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Category: Politics

In Gaza there are now so many orphans that no agency or aid group can count them

In Gaza there are now so many orphans that no agency or aid group can count them

The New York Times reports: The boys are aching to see their parents again. They are convinced it will happen as soon as they can go back to Gaza City, where they were growing up before the war bulldozed that life. “Baba and mama will be waiting for us there,” they say to their aunt Samar, who is taking care of the four of them, Mohammed, Mahmoud, Ahmed and Abdullah Akeila. They say this even though they were told their…

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Trump says we ‘gotta’ restrict the First Amendment

Trump says we ‘gotta’ restrict the First Amendment

Rolling Stone reports: On Friday, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made a show of selectively exiting the presidential race and throwing his support behind Donald Trump, hailing the former president as a champion of free speech. Less than a week later, Trump is already promising to crush First Amendment protections if elected in November. On Monday, Trump complained about pushback to a proposal to sentence people to a year in jail for burning the American flag. “I wanna get a law…

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Trump supporters are getting tired of his shtick

Trump supporters are getting tired of his shtick

The Guardian reports: Local Republican leaders saw the rally [in the heart of Pennsylvania’s Rust belt] as an opportunity for Trump to take the initiative after evidently being thrown by suddenly facing Kamala Harris after months of leading Joe Biden in opinion polls. Harris has not only erased Trump’s lead in Pennsylvania, but recent polls put her three or more points ahead. Frank Scavo, a businessman and ardent Trump supporter who was part of a coup that took hold of…

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The man who will do anything for Trump

The man who will do anything for Trump

Elaina Plott Calabro writes: Kash Patel was dangerous. On this both Trump appointees and career officials could agree. A 40-year-old lawyer with little government experience, he joined the administration in 2019 and rose rapidly. Each new title set off new alarms. When Patel was installed as chief of staff to the acting secretary of defense just after the 2020 election, Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, advised him not to break the law in order to…

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Meet the megadonors pumping millions into the 2024 election

Meet the megadonors pumping millions into the 2024 election

The Washington Post reports: The 50 biggest donors this cycle have collectively pumped $1.5 billion into political committees and other groups competing in the election, according to a Washington Post analysis of Federal Election Commission data. The vast majority of money from top donors has gone to super PACs, which can accept unlimited sums from individuals and often work closely with campaigns despite rules against coordinating their advertising. From billionaire investors to shipping magnates, these megadonors skew Republican, though they…

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Telegram founder’s arrest part of broad investigation, French prosecutors say

Telegram founder’s arrest part of broad investigation, French prosecutors say

The New York Times reports: Prosecutors in France said on Monday that Pavel Durov, the entrepreneur who runs the Telegram messaging platform, had been arrested in connection with an investigation opened last month into criminal activity on the app and a lack of cooperation with law enforcement. Mr. Durov, 39, was detained on Saturday at Le Bourget Airport near Paris after landing on a private plane from Azerbaijan. He had not been charged and remained in custody, which can be…

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DNC focused on America. At the RNC it was all about Trump

DNC focused on America. At the RNC it was all about Trump

Business Insider reports: The Democratic and Republican National Conventions concluded this week, solidifying former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris as their party’s respective nominees. But between the partisan speeches and celebrity appearances, the ambiance of the convention — created in part by the design of the stage each candidate spoke on and the signs held by audience members — underscored each party’s priorities headed into this year’s contentious election. A political scientist told Business Insider the stagecraft…

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How I’ve been convincing Christians they don’t have to vote Republican

How I’ve been convincing Christians they don’t have to vote Republican

Doug Pagitt writes: Central to our work at Vote Common Good, I spend a lot of my time traveling the country speaking to voters, particularly evangelical and Catholic voters who are hardwired into voting Republican, working to get them to break out of those patterns. What I’ve learned is that most don’t want or need their elected leader to be like them, but they really do want their leader to like them. It wasn’t clear that Secretary of State Hillary…

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Why Democrats are going big on housing despite the risks

