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U.S. privately asks Ukraine to show it’s open to negotiate with Russia

U.S. privately asks Ukraine to show it’s open to negotiate with Russia

The Washington Post reports: The Biden administration is privately encouraging Ukraine’s leaders to signal an openness to negotiate with Russia and drop their public refusal to engage in peace talks unless President Vladimir Putin is removed from power, according to people familiar with the discussions. The request by American officials is not aimed at pushing Ukraine to the negotiating table, these people said. Rather, they called it a calculated attempt to ensure the government in Kyiv maintains the support of…

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Trump’s Twitter clone has turned into his albatross

Trump’s Twitter clone has turned into his albatross

The Washington Post reports: The co-founders of former president Donald Trump’s post-presidential start-up, Trump Media & Technology Group, had a name for June 11, 2021: “meltdown day.” Andy Litinsky and Wes Moss, former contestants on Trump’s reality show “The Apprentice,” had a week earlier traveled with an 11-person entourage to Trump’s palatial golf club in Bedminster, N.J., to show off what they’d worked for months to build: a web of conservative-aimed business ventures, including the Twitter clone Truth Social, that…

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Elon Musk’s spectacular incompetence

Elon Musk’s spectacular incompetence

https://t.co/lt6A7XqxoR pic.twitter.com/JOVY64QLT9 — ma.nu (@lmanul) November 7, 2022 Charlie Warzel writes: Elon Musk has spent the past 12 years tweeting whatever comes into his mind, often without major negative consequences. That was before he owned the place. Now, less than two weeks after his $44 billion purchase, the world’s richest man is finding that his actions—which recently included tweeting a baseless conspiracy theory to Hillary Clinton about the assault on Paul Pelosi—may actually have consequences. Advertisers are fleeing, the employees…

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Russia reactivates its trolls and bots ahead of Tuesday’s midterm elections

Russia reactivates its trolls and bots ahead of Tuesday’s midterm elections

The New York Times reports: The user on Gab who identifies as Nora Berka resurfaced in August after a yearlong silence on the social media platform, reposting a handful of messages with sharply conservative political themes before writing a stream of original vitriol. The posts mostly denigrated President Biden and other prominent Democrats, sometimes obscenely. They also lamented the use of taxpayer dollars to support Ukraine in its war against invading Russian forces, depicting Ukraine’s president as a caricature straight…

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Arizona election workers face threats of violence

Arizona election workers face threats of violence

Reuters reports: Election workers in Arizona’s most fiercely contested county faced more than 100 violent threats and intimidating communications in the run-up to Tuesday’s midterms, most of them based on election conspiracy theories promoted by former President Donald Trump and his allies. The harassment in Maricopa County included menacing emails and social media posts, threats to circulate personal information online and photographing employees arriving at work, according to nearly 1,600 pages of documents obtained by Reuters through a public records…

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Homeland Security admits it tried to manufacture fake terrorists for Trump

Homeland Security admits it tried to manufacture fake terrorists for Trump

Gizmodo reports: The Department of Homeland Security launched a failed operation that ensnared hundreds, if not thousands, of U.S. protesters in what new documents show was as a sweeping, power-hungry effort before the 2020 election to bolster President Donald Trump’s spurious claims about a “terrorist organization” he accused his Democratic rivals of supporting. An internal investigative report, made public this month by Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat of Oregon, details the findings of DHS lawyers concerning a previously undisclosed effort…

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ReAwaken America tour spreading the gospel of Trump

ReAwaken America tour spreading the gospel of Trump

Ed Pilkington reports: “There is a man by the name of Donald,” the voice on the recording says. “God said, ‘You have been determined through your prayers to influence this nation … I will open that door that you prayed about, and when it comes time for the election you will be elected.” Three thousand people are packed into an overflowing auditorium, many with arms raised and eyes closed in prayer. The recording to which they are listening is from…

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In undisclosed talks, U.S. keeps communications channels with Moscow open

In undisclosed talks, U.S. keeps communications channels with Moscow open

The Wall Street Journal reports: President Biden’s top national-security adviser has engaged in recent months in confidential conversations with top aides to Russian President Vladimir Putin in an effort to reduce the risk of a broader conflict over Ukraine and warn Moscow against using nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction, U.S. and allied officials said. The officials said that U.S. national-security adviser Jake Sullivan has been in contact with Yuri Ushakov, a foreign-policy adviser to Mr. Putin. Mr. Sullivan…

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As trials loom on the horizon, Trump’s closest legal adviser has no trial experience

As trials loom on the horizon, Trump’s closest legal adviser has no trial experience

The Washington Post reports: Few people speak to former president Donald Trump more these days than Boris Epshteyn. The pugilistic communications consultant often has five or more conversations with Trump a day, advisers say, with the former president sometimes interrupting meetings with prominent elected officials to take his calls. A lawyer by training who has also worked as an investment banker, Epshteyn, 40, has morphed into one of the most influential figures in Trump’s orbit, winning his ear on how…

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Canada’s First Nations move to protect their lands

Canada’s First Nations move to protect their lands

Ed Struzik writes: On yet another unusually warm subarctic day last August, members of the Łı́ı́dlı̨ı̨ Kų́ę́ First Nation in the Northwest Territories of Canada held a fire-feeding ceremony, drummed, raised their eagle-emblazoned flag, and prepared a celebratory feast for themselves and a group of scientists 30 miles south of where they live in Fort Simpson. By the close of festivities, Laurier University’s 23-year-old Scotty Creek Research Station, which is monitoring the varied impacts of climate change and permafrost thaw,…

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Women under 25 could be the most influential voters of the midterms

Women under 25 could be the most influential voters of the midterms

Marisa Kabas writes: Polling for the upcoming midterm election has been teetering back and forth between which party will win the most seats, but the prevailing sentiment is that Democrats are in big trouble due to Republican-driven narratives on inflation, gas prices and crime. “Fearing a New Shellacking, Democrats Rush for Economic Message,” read a recent New York Times headline for an article that cites a Democratic pollster expressing worry that party support from the summer is “evaporating.” But while…

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Twitter layoffs gutted election information teams days before midterms

Twitter layoffs gutted election information teams days before midterms

The Washington Post reports: Devastating cuts to Twitter’s workforce on Friday, four days before the midterm elections, are fueling anxieties among political campaigns and election offices that have counted on the social network’s staff to help them combat violent threats and viral lies. The mass layoffs Friday gutted teams devoted to combating election misinformation, adding context to misleading tweets and communicating with journalists, public officials and campaign staff. The layoffs included a number of people who were scheduled to be…

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With Twitter in chaos, Mastodon is on fire

With Twitter in chaos, Mastodon is on fire

CNN reports: In the week since Elon Musk took over Twitter, the number of people signing up for a small social network called Mastodon has surged. You may not have heard of Mastodon, which has been around since 2016, but now it’s growing rapidly. Some are fleeing Twitter for it or at least seeking out a second place to post their thoughts online as the much more well-known social network faces layoffs, controversial product changes, an expected shift in its…

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Most Americans think they won’t be misled by election disinformation — but they worry about others falling victim

Most Americans think they won’t be misled by election disinformation — but they worry about others falling victim

Knight Foundation: More than half of all Americans (58%) say they are somewhat or very concerned that people in their community could be deceived by election disinformation. But at the same time, few think they will fall victim themselves: only 27% say they might fall victim to false or misleading information, while 25% say misleading information might sway their decisions at the polls. This pattern holds across party lines. Most Democrats, Republicans and Independents feel confident they won’t be misled…

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