An audio recording obtained by ProPublica adds real-life sounds of suffering to a contentious policy debate that has so far been short on input from those with the most at stake: immigrant children. More than 2,300 of them have been separated from their parents since April, when the Trump administration launched its “zero tolerance” immigration policy, 

By Galen Druke @ FiveThirtyEight.com, June 18

The Supreme Court’s much-awaited gerrymandering decisions were released on Monday, and they landed with a resounding meh.

By John W. Schoen @CNBC.com, June 18

• House Republicans — especially in districts with a large share of foreign-born constituents —face a tough choice on two immigration reform bills expected to come to a vote later this week.
• To see how foreign-born voters might influence that vote, CNBC compared the latest census data with a recent petition signed by House members to try to force a vote on the issue.
• House Republicans who fail to support some form of immigration reform face the prospect of a heavy assault on the issue from Democrats hoping to unseat them.

President Trump’s lawyers and special counsel Robert S. Mueller III are hurtling toward a showdown over a year-long investigation into the president’s conduct, with Mueller pushing to write up his findings by summer’s end and Trump’s lawyers strategizing how to rebut a report that could spur impeachment hearings.

...

If the president agreed to a sit-down, the special counsel has told Trump’s lawyers that he could finish within roughly 90 days a report on whether Trump sought to obstruct a probe into Russian interference in the 2016 campaign, according to two people familiar with the discussions. A separate report outlining Mueller’s broader findings on Russian attempts to bolster Trump’s candidacy is expected to take longer.

By Christine Amario @ AP.com, June 17

• Ivan Duque is slated to become Colombia's next president.
• Duque secured 54 percent of votes in the first election since the country signed a fragile peace treaty in 2016 ending its decades-long conflict.
• The young conservative is a protege of powerful former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe.