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Category: Politics

Twitter is complying with more government demands under Elon Musk

Twitter is complying with more government demands under Elon Musk

Rest of World reports: It’s been exactly six months since Elon Musk took over Twitter, promising a new era of free speech and independence from political bias. But Twitter’s self-reported data shows that, under Musk, the company has complied with hundreds more government orders for censorship or surveillance — especially in countries such as Turkey and India. The data, drawn from Twitter’s reports to the Lumen database, shows that between October 27, 2022 and April 26, 2023, Twitter received a…

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Trump could definitely beat Biden

Trump could definitely beat Biden

Eric Levitz writes: Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 Republican primary is not certain. But it now looks more than merely likely. The former president boasts more than twice as much support as Ron DeSantis, leading the Florida governor by a 51-to-24 percent margin in FiveThirtyEight’s average of GOP primary polls. No other candidate is polling above 6 percent. And the gap between Trump and DeSantis has been growing steadily wider for weeks. Indeed, the Viktor Orbán of the Sunshine State appears to be wilting beneath the…

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This is what the right-wing takeover of a progressive college looks like

This is what the right-wing takeover of a progressive college looks like

Michelle Goldberg writes: When I first met Matthew Lepinski, the faculty chair of New College of Florida, he was willing to give the right-wingers sent to remake his embattled progressive public school a chance. This was in January, a few weeks after Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida appointed six activist conservatives, including the culture war strategist Chris Rufo, to New College’s board of trustees. Rufo, the ideological entrepreneur who made critical race theory a Republican boogeyman, was open about his…

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Inside Russia’s environmental influence operation targeting the Baltic Sea

Inside Russia’s environmental influence operation targeting the Baltic Sea

Michael Weiss and Holger Roonemaa report: In the first few days of October 2022, a group of Russians and Belarusians gathered in the Kaliningrad resort town of Svetlogorsk. The politicians, academics and activists discussed how the two countries, “truly striving for stability across the planet,” might resist the suite of international sanctions hitting both Russia and Belarus after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. One of the Svetlogorsk event’s most authoritative speakers was Alexander Dynkin, president of the prestigious Primakov National Research…

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Russian pilots tried to ‘dogfight’ U.S. jets over Syria, U.S. Central Command says

Russian pilots tried to ‘dogfight’ U.S. jets over Syria, U.S. Central Command says

CNN reports: Russian pilots tried to “dogfight” US jets over Syria, according to a spokesman for US Central Command, part of a recent pattern of more aggressive behavior. The attempts have happened in several of the most recent instances of aggressive behavior from Russian pilots, Col. Joe Buccino said. The Russian pilots do not appear to be trying to shoot down American jets, a US official told CNN, but they may be trying to “provoke” the US and “draw us…

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Chief Justice’s wife, Jane Roberts, made $10.3 million in commissions from elite law firms, whistleblower documents show

Chief Justice’s wife, Jane Roberts, made $10.3 million in commissions from elite law firms, whistleblower documents show

Insider reports: Two years after John Roberts’ confirmation as the Supreme Court’s chief justice in 2005, his wife, Jane Sullivan Roberts, made a pivot. After a long and distinguished career as a lawyer, she refashioned herself as a legal recruiter, a matchmaker who pairs job-hunting lawyers up with corporations and firms. Roberts told a friend that the change was motivated by a desire to avoid the appearance of conflicts of interest, given that her husband was now the highest-ranking judge…

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Biden’s ‘freedom’ campaign taps into broad opposition to book banning

Biden’s ‘freedom’ campaign taps into broad opposition to book banning

Politico reports: Presidential campaigns often are waged on whether or not the country is ready to “turn the page.” President Joe Biden wants his reelection bid to hinge on whether or not there is a page to turn. The president’s team has made the issue of book banning a surprisingly central element of his campaign’s opening salvos. He referred to GOP efforts to restrict curriculum — Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye” was the third most banned title in America last…

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In NH stop, Trump embraces woman convicted in Jan. 6 case

In NH stop, Trump embraces woman convicted in Jan. 6 case

The Washington Post reports: Former president Donald Trump on Thursday praised and embraced a woman convicted of defying police orders on the U.S. Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, 2021. “Listen, you just hang in there,” Trump told the woman, Micki Larson-Olson, who was found guilty on a misdemeanor charge of resisting police efforts to clear the grounds after the insurrection by a pro-Trump mob. “You guys are gonna be okay.” Trump, who was campaigning here in New Hampshire, then agreed…

