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Banning ideas and authors is not a ‘culture war’ – it’s fascism

Banning ideas and authors is not a ‘culture war’ – it’s fascism

Jason Stanley writes: A wave of Republican enthusiasm for banning concepts, authors and books is sweeping across the United States. Forty-four states have proposed bans on the teaching of “divisive concepts”, and 18 states have passed them. Florida’s Stop Woke Act bans the teaching of eight categories of concepts, including concepts that suggest that “a person, by virtue of his or her race, color, sex, or national origin, bears personal responsibility for and must feel guilt, anguish or other forms…

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Three downed unidentified airborne objects may have been commercial or benign, says White House

Three downed unidentified airborne objects may have been commercial or benign, says White House

NBC News reports: The White House said Tuesday that the U.S. intelligence community is considering that the three most recent unidentified objects shot down over North America were being used for commercial or benign purposes. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters the evaluation is based on what the U.S. knows from images of the three objects and cautioned that the assessment is preliminary because no debris from any of them has been recovered. “One thing we have to…

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How tensions with Russia are jeopardizing key Arctic research

How tensions with Russia are jeopardizing key Arctic research

Ed Struzik writes: Biologist Eric Regehr and his colleagues at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service began studying polar bears from the American side of the Chukchi Sea, which stretches from Alaska to Russia, in 2008. But as the region warmed, and the increasingly thin spring sea ice off the Alaskan Coast made helicopter landings unsafe, he knew he would need to find another base from which to survey the health and size of the population. Russia’s remote Wrangel Island…

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U.S. warns Ukraine it faces a pivotal moment in war

U.S. warns Ukraine it faces a pivotal moment in war

The Washington Post reports: As the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nears, U.S. officials are telling Ukrainian leaders they face a critical moment to change the trajectory of the war, raising the pressure on Kyiv to make significant gains on the battlefield while weapons and aid from the United States and its allies are surging. Despite promises to back Ukraine “as long as it takes,” Biden officials say recent aid packages from Congress and America’s allies represent Kyiv’s…

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Russian prisoners of war recount ‘gigantic’ loses

Russian prisoners of war recount ‘gigantic’ loses

The New York Times reports: Creeping forward along a tree line late at night toward an entrenched Ukrainian position, the Russian soldier watched in horror as his comrades were mowed down by enemy fire. His squad of 10 ex-convicts advanced only a few dozen yards before being decimated. “We were hit by machine-gun fire,” said the soldier, a private named Sergei. One soldier was wounded and screamed, “Help me! Help me, please!” the private said, though no help arrived. Eight…

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Russians abandon wartime Russia in historic exodus; U.S. tells its citizens to leave Russia immediately

Russians abandon wartime Russia in historic exodus; U.S. tells its citizens to leave Russia immediately

The Washington Post reports: As Russian troops stormed into Ukraine last February, sending millions of Ukrainians fleeing for their lives, thousands of Russians also raced to pack their bags and leave home, fearing the Kremlin would shut the borders and impose martial law. Some had long opposed rising authoritarianism, and the invasion was a last straw. Others were driven by economic interest, to preserve livelihoods or escape the bite of sanctions. Then, last autumn, a military mobilization spurred hundreds of…

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Moldova’s President outlines Russian ‘plan’ to topple her government

Moldova’s President outlines Russian ‘plan’ to topple her government

The Associated Press reports: Moldova’s President outlined Monday what she described as a plot by Moscow to use external saboteurs to overthrow her country’s government, put the nation “at the disposal of Russia” and derail its aspirations to one day join the European Union. President Maia Sandu’s briefing comes a week after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country had intercepted plans by Russian secret services to destroy Moldova, claims that were later confirmed by Moldovan intelligence officials. “The plan…

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U.S. shoots down claim that American balloons have been soaring over China

U.S. shoots down claim that American balloons have been soaring over China

Rolling Stone reports: China claimed on Monday that the United States has sent at least 10 unsanctioned balloons over Chinese airspace since last year, describing the U.S. the world’s largest “surveillance empire.” Adrienne Watson, a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, denied the allegation. “Any claim that the U.S. government operates surveillance balloons over the PRC is false,” she tweeted. “It is China that has a high-altitude surveillance balloon program for intelligence collection, that it has used to…

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One more sign that Special Counsel Jack Smith is deadly serious

One more sign that Special Counsel Jack Smith is deadly serious

Dennis Aftergut writes: This weekend brought the strange news that Jack Smith, the special counsel investigating Donald Trump, asked the grand jury to issue a subpoena to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago office for an empty folder. Why? The Guardian reports that last month, Smith subpoenaed the folder, marked “Classified Evening Briefing,” even though Trump’s lawyers told him it had nothing in it. This tells us something important: that Smith is serious about pressing forward with a case against Trump for his 18 months of obstructing government efforts to…

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Kanye’s antisemitic rhetoric led to assaults, vandalism, ADL reports

Kanye’s antisemitic rhetoric led to assaults, vandalism, ADL reports

Rolling Stone reports: When Kanye West, a.k.a. Ye, began his antisemitic blitz late last year — threatening to go “death con 3 on Jewish people”; proclaiming his “love” for Nazis; and insisting it’s time for Jews to “forgive Hitler” — the hate didn’t just go viral on the Internet. It soon spread to college campuses and marred synagogues, and it filled the mouths of assailants attacking Jewish individuals in grocery stores and parks. A new report by the Anti-Defamation League…

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More incursions or more detections? Mystery surrounds airborne objects shot down over U.S. and Canada

More incursions or more detections? Mystery surrounds airborne objects shot down over U.S. and Canada

The Guardian reports: Questions remain after the US government shot down two high-altitude objects, one near Deadhorse, Alaska along the north-eastern Alaskan coast and a second near Yukon, Canada, that have yet to be identified. Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau tweeted on Saturday afternoon that he had ordered the takedown of an unidentified object in Canadian airspace. Though efforts by the navy, coast guard and FBI are under way to recover the object shot down near Alaska, officials had yet…

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In earthquake-battered Syria, a desperate wait for help that never came

In earthquake-battered Syria, a desperate wait for help that never came

The Washington Post reports: It took four days and nights after the earthquake for the rubble to fall silent here. The strongest voices belonged to the women, residents said. Parted from their children, or fighting to save them, they screamed until their lungs gave out. In this forgotten pocket of rebel-held northwest Syria, there were no international rescue workers to save them. No aid shipments brought painkillers to the survivors when stocks ran low. Just six miles away, across the…

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The Russian soldiers who are defending Ukraine

The Russian soldiers who are defending Ukraine

The New York Times reports: The soldier knelt in the snow, aimed a rocket launcher and fired in the direction of Russian troops positioned about a mile away. He was set up at a Ukrainian firing position, and looked just like the other Ukrainian troops fighting south of the city of Bakhmut in one of the most brutal theaters of the war. But he and his comrades are not Ukrainian. They are soldiers in a Ukrainian military unit made up…

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Tear down these walls, or get used to a world of fear, separation and division

Tear down these walls, or get used to a world of fear, separation and division

Simon Tisdall writes: To drive into the heart of West Berlin on a dark, snowy night in December 1988 was to descend on to the cinematic frontline of the cold war. Watchtowers manned by armed East German border guards, searchlights, barbed wire, the blackened facade of the gutted Reichstag by the frozen River Spree – it was all there, just like the movies. Yet it was only too real. Holding centre stage: the sinister Berlin Wall. US president Ronald Reagan had…

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