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The Dictatorship

Despair and fury in Gaza are fueling a remarkable movement against Hamas

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Despair and fury in Gaza are fueling a remarkable movement against Hamas

After three days of public protests in northern Gaza against Hamasthe organization’s political grip there seems to be fraying. Each of the protests have involved hundreds of Palestinians and they reflect a clear understanding that Hamas, and not just Israelis responsible for their plight. It could be a turning point, but much depends on how outside powers respond.

Public criticism of Hamas in Gaza is hardly, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claims, unheard of. Even during the war launched by Israel after the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, smaller and more sporadic protests periodically erupted.

Frustration with Hamas among ordinary Gazans is boiling over.

What differentiates the recent protests is their size and continuity. In the last three days, thousands of Palestinians gathered to urge Hamas to relinquish power, release hostages and help stop Israel’s relentless attacks that the Palestinian Health Ministry reports have cost over 50,000 Palestinian lives (the majority of them civilian). Netanyahu is wrong to cynically and dishonestly cite the protests as evidence that Israel’s policies are “working.” But Hamas is wrong in claiming they are manufactured and directed by “outside forces,” rather than the spontaneous expression of richly deserved outrage.

I have repeatedly opined that Palestinians should never forgive Hamas for deliberately provoking Israel into an extreme overreaction. Israeli policy has always rested on disproportionate retaliation. The intensity of Israel’s violence in Gaza is as predictable as it is appalling. Palestinians understand this intimately.

There’s ample outrage against Israel’s war on Gazan society in general, which is hardly limited to just Hamas. Many scholars and historians on genocide, including a number of Israelishave argued that the word reasonably applies to the Israeli military’s use of food, medicine, water and routine displacement as weapons of war against civilians.

And still, frustration with Hamas among ordinary Gazans is boiling over. The protests are predictably centered in Gaza’s north, the first areas decimated after Oct. 7, and where the most extreme violence and denial of basic necessities have been focused.

Contrary to Netanyahu’s claims, these protests are taking place despite Israel’s ongoing brutality, not because of it. A poll released on Oct. 6, 2023, the eve of the attack against southern Israel, by the Arab Barometerfound just 29% of Palestinians in Gaza had any favorable attitudes toward Hamas. Today, it may be even lower.

The protesters have no illusions about Israel. Virtually all interviewed by Arab and Western media made their fury at Israel’s brutality crystal clear.

Hamas did not care about the fate of the over 2 million Palestinian civilians it conscripted for “martyrdom” without the least consultation, warning or preparation. It also doesn’t much care about the ebb and flow of public opinion. It retains a base of public support, and much of the population will continue to understandably focus their rage against Israel, at least until the IDF is finally gone from Gaza. But despair and fury have fueled these unusually large and sustained protests against Hamas and its evident share of responsibility.

Hamas did not care about the fate of the over 2 million Palestinian civilians it conscripted for ‘martyrdom’ without consultation, warning or preparation.

For outsiders who are sincerely interested in seeing the end of Hamas power in Gaza, these protests represent a significant opportunity. It’s by no means clear Netanyahu is genuinely among them, after decades of consistently ensuring that the Palestinians remain divided between Islamist rule in Gaza and secular nationalist control in the small self-ruled areas of the West Bank. Predictably, he’s doing his best to damage and undermine the credibility of the protests and their political potential by framing them as evidence of the wisdom of Israel’s scorched-earth policy.

However, it behooves constructive-minded Arab states like Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE to cautiously but deliberately do whatever they can to support protest leaders and organizers. They could well provide crucial elements of an alternative Palestinian civic authority in Gaza to assume governance responsibility — instead of both Israeli occupation and Hamas.

Surviving business interests, clan leaders and remaining Fatah cadres in Gaza are surely either intimately connected to the protest movement and its organizers or should become so, no matter how spontaneous the demonstrations have been. There is certainly significant coordination taking place given how large, widespread and sustained they have been.

Israel should remain silent about the protests for its own political purposes and resume the ceasefire. Leading Arab states should step up and take the initiative, and the U.S. and Western countries should recognize that the protests demonstrate that the Egyptian-coordinated Arab League plan for finally halting the madness and initiating reconstruction in Gaza is viable and, indeed, the only real framework that can bring an end to both the war and Hamas rule in Gaza.

The protesters are bravely demonstrating that thousands of patriotic Palestinians in Gaza sincerely want the war (as they typically say, “the genocide”) to end, the remaining Israeli hostages to be released and Hamas to step down.

