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Tennessee’s GOP lawmakers prioritize legal protection of gun firms above physical protection of children

Tennessee’s GOP lawmakers prioritize legal protection of gun firms above physical protection of children

The Associated Press reports: In the wake of a deadly school shooting last month, Republican lawmakers in Tennessee awarded final passage Tuesday to a proposal that would further protect gun and ammunition dealers, manufacturers and sellers against lawsuits. The Senate’s 19-9 vote sends the bill to Republican Gov. Bill Lee, despite pushback from Democratic lawmakers saying their GOP counterparts are trying to shield gun companies just weeks after the Nashville school shooting that killed six people, including three 9-year-olds. The…

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Trump’s fake Georgia electors are now ratting on each other

Trump’s fake Georgia electors are now ratting on each other

The Daily Beast reports: The fake GOP electors in Georgia that former President Donald Trump recruited as part of his failed attempt to stay in power are starting to point fingers at each other, court documents revealed on Tuesday. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, the Atlanta-area prosecutor who’s investigating Trump’s effort to upend American democracy there, laid out the details in a legal memo to a state judge—one that hints at criminal indictments to come. According to the memo,…

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Does Clarence Thomas think he’s above the law?

Does Clarence Thomas think he’s above the law?

Jamelle Bouie writes: The law is a little different for those at the top. As the world now knows, Justice Clarence Thomas did not disclose a real estate deal he and his family made in 2014 with Harlan Crow, a billionaire Republican donor. Thomas and several other relatives sold his mother’s home in Savannah, Ga., along with two vacant lots, for $133,363 to a company owned by Crow. “Soon after the sale was completed,” according to ProPublica, “contractors began work…

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U.S. charges four Americans with aiding Kremlin efforts

U.S. charges four Americans with aiding Kremlin efforts

The Washington Post reports: Federal authorities charged four Americans on Tuesday with roles in a malign campaign pushing pro-Kremlin propaganda in Florida and Missouri — expanding a previous case that charged a Russian operative with running illegal influence agents within the United States. The FBI signaled its interest in the alleged activities in a series of raids last summer, at which point authorities charged a Moscow man, Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov, with working for years on behalf of Russian government officials…

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Egypt nearly supplied rockets to Russia, agreed to arm Ukraine instead, leak shows

Egypt nearly supplied rockets to Russia, agreed to arm Ukraine instead, leak shows

The Washington Post reports: Egypt paused a plan to secretly supply rockets to Russia last month following talks with senior U.S. officials and instead decided to produce artillery ammunition for Ukraine, according to five leaked U.S. intelligence documents that have not been previously reported. The Washington Post last week reported on another document that exposed a covert scheme by Egyptian President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi in February to provide Russia with up to 40,000 122mm Sakr-45 rockets, which can be used…

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Facing brutal climate math, U.S. bets billions on direct air capture

Facing brutal climate math, U.S. bets billions on direct air capture

Reuters reports: The world is failing to cut carbon emissions fast enough to avoid disastrous climate change, a dawning truth that is giving life to a technology that for years has been marginal – pulling carbon dioxide from the air. Leading the charge, the U.S. government has offered $3.5 billion in grants to build the factories that will capture and permanently store the gas – the largest such effort globally to help halt climate change through Direct Air Capture (DAC)…

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Reforming Palestinian politics: ‘From every side in Palestine, you are under attack’

Reforming Palestinian politics: ‘From every side in Palestine, you are under attack’

Adam Shapiro writes: In a pre-dawn raid last year, Israeli soldiers stormed the Ramallah office of the Bisan Center for Research and Development, confiscating files and other office material from the Palestinian NGO. After leaving behind a military order declaring the Bisan Center unlawful, the soldiers welded its office door shut. Israeli forces conducted simultaneous raids on six other Palestinian civil society organizations in Ramallah: Addameer, al-Haq, Defense for Children International-Palestine, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, the Health Work…

