A new report from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) finds hard-right groups have increasingly expanded their influence across the US government, which is pursuing a federal fraud case into the civil rights organization.
Tuesday’s report – which identified 1,263 hate and anti-government groups in operation throughout 2025 – comes less than two months after it was indicted by the government it says the hard right has infiltrated.
According to the SPLC’s annual Year in Hate and Extremism report, Donald Trump’s administration has “radically transformed government policy in favor of far-right interests and individuals” since the start of his second presidency in early 2025.
In addition to the administration’s “full, complete and unconditional” presidential pardons of approximately 1,500 people involved in the January 6 Capitol attack in 2021, the report cited the administration’s shifting the focus of federal law enforcement from combating violent crime to conducting immigration raids against marginalized communities.
A federal judge on Tuesday permanently blocked Alabama from executing a man with nitrogen gas after declaring the method violates the ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Alabama became the first state in the nation to use the execution method in January 2024, but has faced repeated legal challenges to its use.
A provision in last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act blocked Planned Parenthood’s health centers from billing Medicaid for the other services they provide, like contraception and cancer screenings. Medicaid is their primary source of funding, and the legislation meant they lost out on more than $700 million annually.
Graham Platner, a progressive oyster farmer and political newcomer whose campaign has been wrought with controversies, will face off this fall against Republican Sen. Susan Collins in Maine, Decision Desk HQ projects.
The top soccer referee in Africa says he's devastated he won't be able to officiate in the 2026 World Cup after being denied entry into the United States last Saturday.
Volkswagen is considering plans to convert one of its German car factories into a production hub for Israel’s missile defence systems, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.
Danish shipping giant Maersk is still shipping smaller weapons components to Israel that include rifle and pistol parts, as well as bomb bodies, despite its assertion to the contrary last year, according to a report published on Monday by the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) and Oxfam Denmark. 
Russian overnight strikes across Kharkiv region killed three people in Chuhuiv and injured at least 15 others in Kharkiv city, including three children. Officials reported damage to apartment buildings and private homes, while emergency crews worked to extinguish fires and search through rubble.