Why Democrats are going big on housing despite the risks

Politico reports: California and San Francisco in particular have become the poster child for unaffordability, with expensive housing fueling waves of homelessness that burden city services and repel people and businesses. State lawmakers have responded, passing laws that streamline permits for affordable housing and banning single-unit zoning, an effort seen as critical to paving the way for more building. “America is not a museum,” San Francisco Mayor London Breed, who’s locked in a tough reelection race, said as Democrats gathered…

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Former U.S. army officer: Gaza war ‘wouldn’t have continued without us’

Former U.S. army officer: Gaza war ‘wouldn’t have continued without us’

  After 13 years in the US military, Harrison Mann resigned his position as an army intelligence officer in protest at how the US is handling the war on Gaza. This week on Real Talk we unpacked with Mann his decision, asking him about his thought process before submitting his resignation and the conversations he was having leading up to his decision. We also spoke about the relationship between the US and Israel when it comes to intelligence-sharing, and why…

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Telegram becomes free speech flashpoint after its founder, Pavel Durov, is arrested in France

Telegram becomes free speech flashpoint after its founder, Pavel Durov, is arrested in France

The New York Times reports: Telegram, founded in 2013 by the Russian entrepreneur Pavel Durov, has grown into one of the world’s largest online communication tools and is central to everyday life in countries like Russia, Ukraine and India for messaging, getting independent news and exchanging views. The company’s growth — it now has more than 900 million users — has been driven partly by a commitment to free speech. Telegram’s light oversight of what people say or do on…

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Ukraine has captured more than 200 Russian soldiers including conscripts with minimal fighting experience

Ukraine has captured more than 200 Russian soldiers including conscripts with minimal fighting experience

The Washington Post reports: Ukrainian forces have captured more than 240 Russian soldiers since their surprise invasion of Russia’s Kursk region this month, according to an analysis of visual evidence that includes mass detentions of young troops appearing to surrender without resistance. The Washington Post reviewed more than 130 photos and videos taken since the incursion began Aug. 6, most of which appear to have been filmed by Ukrainian soldiers and shared on social media. The analysis also included photos…

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Israeli society’s dehumanization of Palestinians is now absolute

Israeli society’s dehumanization of Palestinians is now absolute

Meron Rapoport writes: After every war in recent decades that Israelis have fought in, there have been public displays of remorse. This has often been criticized as a mentality of “shooting and crying” — but at least the soldiers were crying. Following the 1967 Six-Day War, the hugely successful book “The Seventh Day: Soldiers’ Talk about the Six-Day War” was published, containing testimonies from soldiers trying to grapple with the moral dilemmas they faced during the fighting. After the Sabra…

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Why is the DNC more willing to embrace Republicans than Democratic Palestinians?

Why is the DNC more willing to embrace Republicans than Democratic Palestinians?

  In this special episode of ‘Mehdi Unfiltered’, we’re at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, around the corner from the United Center, at the Palestinian-American owned OUD Coffee and Cafe. Mehdi is joined in this exclusive interview with prominent voices from the Uncommitted Movement – and just moments after it was revealed that the DNC would not be allowing a Palestinian to speak at the convention. Joining ‘Mehdi Unfiltered’ are co-chair of the Uncommitted Movement Layla Elabed, who briefly…

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Trump’s businesses rake in millions of dollars from Republican political campaigns – including his own

Trump’s businesses rake in millions of dollars from Republican political campaigns – including his own

CNN reports: Late last year, former President Donald Trump announced his endorsement of car dealership owner Bernie Moreno for Ohio’s Senate seat – elevating an untested candidate who’d never held public office over several other more prominent Republicans. Two days later, Moreno’s campaign spent about $17,000 at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, and then followed up by spending an additional $79,000 the next month – making him one of the Florida club’s top political spenders. He wasn’t alone. With glitzy Mar-a-Lago fundraisers,…

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Are Republicans losing the culture wars?

Are Republicans losing the culture wars?

Politico reports: Republicans are confronting a decisive moment in the battle over public education: proving they can still win a culture war. School board candidates backed by Moms for Liberty, a conservative vanguard whose members popularized restrictions on classroom library books, are losing elections in Florida and some swing states. Republican leaders who rallied against critical race theory and LGBTQ+ issues recently faced recalls in red pockets of California. And in the presidential race, Democrats are playing offense. This week’s…

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