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Category: Politics

Christian conservative lawyer had secretive role in bid to block election result

Christian conservative lawyer had secretive role in bid to block election result

The New York Times reports: One of the nation’s most prominent religious conservative lawyers played a critical behind-the-scenes role in the lawsuit that Republican state attorneys general filed in December in a last-ditch effort to overturn the election of President Biden, documents show. The lawyer, Michael P. Farris, is the chief executive of a group known as Alliance Defending Freedom, which is active in opposing abortion and gay rights. He circulated a detailed draft of the lawsuit that Ken Paxton,…

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Biden DOJ shields ex-Trump officials from testifying about election fraud cases

Biden DOJ shields ex-Trump officials from testifying about election fraud cases

Politico reports: A top career official in President Joe Biden’s Justice Department blocked efforts by Senate investigators to probe the handling of voter fraud complaints in the aftermath of the 2020 election, according to transcripts released Thursday. As Senate Judiciary Committee aides investigating Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election questioned top Trump-era Justice Department officials, a DOJ attorney present for the interviews intervened repeatedly to say such questions were outside the scope of the panel’s inquiry. The official,…

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U.S. troops have been deployed in Taiwan for at least a year

U.S. troops have been deployed in Taiwan for at least a year

The Wall Street Journal reports: A U.S. special-operations unit and a contingent of Marines have been secretly operating in Taiwan to train military forces there, U.S. officials said, part of efforts to shore up the island’s defenses as concern regarding potential Chinese aggression mounts. About two dozen members of U.S. special-operations and support troops are conducting training for small units of Taiwan’s ground forces, the officials said. The U.S. Marines are working with local maritime forces on small-boat training. The…

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The brutal trade in enslaved people within the U.S. has been largely whitewashed out of history

The brutal trade in enslaved people within the U.S. has been largely whitewashed out of history

A trade card with printed black type for the domestic slave traders Hill, Ware and Chrisp. Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture By Joshua D. Rothman, University of Alabama For my recently published book, “The Ledger and the Chain,” I visited more than 30 archives in over a dozen states, from Louisiana to Connecticut. Along the way, I uncovered mountains of material that exposed the depravity of the men who ran the largest domestic…

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Fossil fuel industry gets subsidies of $11 million a minute, IMF finds

Fossil fuel industry gets subsidies of $11 million a minute, IMF finds

The Guardian reports: The fossil fuel industry benefits from subsidies of $11m every minute, according to analysis by the International Monetary Fund. The IMF found the production and burning of coal, oil and gas was subsidised by $5.9tn in 2020, with not a single country pricing all its fuels sufficiently to reflect their full supply and environmental costs. Experts said the subsidies were “adding fuel to the fire” of the climate crisis, at a time when rapid reductions in carbon…

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Top Trump aides set to defy subpoenas in Capitol attack investigation

Top Trump aides set to defy subpoenas in Capitol attack investigation

The Guardian reports: The former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and other top aides subpoenaed by the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack are expected to defy orders for documents and testimony related to 6 January, according to a source familiar with the matter. The move to defy the subpoenas would mark the first major investigative hurdle faced by the select committee and threatens to touch off an extended legal battle as the former president pushes…

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South Dakota is a make-believe state devoted to the preservation of wealth dynasties

South Dakota is a make-believe state devoted to the preservation of wealth dynasties

Timothy Noah writes: South Dakota is in the news because a consortium of journalists exposed shady doings there that take advantage of the state’s status as a notorious tax haven, and because the state’s governor, Kristi Noem, is caught up in an outrageous nepotism scandal and in general has been working overtime to wrestle the mantle of nation’s worst governor away from Ron DeSantis. Say what you will about DeSantis, though, you won’t hear many people argue that Florida shouldn’t…

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Silicon’s 300% surge throws another price shock at the world

Silicon’s 300% surge throws another price shock at the world

Bloomberg reports: A metal made from the second-most abundant element on Earth has become scarce, threatening everything from car parts to computer chips and throwing up another hurdle for the world economy. The shortage in silicon metal, sparked by a production cut in China, has sent prices up 300% in less than two months. It’s the latest in a litany of disruptions, from snarled supply chains to a power crunch, that are creating a destructive mix for companies and consumers….

