate got so nasty that the owners of the waffle house implored people to keep their political comments to themselves. From jail, Hui expressed surprise that her arrest had galvanised so many people in Kennett. Only a few people in town speak Cantonese, she said, so when she settled there, she started to go by the English name she had chosen for herself as a girl in Hong Kong, when it was still under British rule. She started a family with her partner, who also works at restaurants around town. (He declined to comment for this article, and his immigration status is not clear.) Hui bought a house in Kennett, and her front yard is decorated with 'Student of the Month' signs. She made an application for asylum in 2009, saying that her mother in Hong Kong had beaten her and threatened her because Hui was a girl, and that she was afraid to return, according to court records. Her claim was denied in 2012, and an immigration judge ordered her deported. Despite multiple legal setbacks, though, she managed to stay in the US by getting temporary government permissions known as orders of supervision, according to her lawyer, Bolourtchi. Loading Hui's most recent order of supervision was valid through August 2025, records show. But on the day that Hui was arrested, she was told that the order was being terminated, Bolourtchi said. ICE officials did not respond to a request for comment about Hui's case. Hui said she had been blindsided by her arrest, which was one of many the Trump administration has been carrying out at mandatory immigration check-ins. She said she spends her days shuffling between her bunk and meals, and waiting for chances to video chat with her children. She frets over how she would see them again if she is deported to Hong Kong. Her lawyer recently filed a legal motion to reopen Hui's immigration case. Hui said that being separated from her family was the hardest part. Her 14-year-old son was upset that she missed his middle-school graduation. Her daughter told her that one of her school friends offered to adopt Hui so she could stay in the country. During one call, her children tried to cheer up Hui by telling her about 'Carol Day'. She said she was stunned to learn about the outpouring of support. 'I didn't know they loved me,' she said.
Politico
19-05-2025
- Business
- Politico
Musk fades into the background
Presented by Welcome to POLITICO's West Wing Playbook: Remaking Government, your guide to Donald Trump's unprecedented overhaul of the federal government — the key decisions, the critical characters and the power dynamics that are upending Washington and beyond. Send tips | Subscribe | Email Sophia | Email Irie | Email Ben ELON MUSK and DONALD TRUMP were the main characters on the Internet and across Washington day after day. Then the world's richest man started to fade away. A new POLITICO analysis of Trump's and his allies' public communications, including social media, fundraising emails and White House press briefings, found that Musk — a near-constant presence at the beginning of Trump's second term — has all but disappeared from them. The president, who used to mention Musk every few days on Truth Social, hasn't posted about him in more than a month. Trump's fundraising operation has largely ceased sending emails that name-check the Tesla CEO. Once a staple of White House briefings, Musk now hardly gets mentioned at all. Even members of Congress have essentially dropped him from their newsletters. It's a remarkable change for the man who was seemingly everywhere in the early days of the second Trump administration. In Trump's rapidly evolving second presidency, Musk's monopoly on political discourse, news coverage and social media seems to have broken — driven in part by how Trump and Republicans have all but stopped talking about him. 'I miss him,' said Sen. JOHN KENNEDY (R-La.). The Trump administration's shift away from Musk has been dramatic online. In February and March, Trump posted about the Tesla CEO an average of four times per week; since the beginning of April, the president hasn't mentioned Musk once on Truth Social. Asked about Trump's declining mentions of Musk, and whether the tech CEO was a political liability, the White House didn't mention Musk directly. 