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Category: Politics

Navalny’s body not in morgue where authorities said it was, aides say

Navalny’s body not in morgue where authorities said it was, aides say

The Moscow Times reports: Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s body is not in the morgue where authorities said it was brought after his death, his team announced Saturday. “Alexei’s lawyer and his mother have arrived at the Salekhard morgue. It’s closed, however, the colony has assured them it’s working and Navalny’s body is there,” Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said on X, formerly Twitter. “The lawyer called the phone number which was on the door. He was told he was the seventh…

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Kremlin runs disinformation campaign to undermine Zelensky, documents show

Kremlin runs disinformation campaign to undermine Zelensky, documents show

The Washington Post reports: When news first emerged last month that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was preparing to fire his top military commander, Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, officials in Moscow seemed jubilant. They had been trying to orchestrate just such a split for many months, documents show. “We need to strengthen the conflict between Zaluzhny and Zelensky, along the lines of ‘he intends to fire him,’” one Kremlin political strategist wrote a year ago, after a meeting of senior Russian officials…

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Biden administration is said to slow early stage of shift to electric cars

Biden administration is said to slow early stage of shift to electric cars

The New York Times reports: In a concession to automakers and labor unions, the Biden administration intends to relax elements of one of its most ambitious strategies to combat climate change, limits on tailpipe emissions that are designed to get Americans to switch from gas-powered cars to electric vehicles, according to three people familiar with the plan. Instead of essentially requiring automakers to rapidly ramp up sales of electric vehicles over the next few years, the administration would give car…

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Why Trump’s sleaziest criminal case is so important

Why Trump’s sleaziest criminal case is so important

David Corn writes: Since the beginning of Donald Trump’s indictment-o-rama, the politerati have considered the criminal case filed in New York City against the former president by District Attorney Alvin Bragg to be a sideshow. Though this case has key elements of a bona fide scandal—porn star! hush money! alleged extramarital affair!—pundits and politicos have struck a dismissive attitude toward Trump’s Stormy Daniels mess and the legal peril it poses him. Perhaps because it’s not as weighty a matter as…

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In New York, the Trump brand is costing some condo owners

In New York, the Trump brand is costing some condo owners

The New York Times reports: In the world of real estate, Donald J. Trump’s name has long been synonymous with luxury. At one of his buildings in Manhattan, a five-story waterfall slides down a wall of Breccia Perniche marble. White-gloved doormen, cascading chandeliers and panoramic views of the city’s skyline are the hallmarks of another. It’s that image of luxury, which he turned into a brand, that the former president held up as a rebuttal to the recent lawsuit that…

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As G7 expresses ‘deep concern’ for Palestinians in Rafah, Biden prepares to send Israel more bombs

As G7 expresses ‘deep concern’ for Palestinians in Rafah, Biden prepares to send Israel more bombs

A statement by the G7 Foreign Ministers which has thus far not been reported by a single U.S. outlet, says: [The foreign ministers including U.S. Secretary of State Blinken] called for urgent action to address the catastrophic humanitarian crisis in Gaza, particularly the plight of 1.5 million civilians sheltering in Rafah and they expressed deep concern for the potentially devastating consequences on the civilian population of Israel’s further full scale military operation in that area. They underscored that securing full,…

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National security experts criticize Biden’s handling of classified documents

National security experts criticize Biden’s handling of classified documents

NBC News reports: The controversy over special counsel Robert Hur’s characterization of President Joe Biden’s memory has obscured one of the most surprising findings in his report: evidence that Biden knowingly kept classified materials at home for years and failed to turn them in. After a yearlong investigation, Hur found that the evidence of “willful retention” — the language in the criminal statute — wasn’t strong enough to justify a prosecution. And he explained in detail why the criminal charges…

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NY governor expresses support for Israel’s destruction of Gaza but then apologizes for ‘poor choice of words’

NY governor expresses support for Israel’s destruction of Gaza but then apologizes for ‘poor choice of words’

Reuters reports: New York Governor Kathy Hochul on Friday apologized for remarks she made at a Jewish philanthropy event in New York City that went viral on social media and which suggested Israel had justification to destroy Gaza following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. “If Canada someday ever attacked Buffalo, I’m sorry, my friends, there would be no Canada the next day,” Hochul said in a portion of her speech on Thursday at an event for the United Jewish Appeal-Federation…

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Trump allies plan new sweeping abortion restrictions

