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Category: Politics

Trump’s grip on the GOP leaves Netanyahu with few places to turn

Trump’s grip on the GOP leaves Netanyahu with few places to turn

The Washington Post reports: When previous U.S. presidents sought to tie the hands of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli leader often exploited rifts in U.S. politics to find a friendlier ear in Washington and wriggle free from constraints placed on him. But Netanyahu is finding that there is no higher court of appeals in his face-off with President Donald Trump, who has a viselike grip over his party — at a time when Democrats have little or no sympathy…

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An Indian billionaire was targeted by Trump. Then he poured money into a startup secretly backed by Don Jr.

An Indian billionaire was targeted by Trump. Then he poured money into a startup secretly backed by Don Jr.

By Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski This story was originally published by ProPublica In late November in Jamnagar, India, the scions of two of the most powerful families in the world stood face-to-face. On one side was 30-year-old Anant Ambani, son of one the richest men in Asia. On the other was Donald Trump Jr. For months, the Trump administration had been on the offensive against the sprawling Ambani energy empire, placing it at the center of an…

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Trump family got about $500M from crypto venture. Investors saw steep losses

Trump family got about $500M from crypto venture. Investors saw steep losses

CNBC reports: Back in August, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. were all smiles. They showed up at the Nasdaq stock exchange in New York to celebrate a new business partnership with a little-known publicly traded company, then called Alt5 Sigma, to give investors easier access to a cryptocurrency backed by the Trump family. Less than 10 months later, the company has warned investors it may not be able to stay in business much longer. Its share price has fallen…

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Being Black and unwelcome in Pete Hegseth’s military

Being Black and unwelcome in Pete Hegseth’s military

Clint Smith writes: Daniel “Chappie” James Jr. became commander of the Wheelus Air Base, near Tripoli, just after rebels under Muammar Qaddafi took control of Libya in a coup in 1969. In the midst of the insurgency, Qaddafi led an effort to break into the U.S. air base, but James managed to close the gate in time to prevent the young rebel from entering. The incident, which James recounted in a 1978 interview, would come to be the stuff of…

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Drop in immigration and Trump’s tax cuts accelerate expected shortfall in Social Security

Drop in immigration and Trump’s tax cuts accelerate expected shortfall in Social Security

The Washington Post reports: Social Security’s trust fund is now due to run low on money beginning in 2032. And in announcing that new date Tuesday, the government acknowledged that the Trump administration’s immigration policies and tax cuts are expected to contribute to the insolvency. The trust fund that pays retiree and survivor benefits is expected to reach depletion by the fourth quarter of 2032, one quarter earlier than projected in last year’s annual report. Social Security’s trustees said notable…

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Largest ICE detention facility wasted millions and put detainees at risk, report finds

Largest ICE detention facility wasted millions and put detainees at risk, report finds

The Associated Press reports: Mismanagement at a massive Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Texas created unsafe conditions that contributed to detainee deaths and suffering even as millions of wasted tax dollars enriched contractors, according to a federal report released Tuesday. The Government Accountability Office report documents serious problems at Camp East Montana, a sprawling tent facility at Fort Bliss in El Paso where three detainees have died in little more than six months. Evidence in one of those deaths,…

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With waning influence, Trump struggles to rein in Netanyahu’s strikes on Iran and Lebanon

With waning influence, Trump struggles to rein in Netanyahu’s strikes on Iran and Lebanon

The Wall Street Journal reports: As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu weighed how to respond to waves of Iranian missile attacks Sunday night, President Trump called with a message: Stand down. But as it became clear the Israeli leader wouldn’t ignore a direct attack, Trump shifted his tone. Keep it limited, and don’t let it escalate, he said according to people familiar with the conversation. Trump had hoped to contain the flare-up in fighting to keep it from disrupting work…

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Israeli aggression threatens to fray its financial and diplomatic lifeline to the United States

Israeli aggression threatens to fray its financial and diplomatic lifeline to the United States

Megan K. Stack writes: Emboldened by unstinting U.S. support during its devastation of Gaza, and with American forces by its side in attacking Iran, Israel is moving with disorienting speed on multiple fronts. Mr. Netanyahu attributes his country’s aggression to the bloody lessons of Oct. 7, which he insists was an attack not just by Hamas but “by the Iran axis, to try to annihilate us through a noose of death.” “I said, ‘We’re going to change the Middle East,’”…

