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Trumpworld is already at war over staffing a new Trump White House

Trumpworld is already at war over staffing a new Trump White House

The Daily Beast reports: The America First Policy Institute was supposed to add the ideological heft to Donald Trump’s ad hoc, seat-of-your-pants policymaking. But a year out from Election Day, Trump’s allies are signaling that the group may be doing more harm than good—and the campaign is making it clear that Trump, not any outside group, will be in charge of staffing up another White House. The Daily Beast reviewed an internal AFPI email showing staff inside the organization collecting…

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Trump promotes political violence

Trump promotes political violence

Dennis Aftergut writes: When the 118th Congress got underway, one of the first actions of the new Republican majority in the House of Representatives was to remove the magnetometers that former Speaker Nancy Pelosi had had installed outside the House chamber following the January 6th attack. After Tuesday’s events on Capitol Hill—when deposed House Speaker Kevin McCarthy allegedly sucker-elbowed a fellow Republican who called it “a clean shot to the kidneys” and Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) dared a witness in…

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Another day, another antisemitic conspiracy theory for Elon Musk and X

Another day, another antisemitic conspiracy theory for Elon Musk and X

Vanity Fair reports: The wealthiest man in the world is spreading the same antisemitic conspiracy theory a mass shooter in 2018 referenced to justify the slaughter of 11 worshippers at a Pennsylvania synagogue. On Wednesday, Elon Musk endorsed a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, accusing Jewish communities of “pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them.” The post went on to claim that “Western…

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AIPAC wants to show progressives that ‘no one is safe from their wrath’

AIPAC wants to show progressives that ‘no one is safe from their wrath’

Slate reports: One of the biggest, bitterest, and most expensive political battles of the 2024 election cycle has emerged: The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, one of the most powerful, best-funded influence operations in Washington, is planning to go all out to knock the famed “Squad”—the small group of highly visible and popular progressive legislators of color, most of them women—out of office. The most outspoken and unapologetically leftist contingent of the Democratic Party in national office, the Squad has…

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Israel’s comically bad disinformation effort proves they’re losing the PR war

Israel’s comically bad disinformation effort proves they’re losing the PR war

The Daily Beast reports: Israel’s official Arabic account affiliated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted a selfie video of a Palestinian nurse condemning Hamas for taking over al-Shifa hospital in the Gaza Strip on Nov. 11. But some things about the video didn’t add up. Everything about it smacked of high school theater—from the botched accent that sounded like it was straight out of an Israeli soap opera to the perfectly scripted IDF talking points rolling off her tongue….

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Top German journalist received €600,000 from Putin ally, leak reveals

Top German journalist received €600,000 from Putin ally, leak reveals

The Guardian reports: A leading western journalist who has long been considered one of Germany’s top independent experts on Russia received at least €600,000 (£522,000) in undisclosed offshore payments from companies linked to an oligarch close to Vladimir Putin, leaked files have revealed. Hubert Seipel, an award-winning film-maker and author, was paid money in instalments, which documents suggest was to support his work on two books he wrote that chart Putin’s rise to power and offer portrayals described by many…

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Putin wants the West to give up on Ukraine

Putin wants the West to give up on Ukraine

Anne Applebaum writes: They planned to take Kyiv in three days, the rest of Ukraine in six weeks. More than 21 months later, Russian forces have withdrawn from half the territory they occupied in February of last year. At least 88,000 Russian soldiers are likely dead—a conservative estimate—and at least twice as many have been wounded. Billions of dollars worth of equipment, Russian tanks, planes, artillery, helicopters, armored vehicles, and warships have been destroyed. If you had predicted this outcome…

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Climate change is putting the health of billions at risk

Climate change is putting the health of billions at risk

Grist reports: Eight years ago, the medical journal the Lancet began compiling the latest research on how climate change affects human health. It was the first coordinated effort to highlight scientific findings on the health consequences of climate change, published in the hopes of making the topic more central to global climate negotiations. The Lancet’s annual reports on this topic, which summarize research conducted by dozens of scientists from leading institutions around the world, have become increasingly dire in tone….