Trump allies plan new sweeping abortion restrictions

The New York Times reports: Allies of former President Donald J. Trump and officials who served in his administration are planning ways to restrict abortion rights if he returns to power that would go far beyond proposals for a national ban or the laws enacted in conservative states across the country. Behind the scenes, specific anti-abortion plans being proposed by Mr. Trump’s allies are sweeping and legally sophisticated. Some of their proposals would rely on enforcing the Comstock Act, a…

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Can Trump pay? What if he doesn’t? Here’s what to know about Trump’s massive civil judgments

Can Trump pay? What if he doesn’t? Here’s what to know about Trump’s massive civil judgments

Politico reports: A seven-figure verdict, an eight-figure verdict and, now, a nine-figure verdict. Donald Trump has been hit with all three in the past nine months, with Friday’s $354 million penalty for New York business fraud by far the most massive. He is now on the hook for over $440 million in civil judgments as he heads toward the Republican nomination — and as he prepares for one or more criminal trials this year. Those criminal cases could put him…

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Trump is suddenly in need of a lot of cash. That’s everyone’s problem

Trump is suddenly in need of a lot of cash. That’s everyone’s problem

Vox reports: Two recent verdicts have now left Donald Trump on the hook for nearly half a billion dollars. On Friday, a New York judge handed the former president a $355 million penalty, and banned him from serving in a leadership position in any business in New York for three years, for fraudulently inflating his net worth to lenders in order to receive more favorable loan agreements. And in January, a Manhattan jury ordered Trump to pay the writer E….

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Why Russia killed Navalny

Why Russia killed Navalny

Anne Applebaum writes: Alexei Navalny returned to Russia in January 2021. Right before he boarded the plane, he posted a film titled “Putin’s Palace: The Story of the World’s Largest Bribe” on YouTube. The video, nearly two hours long, was an extraordinary feat of investigative reporting. Using secret plans, drone footage, 3-D visualizations, and the testimony of construction workers, Navalny’s video told the story of a hideous $1.3 billion Black Sea villa containing every luxury that a dictator could imagine:…

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Long opposed to exile, Alexei Navalny dies a prisoner in a dark and dangerous Russia

Long opposed to exile, Alexei Navalny dies a prisoner in a dark and dangerous Russia

Shaun Walker writes: For years, Alexei Navalny remained clear on a key message: he was a Russian opposition politician and he was determined to stay in Russia. Exile, he believed, would lead to political irrelevance, and calling on Russians to oppose Vladimir Putin from the safety of the west would mark him as a hypocrite. Navalny stuck to this belief as the political climate in Russia deteriorated and the space for dissent narrowed ever further, and even after he was…

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Responses to Alexei Navalny’s murder

Responses to Alexei Navalny’s murder

The last video of @navalny from yesterday’s court hearing. As you can see, he is in good spirits, joking and making cracks, and apparently healthy. https://t.co/c6pHRSEBWJ — Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) February 16, 2024 The contrast between the journalists who chronicled Navalny's poisoning, particularly @bellingcat, taking huge risks to expose the truth, and @TuckerCarlson's craven, whimpering, regime propaganda was never starker than today. — Edward Luce (@EdwardGLuce) February 16, 2024 Q: In your interview with Putin, you didn’t talk about freedom…

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Photojournalist Motaz Azaiza: ‘The ghosts of Gaza follow me everywhere’

Photojournalist Motaz Azaiza: ‘The ghosts of Gaza follow me everywhere’

The Guardian reports: Motaz Azaiza should have been dead by now. Death stalked the streets of Deir al-Balah where he grew up, long before Israel’s assault on Gaza. There had been close encounters in the past; as a teen he was once shot by an Israeli sniper. When Israel launched its offensive in Gaza after the 7 October Hamas attacks, Azaiza picked up his camera and headed to the frontlines. Despite his clearly marked press vest, in December he narrowly…

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Plastics reckoning: PVC is ubiquitous, but maybe not for long

Plastics reckoning: PVC is ubiquitous, but maybe not for long

Nicola Jones writes: The word “vinyl” might sound innocuous, bringing to mind everyday items like LP records, flooring, pipes, or shiny plastic pants. The plastic this name refers to — polyvinyl chloride (PVC) — is the world’s third-most widely produced synthetic polymer, with more than 50 million tons cranked out each year for everything from window frames to food wrap, fake leather car seats to medical products. It’s everywhere. But environmentalists and NGOs have been raising alarms about PVC for…

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