Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

World braces for Iran-Israel cyberattacks following missile attack
Axios | Sam Sabin | 04/16/24

Cyberattacks are likely to be high on the list of options Israel and Iran are considering this week as they map out retaliatory actions, experts say.

Why it matters: Iran's drone and missile attack against Israel on Saturday brought the two nations into unprecedented territory.

Israel's military leaders have already vowed to respond to the attack.

"The overt hostility and the overt physical aspects of the state-on-state confrontation moved things into a different sphere," Andrew Borene, executive director for global security at Flashpoint, told Axios. ... Read more

The reality of being a criminal defendant on trial finally dawned on Trump. He didn't take it well.
Politico | Kyle Cheney | 04/16/24

Donald Trump is learning a hard lesson: Criminal defendants don't get to set their own schedules.

Three times on Monday the former president asked Justice Juan Merchan to cut him loose from his hush money trial to attend to other matters - some personal, some political and some legal. Three times the judge responded with, essentially, "eh, we'll see."

Could he attend his son Barron's high school graduation on May 17? I'll get back to you, Merchan said.

It's a jarring new reality for Trump, who has been accustomed to setting the agenda for most of his adult life - and, in the years since his presidency, has bounced between his sunny Florida resort and political rallies brimming with adoring fans. But this spring, he'll have to spend most weekdays in a drab 15th floor county courtroom in a city with very little MAGA. ... Read more

Powerful conservative funds hand out millions to pro-Trump far-right groups
TheGuradian | Peter Stone | 04/16/24

Two powerful conservative non-profits have donated millions of dollars to a number of pro-Trump groups led by key far-right allies Stephen Miller, Charlie Kirk and others that have promoted election denialism, extremist anti-immigrant policies and legal challenges to bolster the Maga movement.

Based in Wisconsin, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation and the Bradley Impact Fund in 2022 separately doled out six- and seven-figure checks to groups such as Miller's America First Legal and Kirk's Turning Point USA, and other Trump-friendly bastions such as the Heritage Foundation and Michael Flynn's America's Future. ... Read more

Pittsburgh streets flooded as severe storms threaten Ohio Valley, Mid-Atlantic
Axios | Rebecca Falconer,Andrew Freedman | 04/12/24

Heavy, relentless rains flooded Pittsburgh-area streets and prompted water rescues Thursday night, as a severe storm system threatened parts of the eastern U.S. into Friday.

The big picture: A rare flash flood emergency, the National Weather Service's highest flood alert category, was issued for parts of Pittsburgh, where up to 4 inches of rain had fallen just before 9:30pm Thursday.

The heavy rains were triggered by the same storm system that unleashed tornadoes and heavy rains across much of the South and Southeast this week, with flood emergencies declared in three other locations.

On Wednesday, thunderstorms brought so much rain to New Orleans that the day ranked as the third-wettest April day on record there. ... Read more

FBI chief warns of "coordinated attack" threat to U.S. after Russia shooting
Axios | Rebecca Falconer | 04/12/24

The FBI is growing increasingly concerned about a potential attack in the U.S. similar to last month's Russia concert hall shooting, bureau director Christopher Wray said Thursday.

The big picture: "As I look back over my career in law enforcement, I would be hard-pressed to think of a time where so many threats to our public safety and national security were so elevated all at once," Wray told lawmakers as he urged Congress to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

Zoom in: "Our most immediate concern has been that individuals or small groups will draw twisted inspiration from the events in the Middle East to carry out attacks here at home," Wray told the committee.

"But now increasingly concerning is the potential for a coordinated attack here in the homeland, akin to the ISIS-K attack we saw at the Russia concert hall" that killed more than 140 people, he added. ... Read more

Biden and Japanese PM forge closer ties to counter China in Pacific region
Axios | Rebecca Falconer | 04/11/24

President Biden pledged Wednesday closer ties with Japan and the Philippines to counter China's increasing influence in the Pacific.

