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Zelensky, in private, plots bold attacks inside Russia, leak shows

Zelensky, in private, plots bold attacks inside Russia, leak shows

The Washington Post reports: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has won the trust of Western governments by refusing to use the weapons they provide for attacks inside Russia and prioritizing the targeting of Russian forces inside Ukraine’s borders. But behind closed doors, Ukraine’s leader has proposed going in a more audacious direction — occupying Russian villages to gain leverage over Moscow, bombing a pipeline that transfers Russian oil to Hungary, a NATO member, and privately pining for long-range missiles to hit…

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The war on poverty is over. Rich people won

The war on poverty is over. Rich people won

Annie Lowrey writes: Why do so many Americans live in poverty? Because so many rich people benefit from it. This is the thesis of the lauded sociologist Matthew Desmond’s new book, Poverty, by America. The best seller is at once a careful exploration of poverty statistics; a deeply reported depiction of the lived experiences of the poor; an examination of the ways America’s wealthy exploit the masses; and a case for ending poverty. Desmond shows how the country’s employers, financial…

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Defending white nationalists, Tommy Tuberville fears a military that is ‘going wrong’

Defending white nationalists, Tommy Tuberville fears a military that is ‘going wrong’

Paul Kane writes: Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) sees the military in a dramatic leftward lurch that has hurt recruiting and combat readiness. The third-year senator believes Pentagon leaders are forcing troops to read liberal books. That they are helping provide abortion services. And, in new remarks the past few days, that they are inappropriately driving “white nationalists” out of the service. “They’re politicizing the military so much, they’re ruining our military,” Tuberville told reporters on Thursday, noting that the Army…

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Trump’s ‘problematic behavior’ towards young women was an ‘open secret’ inside the White House

Trump’s ‘problematic behavior’ towards young women was an ‘open secret’ inside the White House

The Daily Beast reports: Donald Trump’s ex-director of strategic communications has revealed that she saw “a number of problematic behavior and comments” by the former president during his tenure at the White House, largely towards young female staffers. She said she went so far as to report it—but that nothing was ever apparently done about it. Alyssa Farah Griffin, who is now a co-host of The View but was at the time among the dozen most senior staff in the…

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Biden warns of ‘sinister forces’ trying to reverse racial progress

Biden warns of ‘sinister forces’ trying to reverse racial progress

The New York Times reports: President Biden declared on Saturday that white supremacy is “the most dangerous terrorist threat to our homeland” and warned a predominantly Black audience that “sinister forces” embraced by his predecessor and putative challenger are trying to reverse generations of racial progress in America. Mr. Biden never named former President Donald J. Trump in his sometimes stark commencement address to the graduating class of Howard University, the nation’s most prestigious historically Black college. He alluded, however,…

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A pointed message from one judge to nine others about race and guns

A pointed message from one judge to nine others about race and guns

Ruth Marcus writes: In our judicial system, lower-court judges take instruction from the Supreme Court, not the other way around. In the case of U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton, that’s too bad. Walton, appointed to the local court in the District of Columbia by Ronald Reagan and to the federal bench by George W. Bush, has a message for the justices that is appropriate, respectful — and devastating. Messages, actually, delivered in a speech Thursday about the importance of…

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Why a self-described ‘unwavering advocate of abortion rights’ voted for an extreme abortion ban

Why a self-described ‘unwavering advocate of abortion rights’ voted for an extreme abortion ban

Jezebel reports: Imagine campaigning for a Democratic politician—a thankless, low-paying job, especially at the state level—because you believe in what they stand for. The candidate gives powerful speeches about abortion rights that make you proud. You’re in a purple state, where every single seat in the legislature is critical to protecting abortion access. So you join the fight, help them win, and continue working for them in the legislature. Then inexplicably, in the middle of their term, that politician does…

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‘The point is intimidation’: Florida teachers besieged by draconian laws

‘The point is intimidation’: Florida teachers besieged by draconian laws

The Guardian reports: Adam Tritt, a high school English teacher in Palm Bay, Florida, was shocked when his school’s librarian – eager to comply with Florida’s new law restricting “inappropriate” books in schools – removed one-third of the books on his classroom shelves, including a collection of Emily Dickinson’s poetry that was not on her list of approved books. Vivian Taylor, a seventh-grade teacher in Miami, says she was told to hardly discuss Emmett Till – the 14-year-old victim of…

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Russia tried and failed to destroy U.S.-made Patriot system in Ukraine, officials say

Russia tried and failed to destroy U.S.-made Patriot system in Ukraine, officials say

CNN reports: Russia tried to destroy a US-made Patriot air defense system in Ukraine last week with a hypersonic missile, two US officials told CNN. The attack failed, and the Ukrainian military instead intercepted the missile using the Patriot system, the officials said, marking their first known successful Ukrainian use of the advanced air defense system only weeks after it arrived in country. The Ukrainian air defenders fired multiple missiles from the Patriot at different angles to intercept the Russian…

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Turkey election: Opposition dares to dream of Erdogan defeat

Turkey election: Opposition dares to dream of Erdogan defeat

BBC News reports: Turkey’s all-powerful President Erdogan is in the fight of his life against an opposition that has united against him for Sunday’s elections. His main rival, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, appeared before a throng of supporters on Friday, flanked by allies from across the political spectrum who have come together as never before. As the rain beat down in Ankara, he vowed to restore “peace and democracy”. The man he wants voters to oust after 20 years – Recep Tayyip…

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Trust linked to porn-friendly bank could gain a stake in Trump’s Truth Social

Trust linked to porn-friendly bank could gain a stake in Trump’s Truth Social

The Washington Post reports: An obscure financial entity with connections to a Caribbean-island bank that bills itself as a top payment service for adult entertainment sites would gain a sizable stake in former president Donald Trump’s media company if its merger deal proceeds, according to internal documents a company whistleblower has shared with federal investigators and The Washington Post. Yet the role ES Family Trust would assume in Trump Media and Technology Group has never been officially disclosed to the…

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Live television, for Trump, is both his weapon and his turf

Live television, for Trump, is both his weapon and his turf

Megan Garber writes: In the 1960s, when television was the revolutionary technology reshaping American life, the historian Daniel Boorstin published The Image, his seminal criticism of the media in the age of the screen. In it, Boorstin coined the term pseudo-event to describe the spectacle that exists merely to be documented: the press conference, the news release, the campaign rally. The coinage informs today’s idea of the media event: the thing that occurs primarily so that journalists can tell their…

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Trump supporters are neither underrecognized nor half the country

Trump supporters are neither underrecognized nor half the country

Philip Bump writes: The morning after the channel’s widely pilloried “town hall” with former president Donald Trump, CNN chairman and CEO Chris Licht defended the program in a call with staffers. “While we all may have been uncomfortable hearing people clapping, that was also an important part of the story,” Licht said, according to journalist Brian Stelter, adding that Trump’s supporters are “a large swath of America.” On his own show Thursday night, CNN host Anderson Cooper made a similar…

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They helped Trump plan a coup. He wants them back for a second term

They helped Trump plan a coup. He wants them back for a second term

Rolling Stone reports: Jeffrey Clark and Michael Flynn were leading figures in Donald Trump’s efforts to carry out a coup d’etat in 2020 and 2021. The result was mob violence, deaths at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., an array of criminal investigations and lawsuits, and what one former senior Trump aide went on the record to call “the worst day for the Republican Party since Lincoln’s assassination.” In any other era, scandals like that would be enough to send those men off into immediate…

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