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The Supreme Court’s new ethics code is a joke

The Supreme Court’s new ethics code is a joke

Ian Millhiser writes: On Monday, the Supreme Court released a new “code of conduct” laying out ethical principles that the justices claim they have always adhered to — and arguing that the only reason such a code is necessary is because the Court’s critics don’t understand how things actually work. It’s the first time in its history that the Court has published a formal ethics code — but the introduction to this particular code makes it clear that the justices…

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GOP Rep. Chip Roy declares the GOP is useless

GOP Rep. Chip Roy declares the GOP is useless

Bess Levin writes: Has the modern Republican Party become a complete, useless dumpster fire that does nothing to actually help the American people, because it’s too busy investigating the president’s son, kissing the last president’s ass, challenging congressional witnesses to brawls, and fighting each other? Many would say yes. Usually, though, the people saying yes are not actual Republicans. But, surprise! On Wednesday, Representative Chip Roy took to House floor to tear into his fellow Republicans, accusing them of doing…

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Israeli strikes hit maternity ward in Gaza’s largest hospital, evidence indicates

Israeli strikes hit maternity ward in Gaza’s largest hospital, evidence indicates

The New York Times reports: Minutes after 1 a.m. Friday, as active fighting raged between Israeli forces and Hamas militants, a projectile streaked over Gaza’s largest medical complex and crashed into the center of the courtyard of Al-Shifa Hospital, a place where thousands of displaced Gazans had sought shelter. It landed just a few feet from Ahmed Hijazi, a social media personality who has been documenting the conflict. He filmed a video of the projectile flying in, and then of…

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The Israeli public has embraced the Smotrich doctrine

The Israeli public has embraced the Smotrich doctrine

+972 Magazine reports: Six years ago, Bezalel Smotrich, then a young Knesset member in his first term, published his “Decisive Plan” — a kind of “endgame” for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. According to the far-right lawmaker, who now serves as Israel’s finance minister and the government’s West Bank overlord, the inherent contradiction between Jewish and Palestinian national aspirations does not allow for any kind of compromise, reconciliation, or partition. Instead of maintaining the illusion that a political agreement is possible, he…

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More than 500 U.S. officials call on Biden ‘to urgently demand a cease-fire’ in Gaza

More than 500 U.S. officials call on Biden ‘to urgently demand a cease-fire’ in Gaza

The New York Times reports: More than 500 political appointees and staff members representing some 40 government agencies sent a letter to President Biden on Tuesday protesting his support of Israel in its war in Gaza. The letter, part of growing internal dissent over the administration’s support of the war, calls on the president to seek an immediate cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and to push Israel to allow humanitarian aid into the territory. It is the latest of several…

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Fani Willis: Georgia trial involving Trump might not conclude until early 2025

Fani Willis: Georgia trial involving Trump might not conclude until early 2025

The Washington Post reports: The Atlanta-area prosecutor leading the criminal racketeering case against former president Donald Trump and 14 allies alleging they broke the law when they sought to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss said Tuesday that she anticipated the trial to conclude by early 2025, with proceedings probably underway during the final stretch of the 2024 presidential election. In an interview at The Washington Post Live’s Global Women’s Summit, Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis (D) said the…

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After the ex-wife of a Trump Organization insider talked to prosecutors, she lost her children and her home

After the ex-wife of a Trump Organization insider talked to prosecutors, she lost her children and her home

Joan Walsh writes: Enjoying an outdoor lunch with a friend on a gorgeous day in April, I noticed a woman across the restaurant’s patio lugging around three suitcases and an adorable puppy. She was trying, and failing, to charge her phone at an outlet and was growing increasingly upset. In sweatpants, her frosted blond hair piled on top of her head, she looked like an Upper West Side mom having an extremely rough day. I apologized to my friend for…

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