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Category: Politics

Voice of America Ukrainian correspondent fired in DOGE crackdown

Voice of America Ukrainian correspondent fired in DOGE crackdown

The Kyiv Independent reports: Ostap Yarysh, a Ukrainian correspondent at Voice of America (VoA), was dismissed on March 7, reportedly following an inspection by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). DOGE is an unofficial cost-cutting group that U.S. President Donald Trump has granted broad authority to reduce government spending and dismiss employees. DOGE’s head, U.S. billionaire Elon Musk, has previously called for the shutdown of U.S.-funded media outlets Radio Free Europe and Voice of America. Yarysh joined the VOA’s Ukrainian…

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Election officials say cuts to federal cybersecurity agency (CISA) are affecting operations

Election officials say cuts to federal cybersecurity agency (CISA) are affecting operations

Democracy Docket reports: Ever since President Donald Trump’s victory in November, election officials at every level and voting rights advocates have worried that he would gut the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) — the little-known federal agency responsible for the nation’s cybersecurity and protecting critical infrastructure from digital threats. And now that those cuts have come to fruition, election officials are already experiencing the loss of crucial CISA resources they said are integral to voting security. In the seven…

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Trump’s imperial designs on Canada trigger a surge of patriotism

Trump’s imperial designs on Canada trigger a surge of patriotism

The New York Times reports: In candid remarks to a group of business leaders last month that was captured by a microphone, Mr. Trudeau offered a theory for Mr. Trump’s Canada obsession that is widely shared in the country. “Not only does the Trump administration know how many critical minerals we have, but that may be even why they keep talking about absorbing us and making us the 51st state,” Mr. Trudeau told the gathering in Toronto. “They’re very aware…

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In ‘a watershed moment for Europe,’ EU leaders agree on plan for huge rise in defense spending

In ‘a watershed moment for Europe,’ EU leaders agree on plan for huge rise in defense spending

The Guardian reports: European leaders holding emergency talks in Brussels have agreed on a massive increase to defence spending, amid a drive to shore up support for Ukraine after Donald Trump halted US military aid and intelligence sharing. But the show of unity was marred by Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, failing to endorse an EU statement on Ukraine pushing back against Trump’s Russia-friendly negotiating stance. The 26 other EU leaders, including Orbán’s ally Robert Fico, the Slovakian prime minister,…

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Timothy Snyder: Trump’s message to Ukraine — ‘concede to Russia now in exchange for nothing at all’

Timothy Snyder: Trump’s message to Ukraine — ‘concede to Russia now in exchange for nothing at all’

  Donald Trump has read out a letter from Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying Ukraine is ready to negotiate and the president says he’s getting strong signals from Russia that it is also ready for peace, but – if that deal boils down to Ukraine surrendering territory, American mining companies extracting minerals from Ukraine, and no security guarantee – is that real peace? And would a deal like that hold? In this new world of strong man politics, has Ukraine been bullied…

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Top Trump allies interfere in Ukraine’s domestic politics through secret talks with Zelenskyy’s opponents

Top Trump allies interfere in Ukraine’s domestic politics through secret talks with Zelenskyy’s opponents

Politico reports: Four senior members of Donald Trump’s entourage have held secret discussions with some of Kyiv’s top political opponents to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, just as Washington aligns with Moscow in seeking to lever the Ukrainian president out of his job. The senior Trump allies held talks with Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, a remorselessly ambitious former prime minister, and senior members of the party of Petro Poroshenko, Zelenskyy’s immediate predecessor as president, according to three Ukrainian parliamentarians and a U.S….

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Facing Trump’s threats, Columbia inquisition targets students critical of Israel

Facing Trump’s threats, Columbia inquisition targets students critical of Israel

The Associated Press reports: Columbia University senior Maryam Alwan was visiting family in Jordan over winter break when she received an email from the school accusing her of harassment. Her supposed top offense: writing an op-ed in the student newspaper calling for divestment from Israel. The probe is part of a flurry of recent cases brought by a new university disciplinary committee — the Office of Institutional Equity — against Columbia students who have expressed criticism of Israel, according to…

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Wall Street is turning its back on Elon Musk

Wall Street is turning its back on Elon Musk

CNN reports: Liberals and government employees aren’t the only people angry with Elon Musk. Tesla’s plunging share price means many investors are angry, too. Shares of Tesla shot up 91% after election day, peaking just before Christmas, as investors anticipated Musk and his car company would be big winners as a result of Donald Trump’s second term as president. Musk was Trump’s largest financial supporter during the campaign, and has since become the highest-profile member of his administration, by far….