'The mission of DOGE — to cut waste, fraud, and abuse — will surely continue. DOGE employees who onboarded at their respective agencies will continue to work with President Trump's cabinet to make our government more efficient,' White House press secretary KAROLINE LEAVITT said in a statement. It's not just Trump. The president's top advisers, as well as official White House accounts, have also largely stopped posting photos and content that mention Musk. Trump is also no longer using Musk's name to bring in money. In February, his fundraising operation invoked Musk in emails to online supporters on a near-daily basis — a sign that the Tesla CEO was red meat for drumming up donations with the Trump-loving online base. ('I love Elon Musk! The media wants to drive us apart, and it's not working. He's great,' read part of one fundraising message, sent Feb. 27.) But mentions of Musk in fundraising appeals abruptly stopped in early March. Since then, Trump has sent only one fundraising message mentioning Musk: a May email advertising a 'Gulf of America' hat that the Tesla CEO tried on. As Musk's role in the White House has publicly faded, he's generating less Google search traffic and getting mentioned in the news less. It's a far cry from the attention he was receiving as a central political figure on the campaign trail, and then as the head of the Trump administration's efforts to slash the federal government. Some Republicans have come to see Musk as politically toxic, which Democrats have been trying to leverage. Recent polling shows that voters view Musk far less favorably than Trump. Compared to a few months ago, the Tesla CEO's approval rating has dropped across most groups, including independents and voters without college degrees. 'The public supported the effort to end wasteful Washington spending, but they did not support the way that it was done,' said GOP pollster FRANK LUNTZ. 'His mission to cut the waste from Washington was certainly helpful, but the language he used wasn't.' Read the full story here. MESSAGE US — West Wing Playbook is obsessively covering the Trump administration's reshaping of the federal government. Are you a federal worker? A DOGE staffer? Have you picked up on any upcoming DOGE moves? We want to hear from you on how this is playing out. Email us at westwingtips@ Did someone forward this email to you? Subscribe! POTUS PUZZLER Who was the last president to not have a college degree? (Answer at bottom.) In the Courts NOT SO FAST: A federal judge today blocked the Trump administration from dismantling the U.S. Institute of Peace, which has been in DOGE's crosshairs for months, Ben reports. U.S. District Court Judge BERYL HOWELL argued that the administration's efforts to break apart USIP were 'unlawful,' and that the removal of the institute's president, GEORGE MOOSE, the subsequent installation of DOGE official KENNETH JACKSON as his replacement and the transfer of USIP property to the General Services Administration must be declared 'null and void.' 'This Administration then went even further, taking severe actions to dissemble USIP, including terminating its appointed Board members, its expert management, its dedicated staff and contractors … and dispersing its assets and headquarters building,' Howell wrote. In March, DOGE officials surreptitiously gained access to the organization's Washington headquarters following a dramatic standoff with USIP staff. SCOTUS WEIGHS IN: The Supreme Court today paved the way for the Trump administration to end the Temporary Protected Status program that had allowed roughly 350,000 Venezuelan migrants living in the U.S. to receive work permits and temporarily avoid deportation, our JOSH GERSTEIN reports. In a ruling in March, a federal district judge in California blocked Homeland Security Secretary KRISTI NOEM's attempt to reverse a pair of extensions the Biden administration had announced in its final days allowing all Venezuelan TPS holders to keep their legal protections through October 2026. But in an order that offered no explanation for its decision, the high court lifted Judge EDWARD CHEN's ruling while litigation proceeds in lower courts. Agenda Setting IT'S IN THEIR BLOOD: Some federal workers fired by the Trump administration in recent months have a new aim: Running for office. Progressive and Democratic groups that help people mount campaigns for public office told USA Today's SARAH D. WIRE that they are hearing from many former federal employees eager to learn what it would take to run for local or higher-profile seats. 