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Category: Politics

AI is costing American renters over $3.6 billion annually, according to new report

AI is costing American renters over $3.6 billion annually, according to new report

Judd Legum writes: The property management software used by many corporate landlords, RealPage, is deploying AI to artificially inflate rental prices in the United States by more than $3.6 billion annually, according to a new report by the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA). RealPage, owned by the private equity firm Thoma Bravo, includes a tool called “AI Revenue Management” that provides recommendations for rental prices based on data from competitors. The feature, according to the CEA, the Department…

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Pope Francis names vocal supporter of migrants as next cardinal in Washington

Pope Francis names vocal supporter of migrants as next cardinal in Washington

The New York Times reports: Pope Francis on Monday named Cardinal Robert W. McElroy, bishop of San Diego, to be the next Roman Catholic archbishop of Washington, moving one of his most vocal allies on immigration to one of the most prominent posts in the American church. The move, announced in the Vatican’s daily bulletin, comes at a critical moment two weeks before President-elect Donald J. Trump is inaugurated and signals that Pope Francis is establishing his own priorities in…

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Incoming White House chief of staff Susie Wiles vows to block West Wing troublemakers

Incoming White House chief of staff Susie Wiles vows to block West Wing troublemakers

Axios reports: Incoming White House chief of staff Susie Wiles tells Axios in an interview that she aims for the West Wing to be a no-drama zone for staff. If that works, it won’t be the chaotic den of self-sabotaging that stymied the early days of President-elect Trump’s first term. “I don’t welcome people who want to work solo or be a star,” Wiles, whose boss calls her the Ice Maiden, said by email. “My team and I will not tolerate backbiting, second-guessing inappropriately,…

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Trump aides ready ‘universal’ tariff plans — but only on certain sectors

Trump aides ready ‘universal’ tariff plans — but only on certain sectors

The Washington Post reports: President-elect Donald Trump’s aides are exploring tariff plans that would be applied to every country but only cover critical imports, three people familiar with the matter said — a key shift from his plans during the 2024 presidential campaign. If implemented, the emerging plans would pare back the most sweeping elements of Trump’s campaign plans but still would be likely to upend global trade and carry major consequences for the U.S. economy and consumers. As a…

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Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau to resign — the latest global leader to fall

Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau to resign — the latest global leader to fall

Politico reports: Canada’s Justin Trudeau era is coming to an end. The three-term prime minister announced Monday morning that he plans to step down as prime minister and as party leader once the Liberals choose his successor. Trudeau told Canadians in a televised address that although he prides himself on being a fighter, he will step aside because of the divisiveness and polarization around his leadership — including inside his own caucus. “This country deserves a real choice in the…

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The law can still constrain Trump

The law can still constrain Trump

Quinta Jurecic writes: Donald Trump wasted little time after the election in claiming an “unprecedented and powerful mandate” and floating a series of extreme proposals with varying degrees of legal dubiousness. The president-elect has already winkingly suggested that he might stay in office for an unconstitutional third term, indicated that he intends to end the Constitution’s guarantee of birthright citizenship, and said that he plans to deport U.S. citizens. If the mood on the right is triumphant, the atmosphere among…

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Victims of the Jan. 6 riot feel ‘betrayed’ as Trump rewrites history

Victims of the Jan. 6 riot feel ‘betrayed’ as Trump rewrites history

NPR reports: For the millions of Americans who watch the presidential inauguration every four years, the Lower West Terrace Tunnel of the U.S. Capitol is a familiar site. The incoming president walks through that tunnel and on to the inaugural platform, before taking the oath of office. On Jan. 6, 2021, it was a crime scene – the site of a bloody, hourslong struggle between law enforcement and a mob of supporters of President-elect Donald Trump. “My fellow officers and…

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20 years before Jan. 6, Al Gore stood up to his own party. Mike Pence was watching

20 years before Jan. 6, Al Gore stood up to his own party. Mike Pence was watching

Michael Kruse writes: Last summer, in a private moment at the memorial service for ex-senator Joe Lieberman at the Washington Hebrew Congregation, two former vice presidents had a conversation. Al Gore thanked Mike Pence, according to people close to both men, in an interaction that’s never been reported, for his actions at the Capitol the day it was attacked by a mob. Pence, on the opposite side of the political aisle but in the same set of pews, said something…

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History’s lessons on anti-immigrant extremism

History’s lessons on anti-immigrant extremism

Michael Luo writes: President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to begin enacting the anti-immigrant agenda at the center of his campaign the moment he takes office: mass deportations, a crackdown on people “pouring up through Mexico and other places,” even the elimination of birthright citizenship. (The fate of high-skill immigration is one area of uncertainty; a dispute over H-1B visas consumed maga world over the holidays.) The scale of what Trump has promised is difficult to fathom and without recent precedent….

