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Latakia, long Assad’s heartland, is grappling with the prospect of a new era

Latakia, long Assad’s heartland, is grappling with the prospect of a new era

Kamal Shahin writes: Late on the night of Dec. 7, a trusted friend in Damascus leaked an extraordinary piece of news to me: President Bashar al-Assad was set to announce his resignation within hours. I found it impossible to believe. To protect my credibility as a journalist and avoid falling victim to misinformation, I posted a vague message on my Facebook page: “A big surprise tomorrow.” Like many Syrians, I doubted the news. Since the outbreak of the Syrian crisis…

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Hyundai is becoming the new Tesla

Hyundai is becoming the new Tesla

Patrick George writes: Hyundai has a lot riding on a patch of rural Georgia. In October, the South Korean auto giant opened a new electric-vehicle factory west of Savannah at the eye-watering cost of $7.6 billion. It’s the largest economic-development project in the state’s history (one that prompted the Georgia statehouse to pass a resolution recognizing “Hyundai Day”). For now, workers at the so-called Metaplant are building the company’s popular electric SUV, the Hyundai Ioniq 5, and soon more EVs will be built there, too….

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Trump is going after Canada now – but everyone else is next

Trump is going after Canada now – but everyone else is next

Stephen Collinson writes: Donald Trump is stoking political mayhem in Canada by intensifying a crisis that threatens to oust Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The president-elect’s bullying of an embattled political foe, whom he mocks as the governor of the 51st state in an insult to America’s loyal northern neighbor, is a preview of a belligerent strategy as he scours the globe for big second-term wins before even taking office. And his willingness to plunge into an ally’s domestic politics ought…

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Trump planning to target progressive non-profits, watchdog warns

Trump planning to target progressive non-profits, watchdog warns

The Guardian reports: Donald Trump and his Republican allies are planning to target progressive groups they perceive as political enemies in a sign of deepening “authoritarianism”, a US watchdog has warned. The president-elect could potentially use the justice department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to target non-profits and researchers, launch politically motivated investigations and pass legislation to restrict their activities. “Trump has made it clear that he plans to use his second term to attack the progressive ecosystem and his…

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Now is not the time for Democrats to surrender

Now is not the time for Democrats to surrender

Jamelle Bouie writes: Democrats may be in the minority, but they are not yet an opposition. What’s the difference? An opposition would use every opportunity it had to demonstrate its resolute stance against the incoming administration. It would do everything in its power to try to seize the public’s attention and make hay of the president-elect’s efforts to put lawlessness at the center of American government. An opposition would highlight the extent to which Donald Trump has no intention of…

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How billionaires have sidestepped a tax aimed at the rich

How billionaires have sidestepped a tax aimed at the rich

By Paul Kiel This story was originally published by ProPublica Fourteen years ago, Congress set out to remedy a basic unfairness in the tax code. The tax that funds Medicare, because it’s aimed mainly at wages, hits even the poorest American workers. But the wealthy could easily avoid paying their share. So lawmakers created a new type of Medicare tax to capture the kinds of income the rich often enjoy: interest, dividends and capital gains from investments. A host of…

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The Sunbelt’s growing population faces increasing climate hazards

The Sunbelt’s growing population faces increasing climate hazards

Inside Climate News reports: Counties across the southern half of the U.S., especially those with large and socially vulnerable populations, will be much more exposed to wildfire, drought and extreme heat than other parts of the country as the region’s climate warms in the coming decades, according to new research from the U.S. Forest Service and Resources for the Future. The report, “Changing Hazards, Exposure, and Vulnerability in the Conterminous United States, 2020–2070,” builds on the Forest Service’s 2020 Resources…

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Meta censorship is having a ‘devastating’ impact on Palestinian news sources

Meta censorship is having a ‘devastating’ impact on Palestinian news sources

Middle East Eye reports: Meta’s policy of censorship is having a “devastating” impact on Palestinians, according to a new report by a prominent Arab media watchdog. The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media, also known as 7amleh, collected 20 first-hand testimonies from Palestinian influencers, journalists and media outlets who have experienced the tech conglomerate’s discriminatory practices. Since October 2023, with the start of Israel’s assault on Gaza, Meta has been accused of censoring Palestinian content and groups on…

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AI chatbots show dementia-like cognitive decline in tests, raising questions about their future in medicine

AI chatbots show dementia-like cognitive decline in tests, raising questions about their future in medicine

The British Medical Journal reports: Almost all leading large language models or “chatbots” show signs of mild cognitive impairment in tests widely used to spot early signs of dementia, finds a study in the Christmas issue of the BMJ. The results also show that “older” versions of chatbots, like older patients, tend to perform worse on the tests. The authors say these findings “challenge the assumption that artificial intelligence will soon replace human doctors.” Huge advances in the field of…

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Elon Musk’s failure to follow federal security rules prompts questions about what he is trying to hide

Elon Musk’s failure to follow federal security rules prompts questions about what he is trying to hide

The New York Times reports: Elon Musk and his rocket company, SpaceX, have repeatedly failed to comply with federal reporting protocols aimed at protecting state secrets, including by not providing some details of his meetings with foreign leaders, according to people with knowledge of the company and internal documents. Concerns about the reporting practices — and particularly about Mr. Musk, who is SpaceX’s chief executive — have triggered at least three federal reviews, eight people with knowledge of the efforts…

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Trump to Putin’s rescue

Trump to Putin’s rescue

Tom Nichols writes: Dictatorships seem stable and almost invulnerable, until the day they fall. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime crumbled in days in the face of an offensive led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, a group that the United States considers a terrorist organization. But the Syrian civil war is, for now, mostly over. Hundreds of thousands are dead. I wrote more than a decade ago in favor of Western intervention in Syria, back when the butcher’s bill was…

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A top Russian general is killed in a Moscow bombing claimed by Ukraine

A top Russian general is killed in a Moscow bombing claimed by Ukraine

The Associated Press reports: A senior Russian general was killed Tuesday by a bomb hidden in a scooter outside his apartment building in Moscow, a day after Ukraine’s security service leveled criminal charges against him. A Ukrainian official said the service carried out the attack. Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, the chief of the military’s nuclear, biological and chemical protection forces, was killed as he left for his office. Kirillov’s assistant also died in the attack. Kirillov, 54, was under sanctions…

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Netanyahu says Israeli troops will occupy a buffer zone inside Syria for the foreseeable future

Netanyahu says Israeli troops will occupy a buffer zone inside Syria for the foreseeable future

The Associated Press reports: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that Israeli forces will stay in a buffer zone on the Syrian border, and specifically on the summit of Mount Hermon, “until another arrangement is found that will ensure Israel’s security.” Netanyahu made the comments from the mountain’s summit — the highest peak in the area — which is inside Syria, about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the border with the Israel-held Golan Heights. This was apparently the first…

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Emboldened by ABC settlement, Trump threatens more lawsuits against the press

Emboldened by ABC settlement, Trump threatens more lawsuits against the press

CNN reports: President-elect Donald Trump had not been terribly successful in suing media organizations until this weekend when ABC News agreed to settle a closely-watched defamation case he brought against the network to the tune of $16 million. Now, Trump is expanding his threats of legal action against the news media as he prepares to move back into the White House, stating he wants to “straighten out the press.” On Monday, Trump said he has a new target: The Des-Moines…

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