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Showing results for tags 'news'.
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news Teamsters President: "Harris told our members: 'I'm gonna win - with or without you'"
Communion posted a topic in Civics
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news Trump: day 1 will ban trans people from military, schools and gender affirming care
XDNA posted a topic in Civics
At Turning Point AmFest, Trump promises on day one to go after trans people with executive orders, banning trans people from the military, banning gender affirming care, and removing trans people from schools. https://bsky.app/profile/esqueer.net/post/3ldw2bopylc2c Click on link for video, since there's no embed support yet. Insane and evil. -
Welcome to the official home for discussions related to US politics! 2018-2020 Election Thread 2020-2022 Election Thread
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news NYC Subway Tragedy: Police & bystanders watch as sleeping woman is set on fire
Cesar posted a topic in Civics
https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/22/us/nyc-subway-fire-woman-death/index.html -
news Iran pauses implementation of stricter hijab law for women
Virgos Groove posted a topic in Civics
Euronews Maybe an Iranian ATRLer (are there any?) will be able to give some insight, but I assume the bombings by Israel and the fall of Assad hapenning right after he got inaugurated will have diminished his manouevering room. I hope he - and the Iranian people - can find a way to stop this bill, but it'll be impossible with the hard-liners being so emboldened. -
news House Ethics Report: Matt Gaetz committed statutory rape, drug abuse, corruption
jakeisphat posted a topic in Civics
The official House Ethics Committee report on Congressman Matt Gaetz has been released, here are the highlights and findings: From 2017 through 2020, Gaetz regularly paid for sex with women that he met through his friend, Joel Greenberg, a former Florida tax collector that is now in prison for child sex trafficking and corruption Gaetz would often utilize Greenberg and the sex workers to obtain cocaine, ecstasy, and marijuana cartridges Multiple sex workers told the House Ethics Committee they witnessed Gaetz using cocaine and ecstasy on multiple occasions Gaetz and Greenberg provided sex workers with drugs to facilitate sex One of the sex workers interviewed said it was hard for she and other sex workers to know what was going on or fully consent during the encounters due to the drug use Between 2017 and 2020, Gaetz paid approximately $95,000 on sex acts and/or drugs - these payments were made to 12 different women and to Joel Greenberg The panel knows Gaetz spent more than $95,000 on sex acts/drugs based on multiple, consistent witness statements but cannot account for it as they were cash payments Gaetz often used his ex-girlfriend as a liaison to set up sexual encounters with prostitutes On July 15, 2017, Gaetz and Greenberg attended a party at the home of a Florida lobbyist where multiple sex workers were present; There Gaetz had sex with a 17-year-old girl twice at the party, once in private and once in front of the other guests at the party The 17-year-old told the Ethics Panel that Gaetz paid her $400 for their encounter Gaetz learned a month later that she was a minor and paid her again for sex, 6 months after she turned 18 Gaetz accepted impermissible gifts such as private flights from associates in the medical marijuana industry Gaetz will now be required to pay back the cost of the private flights and impermissible gifts he accepted Gaetz abused his power to get an expedited passport for one of the sex workers he was paying Gaetz obstructed the panel's investigation by refusing to cooperate, refusing to turn over requested documentation, and offering conspiracies in response to what witnesses were reporting about him https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/12/23/us/ethics-report-on-gaetz.html -
news Luigi Mangione: Defense cooks Eric Adams; judge married to former Pfizer exec
Vermillion posted a topic in Civics
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ATRL supports a free Palestine. We are also sympathetic to innocent citizens of both nations during this conflict. We hope members understand that criticism of the Israeli government is not criticism of the Jewish religion and that criticism of Hamas is not criticism of the Free Palestine movement itself. Posts that cross the line and drift into criticism of Jewish and/or Muslim religion and people as a whole will be properly warned. ATRL reserves the right to close this thread at any point and create post restrictions, thread bans, or complete bans to members who break the rules in this thread.
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news 51 men accused of raping a woman in France's most horrifying rape case
Antisocialites posted a topic in Civics
Horrifying and heart-wrenching. -
news NYTimes: Biden oversaw the largest immigration surge in US history
VOSS posted a topic in Civics
The immigration surge of the past few years has been the largest in U.S. history, surpassing the great immigration boom of the late 1800s and early 1900s, according to a New York Times analysis of government data. Annual net migration — the number of people coming to the country minus the number leaving — averaged 2.4 million people from 2021 to 2023, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Total net migration during the Biden administration is likely to exceed eight million people. That's a faster pace of arrivals than during any other period on record, including the peak years of Ellis Island traffic, when millions of Europeans came to the United States. Even after taking into account today's larger U.S. population, the recent surge is the most rapid since at least 1850: The numbers in the Times analysis include both legal and illegal immigration. About 60 percent of immigrants who have entered the country since 2021 have done so without legal authorization, according to a Goldman Sachs report based on government data. The combined increases of legal and illegal immigration have caused the share of the U.S. population born in another country to reach a new high, 15.2 percent in 2023, up from 13.6 percent in 2020. The previous high was 14.8 percent, in 1890. Several factors caused the surge, starting with President Biden's welcoming immigration policy during his first three years in office. Offended by Donald J. Trump's harsh policies — including the separation of families at the border — Mr. Biden and other Democrats promised a different approach. "We're a nation that says, 'If you want to flee, and you're fleeing oppression, you should come,'" Mr. Biden said during his 2020 presidential campaign. After taking office, his administration loosened the rules on asylum and other immigration policies, making it easier for people to enter the United States. Some have received temporary legal status while their cases wend through backlogged immigration courts. Others have remained without legal permission. Outside causes have also played an important role in the surge. Turmoil in Haiti, Ukraine and Venezuela caused desperate people to flee their home countries. The growth of smuggler networks run by Mexican drug cartels allowed more people to reach the U.S. border. But the Biden administration's policy appears to have been the biggest factor: After Mr. Biden tightened enforcement in June, the number of people crossing the border plummeted. The scale of recent immigration helps explain why the issue has played a central role in American politics over the past few years. Mayors and governors, both Democratic and Republican, have complained about the strain on local government. In Chicago and elsewhere, residents have filled public meetings to make similar criticisms. In Denver, where tens of thousands of migrants have arrived, homeless people say that shelter spots are harder to find. In Queens, residents say that an influx of street vendors has created chaos in some neighborhoods. Some of the biggest effects have occurred in South Texas, and Mr. Trump made big electoral gains there. Eight years ago, he won less than 30 percent of the vote in a strip of six counties along the Rio Grande. This year, he won all six counties. Elsewhere, Democrats who managed to outpace Vice President Kamala Harris and win tough congressional races — including in Arizona, Maine, Michigan, Nevada, New York and Wisconsin — frequently criticized Mr. Biden's border policies. Polls suggest that the immigration surge was Ms. Harris's second biggest vulnerability, after only the economy. Voters expressed particular frustration with the high recent levels of illegal immigration. Of the roughly eight million net new migrants who entered the U.S. during the Biden presidency, about five million did so without legal authorization, according to Goldman Sachs. What happens next is less clear. During the presidential campaign, Mr. Trump promised to conduct mass deportations, and many Americans favor the policy. In a New York Times/Siena College poll conducted in October, 57 percent of voters said they supported deporting immigrants who were living in the country illegally. But the logistics of finding, apprehending and deporting millions of people would not be simple. Public support for the policy could decline if it swept up immigrants who had been in the country for years and established lives here. As a point of comparison, the Trump administration deported about 300,000 people per year, and the Obama administration deported almost 400,000 per year. Whatever the number in a second Trump term, the recent immigration surge has probably ended. Mr. Biden's crackdown since the summer has caused net migration to drop sharply, and Mr. Trump has promised even tougher border policies when he takes office. Many would-be immigrants will be less likely to try to enter the country, knowing that their chances of success are lower. There is an historical echo with a century ago. The immigration wave of the late 1800s and early 1900s also sparked a political backlash, leading to a 1924 law that tightly restricted immigration. Those restrictions remained largely in place for more than four decades. Source -
news King Charles strips UK brands of royal warrant - including Cadbury and Marmite