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Denied a gun license over school threat, accused leaker Jack Teixeira later got top-secret clearance

Denied a gun license over school threat, accused leaker Jack Teixeira later got top-secret clearance

The Wall Street Journal reports: As a high-school student, the Air National Guardsman charged with leaking classified intelligence documents admitted he made violent threats that prevented him from getting a firearms license. Two years later, however, he secured a top-secret security clearance. The episode, which was reported to local police, was one of several that Airman First Class Jack Teixeira of the Massachusetts Air National Guard admitted had been problematic—to authorities weighing his application for a gun license, to investigators…

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A second firm hired by Trump campaign found no evidence of election fraud

A second firm hired by Trump campaign found no evidence of election fraud

The Washington Post reports: Former president Trump’s campaign quietly commissioned a second firm to study election fraud claims in the weeks after the 2020 election, and the founder of the firm was recently questioned by the Justice Department about his work disproving the claims. Ken Block, founder of the firm Simpatico Software Systems, studied more than a dozen voter fraud theories and allegations for Trump’s campaign in late 2020 and found they were “all false,” he said in an interview…

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Founder of the We Build The Wall group linked to Steve Bannon is sentenced to 4 years

Founder of the We Build The Wall group linked to Steve Bannon is sentenced to 4 years

NPR reports: The co-founder of a fundraising group linked to Steve Bannon that promised to help Donald Trump construct a wall along the southern U.S. border was sentenced to four years and three months in prison on Wednesday for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from donors. Brian Kolfage, a decorated Air Force veteran who lost both of his legs and an arm in the Iraq War, previously pleaded guilty for his role in siphoning donations from the We Build…

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The coming Biden blowout

The coming Biden blowout

David Frum writes: The Republican plan for 2024 is already failing, and the party leadership can see it and knows it. There was no secret to a more intelligent and intentional Republican plan for 2024. It would have gone like this: (1) Replace Donald Trump at the head of the ticket with somebody less obnoxious and impulsive. (2) Capitalize on inflation and other economic troubles. (3) Offer plausible ideas on drugs, crime, and border enforcement. (4) Reassure women worried about…

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Trump at risk of being jailed for contempt

Trump at risk of being jailed for contempt

Politico reports: The federal judge overseeing the civil trial in which Donald Trump is accused of rape admonished the former president for a social media post in which he called the lawsuit “a made up SCAM.” Trump could be “tampering with a new source of potential liability,” U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan told one of Trump’s lawyers in court on Wednesday. [Continue reading…] Commentary from former federal prosecutor, Harry Litman:  

The real reason for the Supreme Court’s corruption crisis

The real reason for the Supreme Court’s corruption crisis

Ian Millhiser writes: The Supreme Court has run out of excuses. Earlier this month, after ProPublica revealed that Justice Clarence Thomas frequently takes lavish vacations funded by billionaire Republican donor Harlan Crow, Thomas attempted to defend himself by claiming that this sort of “personal hospitality from close personal friends” is fine because Crow “did not have business before the court.” As it turns out, that’s not true. As Bloomberg reports, the Supreme Court — including Justice Thomas — did briefly consider…

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Senators to introduce bipartisan bill mandating code of ethics for Supreme Court

Senators to introduce bipartisan bill mandating code of ethics for Supreme Court

The Wall Street Journal reports: Sens. Angus King (I., Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R., Alaska) will introduce a bipartisan bill Wednesday that would require the U.S. Supreme Court to create its own code of conduct within a year, following media reports that raise questions about whether Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch properly disclosed their financial activities. “It’s pitiful that we’re having to introduce this bill—it’s pathetic that the Supreme Court hasn’t done this itself,” Mr. King said. The senator,…

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Justice Thomas helped kill eviction ban threatening his benefactor’s business

Justice Thomas helped kill eviction ban threatening his benefactor’s business

The Lever reports: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas voted to end federal tenant protections that his billionaire benefactor’s company says threatened its real estate profit margins, according to corporate documents reviewed by The Lever. Thomas did not disclose his relationship with real estate billionaire Harlan Crow, nor did he recuse himself from the 2021 case, despite its potential impact on Crow Holdings. Now, rent control — which Crow Holdings’ documents also say threatens the company’s business — could come before Thomas, and there…

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