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Trump wants to speed up asylum cases and start charging an application fee
President Donald Trump called on Homeland Security and the attorney general to speed up the resolution of asylum cases in court and institute a fee for asylum applications. Trump also wants to limit employment permits for those who cross the border without authorization.
The president directed the departments “to take all appropriate action” to propose those policies within 90 days. Trump’s memo calls for regulations that would bar work permits for those who crossed the border without authorization and are in the asylum application process.
Sarah Pierce, an immigration policy expert, told us, “The president's proposed changes hold consistent with his administration's mindset that there are no legitimate asylum seekers.”
She added that speeding up asylum applications in immigration court was a worthy goal, but the other proposals work to “deter future asylum seekers from arriving at the US border.”
Someone found the Poway synagogue shooter’s manifesto and called the FBI minutes before the attack began
Because someone close to him believes in a conspiracy theory, 25-year-old Colin said he was using 8chan for only the second time on Saturday morning.
The online message board is full of white supremacists, conspiracy theorists, Trump fanatics, and violent trolls. It’s also where the New Zealand mosque shooter first announced his plans.
Colin saw a post that reminded him of the Christchurch attack. So he called the FBI. The message was posted at 11:07 a.m. — police said the shooter opened fire “just before” 11:30.
An FBI official told us they received multiple reports about the post, but the attack happened before they were able to confirm the poster's identity and do something about it.
SNAPSHOTS
An army veteran planned terror attacks in California to avenge the New Zealand mosque shootings, authorities say. Mark Steven Domingo, an Army infantryman who served in Afghanistan and converted to Islam, was thwarted by the FBI. Authorities said he planned an attack as retribution for the white supremacist shootings at two mosques in New Zealand.
John Singleton, director of Boyz n The Hood, has died. The writer-director of the influential film was taken off life support after having a stroke. He was 51. Singleton was the first black person ever to be nominated for the Best Director Oscar.
PewDiePie wants the “subscribe to PewDiePie” meme to end. Fans of the Swedish YouTuber, who is the most subscribed-to person on the platform, spread the phrase to bolster his follower count. Now, PewDiePie wants it to end after high-profile incidents — a defacing of a World War II memorial and a mention by a mass murderer — sullied the movement.
Anti-vaxxers are using a Brady Bunch meme to say measles is no big deal and Marcia Brady is pissed. In an episode, Marcia declares: "If you have to get sick, sure can't beat the measles!" Anti-vaxxers are using it as “proof” that when measles was common, it was no big deal. Maureen McCormick, who played Marcia, says she is disturbed by this.
Ariana Grande’s fans harassed a writer after she criticized the singer. Ariana then messaged the writer saying her fans had “similar energy” to the critiques. A whole lot happened, so I’ll let you read the whole story.
Paid newsletters are proving themselves as a meaningful revenue generator for writers
If it feels like there’s a sudden glut of new newsletters on the market, it’s because writers and journalists are seeing results from the medium.
Over the past three months, new newsletters created on Substack, a newsletter technology platform that serves individual writers, have been up 40% month over month. And on Patreon, the number of writers doubled between 2017 and 2018.
Substack told us their 12 top-earning writers make an average of more than $160,000 each. That may not be the case for all newsletters on the platform, but it shows the power of writers finding small, dedicated audiences.
Read Alex Kantrowitz’s story on the hope that paid newsletters offer to those who write for a living.
Game of Thrones fans are mad the Battle of Winterfell episode was dark — literally dark
Again, because I am not a monster, I will not spoil the show for you, but what you need to know is: the episode was so dimly lit that fans were furious.
And out of that fury arose a murder of memes. They are good memes, please enjoy them.