GraceRandolph posted a topic in Civics
King Charles has stripped chocolate giant Cadbury of its Royal Warrant, and it's thought his new health-conscious diet could have spurred the decision. The confectionery brand based in Bourneville, Birmingham, is among 100 companies to lose out on official endorsement from the royal family in a newly-updated list. Also missing out is consumer goods multinational Unilever, whose products include popular food brands Marmite, Magnum ice cream bars and Pot Noodle. Yet operations favoured by Charles's wife Queen Camilla remain among the latest beneficiaries of the royal household's stamp of approval. https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/king-charles-strips-uk-brands-of-royal-warrant-including-cadbury-and-marmite/ -
A driver rammed a car into a large crowd of revellers at a Christmas market in central Germany on Friday evening, killing at least two people and injuring more than 60 before he was arrested, authorities said. One of the dead was a young child, said Reiner Haseloff, premier of the state of Saxony-Anhalt The source identified the suspect as Taleb Abdul Jawad. Germany's Der Spiegel identified the attacker as Taleb A., a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy who sympathised with Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany party. A Saudi source told Reuters the kingdom had warned German authorities about the attacker, who the source said had posted extremist views on his personal X account. Graphic footage:
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news Poland to arrest Netanyahu if he attends Auschwitz memorial
Virgos Groove posted a topic in Civics
Lock him up.- 22 replies
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https://bsky.app/profile/newsbreakinglive.bsky.social/post/3ldwgmobj2s25
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news Virginia hunter dies after a bear shot in a tree fell on him
pride4jc1222 posted a topic in The Lounge
https://www.accuweather.com/en/leisure-recreation/virginia-hunter-dies-after-a-bear-shot-in-a-tree-fell-on-him/1725071 A Virginia hunter died of his injuries days after a bear that had been shot fell from a tree and landed on him, officials said. A hunting party in Lunenburg County on Dec. 9, was following a bear when it ran up a tree, the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources said in a statement to the Associated Press. The group moved away from the tree, and one of the hunters shot the bear. The animal fell from the tree and landed on 58-year-old Lester Clayton Harvey, Jr., who was standing about 10 feet away. A member of the hunting party provided first aid until emergency medical personnel arrived. Harvey was transported to one hospital, then transferred to VCU Medical Center's Critical Care Hospital in Richmond. Harvey died of his injuries at VCU Critical Care on Friday, Dec. 13. According to his obituary, Harvey is survived by a wife, five children and eight grandchildren. Similar incidents have occurred, as the Associated Press notes. In 2018, a man in Alaska suffered critical injuries when his hunting partner shot a bear on a ridge. The bear tumbled down the slope, colliding with the man and causing rocks to fall on him. In a separate incident in 2019, another man was injured in North Carolina after his hunting partner shot a bear in a tree. The bear fell from the tree and started biting the hunter. Both the man and the bear then fell off a cliff. The hunter was hospitalized, and the bear was later found dead. -
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Federal elections will take place in Canada in 2025. The legal date is October 20, 2025, but they may take place before that. Projection of popular vote and seats projection. (172 seats is needed for a majority) Evolution of the popular vote projection since January 1, 2022 JUSTIN TRUDEAU Liberal Party of Canada Centre to centre-left Canadian Liberalism, Social Liberalism In office since 2015, the Liberal Party has collapsed in the polls since the summer of 2023 in favor of the Conservative Party. After a promising start, the party quickly lost its pedals and fell into irrecoverable ideological drifts that led to its probable loss. After two minority elections, the Liberal Party of Canada will probably suffer a historic defeat. PIERRE POILIEVRE Conservative Party of Canada Centre-right to right-wing Canadian Conservatism, Economic Conservatism The opposition party since 2015, the Conservatives have been leading in the polls for the past year and a half by substantial margins. Voters' fed up with the Liberals' erratic and irresponsible management of finances and the grip of woke ideology will give the Conservatives a likely landslide majority in the next election. YVES-FRANÇOIS BLANCHET Bloc Québécois Centre to Centre-left Quebec Nationalism and Sovereigntism The only provincial party represented at the Federal level, the Bloc Québécois has seen its support explode since the election of Justin Trudeau in 2015. Looking out for the interests of Quebec only while waiting for a hypothetical referendum on Quebec sovereignty, if the Liberals continue their descent, the Bloc could well become the official opposition party in Canada, a first since 1993. JAGMEET SINGH New Democratic Party of Canada Centre-left to left-wing Social Democracy Having become an ally of the Liberals by creating an alliance to keep them in power, the NDP tore up that deal in 2024, opening the possibility of an election before the legal deadline. The NDP is seeing its support slowly declining and could suffer its worst score since 2004.
