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Category: Politics

Trump takes control of the RNC with mass layoffs, restructuring

Trump takes control of the RNC with mass layoffs, restructuring

The Washington Post reports: Former president Donald Trump took charge of the Republican National Committee this week with the political equivalent of shock and awe — leaving dozens out of work, revamping strategic priorities and raising fears among some former officials about the party’s future support for down-ballot candidates. The senior leadership has been almost entirely replaced or reassigned, while dozens of lower-ranking officials including state directors were either fired or told to reapply for their jobs. A nationwide network…

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‘Make the RNC white again’: GOP ends minority outreach program

‘Make the RNC white again’: GOP ends minority outreach program

The Daily Beast reports: After years of accusations of financial mismanagement, the Republican National Committee is overhauling its 2024 election operations—a full-on MAGA makeover that the RNC claims will curb excessive spending and steer as much money as possible to supporting Donald Trump’s campaign. But it appears that one of those strategic spending moves may have a profound effect on a successful minority outreach program, which two people with knowledge of the plans characterized as self-defeating, potentially erasing gains with…

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The West is still oblivious to Russia’s information war

The West is still oblivious to Russia’s information war

Ian Garner writes: A few weeks ago, a Russian autocrat addressed millions of Western citizens in a propaganda event that would have been unthinkable a generation ago—yet is so normal today as to be almost unremarkable. Tucker Carlson’s interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin has now been viewed more than 120 million times on YouTube and X, formerly known as Twitter. Despite the tedium of Putin’s two-hour-long lecture about an imaginary Russian and Ukrainian history, the streaming and promotion of…

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How China became the world’s leader on renewable energy

How China became the world’s leader on renewable energy

Isabel Hilton writes: Last November, Chinese climate envoy Xie Zhenhua and U.S. climate envoy John Kerry shook hands on a pledge to triple renewable energy globally by 2030. It was hailed as a welcome revival of climate cooperation between the world’s biggest and second-biggest emitters of greenhouse gases and offered hope that the two veteran climate negotiators had found a way through a blizzard of negative diplomatic exchanges to keep alive the prospects for greater global ambition on tackling climate…

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EU chief accuses Israel of using ‘starvation as a war arm’ in Gaza

EU chief accuses Israel of using ‘starvation as a war arm’ in Gaza

The Times of Israel reports: The European Union’s foreign policy chief accuses Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war and of blocking overland routes that are the best way to get food to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians facing famine in the Gaza Strip. Josep Borrell tells the UN Security Council that humanitarian assistance must get into Gaza where there is no natural disaster, flood or earthquake. “This is a man-made crisis,” Borrell says. “And when we look…

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In Israel’s war on children, more have been killed in four months than have died in four years of conflict around the world

In Israel’s war on children, more have been killed in four months than have died in four years of conflict around the world

Staggering. The number of children reported killed in just over 4 months in #Gaza is higher than the number of children killed in 4 years of wars around the world combined. This war is a war on children. It is a war on their childhood and their future.#ceasefireNow for the… pic.twitter.com/tYwSNHecpy — Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) March 12, 2024

Climate change matters to more and more people – and could be a deciding factor in the 2024 election

Climate change matters to more and more people – and could be a deciding factor in the 2024 election

Young people demonstrate ahead of a climate summit in New York in September 2023. Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images By Matt Burgess, University of Colorado Boulder If you ask American voters what their top issues are, most will point to kitchen-table issues like the economy, inflation, crime, health care or education. Fewer than 5% of respondents in 2023 and 2024 Gallup surveys said that climate change was the most important problem facing the country. Despite this, research that I conducted…

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Special prosecutor Hur admits telling Biden he seemed to have ‘photographic recall’

Special prosecutor Hur admits telling Biden he seemed to have ‘photographic recall’

HuffPost reports: Although special counsel Robert Hur impugned Joe Biden’s memory in his investigation over whether the president mishandled classified documents, he actually told Biden that he appeared “to have a photographic understanding and recall.” The comment, which appears in transcripts of Hur’s interviews with Biden, did not make it into Hur’s final report. Hur concluded in the report that Biden should not be charged over the documents, but made sure to mention his doubts about the president’s memory. But…