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An ‘historic event’: First malaria vaccine approved by WHO

An ‘historic event’: First malaria vaccine approved by WHO

The New York Times reports: The world has gained a new weapon in the war on malaria, among the oldest known and deadliest of infectious diseases: the first vaccine shown to help prevent the disease. By one estimate, it will save tens of thousands of children each year. Malaria kills about half a million people each year, nearly all of them in sub-Saharan Africa — including 260,000 children under 5. The new vaccine, made by GlaxoSmithKline, rouses a child’s immune…

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As the U.S. hurtles toward a debt crisis, what does McConnell want?

As the U.S. hurtles toward a debt crisis, what does McConnell want?

The New York Times reports: In March 2006, as the government veered dangerously close to a default, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the No. 2 Republican, let the Bush White House know he was two votes short of what he needed to raise the legal limit on federal borrowing. Andrew H. Card Jr., then the White House chief of staff, began working the phones. He soon found two Democrats willing to break ranks and vote to put the legislation over…

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‘Everyone here hated the Americans’: Rural Afghans live with the Taliban and a painful U.S. legacy

‘Everyone here hated the Americans’: Rural Afghans live with the Taliban and a painful U.S. legacy

The Washington Post reports: The white flags flutter in the apple orchards of this serene hamlet ringed by oatmeal-colored mountains. They mark the precise spots where U.S. airstrikes killed Afghans. In the village center lies the destroyed shell of a building that once housed shops; down the road is a mangled, rusted car. There are white flags there, too. Together, they’re reminders of the legacy the United States has left in many rural areas across Afghanistan. “Everyone here hated the…

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Facebook’s outage shows we need antitrust action now

Facebook’s outage shows we need antitrust action now

Edward Ongweso Jr writes: On Monday, a global service outage hit Facebook and took down the world’s ubiquitous social network , along with Instagram and WhatsApp. The outage, which affects billions of people, occurred just as Facebook filed a motion to dismiss the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s amended antitrust complaint against the company accusing it of acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp to consolidate anti-competitive market power. The day before the outage, on Sunday, the Facebook whistleblower behind devastating leaks that have…

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The Supreme Court has gone off the rails

The Supreme Court has gone off the rails

Donald Ayer writes: The Supreme Court has final authority to make difficult judgment calls articulating the powers of government and the limits and constraints upon them. To merit the public trust, these judgments must not appear simply as assertions of individual value choices by the justices or willy-nilly discard long-established court precedents that profoundly affect people’s lives. Nor should they actively undermine the ability of governments to advance public purposes as established by a fair democratic process. As the court…

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Top State Dept. adviser leaves post, rips Biden’s use of Trump-era Title 42

Top State Dept. adviser leaves post, rips Biden’s use of Trump-era Title 42

Politico reports: A senior State Department official is leaving his role in the Biden administration. And on his way out, he has sent a scathing internal memo criticizing the president’s use of a Trump-era policy to expel migrants from the southern border. In a detailed legal memo dated October 2 and obtained by POLITICO, Harold Koh, a senior adviser and the sole political appointee on the State Department’s legal team, called the use of the public health authority known as…

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The Pandora Papers: Massive leak exposes the hidden fortunes of world’s elite and crooks

The Pandora Papers: Massive leak exposes the hidden fortunes of world’s elite and crooks

Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project reports: On April 29, 2009, the tenants of a strip of shops and offices on Maddox Street in London’s exclusive Mayfair neighborhood woke up with a new landlord: an 11-year-old boy. This news should have been surprising. Not only was Heydar Aliyev not yet in his teens, but he also happened to be the son of Azerbaijan’s authoritarian president, Ilham Aliyev. And yet, he had managed to become the owner of 33.5 million pounds…

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Pandora Papers reveal hidden riches of Putin’s inner circle

Pandora Papers reveal hidden riches of Putin’s inner circle

The Guardian reports: In September 2003, a secret transaction took place. The location was Monaco, a tax haven associated with the international rich. Specifically, an exclusive block just beneath its lavish casino. An apartment changed hands. A local notary signed the deal. Purchase price: €3.6m (£3.1m). For this, the buyer got a luxury fourth-floor flat, two parking spaces, a storeroom, and the use of a pool in the Monte Carlo Star complex. From the balcony the new owner could gaze…

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