The big picture: Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced in D.C. new military, economic and other agreements ahead of their trilateral summit on Thursday with Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

"For the first time, Japan and the United States and Australia will create a networked system of air, missile, and defense architecture." ... Read more

Is It Inflation? Or Is It Greedflation? | Robert Reich | 04/10/24 | 5:06

Boeing: Last Week Tonight | John Oliver | 03/10/24 | 32:35

America the slot machine
Axios | Zachary Basu | 04/10/24

The explosion of legalized gambling has set the stage for a provocative new frontier in the world of risk-taking - betting markets for everyday events, ranging from Taylor Swift streams to hurricanes hitting major U.S. cities.

Why it matters: Americans' growing fixation with gambling has fueled a multibillion-dollar sports betting industry, meme stock mania on Wall Street, record Powerball jackpots and soaring casino spending. Prediction markets could be the next to cash in on the phenomenon.

Last week, the Trump-tied trading firm Susquehanna became Kalshi's first dedicated institutional market maker - a major milestone in the platform's ability to unlock consistent liquidity. ... Read more

Netanyahu's defense minister contradicts him, tells U.S. Rafah invasion date not set
Axios | Barak Ravid | 04/09/23

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on Monday that Israel has not yet set a date for an operation in Rafah, despite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's public claim Monday that "there is a date," according to a source with direct knowledge.

Why it matters: The Biden administration is pushing Netanyahu not to proceed with an operation in Rafah, where more than one million displaced Palestinians are sheltering. Netanyahu has presented the plans as a done deal, but both U.S. officials and now Gallant are now contradicting him.

The U.S. is concerned that such an operation would cause massive civilian casualties and an even deeper humanitarian crisis. ... Read more

4.8-magnitude earthquake felt across eastern U.S.
Axios | Jacob Knutson | 04/05/24

An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 4.8 hit the New York and New Jersey region on Friday morning, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

Why it matters: This appears to be the strongest earthquake to hit the New York area since a 5.2 magnitude quake in 1884, according to a tracker from Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. ... Read more

Deadly Northeast storm disrupts travel and causes widespread outages
Axios | Andrew Freedman | 04/05/24

A powerful, deadly storm that's dumped several inches of snow across New England and other parts of the U.S. Northeast disrupted travel and caused widespread outages into Friday morning.

The big picture: Well over a foot of snow has fallen in parts of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. Nearly 290,000 customers had no power in Maine alone, with nearly 116,00 in the dark in neighboring N.H. on Friday morning.

Thousands of flights were canceled and over 600,000 people were without power across six states Thursday. By Friday morning, an estimated 388,000 still had no electricity, according to poweroutage.us. ... Read more

SPY AGENCIES SKEWED INTEL TO PLEASE TRUMP, AND OBAMA TOO
TheIntercept | author | date

"Individuals looked to avoid conflict and please political masters," a Pentagon-backed RAND corporation study finds.

U.S. INTELLIGENCE SKEWS its findings to find favor with both Republican and Democratic policymakers, including former presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama, a sweeping new study by the Pentagon-backed RAND Corporation finds. The study draws on interviews, some anonymous, with nearly a dozen current and former U.S. intelligence officials and policymakers.

Despite the popular "deep state" characterization of the intelligence community as a rogue army running roughshod over elected leaders, the study concludes the exact opposite. It portrays an intelligence community that naturally tilts its reports and forecasts to curry favor with presidents and their high-level policymakers in Washington, regardless of party or issue. ... Read more

Donald Trump and the United States of Amnesia
MotherJones | David Corn | updated 04/04/24

It is amazing-and an indictment of the American political system-that the fellow whose mishandling of the pandemic resulted in hundreds of thousands of avoidable deaths could be in strong contention for a return to the presidency.

