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Category: Politics

EU is reaching out to other countries for joint ammo-buying scheme

EU is reaching out to other countries for joint ammo-buying scheme

Politico reports: The EU is seeking countries outside the bloc to join its efforts to collectively provide ammunition, with at least Norway already expressing interest, according to one EU official and two diplomats. The push is part of an EU plan to help provide larger quantities of lower-cost ammunition for Ukraine, while also boosting Europe’s capacity to produce and resupply its own dwindling stocks. Canada could also be included in the scheme, added a second EU official, who, like the…

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Democrats want to cut Fox off after lawsuit revelations

Democrats want to cut Fox off after lawsuit revelations

Politico reports: The thunderclap of stories showing Fox News’ role in pushing 2020 election fraud conspiracies and aiding Donald Trump’s campaign has intensified calls among Democrats to black out the network. The revelations, made public as part of a $1.6 billion lawsuit brought against Fox by Dominion Voting Systems, showed that some network hosts and executives endorsed lies about Trump’s loss, hosted conspiracy theorists whom they thought were unhinged, and overtly prioritized the company’s profit over truth. A related deposition…

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Why Biden stabbed Washington D.C. in the back

Why Biden stabbed Washington D.C. in the back

Mark Joseph Stern writes: For the first two years of his presidency, Joe Biden positioned himself as a champion of statehood and home rule in the District of Columbia. The president urged Congress to make D.C. the 51st state—even as the Senate filibuster stood in the way—and vowed to defend District residents’ right to govern themselves through their limited local democracy. Any “denial of self-governance” in D.C., he proclaimed, is “an affront to the democratic values on which our Nation…

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Attorney General Merrick Garland makes unannounced trip to Ukraine

Attorney General Merrick Garland makes unannounced trip to Ukraine

CNN reports: Attorney General Merrick Garland made an unannounced trip to Ukraine on Friday, according to a Justice Department official, his second trip to the country after Russia invaded a little more than a year ago. The trip was not announced for security reasons, the official said. Garland was invited to Lviv by the Ukrainian prosecutor general, the official said, and joined President Volodymyr Zelensky at the “United for Justice Conference.” The official added that Garland “held several meetings and…

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U.S. intel on China considering lethal aid for Putin’s war was gleaned from Russian officials

U.S. intel on China considering lethal aid for Putin’s war was gleaned from Russian officials

NBC News reports: Initial U.S. intelligence suggesting that China is considering supplying lethal aid to Russia for its war in Ukraine was gleaned from Russian government officials, according to one current and one former U.S. official familiar with the intelligence. U.S. officials then spent weeks corroborating the information from other sources of intelligence, the current and former officials said, and with allies who also brought additional streams of information. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive…

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Die-hard Trump fans make it clear: They want DeSantis

Die-hard Trump fans make it clear: They want DeSantis

Politico reports: If Gov. Ron DeSantis is using his current book tour to soft-launch a likely 2024 campaign, he’ll be very happy with the results. Roughly 250 Florida residents lined up outside a Books-A-Million store in Jacksonville Beach on Thursday morning to meet DeSantis, who started a national book tour this week to sell his autobiography “The Courage to Be Free” — and ostensibly himself. The crowd made it clear they want DeSantis to run, even it means taking on…

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In a climate of fear the defenders of free speech are holding back

In a climate of fear the defenders of free speech are holding back

Russell Jacoby writes: Salman Rushdie’s 2012 memoir, Joseph Anton, closes as its author emerges in 2002 from years in hiding; he bids goodbye to members of the security detail that has guarded him since Ayatollah Khomeini’s 1989 fatwa called for his death. “That was it,” Rushdie writes. “More than thirteen years after the police walked into his life, they spun on their heels and walked out of it.” Still, he wonders whether “the battle over The Satanic Verses” has ended…

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Dallas Humber, narrator of neo-Nazi ‘Terrorgram,’ promoter of mass shootings

Dallas Humber, narrator of neo-Nazi ‘Terrorgram,’ promoter of mass shootings

Christopher Mathias reports: On Oct. 12, 2022, Juraj Krajčík used a laser-sighted gun to open fire outside a popular LGBTQ bar in Bratislava, Slovakia, killing two queer people and wounding a third. “Feeling no regrets, isn’t that funny?” he tweeted. He killed himself a short time later. The 19-year-old had also tweeted a link to a 65-page screed he’d authored advocating the genocide of queer people, Jewish people and Black people. Krajčík mimicked and cited the writings of other white…

