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Category: Politics

Western allies take note: If you want to beat Putin in Ukraine, target Lukashenko in Belarus

Western allies take note: If you want to beat Putin in Ukraine, target Lukashenko in Belarus

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya writes: Last week, residents of Machulishchy were intrigued as soldiers and police swarmed across their small town on the edge of Minsk, the capital of Belarus. Cordons and checkpoints were hastily erected for miles around the local airbase, which has played host to Russia’s forces during its abominable war against Ukraine. It was clear to anyone out and about on that frosty winter morning that Belarusian security services – known as the KGB – were panicking. The Belarusian…

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Clearly identified legal observer hit with domestic terrorism charges after mass ‘Cop City’ arrests

Clearly identified legal observer hit with domestic terrorism charges after mass ‘Cop City’ arrests

The Daily Beast reports: A legal observer with the National Lawyers Guild was arrested and charged with domestic terrorism while monitoring a Sunday night demonstration against an Atlanta police training facility that opponents have dubbed “Cop City.” Thomas Jurgens is an attorney with the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the civil-rights group confirmed on Monday. Jurgens also works with the National Lawyers Guild, which monitors protests. Jurgens was acting as a legal observer at the time of his arrest in…

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Tucker Carlson used selective January 6 video footage to try and gaslight America

Tucker Carlson used selective January 6 video footage to try and gaslight America

Eric Lutz writes: You know what happened on January 6, 2021. You probably watched it on television that day, when Donald Trump agitated a mob of angry, armed supporters to storm the Capitol. They battled officers, busted through windows, and roved through the halls of Congress, some of them chanting the names of Nancy Pelosi and Mike Pence. You saw terrified lawmakers, some of whom had helped fan the flames of the insurrection and would later side with it, seeking…

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Indigenous knowledge is key to sustainable food systems

Indigenous knowledge is key to sustainable food systems

Alexandre Antonelli writes: I grew up in Campinas, a city in southeast Brazil. The apples there, cultivated from European varieties since the 1960s, tasted sweet. But, given the choice, I would always pick papayas grown in our garden. My father, who knew that growing a temperate fruit tree in a tropical country seldom worked, instead filled our garden with tropical ones, including two varieties of papaya. Meanwhile, drawing on knowledge from her Indigenous roots, my mother grew all sorts of…

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America faces a type of extremist violence it doesn’t know how to stop

America faces a type of extremist violence it doesn’t know how to stop

Adrienne LaFrance writes: In the weeks before Labor Day 2020, Ted Wheeler, the mayor of Portland, Oregon, began warning people that he believed someone would soon be killed by extremists in his city. Portland was preparing for the 100th consecutive day of conflict among anti-police protesters, right-wing counterprotesters, and the police themselves. Night after night, hundreds of people clashed in the streets. They attacked one another with baseball bats, Tasers, bear spray, fireworks. They filled balloons with urine and marbles…

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As Trump inquiry continues, Republicans seek oversight of Georgia prosecutors

As Trump inquiry continues, Republicans seek oversight of Georgia prosecutors

The New York Times reports: To Fani T. Willis, the district attorney in Atlanta, several bills in the Georgia legislature that would make it easier to remove local prosecutors are racist and perhaps retaliatory for her ongoing investigation of former President Donald J. Trump. To the Republican sponsors of the bills, they are simply a way to ensure that prosecutors enforce the laws of the state, whether they agree with them or not. Two of the measures under consideration would…

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Ukrainian soldiers in Bakhmut: ‘Our troops are not being protected’

Ukrainian soldiers in Bakhmut: ‘Our troops are not being protected’

The Kyiv Independent reports: Russia’s relentless assault on Bakhmut is sacrificing waves and waves of unprepared men being sent to their deaths. But multiple defenders of this embattled city in Donetsk Oblast feel that they are in a similar boat, according to interviews with more than a dozen soldiers currently fighting in or around Bakhmut. During their brief visits to the nearby town of Kostiantynivka, Ukrainian infantrymen told the Kyiv Independent of unprepared, poorly-trained battalions being thrown into the front…

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Inside the suspicion machine making life-changing decisions about millions of people around the world

Inside the suspicion machine making life-changing decisions about millions of people around the world

Wired reports: Every year, the city of Rotterdam in the Netherlands gives some 30,000 people welfare benefits to help them make rent, buy food, and pay essential bills. And every year, thousands of those people are investigated under suspicion of committing benefits fraud. But in recent years, the way that people have been flagged as suspicious has changed. In 2017, the city deployed a machine learning algorithm built by consulting firm Accenture. The algorithm, which generates a risk score for…