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news Alabama profits from leasing prison labor, denies inmates parole
Virgos Groove posted a topic in Civics
The American prison system is dystopian. -
news A mass animal sacrifice festival is underway in Nepal. Activists say it needs to stop
GraceRandolph posted a topic in Civics
CNN — Animal rights activists have urged the Nepali government to stop what they've called "an appalling bloodbath" after they claimed thousands of animals were killed as part of a festival held every five years that traditionally ends with a mass sacrifice. At least 4,200 buffaloes and thousands of goats and pigeons were killed during a mass sacrifice held as part of the Gadhimai festival, in Bariyarpur village near the Nepal- India border, according to Humane Society International India (HSI). Participants believe that sacrificing animals in the Gadhimai temple pleases the Goddess Gadhimai, who will then grant them wishes or good fortune. Animals are also sacrificed to celebrate the birth of sons. In 2016 Nepal's supreme court ordered a gradual phasing out of the practice of animal sacrifice that once saw as many as half a million animals killed, but activists say not enough is being done to end it. Shyam Prasad Yadav, the mayor of Gadhimai, told CNN that that was "not true" and that government officials had been working with temple authorities to gradually end the practice. "That's why the sacrifice this year was limited," he added. Full article: https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/09/asia/nepal-animal-slaughter-festival-hnk-intl/index.html -
news SCOTUS to hear TikTok's challenge on Jan.10th to law that bans it starting Jan.19th
Vermillion posted a topic in Civics
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news And just like that, Elon Musk kills bill that would've prevented government shutdown
XDNA posted a topic in Civics
And just like that, Republican Unelected Co-President Elon Musk has killed the bill to keep the government from shutting down on Friday. All he had to do was make a few social media posts. Trump said he'd empower working people, all he's done is empower the ultra wealthy. https://bsky.app/profile/maxwellfrost.bsky.social/post/3ldmchrizp223 Sequence of Events: -House Republicans and put forward a spending bill that Speaker Johnson has the majority to pass -Musk tells them to oppose it -House Republicans begin to oppose -Musk says voice of god prevails -then Trump says he's opposed to it, undermining Johnson along the way -
Speculating is fun, so let's do that a bit. There are decades where weeks happen, and there are weeks where decades happen (as the last two weeks have proven ). Do you think any of these events can or will happen in our lifetimes? If so, which? Korean reunification A second African country gets nuclear weapons* A US state proclaiming independence Formation of the United States of Europe China absorbing Taiwan (or Taiwan proclaiming independence) An independent Kurdistan A one-state-solution for Palestine (Isratin, binational state or something of that sort) Patria Grande (unification of Hispanic America) Puerto Rico and DC becoming states The US purchases Greenland *The first was South Africa, but they relinquished them. I think 5, 7 and 9 could happen, but still not anytime soon. 5: Either through a diplomatic process (1C2S for Taiwan, but with more autonomy), or through an invasion (which is a given if Taiwan declares independence). 7: It would take a lot of pressure from the international community though, similar to how South Africa and Rhodesia were treated in the 70s. 9: This one seems most likely, but it would still take convincing Republicans to accept the Bluest land of them all into the Union. Maybe if PR starts to swing Red one day.
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news Murder hornets serve OUT: eradicated from the US, officials say
Jotham posted a topic in Civics
https://bsky.app/profile/nytimes.com/post/3ldlybcyicc2x -
news WSJ: How the White House functioned with a diminished Biden in charge
VOSS posted a topic in Civics
During the 2020 presidential primary, Jill Biden campaigned so extensively across Iowa that she held events in more counties than her husband—a fact her press secretary at the time, Michael LaRosa, touted to a local reporter. His superior in the Biden campaign quickly chided him. As the three rode in a minivan through the state's cornfields, Anthony Bernal, then a deputy campaign manager and chief of staff to Jill Biden, pressed LaRosa to contact the reporter again and play down any comparison in campaign appearances between Joe Biden, then 77, and his wife, who is eight years his junior. Her energetic schedule only highlighted her husband's more plodding pace, LaRosa recalls being told. The message from Biden's team was clear. "The more you talk her up, the more you make him look bad," LaRosa said. The small correction foreshadowed how Biden's closest aides and advisers would manage the limitations of the oldest president in U.S. history during his four years in office. To adapt the White House around the needs of a diminished leader, they told visitors to keep meetings focused. Interactions with senior Democratic lawmakers and some cabinet members—including powerful secretaries such as Defense's Lloyd Austin and Treasury's Janet Yellen—were infrequent or grew less frequent. Some legislative leaders had a hard time getting the president's ear at key moments, including ahead of the U.S.'s disastrous pullout from Afghanistan. Presidents always have gatekeepers. But in Biden's case, the walls around him were higher and the controls greater, according to Democratic lawmakers, donors and aides who worked for Biden and other administrations. There were limits over who Biden spoke with, limits on what they said to him and limits around the