Donald Trump and his campaign are banking on the human inclination to cast aside or deemphasize ugly memories-to the extent that they have been absurdly asking voters, "Are you better off now than four years ago?" This is bonkers. Four years ago, we were in the middle of a pandemic that was killing thousands a week-by the end of April 2020, 60,000 Americans had died-and crushing the economy. It was a time of fear and food lines, as Trump downplayed and mismanaged the crisis. ... Read more

Behind the Curtain: How Trump's mind works
Axios | Jim VandeHei,Mike Allen | 04/04/24

Former President Trump thinks, talks and acts like no other politician in our lifetime. There's a Rosetta stone that demystifies how his mind works, his closest friends tell us: his Mar-a-Lago Spotify playlist.

At his oceanside retreat in Palm Beach, Trump controls the surround-sound stereo system on the breezy dining patio with his big iPad and its Spotify list. Regulars jokingly call it the "Deejay T" performance.

It's Trump's golden oldies: "Phantom of the Opera" ... "Jesus Christ Superstar" ... and Elvis, including "Suspicious Minds." Plus "Hello" by Lionel Ritchie ... Guns N' Roses' "November Rain" ... and the duet by James Brown and Luciano Pavarotti, "It's A Man's Man's Man's World." ... Read more

Inside the Movement to Ban Lab-Grown Meat
MotherJones | WYATT MYSKOW | 03/17/24

Across the nation, right-wing legislators have set their sights on the sale of protein cultured from animal cells.

Months in jail and thousands of dollars in fines and legal fees—those are the consequences Alabamians and Arizonans could soon face for selling cell-cultured meat products that could cut into the profits of ranchers, farmers and meatpackers in each state.

State legislators from Florida to Arizona are seeking to ban meat grown from animal cells in labs, citing a "war on our ranching" and a need to protect the agriculture industry from efforts to reduce the consumption of animal protein, thereby reducing the high volume of climate-warming methane emissions the sector emits. ... Read more

The ______ Secret Behind Lab-Grown Meat
MotherJones | Tom Philpott | 04/__/22

Lab meat-flesh grown in massive tanks instead of in the bodies of sentient animals-offers the promise of having our steak and eating it guilt-free, too. No vast amounts of water-polluting chemicals to grow feed crops; no low-paid, oft-injured slaughterhouse workers; no climate-warming gases from cow burps or manure lagoons, and no billions of animals slaughtered each year to satisfy our carnivory.

Once a staple only of science fiction, the stuff is poised to land on your dinner plate this year, at least according to boosters of the cultivated-meat industry (to use its preferred name). In Singapore-the only nation to approve lab meat for sale-you can already go to the JW Marriott South Beach hotel and order steamed chicken dumplings made with "real meat without slaughter" in the form of chicken cells grown by a US-based company called Eat Just. And other cell-meat startups vow to bring product to market in 2022, pending regulatory approval. ... Read more

At least 4 dead, hundreds injured after 7.5 magnitude earthquake | DW News | 04/03/24 | 4:13

State Medical Boards: Last Week Tonight | John Oliver | 03/21/24 | 22:55

Intense April storm threatens much of U.S. with severe weather
Axios | Rebecca Falconer,Andrew Freedman | 04/02/24

A "highly impactful, major Spring storm" that lashed parts of California with heavy snow and flooding rains over the weekend is bringing multiple severe weather impacts across the U.S. as it marches eastward in a multi-day outbreak.

The big picture: Tornado and severe thunderstorm watches on Monday evening stretched from Texas to Illinois, with flood watches from Illinois to West Virginia due to the storm that disrupted travel in parts of California and caused a major road slip on a section of the state's Highway 1.

The National Weather Service warned of potentially heavy rains and flash flooding into Tuesday from the lower Missouri Valley, across the mid-Mississippi Valley, Ohio Valley and into the Central Appalachians.

"A substantial severe weather risk will exist Tuesday afternoon and evening across portions of the Ohio and Tennessee valleys and into the Mid-Atlantic states," the NWS noted in a Tuesday morning forecast discussion. ... Read more

Watch Rachel Maddow Highlights: April 1 | MSNBC | 04/02/24 | 16:28

Jon Stewart On The False Promises of AI | The Daily Show | 04/02/24 | 14:54

Intense April storm to threaten much of U.S. with severe weather
Axios | Rebecca Falconer,Andrew Freedman | 04/01/24

A major storm that lashed parts of California with heavy snow and flooding rains over the Easter weekend is set to march from west to east across the U.S., sparking a multi-day severe weather outbreak this week.