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The Syrian women who want a say in running the country: ‘We’ve proved we can do anything’

The Syrian women who want a say in running the country: ‘We’ve proved we can do anything’

The Guardian reports: The feminist activist Ghalia Rahhal recalls with wry laughter her visit to the “blue building” in Idlib three years ago, an office where the group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) monitored civil society organisations such as hers. Her colleague at a women’s rights organisation was once called there to hear a list of issues they were banned from working on: child marriage, divorce, and anything related to gender equality. Rahhal had already survived an assassination attempt in her…

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Biden notifies Congress of $8 billion arms sale to Israel

Biden notifies Congress of $8 billion arms sale to Israel

Axios reports: The State Department has notified Congress “informally” of an $8 billion proposed arms deal with Israel that will include munitions for fighter jets and attack helicopters as well as artillery shells, two sources with direct knowledge tell Axios. Why it matters: This will likely be the last weapons sale to Israel the Biden administration approves. It comes amid claims from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his supporters in recent months that Biden had imposed a silent “arms embargo” on Israel. Some Democrats pushed the…

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‘From Ground Zero’: Oscar-shortlisted film features stories from Palestinian filmmakers in Gaza

‘From Ground Zero’: Oscar-shortlisted film features stories from Palestinian filmmakers in Gaza

  As the genocide in Gaza enters its 15th month, we look at From Ground Zero, a collection of 22 short films made in Gaza by Palestinian filmmakers surviving Israel’s bombings and brutal blockade. The film has been shortlisted for this year’s Academy Awards in the category for best international feature. “In spite of all what happened, we were trying to search for hope,” says filmmaker Rashid Masharawi, director of From Ground Zero, now playing in U.S. theaters. Masharawi was…

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Biden to block new offshore drilling along most of the U.S. coastline

Biden to block new offshore drilling along most of the U.S. coastline

Politico reports: President Joe Biden is planning to prohibit future offshore oil and gas drilling along most of the nation’s coastline, setting up a potential roadblock for Republicans’ plans to expand production in federal waters. Biden is set to announce on Monday that he will withdraw 625 million acres of coastline from future oil and gas drilling. That would encompass all of the Atlantic Coast and eastern Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific coast from Washington to California and parts of…

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The militia and the mole

The militia and the mole

By Joshua Kaplan This story was originally published by ProPublica John Williams kept a backpack filled with everything he’d need to go on the run: three pairs of socks; a few hundred dollars cash; makeshift disguises and lock-picking gear; medical supplies, vitamins and high-calorie energy gels; and thumb drives that each held more than 100 gigabytes of encrypted documents, which he would quickly distribute if he were about to be arrested or killed. On April 1, 2023, Williams retrieved the…

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How the Democrats lost the working class

How the Democrats lost the working class

Jonathan Weisman writes: Democrats had just absorbed a crushing defeat in the 1994 midterm elections when President Bill Clinton’s very liberal labor secretary, Robert Reich, ventured into hostile territory to issue a prophetic warning. Struggling workers were becoming “an anxious class,” he told the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, two weeks after Republicans led by Newt Gingrich had gained 54 seats in the House and eight in the Senate. Society was separating into two tiers, Mr. Reich said, with “a few…

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Trump has been rewarded with over $200 million in ‘donations’ since election day

Trump has been rewarded with over $200 million in ‘donations’ since election day

The New York Times reports: Since his victory in November, President-elect Donald J. Trump’s allies have raised well over $200 million for a constellation of groups that will fund his inauguration, his political operation and eventually his presidential library, according to four people involved in the fund-raising. It is a staggering sum that underscores efforts by donors and corporate interests to curry favor with Mr. Trump ahead of a second presidential term after a number of business leaders denounced him…

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