sources of information he consumed. Throughout his presidency, a small group of aides stuck close to Biden to assist him, especially when traveling or speaking to the public. "They body him to such a high degree," a person who witnessed it said, adding that the "hand holding" is unlike anything other recent presidents have had. The White House operated this way even as the president and his aides pressed forward with his re-election bid—which unraveled spectacularly after his halting performance in a June debate with Donald Trump made his mental acuity an insurmountable issue. Vice President Kamala Harris replaced him on the Democratic ticket and was decisively defeated by Trump in a shortened campaign—leaving Democrats to debate whether their chances were undercut by Biden's refusal to yield earlier. The president's slide has been hard to overlook. While preparing last year for his interview with Robert K. Hur, the special counsel who investigated Biden's handling of classified documents, the president couldn't recall lines that his team discussed with him. At events, aides often repeated instructions to him, such as where to enter or exit a stage, that would be obvious to the average person. Biden's team tapped campaign co-chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg, a Hollywood mogul, to find a voice coach to improve the president's fading warble. Biden, now 82, has long operated with a tightknit inner circle of advisers. The protective culture inside the White House was intensified because Biden started his presidency at the height of the Covid pandemic. His staff took great care to prevent him from catching the virus by limiting in-person interactions with him. But the shell constructed for the pandemic was never fully taken down, and his advanced age hardened it. The strategies to protect Biden largely worked—until June 27, when Biden stood on an Atlanta debate stage with Trump, searching for words and unable to complete his thoughts on live television. Much of the Democratic establishment had accepted the White House line that Biden was able to take the fight to Trump, even in the face of direct evidence to the contrary. Biden, staffed with advisers since he became a senator at age 30, came to the White House with a small team of fiercely loyal, long-serving aides who knew him and Washington so well that they could be particularly effective proxies. They didn't tolerate criticism of Biden's performance or broader dissent within the Democratic Party, especially when it came to the president's decision to run for a second term. Biden's team also insulated him on the campaign trail. In the summer of 2023, one prominent Democratic donor put together a small event for Biden's re-election bid. The donor was shocked when a campaign official told him that attendees shouldn't expect to have a free ranging question-and-answer session with the president. Instead, the organizer was told to send in two or three questions ahead of time that Biden would answer. At some events, the Biden campaign printed the pre-approved questions on notecards and then gave donors the cards to read the questions. Even with all these steps, Biden made flubs, which confounded the donors who knew that Biden had the questions ahead of time. Some donors said they noticed how staff stepped in to mask other signs of decline. Throughout his presidency—and especially later in the term—Biden was assisted by a small group of aides who were laser focused on him in a far different way than when he was vice president, or how former presidents Bill Clinton or Obama were staffed during their presidencies, people who have witnessed their interactions said. During the 2020 campaign, Biden had calls with John Anzalone, his pollster, during which the two had detailed conversations. By the 2024 campaign, the pollsters weren't talking to the president about their findings, and instead sent memos that went to top campaign staff. Biden's pollsters didn't meet with him in person and saw little evidence that the president was personally getting the data that they were sending him, according to the people. People close to the president said he relied on Mike Donilon, one of Biden's core inner circle advisers. With a background in polling, Donilon could sift through the information and present it to the president. Bates said that Biden stayed abreast of polling data. But this summer, Democratic insiders became alarmed by the way Biden described his own polling, publicly characterizing the race as a tossup when polls released in the weeks after the disastrous June debate consistently showed Trump ahead. They worried he wasn't getting an unvarnished look at his standing in the race. Those fears intensified on July 11, when Biden's top advisers met behind closed doors with Democratic senators, where the advisers laid out a road map for Biden's victory. The message from the advisers was so disconnected from public polling—which showed Trump leading Biden nationally—that it left Democratic senators incredulous. It spurred Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) to speak to Biden directly, according to people familiar with the matter, hoping to pierce what the senators saw as a wall erected by Donilon to shield Biden from bad information. Donilon didn't respond to requests for comment. On July 13, Biden held an uncomfortable call with a group of Democratic lawmakers called the New Democrat Coalition, aimed at reassuring them about his ability to stay in the race. The president told participants that polling showed he was doing fine. He became angry when challenged, according to lawmakers on the call. At one point, Biden looked up and abruptly told the group he had to go to church. Some lawmakers on the call believed someone behind the camera was shutting it down. Biden dropped out of the race eight days later. Full story