Top German journalist received €600,000 from Putin ally, leak reveals

Top German journalist received €600,000 from Putin ally, leak reveals

The Guardian reports: A leading western journalist who has long been considered one of Germany’s top independent experts on Russia received at least €600,000 (£522,000) in undisclosed offshore payments from companies linked to an oligarch close to Vladimir Putin, leaked files have revealed. Hubert Seipel, an award-winning film-maker and author, was paid money in instalments, which documents suggest was to support his work on two books he wrote that chart Putin’s rise to power and offer portrayals described by many…

Read More Read More

Putin wants the West to give up on Ukraine

Putin wants the West to give up on Ukraine

Anne Applebaum writes: They planned to take Kyiv in three days, the rest of Ukraine in six weeks. More than 21 months later, Russian forces have withdrawn from half the territory they occupied in February of last year. At least 88,000 Russian soldiers are likely dead—a conservative estimate—and at least twice as many have been wounded. Billions of dollars worth of equipment, Russian tanks, planes, artillery, helicopters, armored vehicles, and warships have been destroyed. If you had predicted this outcome…

Read More Read More

Climate change is putting the health of billions at risk

Climate change is putting the health of billions at risk

Grist reports: Eight years ago, the medical journal the Lancet began compiling the latest research on how climate change affects human health. It was the first coordinated effort to highlight scientific findings on the health consequences of climate change, published in the hopes of making the topic more central to global climate negotiations. The Lancet’s annual reports on this topic, which summarize research conducted by dozens of scientists from leading institutions around the world, have become increasingly dire in tone….

Read More Read More

The Supreme Court’s new ethics code is a joke

The Supreme Court’s new ethics code is a joke

Ian Millhiser writes: On Monday, the Supreme Court released a new “code of conduct” laying out ethical principles that the justices claim they have always adhered to — and arguing that the only reason such a code is necessary is because the Court’s critics don’t understand how things actually work. It’s the first time in its history that the Court has published a formal ethics code — but the introduction to this particular code makes it clear that the justices…

Read More Read More

GOP Rep. Chip Roy declares the GOP is useless

GOP Rep. Chip Roy declares the GOP is useless

Bess Levin writes: Has the modern Republican Party become a complete, useless dumpster fire that does nothing to actually help the American people, because it’s too busy investigating the president’s son, kissing the last president’s ass, challenging congressional witnesses to brawls, and fighting each other? Many would say yes. Usually, though, the people saying yes are not actual Republicans. But, surprise! On Wednesday, Representative Chip Roy took to House floor to tear into his fellow Republicans, accusing them of doing…

Read More Read More

Israeli strikes hit maternity ward in Gaza’s largest hospital, evidence indicates

Israeli strikes hit maternity ward in Gaza’s largest hospital, evidence indicates

The New York Times reports: Minutes after 1 a.m. Friday, as active fighting raged between Israeli forces and Hamas militants, a projectile streaked over Gaza’s largest medical complex and crashed into the center of the courtyard of Al-Shifa Hospital, a place where thousands of displaced Gazans had sought shelter. It landed just a few feet from Ahmed Hijazi, a social media personality who has been documenting the conflict. He filmed a video of the projectile flying in, and then of…

Read More Read More

The Israeli public has embraced the Smotrich doctrine

The Israeli public has embraced the Smotrich doctrine

+972 Magazine reports: Six years ago, Bezalel Smotrich, then a young Knesset member in his first term, published his “Decisive Plan” — a kind of “endgame” for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. According to the far-right lawmaker, who now serves as Israel’s finance minister and the government’s West Bank overlord, the inherent contradiction between Jewish and Palestinian national aspirations does not allow for any kind of compromise, reconciliation, or partition. Instead of maintaining the illusion that a political agreement is possible, he…

Read More Read More

More than 500 U.S. officials call on Biden ‘to urgently demand a cease-fire’ in Gaza

More than 500 U.S. officials call on Biden ‘to urgently demand a cease-fire’ in Gaza

The New York Times reports: More than 500 political appointees and staff members representing some 40 government agencies sent a letter to President Biden on Tuesday protesting his support of Israel in its war in Gaza. The letter, part of growing internal dissent over the administration’s support of the war, calls on the president to seek an immediate cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and to push Israel to allow humanitarian aid into the territory. It is the latest of several…

