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Category: Politics

How not to negotiate with Russia

How not to negotiate with Russia

Dmytro Kuleba, the foreign minister of Ukraine, writes: As Russia’s total aggression on Ukraine nears its first year, some people in the United States and elsewhere in the West continue to suggest that Ukraine needs to engage in peace negotiations with Russia as soon as possible. They may have good intentions, but they don’t seem to recognize that Russia has not proposed any meaningful talks and remains focused on destroying Ukraine militarily. But there’s a bigger point that the “peace…

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Yevgeny Prigozhin has become Putin’s preeminent rival

Yevgeny Prigozhin has become Putin’s preeminent rival

Mikhail Zygar writes: President Vladimir Putin of Russia, it seems, has finally noticed that the war in Ukraine created a dangerous competitor to his power: Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the private military company, the Wagner group, whose troops fight alongside the Russian Army. Depending on your point of view, Mr. Prigozhin could be considered either the person of the year or the villain of the year. Mr. Putin is, according to many sources in Moscow, confident that he can…

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How Western companies make a fortune on brokering covert arms deals for Ukraine

How Western companies make a fortune on brokering covert arms deals for Ukraine

The Kyiv Independent reports: When Russia unleashed its all-out war in February last year, Ukraine urgently needed weapons and ammunition to defend itself. Desperate for arms, the country was ready to buy at any cost, a top-ranking Ukrainian official involved in the hunt for weapons in the first weeks of the war told the Kyiv Independent. European private arms dealers saw an opportunity and drove the prices of their services up. In one specific case, the Kyiv Independent and partners…

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Durham inquiry into Russia investigation veered into a criminal investigation related to Trump himself

Durham inquiry into Russia investigation veered into a criminal investigation related to Trump himself

The New York Times reports: By summer 2020, it was clear that the hunt for evidence supporting Mr. Barr’s hunch about intelligence abuses had failed. But he waited until after the 2020 election to publicly concede that there had turned out to be no sign of “foreign government activity” and that the C.I.A. had “stayed in its lane” after all. On one of Mr. Barr and Mr. Durham’s trips to Europe, according to people familiar with the matter, Italian officials…

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RNC is getting ready to dump Trump

RNC is getting ready to dump Trump

The New York Times reports: As Donald J. Trump prepares for his first public events since announcing his presidential campaign, dozens of members of the Republican Party’s governing body are expressing doubts about his ability to win back the White House and are calling for a competitive primary to produce a stronger nominee in 2024. The 168 members of the Republican National Committee are gathering in Southern California to select their own leader on Friday, and interviews this week with…

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Louisiana routinely overdetains inmates (sometimes called ‘slaves’), violating Constitution, U.S. says

Louisiana routinely overdetains inmates (sometimes called ‘slaves’), violating Constitution, U.S. says

The Washington Post reports: Louisiana correction authorities routinely confine thousands of inmates beyond their release dates each year, in violation of the Constitution and wasting taxpayer funds, the U.S. Justice Department said Wednesday. Overdetention is not unheard of in other states, nor in federal facilities, but the scale of Louisana’s actions — which the Justice Department attributed to state authorities being “deliberately indifferent” to “systemic” shortcomings — is significant. (If Louisiana were a country, it would have world’s most incarcerated…

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Timothy Snyder connects the dots: FBI, McGonigal, Manafort, Deripaska, Trump, and Putin

Timothy Snyder connects the dots: FBI, McGonigal, Manafort, Deripaska, Trump, and Putin

In a 20-tweet thread, Timothy Snyder outlines the timeline and connections that now scream out for further investigation following the indictment of Charles McGonigal, the former Special Agent in Charge (“SAC”) of FBI’s Counterintelligence Division in New York: In April 2016, I broke the story of Trump and Putin, using Russian open sources. Afterwards, I heard vague intimations that something was awry in the FBI in New York, specifically counter-intelligence and cyber. We now have a suggestion as to why….

