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Category: Politics

FBI disrupts Russian hacking tool used to steal information from foreign governments

FBI disrupts Russian hacking tool used to steal information from foreign governments

CNN reports: The FBI announced Tuesday that it has disrupted a network of hacked computers that Russian spies have used for years to steal sensitive information from at least 50 countries, including NATO governments. The action appears to be a major blow to Russia’s domestic intelligence service, the FSB, which has allegedly used the sophisticated hacking tool to infiltrate US and Western diplomatic and military agencies for nearly two decades. It’s the latest move by the Justice Department to more…

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The U.S. silence on Israeli nuclear weapons and the right-wing Israeli government

The U.S. silence on Israeli nuclear weapons and the right-wing Israeli government

Victor Gilinsky writes: The Israeli protests against its new right-wing government have now touched on Israel’s nuclear weapons. To underline what is at stake, former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak cast aside Israeli ambiguity over whether it possesses nuclear weapons to warn his compatriots that Western diplomats are worried that a Jewish messianic dictatorship could gain control over Israel’s nuclear weapons. One thing we can be sure of is that the United States was not officially represented among those Western…

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Arab League votes to readmit Syria, ending a nearly 12-year suspension

Arab League votes to readmit Syria, ending a nearly 12-year suspension

The New York Times reports: Arab nations agreed on Sunday to allow Syria to rejoin the Arab League, taking a crucial step toward ending the country’s international ostracism more than a decade after it was suspended from the group over its use of ruthless force against its own people. When Syria’s neighbors and peers ejected it from the 22-member league in November 2011, months after its Arab Spring uprising began, the move was seen as a key condemnation of a…

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Declaring the debt ceiling unconstitutional is risky, Biden aides fear

Declaring the debt ceiling unconstitutional is risky, Biden aides fear

The Washington Post reports: Senior White House officials see enormous risks in trying to resolve the debt ceiling impasse without Congress, viewing the unilateral measures floated by some academics only as emergency measures of last resort, according to three people with knowledge of internal conversations. As they have for months, Biden aides have recently been evaluating a wide range of proposals for acting on the debt limit without the consent of Congress — particularly by invoking the 14th Amendment of…

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Why I changed my mind on the debt limit

Why I changed my mind on the debt limit

Laurence H. Tribe writes: At this moment, at the White House as well as the Departments of Treasury and Justice, officials are debating a legal theory that previous presidents and any number of legal experts — including me — ruled out in 2011, when the Obama administration confronted a default. The theory builds on Section 4 of the 14th Amendment to argue that Congress, without realizing it, set itself on a path that would violate the Constitution when, in 1917, it capped the size of the…

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Under the radar, Republicans push significant voting restrictions

Under the radar, Republicans push significant voting restrictions

The New York Times reports: The first recent wave of legislation tightening voting laws came in 2021, when Donald J. Trump’s false claims of voter fraud spurred Republican lawmakers to act over loud objections from Democrats. Two years later, a second wave is steadily moving ahead, but largely under the radar. Propelled by a new coalition of Trump allies, Republican-led legislatures have continued to pass significant restrictions on access to the ballot, including new limits to voting by mail in…

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EPA’s car pollution rules would save Americans trillions of dollars

EPA’s car pollution rules would save Americans trillions of dollars

Yale Climate Connections reports: Electric vehicle (EV) sales are surging in many countries around the world, including the United States. According to the Department of Energy, EVs accounted for just 1% of new U.S. car sales in 2017. That share surpassed 3% in 2021 and approached 6% in 2022. Though the U.S. remains well below the global average EV share of new car sales, which exceeded 14% in 2022, the American market is catching up fast. According to an analysis of global markets…

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Why Texas, a clean energy powerhouse, is about to hit the brakes

Why Texas, a clean energy powerhouse, is about to hit the brakes

The Washington Post reports: Already No. 1 in wind power, and home to a fast-growing solar industry, Texas is poised to become a renewable energy powerhouse — timely because President Biden’s climate bill is about to deliver billions in subsidies. But instead of embracing the green boom, Texas’ Republican-controlled legislature has introduced a spate of bills that could slow the growth of wind and solar industries, which has their leaders alarmed. “Every state has legislation related to the placement of…

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A ‘nervousness never seen before’ hits Moscow before Victory Day parades