Read More Read More

Fani Willis: Georgia trial involving Trump might not conclude until early 2025

Fani Willis: Georgia trial involving Trump might not conclude until early 2025

The Washington Post reports: The Atlanta-area prosecutor leading the criminal racketeering case against former president Donald Trump and 14 allies alleging they broke the law when they sought to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss said Tuesday that she anticipated the trial to conclude by early 2025, with proceedings probably underway during the final stretch of the 2024 presidential election. In an interview at The Washington Post Live’s Global Women’s Summit, Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis (D) said the…

Read More Read More

After the ex-wife of a Trump Organization insider talked to prosecutors, she lost her children and her home

After the ex-wife of a Trump Organization insider talked to prosecutors, she lost her children and her home

Joan Walsh writes: Enjoying an outdoor lunch with a friend on a gorgeous day in April, I noticed a woman across the restaurant’s patio lugging around three suitcases and an adorable puppy. She was trying, and failing, to charge her phone at an outlet and was growing increasingly upset. In sweatpants, her frosted blond hair piled on top of her head, she looked like an Upper West Side mom having an extremely rough day. I apologized to my friend for…

Read More Read More

Trump’s Truth Social has lost $73 million since its launch, faces potential shutdown

Trump’s Truth Social has lost $73 million since its launch, faces potential shutdown

CNBC News reports: Truth Social, the brain child of former President Donald Trump, is hemorrhaging cash. The alternative social media platform has lost $73 million in the less than two years since it launched, according to a new filing from Digital World Acquisition Corporation, or DWAC, the special purpose acquisition company aiming to take Trump Media and Technology Group, or TMTG, public. In its first fiscal year ending Dec. 2022, TMTG, Truth Social’s parent company, lost over $50 million on…

Read More Read More

Why the future might not be where you think it is

Why the future might not be where you think it is

Bystrov/Shutterstock By Ruth Ogden, Liverpool John Moores University Imagine the future. Where is it for you? Do you see yourself striding towards it? Perhaps it’s behind you. Maybe it’s even above you. And what about the past? Do you imagine looking over your shoulder to see it? How you answer these questions will depend on who you are and where you come from. The way we picture the future is influenced by the culture we grow up in and the…

Read More Read More

The U.S. appears nakedly unprincipled as it opposes Russia while giving free rein to Israel

The U.S. appears nakedly unprincipled as it opposes Russia while giving free rein to Israel

Stephen Wertheim writes: Since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, President Biden has presented himself as a statesman humbled and enlightened by his own country’s missteps after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. “While you feel that rage,” he advised Israelis, “don’t be consumed by it.” Mr. Biden meant to offer more than therapy. White House officials soon revealed they were deeply concerned by Israeli plans to invade the Gaza Strip. They feared the operation would fail to root out…

Read More Read More

Rep. Ilhan Omar to introduce first bill to block U.S. weapons for Israel since Gaza war began

Rep. Ilhan Omar to introduce first bill to block U.S. weapons for Israel since Gaza war began

HuffPost reports: Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) will this week introduce legislation to disapprove of a multimillion-dollar package of bomb equipment for Israel proposed by the Biden administration, a source familiar with her plans told HuffPost ― posing the first congressional challenge to the U.S.’s policy of uninterrupted and expanding military support for Israel amid its deadly campaign in Gaza. Omar will by Wednesday file a bill known as a “resolution of disapproval” targeting a $320 million sale of gear for…

Read More Read More

Trump allies pre-screen loyalists for unprecedented power grab

Trump allies pre-screen loyalists for unprecedented power grab

Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen write: Former President Trump’s allies are pre-screening the ideologies of thousands of potential foot soldiers, as part of an unprecedented operation to centralize and expand his power at every level of the U.S. government if he wins in 2024, officials involved in the effort tell Axios. Why it matters: Hundreds of people are spending tens of millions of dollars to install a pre-vetted, pro-Trump army of up to 54,000 loyalists across government to rip off the restraints imposed on the previous 46 presidents….

Read More Read More