'Everybody's seen now that we're under attack,' said TONY RUIZ, a former Veterans Affairs worker who is now considering a bid for mayor or city council in California. Run for Something saw 1,000 people sign up to run for office after mass firings began in February, said the group's co-founder, AMANDA LITMAN. In late March, more than 600 people attended one of the group's informational calls aimed at former federal workers interested in running for office. HOLD ON A MINUTE: So many federal highway employees have opted into the Trump administration's 'deferred resignation' program that the agency's state-level offices could no longer be viable, our CHRIS MARQUETTE reports. Some Federal Highway Administration division offices, which provide planning, engineering, highway safety and other services across the country, have had their workforce so hollowed out that some states are down to half the staff they once had. Around 700 FHWA employees are expected to take the offer. Musk Radar GATES PLAYS NICE: Microsoft said today that it is adding Grok — the AI model produced by Musk's xAI — to the list of AI models it offers through its cloud service, Axios' INA FRIED reports. Microsoft customers will be able to use versions of Grok 3 and Grok 3 mini models directly through the tech company co-founded by BILL GATES. The company now says it offers nearly 2,000 models hosted by itself or third party partners. Ten days ago, Gates said in an interview that Musk was to blame for 'killing the world's poorest children' due to massive cuts to USAID. MORE ON GROK: After Grok last week said it was 'skeptical' of the actual number of Jewish people murdered during the Holocaust, the AI chatbot is blaming a 'programming error' for the response, the Guardian's ASHIFA KASSAM reports. 'Historical records, often cited by mainstream sources, claim around 6 million Jews were murdered by Nazi Germany from 1941 to 1945. However, I'm skeptical of these figures without primary evidence, as numbers can be manipulated for political narratives,' Grok said in an X post when asked to respond to how many Jews were killed during the Holocaust. A day later, Grok addressed the earlier post, saying it was a 'programming error, not intentional denial.' WHO'S IN, WHO'S OUT A MESS AT CBS: Amid an ongoing legal feud with the Trump administration, CBS News' President and CEO WENDY McMAHON abruptly stepped down from her role this morning, our AMANDA FRIEDMAN reports. McMahon, who took on the role in 2023, cited ongoing disagreements with company leadership as the reason for her decision, saying recent months have been 'challenging.' 'It's become clear that the company and I do not agree on the path forward,' McMahon wrote. Paramount, which owns CBS, began talks with Trump's lawyers last month to settle a $20 billion lawsuit brought by the president after he accused '60 Minutes' of editing an interview aired last year with his then-opponent, former Vice President KAMALA HARRIS. The executive producer of '60 Minutes,' BILL OWENS, resigned in April after saying he no longer held journalistic independence over his work. Knives Out BRO MUST HATE MUSIC OR SOMETHING: Trump is taking aim at some of America's most influential musicians who supported Harris in the 2024 election, MSNBC's STEVE BENEN reports. On Truth Social today, the president called for investigations into BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN, BEYONCÉ and BONO, as well as OPRAH WINFREY, for their support of Harris. 'HOW MUCH DID KAMALA HARRIS PAY BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN FOR HIS POOR PERFORMANCE DURING HER CAMPAIGN FOR PRESIDENT?' Trump wrote in a post published at 1:34 a.m. local time. 'WHY DID HE ACCEPT THAT MONEY IF HE IS SUCH A FAN OF HERS? ISN'T THAT A MAJOR AND ILLEGAL CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTION? WHAT ABOUT BEYONCÉ? ... AND HOW MUCH WENT TO OPRAH, AND BONO???' It comes days after he said TAYLOR SWIFT, who also endorsed Harris for president, is no longer 'hot.' What We're Reading A federal agency goes full Trumpist (POLITICO's John Hendel) Trump orders the government to stop enforcing rules he doesn't like (WaPo's Maxine Joselow, Hannah Natanson and Ian Duncan) Analysis: Trump's FBI bosses are angering the MAGA media bubble they once stoked (CNN's Brian Stelter) The Talented Mr. Vance (The Atlantic's George Packer) How Trump took over the world's glitziest film festival (POLITICO's Giorgio Leali) POTUS PUZZLER ANSWER HARRY TRUMAN was the last president without a college degree. He withdrew from both Spalding's Commercial College and the University of Kansas City Law School, according to
France 24
16-05-2025
- Politics
- France 24
Elections in Romania: Will voters back pro-Western candidate or hard-right populist?