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New data explodes myth of crime wave fueled by migrants

New data explodes myth of crime wave fueled by migrants

Judd Legum and Tesnim Zekeria write: Republican politicians and sympathetic media outlets are claiming that America is in the midst of a violent “crime wave,” driven in part by undocumented immigrants. New data, however, demonstrates that there was not a spike in violent crime in 2023. Instead, across America, rates of violent crime are dropping precipitously — and the decline is especially pronounced in border states. In January 2024, the Republican National Committee claimed that “crime continues at historic highs…

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Startling study finds Americans struggle to differentiate facts from political opinions

Startling study finds Americans struggle to differentiate facts from political opinions

PsyPost reports: In the digital era, navigating the relentless surge of political information has become a daily challenge for Americans. Yet, a recent study spearheaded by scholars from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign reveals a concerning trend: many Americans find it difficult to differentiate between statements of fact and statements of opinion. This struggle poses significant implications for civic discourse and the ability to sift through political information effectively. The findings have been published by the Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation…

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U.S. intelligence report states Netanyahu’s viability to lead Israel is in jeopardy

U.S. intelligence report states Netanyahu’s viability to lead Israel is in jeopardy

CNN reports: The US intelligence community assesses Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “viability as a leader” to be “in jeopardy,” according to its annual report on the national security threats facing the United States that was presented to Congress on Monday. “Distrust of Netanyahu’s ability to rule has deepened and broadened across the public from its already high levels before the war, and we expect large protests demanding his resignation and new elections,” according to the report. “A different, more…

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Israeli human rights groups accuse country of failing to abide by ICJ’s Gaza aid ruling

Israeli human rights groups accuse country of failing to abide by ICJ’s Gaza aid ruling

The Guardian reports: Twelve of Israel’s most prominent human rights organisations have signed an open letter accusing the country of failing to comply with the international court of justice’s (ICJ) provisional ruling that it should facilitate access of humanitarian aid into Gaza. The court in The Hague made a number of legal requirements of Israel when it issued a provisional ruling in late January in response to South Africa’s complaint accusing the state of committing genocide in its military campaign…

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Biden’s Armageddon moment: When nuclear detonation seemed possible in Ukraine

Biden’s Armageddon moment: When nuclear detonation seemed possible in Ukraine

The New York Times reports: President Biden was standing in an Upper East Side townhouse owned by the businessman James Murdoch, the rebellious scion of the media empire, surrounded by liberal New York Democrats who had paid handsomely to come hear optimistic talk about the Biden agenda for the next few years. It was Oct. 6, 2022, but what they heard instead that evening was a disturbing message that — though Mr. Biden didn’t say so — came straight from…

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Claremont Institute’s links to extremist fraternal order

Claremont Institute’s links to extremist fraternal order

The Guardian reports: The president of the rightwing Claremont Institute and another senior Claremont official are both closely involved with the shadowy Society for American Civic Renewal (SACR), an exclusive, men-only fraternal order which aims to replace the US government with an authoritarian “aligned regime”, and which experts say is rooted in extreme Christian nationalism and religious autocracy. The revelations emerge from documents gathered in public records requests, including emails between several senior members of SACR: Claremont president Ryan P…

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Donald Trump won’t give ‘a penny’ to Ukraine if elected, Orbán says

Donald Trump won’t give ‘a penny’ to Ukraine if elected, Orbán says

Politico reports: Donald Trump will totally stop funding Ukraine if he wins the U.S. election in November, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said following a meeting between the right-wing figureheads. “He will not give a penny in the Ukraine-Russia war,” Orbán told Hungarian state media Sunday. “Therefore, the war will end, because it is obvious that Ukraine can not stand on its own feet.” The longtime allies met last Friday at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, a summit which was…

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Bloodbath at RNC: Trump team slashes staff at committee

Bloodbath at RNC: Trump team slashes staff at committee

Politico reports: Donald Trump’s newly installed leadership team at the Republican National Committee on Monday began the process of pushing out dozens of officials, according to two people close to the Trump campaign and the RNC. All told, the expectation is that more than 60 RNC staffers who work across the political, communications and data departments will be let go. Those being asked to resign include five members of the senior staff, though the names were not made public. Additionally,…

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