A ‘nervousness never seen before’ hits Moscow before Victory Day parades

The Observer reports: When Vladimir Putin takes to the stage on Tuesday to commemorate the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany, his speech on Red Square will have been preceded by a turbulent week in which drones attacked the Kremlin and one of his top war leaders threatened mutiny. The dramatic footage early last Wednesday of two drones flying over the walls of the Kremlin, its historical seat of power, exposed vulnerabilities in the heart of the Russian capital, putting Moscow…

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Gunman in Texas mall shooting may have had neo-Nazi beliefs

Gunman in Texas mall shooting may have had neo-Nazi beliefs

The Washington Post reports: The gunman who opened fire on an outlet mall in a Dallas suburb Saturday, killing at least eight people, was a man in his early 30s who may have had white supremacist or neo-Nazi beliefs, people familiar with the investigation said Sunday. Mauricio Garcia, a local resident, had multiple weapons on him and in his nearby car, said people familiar with the investigation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing probe. Authorities…

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Arizona official targeted by election deniers now struggles with PTSD

Arizona official targeted by election deniers now struggles with PTSD

The Washington Post reports: Anger and resentment welled inside the local leader as he surveyed the mourners at his friend’s funeral reception last year. Bill Gates, 51, a lifelong Republican elected to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, stood with his wife and a friend and ticked off the names of those gathered around them who had betrayed him, their party and their country. Gates stewed that they had done nothing as he and other leaders in Arizona’s most populous…

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Middle Eastern autocrats are abetting China’s transnational repression of Uyghurs

Middle Eastern autocrats are abetting China’s transnational repression of Uyghurs

Bradley Jardine writes: In a display of China’s growing political influence in the Islamic world, leaders from 32 Muslim-majority countries flew to Xinjiang last year, in northwestern China, for a conference showcasing the region’s supposed economic and social development. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the attendees expressed that “freedom of religious belief and various rights of Muslims are duly guaranteed” and that the reality in Xinjiang “is completely different from what some Western media reported,” a veiled reference…

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Rights groups condemn ‘alarming’ police arrests of coronation protesters

Rights groups condemn ‘alarming’ police arrests of coronation protesters

The Washington Post reports: Human rights groups and politicians in Britain are criticizing the law enforcement response to King Charles III’s coronation, following the Metropolitan Police’s arrests of dozens of demonstrators during Saturday’s pageantry. Republic, an anti-monarchy group that organized a protest in central London during the coronation, said police arrested six of its members, including leader Graham Smith, and seized hundreds of placards even before its event began. Smith, who said he was released from police custody later that…

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Proud Boys step up activity after Jan. 6 attack, despite criminal convictions

Proud Boys step up activity after Jan. 6 attack, despite criminal convictions

The Wall Street Journal reports: The Proud Boys organization has expanded its reach since Jan. 6, 2021, researchers say, withstanding criminal prosecutions and lawsuits against members who joined in the breach of the U.S. Capitol. The group’s former chairman, Enrique Tarrio, and three lieutenants were found guilty of sedition charges on Thursday. The historic verdict followed a lengthy jury trial in Washington’s federal courthouse, just steps from the Capitol complex stormed by Proud Boys and other supporters of then-President Donald…

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DOJ cites threats to democracy on Jan. 6 in push for steep Oath Keepers sentences

DOJ cites threats to democracy on Jan. 6 in push for steep Oath Keepers sentences

Politico reports: Prosecutors are seeking the most severe sentence yet in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol — a 25-year prison term — for the founder and leader of the far-right Oath Keepers militia, characterizing it as a necessary punishment to deter future attacks against democracy. The Justice Department says Stewart Rhodes and his allies were among the most significant drivers of the violence that unfolded at the Capitol, amassing a stockpile of weapons nearby in Virginia…

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War, weapons and conspiracy theories: Inside Airman Teixeira’s online world

War, weapons and conspiracy theories: Inside Airman Teixeira’s online world

The New York Times reports: Jack Teixeira, the Air National Guardsman implicated in a vast leak of classified documents, was fixated on weapons, mass shootings, shadowy conspiracy theories — and proving he was in the right, and in the know. Even as he relished the respectability and access to intelligence he gained through his military service and top secret clearance, he seethed with contempt about the government, accusing the United States of a host of secret, nefarious activities: making biological…

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