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Homeland Security has a program gathering domestic intelligence — and virtually no one knows about it

Homeland Security has a program gathering domestic intelligence — and virtually no one knows about it

Politico reports: For years, the Department of Homeland Security has run a virtually unknown program gathering domestic intelligence, one of many revelations in a wide-ranging tranche of internal documents reviewed by POLITICO. Those documents also reveal that a significant number of employees in DHS’s intelligence office have raised concerns that the work they are doing could be illegal. Under the domestic-intelligence program, officials are allowed to seek interviews with just about anyone in the United States. That includes people held…

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Putin has assembled an axis of autocrats against Ukraine

Putin has assembled an axis of autocrats against Ukraine

Justin Daniels writes: Russia isn’t fighting Ukraine alone. Alongside its soldiers are African conscripts, supported by Iranian drones and partly funded by stolen gold and diamonds. They may soon be joined by “lethal support” from China, according to U.S. officials. For these vital contributions, Russian President Vladimir Putin can thank his fellow autocrats. And he’s returning the favor: Despite the invasion’s heavy toll on Russia, he still sends resources to other embattled dictators. Autocrats, like democrats, are finding that war offers them…

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Finland on cusp of joining NATO, but maybe not with Sweden

Finland on cusp of joining NATO, but maybe not with Sweden

The New York Times reports: Finland’s Parliament on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed all the legislation necessary for joining NATO, subject only to the ratification of its bid by the Parliaments of Turkey and Hungary. Finland and Sweden had pledged to enter the alliance “hand in hand,” but Sweden’s application has been held up by Turkey. So if Turkey and Hungary soon approve the Finns’ application, as is expected, Finland will join NATO even without its Nordic partner. In Finland’s 200-member Parliament,…

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Israel Air Force reserve fighter pilots refuse to attend training in protest of judicial overhaul

Israel Air Force reserve fighter pilots refuse to attend training in protest of judicial overhaul

The Jerusalem Post reports: Thirty-seven reservist fighter pilots out of the 40 stationed at the Israel Air Force’s 69th fighter squadron have declared their intention not to turn up for regular training flights on Wednesday in protest of the government’s judicial overhaul. The reservists, who fly the strategic F-15i that is capable of attacking distant targets in the region, announced their decision on Sunday to the senior commanders of the IAF and to their squadron commander. Instead of training, they…

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The sad, desolate scenes of CPAC 2023

The sad, desolate scenes of CPAC 2023

Laura Jedeed writes: “It’s so great to see everyone here, and it’s so great to see a packed house, too!” It is approximately 11:15 AM in Washington DC, and investigative reporter Sara Carter is lying. The house is never crowded this early on the first day of CPAC, but even by those standards the Potomac Ballroom looks grim. The camera responsible for providing close-in crowd shots that CPAC likes to work into their livestream footage is working hard to stay…

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Fox News bosses scolded reporters who challenged false election claims

Fox News bosses scolded reporters who challenged false election claims

The Washington Post reports: As a reporter and an anchor for Fox News watched Donald Trump supporters gather at a rally in Washington, D.C., after his election defeat in November 2020, they both had some questions. Many in the crowd, said correspondent Rich Edson, “are picking up on the president’s unfounded claim that there was widespread electoral interference and that the election was stolen — no proof of that.” “What do these folks want?” wondered weekend anchor Leland Vittert. “Is…

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Ocean treaty: Historic agreement reached after decade of talks

Ocean treaty: Historic agreement reached after decade of talks

BBC News reports: Nations have reached a historic agreement to protect the world’s oceans following 10 years of negotiations. The High Seas Treaty aims to place 30% of the seas into protected areas by 2030, to safeguard and recuperate marine nature. The agreement was reached on Saturday evening, after 38 hours of talks, at UN headquarters in New York. The negotiations had been held up for years over disagreements on funding and fishing rights. The last international agreement on ocean…

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Biden’s triumphant visit to Kyiv gives way to a sober war reality

Biden’s triumphant visit to Kyiv gives way to a sober war reality

Politico reports: Last week, President Joe Biden traveled to Kyiv as an act of defiance meant to mark the one-year anniversary of the war in Ukraine. This week, back in Washington, grimmer realities are setting in. Biden will host German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at the White House on Friday in what will be, on the surface, another display of Western unity with Ukraine as it repels Russia’s punishing invasion. But the show of solidarity comes against a backdrop of growing…

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