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Category: Politics

Israel’s top court rules ultra-Orthodox Jews must be drafted into military, in blow to Netanyahu

Israel’s top court rules ultra-Orthodox Jews must be drafted into military, in blow to Netanyahu

CNN reports: Israel’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the government to draft ultra-Orthodox Jews into the military, delivering a blow to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that has the potential to unravel his ruling coalition. The court also ordered the government to withdraw funding from any religious schools, or yeshivas, whose students do not comply with draft notices. “The government wanted to distinguish at the level of law enforcement between individuals based on their group affiliation,” the court said in its…

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Conservative-backed group is creating a list of federal workers it suspects could resist Trump plans

Conservative-backed group is creating a list of federal workers it suspects could resist Trump plans

The Associated Press reports: From his home office in small-town Kentucky, a seasoned political operative is quietly investigating scores of federal employees suspected of being hostile to the policies of Republican Donald Trump, a highly unusual and potentially chilling effort that dovetails with broader conservative preparations for a new White House. Tom Jones and his American Accountability Foundation are digging into the backgrounds, social media posts and commentary of key high-ranking government employees, starting with the Department of Homeland Security….

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Kremlin mouthpieces celebrate Julian Assange victory vs. the U.S. ‘deep state’

Kremlin mouthpieces celebrate Julian Assange victory vs. the U.S. ‘deep state’

The Daily Beast reports: Wikileaks founder Julian Assange’s release from a British prison could not have made Russia’s top propagandists happier. RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan led the pack early Tuesday with a statement on Telegram paying tribute to the “best journalist of our time.” Noting that she was “awfully happy” to finally see Assange win his freedom, she recalled a one-on-one covert chat she said she had with him once in the “woods outside London.” After asking him why he…

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Israeli documents show expansive government effort to shape U.S. discourse around Gaza war

Israeli documents show expansive government effort to shape U.S. discourse around Gaza war

The Guardian reports: Last November, just weeks into the war in Gaza, Amichai Chikli, a brash, 42-year-old Likud minister in the Israeli government, was called into the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, to brief lawmakers on what could be done about rising anti-war protests from young people across the United States, especially at elite universities. “I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again now, that I think we should, especially in the United States, be on the offensive,” argued Chikli. Chikli…

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Netanyahu says he won’t agree to a deal that ends the war in Gaza, testing the latest truce proposal

Netanyahu says he won’t agree to a deal that ends the war in Gaza, testing the latest truce proposal

The Associated Press reports: The viability of a U.S.-backed proposal to wind down the 8-month-long war in Gaza has been cast into doubt after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would only be willing to agree to a “partial” cease-fire deal that would not end the war, comments that sparked an uproar from families of hostages held by Hamas. In an interview broadcast late Sunday on Israeli Channel 14, a conservative, pro-Netanyahu station, the Israeli leader said he was…

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Israeli far-right minister speaks of effort to annex West Bank

Israeli far-right minister speaks of effort to annex West Bank

The Guardian reports: Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, has described in explicit terms his active effort to annex the West Bank to Israel, days after the Guardian revealed how the pro-settlement politician and his allies had quietly gained significant new legal powers to that end. Speaking at a meeting of his Religious Zionism party, Smotrich told colleagues that he was “establish[ing] facts on the ground in order to make Judea and Samaria [an Israeli term for the occupied West…

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Meet the ‘double haters’ who could decide the election

Meet the ‘double haters’ who could decide the election

The Washington Post reports: [V]oters opposed to both candidates are not monolithic. Some mildly dislike both candidates, but have made peace with voting for the one they prefer. Others deeply disdain Biden and Trump, and seem incredulous that they find themselves choosing between “the lesser of two evils” — a phrase more than a half-dozen voters used in describing their Election Day calculus. And others plan to not vote or to opt for a third-party candidate, be it independent Robert…

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Inside the $100 million plan to restore abortion rights in America

Inside the $100 million plan to restore abortion rights in America

Politico reports: A new coalition of abortion-rights groups is marking the second anniversary of the fall of Roe v. Wade with a pledge to spend $100 million to restore federal protections for the procedure and make it more accessible than ever before. In plans shared first with POLITICO, groups including Planned Parenthood, the ACLU and Reproductive Freedom for All are banding together to form Abortion Access Now — a national, 10-year campaign that will both prepare policies for the next…

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Texas ‘pro-life’ abortion ban linked to stark rise in infant deaths

Texas ‘pro-life’ abortion ban linked to stark rise in infant deaths

HuffPost reports: Texas’ six-week abortion ban, a 2021 law whose GOP backers claimed would “protect innocent human life,” is linked to a staggering rise in infant deaths, a new study published Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association found. The study, published on the second anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, found that the Texas ban was “associated with unexpected increases in infant and neonatal mortality in 2022,” suggesting that despite Republican sermonizing on…

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What if Israel’s plan all along was for no ‘day after’ for Gaza?