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‘Rapid unscheduled disassembly’ of SpaceX Starship results in flight halts at several Florida airports

‘Rapid unscheduled disassembly’ of SpaceX Starship results in flight halts at several Florida airports

CNBC reports: The Federal Aviation Administration briefly halted flights to several Florida airports on Thursday night after a SpaceX Starship testing failure. The incident marks the second time this year that SpaceX experienced a mishap during a flight test of Starship resulting in debris raining down and commercial flights disrupted. Affected airports included Miami International Airport, which is an American Airlines hub, and airports serving Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, and Orlando, Florida. The regulator said, in a statement on…

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Trump and Musk’s vengeful nihilism

Trump and Musk’s vengeful nihilism

George Monbiot writes: Vengeful nihilism, the destruction of what they do not love, know or understand, is a major theme in Maga politics. It is applied as viciously to culture and science as it is to the natural world. It is hard to avoid the thought that environmental destruction is not just a means by which Trump serves his corporate backers, but an end in itself. At the same time, Trump enthusiastically (albeit vaguely) boosts Musk’s plans to send people…

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What European NATO lacks

What European NATO lacks

Mila Tanghe writes: For the first time in decades, European NATO must consider fighting without the critical support and capabilities of the US military, the backbone of the alliance. The US is no longer “primarily focused on the security of Europe,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told allies in Brussels on February 12. Europe is not defenseless. Its militaries have well-trained forces, but they lack the strategic capabilities, command structures, and the sheer firepower necessary to sustain a prolonged conflict independently….

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Billionaires prioritize tax avoidance and wealth preservation above everything else

Billionaires prioritize tax avoidance and wealth preservation above everything else

Adam Bonica writes: The billionaire revolt against Harris’s endorsement of a proposed 25% minimum tax on unrealized gains for fortunes exceeding $100 million perfectly illustrates how this single issue overrides all other political considerations for the ultra-wealthy. Marc Andreessen warned the proposal would “kill startups and venture capital” and even “kill the California tax base,” calling it “insane” and something that would “single-handedly crush the economy.” Elon Musk similarly railed against it, tweeting, “Eventually, they run out of other people’s…

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Trump’s rationale for a giant trade war keeps on changing

Trump’s rationale for a giant trade war keeps on changing

Eric Levitz writes: Donald Trump just imposed a 25 percent tariff on virtually all goods produced by America’s two largest trading partners — Canada and Mexico. He simultaneously established a 20 percent across-the-board tariff on Chinese goods. As a result, America’s average tariff level is now higher than at any time since the 1940s. Meanwhile, China and Canada immediately retaliated against Trump’s duties, with the former imposing a 15 percent tariff on American agricultural products and the latter putting a 25 percent tariff on $30 billion of…

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Senate Republicans tell Musk to send his cuts to Congress for legislative action

Senate Republicans tell Musk to send his cuts to Congress for legislative action

Politico reports: Senate Republicans urged Elon Musk on Wednesday to better coordinate with them, with many suggesting the tech billionaire send Congress a package of proposed spending cuts to enshrine the work of his Department of Government Efficiency initiative. The message was delivered during a closed-door lunch organized by Florida Sen. Rick Scott in the latest instance of congressional Republicans, who have generally praised his efforts, counseling Musk to more closely loop in lawmakers. The meeting came just hours after…

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DOGE operatives are among the highest paid federal employees

DOGE operatives are among the highest paid federal employees

Wired reports: Some staffers at Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency are drawing robust taxpayer-funded salaries from the federal agencies they are slashing and burning, WIRED has learned. Jeremy Lewin, one of the DOGE employees tasked with dismantling USAID, who has also played a role in DOGE’s incursions into the National Institutes of Health and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, is listed as making just over $167,000 annually, WIRED has confirmed. Lewin is assigned to the Office of the…

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Trump is the kinglike president many feared when arguing over the U.S. Constitution in 1789 – and his address to Congress showed it

Trump is the kinglike president many feared when arguing over the U.S. Constitution in 1789 – and his address to Congress showed it

President Donald Trump addresses a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol on March 4, 2025. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images By Maurizio Valsania, Università di Torino If there are any limits to a president’s power, it wasn’t evident from Donald Trump’s speech before a joint session of Congress on March 4, 2025. In that speech, the first before lawmakers of Trump’s second term, the president declared vast accomplishments during the brief six weeks of his presidency. He claimed to have…

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