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One subscription up to four separate logins for anyone in your life. Find out more at NY Times dot com slash family. From The New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford.
Today's Wednesday July 1st, here's what we're covering.
The Supreme Court closed out its term yesterday with a major blow to President Trump's
“agenda blocking his administration's efforts to limit birthright citizenship.”
Trump had issued an executive order on his very first day back in office that would have prevented babies born to undocumented immigrants from automatically becoming citizens. But in a six three decision, the justices reaffirmed the long held principle that nearly all children born on U.S. soil are Americans. After the ruling, Trump took to social media to call the decision quote too bad for our
country and tried to punt it to Congress falsely claiming they could reverse it with legislation. In all, this Supreme Court term involved decisions in nearly 60 cases in my colleague Anne Marymau, who's been tracking the rulings, said there were some clear moments where Trump did not get what he wanted, but also some major expansions of presidential power. So the term showed the court willing to check President Trump's boundary pushing agenda.
They rejected his sweeping tariffs back in February, and just this week, we saw them reject
“his efforts to limit birthright citizenship and also his attempt to fire a leader of the”
influential federal reserve. Notably, it was some of Trump's own nominees who made those losses possible at various times justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett joined with the Chief Justice and the three liberal justices to reject major parts of the president's agenda. That said, the court's conservative majority delivered long-lasting conservative wins
that will have an impact for many years to come. The court expanded the ability of presidents, including Mr. Trump to fire leaders of independent agencies, and doing so they overturned a nine-year-old president. They significantly weakened the voting rights act, and they made it easier for presidents to strip migrants of deportation protections and to turn away asylum seekers at the border.
These are long-lasting conservative victories that have been sought for many decades by conservatives, and they've delivered on those this term. You can find a full recap of the major cases this term at NYTimes.com that includes two others of note from yesterday, including the court's decision to allow states to bar transgender athletes from girl sports and a decision to lift some spending limits for elections,
which could have an effect on the midterms. Yesterday, President Trump's mandatory financial disclosure report was released, and it details just how much money his business operations made last year.
The forum shows that in his first year back in office, he brought in at least 2.2 billion dollars.
It only shows revenue, so it doesn't reveal whether his businesses turn to profit or loss, but that amount is nearly four times higher than he made the year before 2024. It includes, for example, tens of millions of dollars the Trump family pulled in from real estate branding deals in the Middle East, Europe, and Asia. The president's properties like Marlago and his golf clubs also brought in tens of millions.
The biggest source of money revealed in the report, though, was Trump's cryptocurrency businesses. He used to be a big skeptic of crypto, but moved aggressively into the industry right before retaking office. And last year, Trump's crypto ventures brought in well over a billion dollars from things like the sale of his meme coin and the sale of a huge stake of his family's crypto business to affirm tied to the UAE government.
Those crypto businesses highlight a major source of conflict. Trump is both a significant player in the industry, and it's top policy maker. And as president, Trump has undertaken actions that directly benefited his family's crypto interests. Overall, presidential historians said they could identify no other president in American history who entered into new business enterprises right
Before moving into the White House, and then continued to personally profit f...
Other have been past scandals around the business ventures of president's family members.
“Most presidents have taken pains to avoid potential conflicts. George W. Bush, for example,”
sold his stake in the Texas Rangers baseball team before his election, while Jimmy Carter turned over operation of his peanut farm to an independent trustee. The White House did not respond to a request for comment from the Times, but a White House spokeswoman said in a recent statement that Trump acts in the best interest of Americans, and that there are, quote, "no conflicts of interest." It has been nearly a week since Venezuela was hit by devastating earthquakes,
and while rescue efforts continue, the disaster's official death toll has now passed
1900 people. The Venezuelan government believes thousands more are still trapped under literal tons
of concrete. In the Times has learned that one group of victims from the quakes included migrants who were deported from the U.S. just hours before the disaster. Last Wednesday, a plane carrying
“almost 150 Venezuelan deportees landed at the country's main airport. They were then brought”
to a state-run holding facility where the Venezuelan government plan to process and release them the next day. But the building they were being held in was crushed in the quakes, trapping and killing people who just returned to their home country. To survivors said the walls and ceilings fell around them as people scrambled to escape. The Venezuelan government has not said how many people were in the building, or how many died, and family members say they've been
given little to no information. One survivor told the Times that Venezuela intelligence officers showed up after the earthquake, but did little to search for survivors. And he said they threatened him to remain quiet about what had happened. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not respond to questions about whether deportation flights to Venezuela would continue. According to online flight trackers, there have been no deportation flights to the country since last Wednesday.
Around the world, as many countries, including the U.S. have been increasingly cracking down on immigration. Spain has been bucking that trend. Earlier this year, it announced it was launching a program offering undocumented immigrants a legal way to stay in the country. And as of yesterday, Spain's prime minister announced that more than 1 million people have applied. That's roughly 25% more than they'd expected. The last two million of solicitudes presentadas
demonstrate that the point was necessary. This recognition of the rich. Spanish officials have described
“the program as both a humane gesture to immigrants and an essential move for Spain's economy.”
The exclusion, what makes it's more vulnerable here, is more difficult at the time. The country has one of the lowest birth rates in Europe, and foreign-born workers fill gaps in
critical economic sectors like tourism and agriculture. Economists and government officials say
Spain's influx of immigrants has helped turn its economy into one of the fastest growing on the continent. The program has drawn a lot of criticism from the conservative opposition, though, who say it could strain the country's infrastructure and exacerbate housing shortages. It's also heightened a stand-off between Spain and the US. Spain's prime minister called the program an antidote to policies pushed by, quote, "magous-style leaders."
And finally, imagine if you will, that something has gone terribly wrong. In the late 1970s, George Romero, the creator of the zombie genre as we know it, brought that horror to the mall. In his film, Don of the Dead, survivors of the zombie apocalypse whole up in a shopping center. To film it, Romero took over the Monroeville Mall, about 20 minutes outside downtown Pittsburgh.
He said it was the perfect backdrop for a gory allegory about consumerism, run a muck. And as the movie became a classic, the mall became a sacred place for horror fans, who made pilgrimages there. They hosted an annual living dead weekend, one woman, even told the times it was her honeymoon destination. But the mall's end now seems near. Walmart has announced it has plans to buy the property and demolish it.
And while there are still stores in there hanging on for now, it has emptied out like a lot of malls around the country. On a recent visit, one Romero fan told the times quote,
"It looks like a zombie apocalypse happened here, which is kind of spot on.
Those are the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford, we'll be back tomorrow.