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As AI booms, lawmakers struggle to understand the technology

As AI booms, lawmakers struggle to understand the technology

The New York Times reports: In recent weeks, two members of Congress have sounded the alarm over the dangers of artificial intelligence. Representative Ted Lieu, Democrat of California, wrote in a guest essay in The New York Times in January that he was “freaked out” by the ability of the ChatGPT chatbot to mimic human writers. Another Democrat, Representative Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts, gave a one-minute speech — written by a chatbot — calling for regulation of A.I. But even as lawmakers put a…

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Half of humanity on track to be overweight by 2035

Half of humanity on track to be overweight by 2035

BBC News reports: More than half the world’s population will be classed as obese or overweight by 2035 if action is not taken, the World Obesity Federation warns. More than four billion people will be affected, with rates rising fastest among children, its report says. Low or middle-income countries in Africa and Asia are expected to see the greatest rises. The report predicts the cost of obesity will amount to more than $4tn (£3.3tn) annually by 2035. The president of…

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Finally, Democrats appear ready to go on the offensive against Fox News

Finally, Democrats appear ready to go on the offensive against Fox News

Greg Sargent writes: For years, Democrats have been deeply conflicted about Fox News. At times, they’ve shunned the network as an irredeemable source of disinformation, boycotting it or banning it from covering Democratic presidential primary debates. But such efforts have been temporary: They have tended to resume appearing on the network and have reverted to treating it as more or less a news channel, albeit a hostile one. Now, however, it’s becoming clear that interacting with Fox News as a…

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Kherson torture centers were planned by Russian state, say lawyers

Kherson torture centers were planned by Russian state, say lawyers

The Guardian reports: Evidence collected from Kherson in southern Ukraine shows Russian torture centres were not “random” but instead planned and directly financed by the Russian state, according to a team of Ukrainian and international lawyers headed by a UK barrister. The city was under Russian control for eight months, from 2 March last year until Ukrainian forces entered the city on 11 November. The lawyers, called the Mobile Justice Team, said on Thursday they had investigated 20 torture chambers…

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Russia could run out of money next year, says oligarch Oleg Deripaska

Russia could run out of money next year, says oligarch Oleg Deripaska

The Guardian reports: The oligarch Oleg Deripaska has said Russia could run out of money by next year unless the country secures investment from “friendly” countries as western sanctions bite. Deripaska, an energy and metals tycoon who was once Russia’s richest person, told an investment conference in Siberia on Thursday: “There will be no money already next year. We will need foreign investors.” Deripaska, who is subject to UK, US and EU sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, said funds…

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Finland’s MPs approve legislation paving way for country to join NATO

Finland’s MPs approve legislation paving way for country to join NATO

The Guardian reports: Finland’s parliament has overwhelmingly approved legislation allowing the country to join Nato, increasing the chances of it becoming a member of the transatlantic defensive alliance before its Nordic neighbour Sweden. Both countries last year abandoned decades of military non-alignment in a historic policy shift triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, submitting simultaneous Nato membership applications and pledging to complete the process “hand-in-hand”. However, new entrants must be approved by all 30 existing members and while both applications still await…

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The scope of Trump’s failed Iran policy comes into sharper focus

The scope of Trump’s failed Iran policy comes into sharper focus

Steve Benen writes: About a year ago, Biden administration officials held a closed-door briefing with senators on Iran’s nuclear program. Politico reported soon after that members exited the briefing feeling rattled, with one senator describing the information as “sobering and shocking.” While the discussion was held behind closed doors, the Politico report added that officials warned lawmakers that Iran “could produce enough material for a nuclear bomb in as little as two months.” As Reuters reported yesterday, federal lawmakers received…

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U.S. condemns Israel far right minister’s call for Palestinian town ‘to be erased’

U.S. condemns Israel far right minister’s call for Palestinian town ‘to be erased’

CNN reports: Israel’s far-right finance minister’s call for a Palestinian town “to be erased” was harshly condemned by US State Department spokesperson Ned Price on Wednesday, who described the comments as “repugnant” and “irresponsible.” Bezalel Smotrich, who also leads the far-right Religious Zionism party, said earlier on Wednesday that the Palestinian town of Huwara “needs to be erased.” The incendiary comment was in reference to the town in the occupied West Bank where two Israeli brothers were shot and killed…

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