What if Israel’s plan all along was for no ‘day after’ for Gaza?

  Just like the US did in Iraq and Afghanistan, Israel has entered a war in Gaza with vague and overambitious aims. But what US officials don’t care to admit is that Israel is not thinking about an end to the military phase, and a beginning of a civilian reconstruction plan, argues Nathan Brown, professor of international relations and political science at George Washington University. Brown tells host Steve Clemons that Israel has purposely designed the carnage in Gaza to…

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U.S. offers assurances to Israel this week in the event of full-blown war with Hezbollah

U.S. offers assurances to Israel this week in the event of full-blown war with Hezbollah

CNN reports: Senior US officials reassured a delegation of top Israeli officials visiting Washington this week that if a full-out war were to break out on Israel’s northern border between Israel and Hezbollah, the Biden administration is fully prepared to back its ally, according to a senior administration official. The in-person assurances came as an increase in cross-border attacks in recent weeks between Israel and the Iran-backed group Hezbollah have intensified concerns about the possible outbreak of another full-fledged conflict…

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Churches accuse Israel of ‘coordinated attack’ on Christian presence in the Holy Land

Churches accuse Israel of ‘coordinated attack’ on Christian presence in the Holy Land

The Associated Press reports: Leaders of major churches have accused Israeli authorities of launching a “coordinated attack” on the Christian presence in the Holy Land by initiating tax proceedings against them. While Israeli officials have tried to dismiss the disagreement as a routine financial matter, the churches say the move upsets a centuries-old status quo and reflects mounting intolerance for the tiny Christian presence in the Holy Land. In a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week, the heads…

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Trump campaign seeks to head off convention revolt from its right flank

Trump campaign seeks to head off convention revolt from its right flank

The Washington Post reports: Arizona delegates to the Republican National Convention gathered this month in a Phoenix suburb, showing up to get to know each other and learn about their duties. Part of the presentation included a secret plan to throw the party’s nomination of Donald Trump for president into chaos. The instructions did not come from “Never Trumpers” hoping to stop the party from nominating a felon when delegates gather in Milwaukee next month. They instead came from avowed…

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In Trump we trust. The religious right on a crusade to make their man president

In Trump we trust. The religious right on a crusade to make their man president

The Observer reports: God’s army is on the march. And many of its foot soldiers are wearing “Make America great again” regalia, sensing that their unlikely standard-bearer, former US president Donald Trump, is once again close to the promised land. “I do not believe that America can survive another four years of Joe Biden,” Ralph Reed, founder and chair of the Faith & Freedom Coalition, told a gathering of the religious right in Washington on Friday. “I haven’t felt this way since…

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Michael Flynn has turned his Trump-world celebrity into a family business

Michael Flynn has turned his Trump-world celebrity into a family business

The New York Times reports: In 2021, retired Gen. Michael T. Flynn, Donald J. Trump’s first national security adviser, became chairman of a 75-year-old nonprofit organization — the kind of small charity where chairmen typically work for free. But Mr. Flynn received a salary of $40,000, for working two hours per week. The next year, he got a raise: $60,000, for two hours. Mr. Flynn’s charity also paid one of his brothers, two of his sisters, his niece and his…

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Disappointment and ‘depression’: Biden’s biggest fundraisers watch their advantage vanish

Disappointment and ‘depression’: Biden’s biggest fundraisers watch their advantage vanish

Politico reports: Joe Biden’s campaign planned to bury Donald Trump in an avalanche of cash. Instead, his allies are bracing for a slugfest without the benefit of a fatter wallet, as financial reports showed Trump outraising Biden in back-to-back months, hauling in huge sums after his 34 felony convictions and erasing Biden’s longstanding financial edge. Democrats in recent days largely downplayed Trump’s new financial lead in the same way Trump’s allies had when Biden was running ahead in the money…

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