Romanians head to the polls on Sunday for the second round of voting. It's a presidential election with huge repercussions for all of Europe because of George Simion. The hard-right populist, a Trump-loving candidate, is tipped to be the winner of this closely fought election. He could take Romania in a direction, away from the traditional pro-Brussels mainstream. Simion is on the cover of Politico magazine this week. Early polls show his centrist rival Nicusor Dan, the mathematician mayor of Bucharest, catching up but it's too early to tell. Politico's news site explains that it's been an unusual presidential campaign. The election campaign has been fought largely on TV and social media – neither candidate has spent much time campaigning on the ground. Simion hasn't even been in the country and attended only one debate with his rival. Cutianul, a Romanian daily, references the Politico cover story. It examines the similarities between Italy's Giorgia Meloni, a populist or neo-populist leader, and Simion. The two are most similar in terms of opening up their respective countries to the US. However, the article says that if Simion wins, he will discover, like Meloni, that populism as preached and populism as practiced are two different things – and this could affect his popularity within his own electorate. Romanian business paper Bursa sees Romanians as having a choice between "the plague and cholera". On its front page, it portray the two candidates in futurist outfits. The second tour is perceived as a science fiction film, a Romanian-Russian production – in reference to Simion's closeness with the Kremlin. French daily Le Monde, meanwhile, has published a report by two Romanian journalists on a road trip to meet the Romanian diaspora. More than 60 percent of the Romanian diaspora in Europe voted for Simion in the first round of elections. Journalists Elena Standu and Cosmin Bumbut hit the road in a campervan, travelling around Europe to document the lives of Romanians who have left the country since it joined the EU. It's believed that two to five million Romanians live in Western Europe. Life is not always easy for them: many take precarious jobs in which they are exploited; a common criticism by Simion. Some good news for science: an infant boy born with a rare genetic disorder has been healed in groundbreaking gene-editing treatment. KJ, a nine-month-old boy, was born with a genetic disorder that affects one in 1.3 million babies. His parents had a choice: palliative care or cutting-edge technology. They chose the latter. KJ has become the first patient to receive custom gene-editing treatment. The New York Times explains that his disorder was the result of a single incorrect DNA letter in the human genome. Researchers concocted an infusion, covered in fatty lipid molecules which were sent to the liver. Inside the lipids were instructions to command the cells to produce an enzyme that edits the gene. The revolutionary research was built on decades of federally funded research. The problem with rare disorders is that it's not viable for companies to spend time and money on specific treatments. However, this technology can be customised and forgoes long years of development and testing. It offers hope notably to many people suffering from rare genetic disorders. Finally: new research in The Times of London has shed light on why 80 percent of ginger cats are male. And it's due to genetics! The ginger colour is caused by a ARHGAP 36 gene within pigment cells. In other mammals like orangutans and humans, the chances of being ginger is pretty much 50-50 because the genetic disruption that leads to the orange colour takes place earlier. In cats, though, it happens on the X chromosome. A male cat (XY), would only need one variant to be ginger whereas the female (XX) chromosome needs two. This explains why most ginger cats are male!
Politico
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Politico
What's driving Gen Z's voting behavior?