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How Nick Fuentes groomed a new generation of racist hate

How Nick Fuentes groomed a new generation of racist hate

Mother Jones reports: Eight months before the white nationalist figure Nicholas J. Fuentes ignited a political firestorm by dining with Kanye West and Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, he strode out onstage to a crowd of what he claimed were 1,000 followers, chanting “America First.” Behind a podium, flanked by two American flags and one with that slogan, he hit his standard beats (the nation is in decline, Christ is king) while sprinkling in some extremely troubling riffs, like comparing Vladimir…

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The private angst over Donald Trump’s racist attacks on Elaine Chao goes public

The private angst over Donald Trump’s racist attacks on Elaine Chao goes public

Politico reports: Over the past several months, the leading Republican presidential candidate has launched a series of racist attacks on the wife of the Republican Party’s Senate leader, a woman who once served in his Cabinet. But while former President Donald Trump’s taunts at Elaine Chao — demeaning her as “Coco Chow” or a variation of Mitch McConnell’s “China-loving wife” — have been mostly met with silence from fellow GOP officials, the main target of them is now speaking out….

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The improbability of George Santos’ $199 expenses

The improbability of George Santos’ $199 expenses

Politico reports: Rep. George Santos’ congressional campaign reported dozens of transactions just cents below the threshold that would have triggered a requirement to preserve spending records — an unusual spending pattern that is now part of broader complaints about alleged financial improprieties. Santos, who admitted in December that he faked parts of his biography, already faces a complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission alleging his campaign repeatedly reported suspicious expenses. Those included eight charges of exactly $199.99 at an…

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Elon Musk bows to pressure from India to censor BBC documentary critical of Modi

Elon Musk bows to pressure from India to censor BBC documentary critical of Modi

The Intercept reports: Twitter and YouTube censored a report critical of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in coordination with the government of India. Officials called for the Big Tech companies to take action against a BBC documentary exploring Modi’s role in a genocidal 2002 massacre in the Indian state of Gujarat, which the officials deemed a “propaganda piece.” In a series of posts, Kanchan Gupta, senior adviser at the Indian government’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, denounced the BBC documentary…

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Archives weighs asking past presidents, VPs to look for classified items

Archives weighs asking past presidents, VPs to look for classified items

The Washington Post reports: The National Archives is weighing whether to ask living former presidents and vice presidents to review their personal records to verify that no classified materials are inadvertently outstanding, according to two people familiar with the discussions who spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail private conversations. The deliberation comes after the discovery and return of a limited number of records bearing classified markings in recent weeks at President Biden’s home and a think tank bearing…

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Germany and U.S. poised to send battle tanks to Ukraine

Germany and U.S. poised to send battle tanks to Ukraine

Politico reports: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is set to announce the delivery of German Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine on Wednesday, two officials with knowledge of the matter told POLITICO. That decision is a significant U-turn and potentially a decisive moment in the war as it should pave the way for a broader coalition of countries to send battle tanks to the frontlines against the Russian invaders. As Leopard 2 tanks are made in Germany, Berlin has to give its…

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Pence and Biden demonstrate how to handle mishandled classified documents

Pence and Biden demonstrate how to handle mishandled classified documents

Politico reports: The Justice Department has taken possession of a “small number” of documents with classified markings that former Vice President Mike Pence found in his Indiana residence earlier this month, according to Greg Jacob, the custodian of Pence’s White House records. In a Jan. 22 letter to the National Archives, Jacob indicated that FBI agents came to Pence’s Indiana home on the night of Jan. 19 to retrieve documents that the former vice president had located a few days…

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Former South Carolina governor and UN ambassador, Nikki Haley, gears up for likely 2024 run for president

Former South Carolina governor and UN ambassador, Nikki Haley, gears up for likely 2024 run for president

CNBC reports: Nikki Haley, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under former President Donald Trump, has hired key staff and is canvassing potential donors as she explores a presidential run against her former boss in 2024, according to people briefed on her plans. Haley is putting together a national finance committee and communications team in advance of a potential campaign, these people explained. Some of the new hires have been directed to report for work at Haley’s nonprofit…

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Mike Pompeo dismisses murder of Jamal Khashoggi by saying such crimes are ‘routine’ in Middle East

Mike Pompeo dismisses murder of Jamal Khashoggi by saying such crimes are ‘routine’ in Middle East

In response to comments reportedly made by Mike Pompeo in his new memoir, Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) issued the following statement: “Pompeo’s crass and craven comments appearing to justify Jamal Khashoggi’s murder by disparaging his political views and falsely associating them with terrorism mirror the same justifications Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) and other tyrants use to excuse their crimes,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Executive Director of DAWN. “It is despicable that a senior American official is suggesting…

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