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Expert witness throws Jim Jordan’s NY clown show into disarray

Expert witness throws Jim Jordan’s NY clown show into disarray

The New Republic reports: On Monday, Jim Jordan brought the latest hearing of the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government to Manhattan, where he and his fellow House Republicans attempted to paint New York City as a crime-ridden disaster. However, they instead managed to remind Americans that loose gun laws and Republican leadership have led to high crime rates and unlawful schemes that ship guns from red states to blue ones. Jordan’s New York City field trip…

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DA Bragg’s secret weapon may be a lawyer who’s dogged Trump for years

DA Bragg’s secret weapon may be a lawyer who’s dogged Trump for years

The Daily Beast reports: A little-known lawyer in New York has long been the thorn in Donald Trump’s side, pressing deeper with every passing year by taking down his scammy charity, blocking his presidential policies, investigating his finances, grilling his annoyed son with questions, and finally indicting the former president last month. Matthew Colangelo, after years of relentlessly aggressive work, is finally on Trump’s personal radar—and that of his most combative MAGA allies, who’ve painted a target on his back…

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FBI arrests two on charges tied to Chinese police outpost in New York City

FBI arrests two on charges tied to Chinese police outpost in New York City

The New York Times reports: For years, thousands of New Yorkers and tourists have walked past an unassuming office building in Lower Manhattan. On Monday, federal prosecutors unsealed criminal charges accusing two men of helping run an unauthorized Chinese police outpost there, one of more than 100 around the globe used to intimidate and control China’s citizens abroad, and to stamp out criticism of the ruling Communist Party. The two men were arrested on Monday and charged with conspiring to…

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Russia sentences Kara-Murza, Putin critic and Washington Post contributor, to 25 years

Russia sentences Kara-Murza, Putin critic and Washington Post contributor, to 25 years

The Washington Post reports: A Russian court sentenced Vladimir Kara-Murza, a longtime opposition politician and Washington Post Opinions contributor, to 25 years in prison Monday on charges of treason for criticizing Russia’s war against Ukraine. Amid a draconian crackdown on dissent, it was the harshest penalty yet for an opponent of the war, in a case that Kara-Murza condemned as “unfounded, illegal and politically motivated.” The closed trial further highlighted Russia’s isolationist path, as President Vladimir Putin has disregarded Western…

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The ‘diploma divide’ is the new fault line in American politics

The ‘diploma divide’ is the new fault line in American politics

Doug Sosnik writes: The legal imbroglios of Donald Trump have lately dominated conversation about the 2024 election. As primary season grinds on, campaign activity will wax and wane, and issues of the moment — like the first Trump indictment and potentially others to come — will blaze into focus and then disappear. Yet certain fundamentals will shape the races as candidates strategize about how to win the White House. To do this, they will have to account for at least…

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Why GOP culture warriors lost big in school board races this month

Why GOP culture warriors lost big in school board races this month

Politico reports: Amid all the attention on this month’s elections in Wisconsin and Illinois, one outcome with major implications for 2024 flew under the national radar: School board candidates who ran culture-war campaigns flamed out. Democrats and teachers’ unions boasted candidates they backed in Midwestern suburbs trounced their opponents in the once-sleepy races. The winning record, they said, was particularly noticeable in elections where conservative candidates emphasized agendas packed with race, gender identity and parental involvement in classrooms. While there’s…

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How Portland police blanketed parts of the city with toxic chemicals

How Portland police blanketed parts of the city with toxic chemicals

The Guardian reports: Investigators have created a 3D simulation of the Portland police bureau’s (PPB) extraordinary use of teargas during a major protest event on 2 June 2020. Forensic Architecture (FA), a research agency that investigates human rights violations, worked with weapons experts to analyze hundreds of videos from that evening, along with internal police files, invoice records, manufacturer data and photos of teargas canisters. The analysis reveals that the city’s downtown was blanketed with gas at more than 50 times the level federal regulators…

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