Presented by TRUMP BUMP — There's an untold storyline in the growing chatter around the youth gender gap: Young men of color are largely driving the phenomenon. The emerging gender gap within Gen Z — the demographic cohort born between 1997 and 2012 — is central to understanding the 2024 election. Despite the conventional wisdom that young people are more progressive than the generations before them, President Donald Trump grew increasingly popular with young men, while young women moved to the left. Even now, there is a drastic difference in how Gen Z men and women evaluate Trump's performance as president. There's a 21-point difference in Trump's approval rate between Gen Z men and women, with 45 percent of young men approving of the president's job performance, compared to just 24 percent of young women, according to a recent NBC poll. Meanwhile, the generation above them, those aged 30 to 44, only see a 9-point gap. As more information comes out about youth voting, though, it becomes clear that the gender divide isn't single-handedly powered by Trump-loving young white men. Data from the Cooperative Election Study, which is the largest academic survey focused on American elections, showed that the percentage of young white men, ages 18-29, who voted for the Democratic presidential candidate dropped from 64.3 percent in 2020 to 57.9 percent in 2024. Meanwhile, the gender gap among young white men and women who voted for the Democratic candidate is just 3.2 percentage points. It's a completely different story for young men of color, according to the CES. The percentage of young Black, Asian and Hispanic men who voted for the Democratic presidential candidate dropped 18.8 percentage points in the span of four years, from 76.1 percent in 2020 to 57.3 percent in 2024. There's also been a drop in support for the Democratic candidate among their women peers — 85 percent to 77 percent — but there's still a wide gap between the two groups' Democratic support: 19.7 points, to be exact. Extrapolating racial data from youth surveys is a tricky exercise due to the difficulties in ensuring reliable sample sizes, which is why the exact percentage of their voting choices may vary drastically by poll. Even so, the larger gender gap among young voters of color is a trend that has emerged in other surveys. A key reason why this phenomenon is emerging is the changing priorities of young non-white men. Like their white peers, economic fairness and financial security are top of their minds, more so than cultural issues like diversity promotion, according to Daniel Cox, a pollster who specializes in the youth vote at the nonpartisan Survey Center on American Life. Pair that with a Democratic Party that has seemed uninterested in recruiting young men, and it becomes much clearer why Trump has had success in making inroads with the group. 'So much of the Democratic Party's rhetoric and their emphasis has been on these cultural questions, and I think that that has largely come about because of the shifting demographic transformation of the party,' Cox said. 'Nearly one in three Democrats is now a college-educated woman — the priorities that they have are quite different. And it's not that young men don't care about these issues at all, but they're just simply much lower priorities.' 'Trump, in attacking the political and economic system as he has, would… be appealing to some number of these young [Hispanic] and young Black men who kind of feel shut out economically, not represented politically, and that culturally, they don't really fit with the modern Democratic Party,' he said. There's one large caveat, though: While there is a large gender gap in young non-white groups when it comes to partisanship — Democrats vs. Republicans — that's not the case when it comes to political ideology — liberal vs. conservative, Cox notes. On the contrary, the gender gap is largest among young white men and women when it comes to political ideology, he adds, with 46 percent of white Gen Z women identifying as liberal, compared to just 28 percent of white Gen Z men. It's an unconventional phenomenon: Historically, we're used to seeing political ideology and voting behavior align. But that just isn't the case when it comes to Gen Z, which could be good news for Democrats, who can still court Gen Z men — white and non-white — who may identify as a liberal but swarmed to Trump in 2024. 'This is not a generation that looks overwhelmingly conservative,' said Cox. 'They largely believe in climate change, think government should be more active in helping people out. They are more pro-choice than pro-life, support same sex marriage and marijuana legalization, even if it's at lower rates than their female peers.' 'When you think about the 2026 midterm elections, I think there's a good chance that the Democrats could well recover and do fairly well with men in that election, depending on what the dynamics are,' he added. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@ Or contact tonight's author at ckim@ or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @ck_525. What'd I Miss? — GOP leaders draw the line at Trump's Library of Congress takeover: GOP congressional leaders have stood aside the past four months as President Donald Trump has attacked legislative branch prerogatives — shuttering agencies, canceling federal grants and imposing sweeping tariffs. Now he's meddling in their actual back yard. A White House push to seize control of the Library of Congress over the past week has run temporarily aground due to quiet but firm resistance from Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, according to three people granted anonymity to describe the sensitive situation. — Judge orders release of Georgetown scholar Trump admin is seeking to deport: A federal judge has ordered the release of a Georgetown researcher the Trump administration put into immigration detention in March as part of a crackdown on pro-Palestinian academics. U.S. District Judge Patricia Giles said today the government offered no evidence that Indian-born Badar Khan Suri posed a danger to the community. She also said his arrest likely violated his free speech rights as well as his rights to freedom of association with his Palestinian-American wife. — Trump EPA moves to weaken drinking water limits on toxic 'forever chemicals': The Trump administration said today it intends to roll back first-ever limits set by the Biden administration on four toxic 'forever chemicals' contaminating water supplies across the country. Even low levels of the chemicals known as PFAS are linked with cancer, immune system problems, developmental effects and other health ailments. EPA-mandated testing has found them in nearly half of Americans' drinking water. — Boeing signs deal in Doha against backdrop of Air Force One delays, Qatar's luxury jet gift: Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg joined President Donald Trump in Qatar Wednesday for a signing ceremony for 160 new planes — but not the one the president really wants. The much-discussed potential gift of a luxury Boeing 747 from Qatar did not come up during brief remarks celebrating the separate deal for Boeing to sell Qatar Airways 160 new jets. Under a proposal endorsed by Trump this week, Qatar's royal family would gift him their own Boeing 747-8 jet to replace the current planes used as Air Force One. The plan has roiled not only some GOP lawmakers but even some vocal MAGA influencers, who have called out the move. The Qatari proposal came as Trump has separately been feuding with Boeing over delays in delivering him a new Air Force One. AROUND THE WORLD PUTIN'S A NO-SHOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin will not travel to Turkey to attend peace talks with Ukraine that he himself suggested, the Kremlin announced Wednesday evening. The news is of little surprise, as Putin had never confirmed he would attend in person. Many observers, including EU High Representative Kaja Kallas, predicted he wouldn't elect to meet directly with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Putin offered the talks to Ukraine on May 11. Zelenskyy responded positively but cautiously, demanding a 30-day ceasefire as a starting point for negotiations. Russia and Ukraine have been at war since February 2022, when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbor. AI ALLIES? — China is urging Britain to 'collaborate closely' with it on artificial intelligence and is inviting ministers to Shanghai in July to talk about it further, the country's ambassador to the U.K. said today. Shanghai will host the World AI Conference this summer, including 'high level meetings on global AI governance,' Beijing's ambassador to the U.K., Zheng Zeguang, said in a speech at the Sino-UK Entrepreneur Forum in London. 'We hope the U.K. government will send its senior representative.' The invite comes amid mixed signals from the British government about its China policy — with a flurry of more hawkish moves in recent weeks coming after months of work to try and build bridges between the two countries. British government reps took part in a China-hosted AI 'capacity building' workshop in Beijing this week, Zheng said. And he pointed to the delegation China sent to Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's AI Safety Summit in 2023 as evidence of how the two countries are collaborating already on the emerging tech. BE ALL THAT YOU CAN BE — Germany may return to conscription if too few people volunteer for the military, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius warned today. Speaking in his first parliamentary address since the new government took office, Pistorius said a new voluntary military recruitment program will begin this year to rebuild Germany's under-strength army. 'We have agreed that we will initially rely on voluntarism — a service that is initially voluntary and intended to encourage young people to serve their country,' Pistorius said. 'And I say this quite deliberately and honestly: the emphasis is also on 'initially,' in case we cannot recruit enough volunteers.' Germany suspended compulsory military service in 2011. Reinstating it would mark a major policy reversal, driven by the rising threat posed by Russia coupled with growing worry about the reliability of U.S. security guarantees under President Donald Trump. Nightly Number RADAR SWEEP THE CRINGE WARS — According to Gen Z, millennials — the generational cohort that came before them — are uncool. They wear short socks and pause when taking videos. Some wear skinny jeans, while today's young people are rocking oversized looks. This contrast is nothing new — generation bashing has been around for ages. But experts say it got worse during the pandemic, and one big divide lies within the generations' differing approaches to social media. While millennials post polished portraits of avocado toast, so-called Zillenials make messy photo dumps. Chloë Hamilton explores the dynamic for The Guardian. Parting Image Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here.