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MAHA moms who helped elect Trump are feeling betrayed by ‘business as usual’

MAHA moms who helped elect Trump are feeling betrayed by ‘business as usual’

Politico reports: The Make America Healthy Again coalition, made up largely of women who followed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. into the MAGA fold, has reached the end of its rope with the Trump administration. Now many among the group of vaccine skeptics and healthy food crusaders say their vote is up for grabs in the midterms after a string of perceived losses on pesticides and chemical regulations, not to mention disappointing leadership picks and an unpopular war in Iran. “We…

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Profits before people: EPA scientists are being pushed to downplay potential risks of household products

Profits before people: EPA scientists are being pushed to downplay potential risks of household products

CNN reports: Inside the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency, scientists say they’re under pressure to alter safety reviews of chemicals commonly found in consumer products like household cleaners and cosmetics to make risks to human health and the environment disappear on paper. Multiple current and former career employees at the EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention recounted being pushed by supervisors to downplay the potential risk of chemicals that are already used in products on shelves. With President…

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Trump administration killed criminal investigation of GOP senator’s coal companies

Trump administration killed criminal investigation of GOP senator’s coal companies

By Molly Redden and Avi Asher-Schapiro This story was originally published by ProPublica Trump administration officials earlier this year killed a federal criminal investigation into the coal empire owned by Sen. Jim Justice, a Republican from West Virginia and a close ally of the president’s. The investigation examined potential criminal violations of the Clean Water Act by the multistate mining operations largely run by Justice’s son, Jay, according to current and former officials familiar with the matter. The criminal probe…

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Andrew Tate’s manosphere empire of abuse

Andrew Tate’s manosphere empire of abuse

Heidi Blake writes: Just north of Bucharest is a neat development of red-gabled houses known as American Village. It is an unlikely place to be the center of an international criminal intrigue, but on its western border is a sprawling compound, patrolled by armed guards, that belongs to the British American influencer Andrew Tate and his younger brother, Tristan. The Tates moved to Romania a decade ago to build an online-pornography empire, and American Village was where they kept their…

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Scott Pelley: Bari Weiss tried to make 60 Minutes lie about the killing of Renee Good

Scott Pelley: Bari Weiss tried to make 60 Minutes lie about the killing of Renee Good

  Lulu Garcia-Navarro: You’ve now accused Weiss of injecting “falsehoods and bias” into at least one of your politically sensitive stories. What did she specifically ask for? What story? Scott Pelley: That’s February, and my team and I are doing a story about the protests in Minneapolis against the ICE crackdown there. We’ve interviewed Senator Rand Paul, Republican, because he’s going to hold hearings into this, and the fact that a Republican was going to do that was quite newsworthy….

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States preparing lawsuit to block Paramount’s acquisition of Warner Bros, sources say

States preparing lawsuit to block Paramount’s acquisition of Warner Bros, sources say

Reuters reports: A group of U.S. ​states including California and New York are preparing a lawsuit ‌to block Paramount Skydance’s $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday. The lawsuit is expected to be filed in the coming weeks, the ​sources said. The case would mark the boldest move yet by the ​states in their effort to be at the forefront of U.S. ⁠antitrust enforcement, as their better-funded counterpart agencies in the Trump…

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Trump urges Netanyahu not to escalate latest round of attacks Israel started with strikes on Beirut

Trump urges Netanyahu not to escalate latest round of attacks Israel started with strikes on Beirut

Axios reports: President Trump will call Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and press him not to retaliate for Iran’s missile attack, Trump tells Axios. “I am going to call Bibi right now and tell him not to retaliate. Each of them had their fun. Israel had its strike, and Iran had its strike. We don’t need another one,” Trump said. Why it matters: The ceasefire in the Middle East is teetering after Israel struck Beirut and Iran fired multiple waves of missiles in response. Trump…

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Congress wants to tie the U.S. to Israel with this new legislation. It’s a trap

Congress wants to tie the U.S. to Israel with this new legislation. It’s a trap

Eli Clifton and Ian Lustick write: Congress is considering legislation that would embed Israel’s military deeply within the US military-industrial complex. Stunned by the cratering of public support for Israeli policies in Gaza, Lebanon and the West Bank and towards Iran, Israel’s advocates are frantically seeking to preserve and even escalate US support for the Jewish state in ways that do not rely on defense of its policies or permit scrutiny of the manipulations involved. Politically, this means avoiding public…

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