It’s exactly what Arab states, Western countries and even the Israelis say they want. There is no longer any basis for contending there is nothing to work with practically and politically among the Palestinians of Gaza. Obviously, there’s plenty, if anyone is genuinely interested.

HUSSEIN IBISH

Hussein Ibish is a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington.

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The Dictatorship

Federal court rules against new global tariffs Trump imposed

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Federal court rules against new global tariffs Trump imposed

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal court ruled Thursday against the new global tariffs that President Donald Trump imposed after a stinging loss at the Supreme Court.

A split three-judge panel of the Court of International Trade in New York found the 10% global tariffs were illegal after small businesses sued.

The court ruled 2-1 that Trump overstepped the tariff power that Congress had allowed the president under the law. The tariffs are “invalid″ and “unauthorized by law,” the majority wrote.

The third judge on the panel found the law allows the president more leeway on tariffs.

If the administration appeals Thursday’s decision, as expected, it would first turn to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, based in Washington, and then, potentially, the Supreme Court.

At issue are temporary 10% worldwide tariffs the Trump administration imposed after the Supreme Court in February struck down even broader double-digit tariffs the president had imposed last year on almost every country on Earth. The new tariffs, invoked under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, were set to expire July 24.

The court’s decision directly blocked the collection of tariffs from three plaintiffs — the state of Washington and two businesses, spice company Burlap & Barrel and toy company Basic Fun! “It’s not clear’’ whether other businesses would have to continue to pay the tariffs, said Jeffrey Schwab, director of litigation at the libertarian Liberty Justice Center, which represented the two companies.

“We fought back today and we won, and we’re extremely excited,” Jay Foreman, CEO of Basic Fun!, told reporters Thursday.

The ruling marked another legal setback for the Trump administration, which has attempted to shield the U.S. economy behind a wall of import taxes. Last year, Trump invoked the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to declare the nation’s longstanding trade deficit a national emergency, justifying sweeping global tariffs.

The Supreme Court ruled Feb. 28 that IEEPA did not authorize the tariffs. The U.S. Constitution gives Congress the power to establish taxes, including tariffs, though lawmakers can delegate tariff power to the president.

Dave Townsend, a trade lawyer at Dorsey & Whitney, said the ruling will open the door for more companies to request that the tariffs be thrown out and that any payments they’ve made be refunded.

“Other importers likely will now ask for a broader remedy that applies to more companies,” Townsend said, though he cautioned the case could also reach the Supreme Court.

Trump is already taking steps to replace the tariffs that were struck down by the Supreme Court in January. The administration is conducting two investigations that could end in more tariffs.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is looking into whether 16 U.S. trading partners — including China, the European Union and Japan — are overproducing goods, driving down prices and putting U.S. manufacturers at a disadvantage. It is also investigating whether 60 economies — from Nigeria to Norway and accounting for 99% of U.S. imports — do enough to prohibit the trade in products created by forced labor.

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The Dictatorship

Trump says EU has until July 4 to approve trade deal

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Trump says EU has until July 4 to approve trade deal

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said in a Thursday social media post that goods from the European Union would face higher tariff rates if the 27-member bloc fails to approve last year’s trade framework by July 4.

The announcement appeared to be a deadline extension after the president said last Friday that EU autos would face a higher 25% tariff starting this week. Trump made the updated announcement after what he described as a “great call” with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Still, the U.S. president was displeased that the European Parliament had yet to finalize the trade arrangement reached last year, which was further complicated in February by the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that Trump lacked the legal authority to declare an economic emergency to impose the initial tariffs used to pressure the EU into talks.

“A promise was made that the EU would deliver their side of the Deal and, as per Agreement, cut their Tariffs to ZERO!” Trump posted. “I agreed to give her until our Country’s 250th Birthday or, unfortunately, their Tariffs would immediately jump to much higher levels.”

It was unclear from the post whether Trump was implying that the tariff rates would jump on all EU goods or the increase would only apply to autos.

His latest statement indicates he might be backing away from his earlier threat on EU autos by giving the European Parliament several more weeks to approve the agreement.

Under the original terms of the framework, the U.S. would charge a 15% tax on most goods imported from the EU.

But since the Supreme Court ruling, the administration has levied a 10% tariff while investigating trade imbalances and national security issues, aiming to put in new tariffs to make up for lost revenues.

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In the wake of the Virginia ruling, where does the national redistricting arms race stand?

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In the wake of the Virginia ruling, where does the national redistricting arms race stand?

In Virginia, a majority of the House of Delegates voted to approve a new congressional district map that was designed to help Democrats add as many as four seats in the U.S. House. A majority of the state Senate agreed, as did the commonwealth’s popularly elected governor. The issue then went to the people of Virginia, and a majority of voters backed the redistricting initiative, too.

A majority of the Virginia Supreme Court, however, rejected the plan anyway. MS NOW reported:

The Virginia Supreme Court on Friday struck down a voter-approved congressional redistricting plan, ruling that Democrats violated constitutional procedures when placing the referendum on the ballot for last month’s special election. […]

In its 4-3 decision, the court on Friday found that the process used to place the amendment on the ballot did not comply with Virginia’s constitutional rules governing how such proposals must be approved by the legislature before being presented to voters. As a result, the justices upheld a lower court ruling that blocks the amendment from being certified and implemented.

For Democratic efforts on the national level, the ruling is an unexpected gut punch, especially given the fact that after Virginia voters approved the overhauled map last month, it appeared that Democrats would be able to keep pace with the GOP as part of the broader redistricting fight.

What’s more, the state Supreme Court ruling comes on the heels of a similarly brutal blow after Republican-appointed U.S. Supreme Court justices gutted the Voting Rights Act, which opened the door even further to an intensified Republican effort to erase majority-Black congressional districts in the South.

Given all of this, it’s easy to imagine many Americans responding to the head-spinning developments with a simple question: “So where do things stand now?”

Before we dig in on that, it’s worth pausing to acknowledge the absurdity of the circumstances. For generations, states redrew congressional district lines after the decennial census. There were limited exceptions, but in nearly all of those instances, mid-decade redistricting only happened when courts told states that their maps were unlawful and needed to be redone.

The idea that politicians would simply choose to start redrawing maps, in the middle of a decade, in pursuit of partisan advantages, was practically unheard of.

Last year, however, Donald Trump, fearing the results of the 2026 midterm elections and the possible accountability that would result from Democratic victories, decided that the American model needed to be discarded. It was time, the president said, to pursue what one White House official described as a campaign of “maximum warfare” in which Republican officials in key states would embrace gerrymandering without regard for fairness, norms, traditions or propriety.

The goal was simple: Deliver Republican victories in congressional races long before Americans had a chance to cast their ballots.

The result was an arms race that’s still going on — and here’s where things stand.

A map of the United States highlighting states that have redrawn their congressional maps
As of May 8, 2026. *Virginia’s voter-approved congressional redistricting plan was struck down by the Virginia Supreme Court Ben King / MS NOW; Source: MaddowBlog election analysis

Texas: Republicans in the Lone Star State got the ball rolling last summer, acting at Trump’s behest and approving a map designed to give Republicans five additional U.S. House seats. It touched off the national arms race.

California: Responding to Texas, Democratic officials in the Golden State, as well as the state’s voters, approved a map of their own designed to give Democrats five additional U.S. House seats.

Missouri: In September, state Republicans approved a map designed to give the GOP one additional seat.

North Carolina: In October, state Republicans approved a map designed to give Republicans one additional seat.

Ohio: While the redistricting effort in the Buckeye State wasn’t as brazen as it was elsewhere, Ohio’s new map diluted two Democratic-held districts, creating GOP pickup opportunities.

Utah: A state court approved a new map that will likely give Democrats one additional seat.

Florida: Just this week, Republicans completed the process on a new map designed to give Republicans as many as four additional seats.

Tennessee: Also this week, Republicans approved a new map designed to give Republicans one additional seat, taking advantage of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling.

Louisiana: While the newly redrawn map in the Pelican State hasn’t been formally unveiled, it will reportedly add one additional Republican seat.

Alabama: Republicans are currently moving forward with plans for a map that would give Republicans two more seats.

It’s important to emphasize that some of these maps are currently facing legal challenges, while others are still taking shape. Most of these maps would take effect during this year’s election cycle, but there’s still some uncertainty surrounding the implementation date in some states.

Nevertheless, the Virginia map that enjoyed popular public support was prepared to help mitigate an unprecedented Republican abuse. The state Supreme Court in the commonwealth appears to have removed that option.

After Virginia voters had their say, many GOP officials questioned whether the entire gerrymandering gambit had been a waste of time and effort. In the aftermath of two highly controversial court rulings, Republicans are suddenly feeling a lot better about the whole scheme.

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