The big picture: Parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and Illinois are most at risk on Monday from the storm that disrupted travel in parts of California and caused a major road slip on a section of the state's Highway 1.

"Severe thunderstorms with very large hail (2-3 inch diameter or greater), damaging gusts (60-80 mph) and a few tornadoes (potentially up to EF2) are expected this afternoon into tonight from north Texas and Oklahoma into the lower Ohio River Valley," the SPC stated in an online discussion. ... Read more

Extremist ex-adviser drives 'anti-white racism' plan for Trump win
TheGuardian | Martin Pengelly | 04/01/24

The former Trump White House adviser, anti-immigration extremist and white nationalist Stephen Miller is helping drive a plan to tackle supposed "anti-white racism" if Donald Trump returns to power next year, Axios reported.

Should Trump return to power, Axios said, Miller and other aides plan to "dramatically change the government's interpretation of civil rights-era laws to focus on 'anti-white racism' rather than discrimination against people of colour". ... Read more

Trump Bibles make a mockery of Christianity — and that's exactly why MAGA will eat them up
Salon | Amanda Marcotte | 03/28/24

Earlier this week, Donald Trump unveiled his newest grift to squeeze money out of his cult followers: Trump-branded Bibles. Claiming the book contains the "King James version" and "also includes the Founding Father [sic] documents," Trump promised "you have to have it for your heart, for your soul." The screenshots of the video are funny by themselves, but I highly recommend watching the ad Trump cut for these Bibles. Trump radiates total contempt for Christianity.

This is Trump in his angry-bored mode, letting viewers know with his listless tone and posture that he thinks all this Bible stuff is dumb. The not-at-all subtle message of the video is that Trump doesn't believe any of this faith-in-God crap, but he definitely believes in using Christian identity as a weapon to make money and dominate his foes.

Many Trump opponents on social media replied with video clips underscoring how Trump may be the single most ignorant person in the country about the contents of the Bible. ... Read more

Since Trump is now selling Bibles, here is a montage of clips of Trump giving us his vast and extensive knowledge of the Bible.

Americans continue to lose their religion as GOP pushes it
Axios | Russell Contreras | 03/29/24

Americans increasingly are calling themselves "unaffiliated" with any religion - or rejecting religion altogether - at a time when influential Republicans are leaning into Christian nationalism to shape public policies, a new survey finds.

Why it matters: The survey found that 26% of Americans now consider themselves unaffiliated with a religion. That's up 5 percentage points from 2013, and reflects a widening gap between how citizens and lawmakers see religion's role in society.

The GOP is dominated by white evangelicals who have successfully pushed to limit abortion, ban books and restrict some LGBTQ+ rights. But the general public - especially younger Americans - is rapidly moving away from religions that endorse such policies.

Just a slim majority of Americans (53%) now say that religion is important in their lives, down from 72% in 2013, the survey by the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute says. ... Read more

The Biggest Economic Lies We're Told | Robert Reich | 02/21/23 | 7:30

Trump's Bibles and the evolution of his messianic message
Axios | Zachary Basu | 03/28/24

Few politicians have commanded the loyalty of the religious right like former President Trump, whose decision to begin selling $60 Bibles for Holy Week has outraged his critics - but drawn little reaction from evangelical leaders.

Why it matters: Trump has developed a sense of impunity when it comes to religious messaging, forged through a grand compromise with Christian conservatives who see him as a flawed - but effective - champion of their movement.

Hawking Bibles is just the latest example. ... Read more

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Jordan Klepper On How We Should Deal with Jan 6th Rioters | The Daily Show | 03/27/23 | 9:23

Trump's Low-Quality USA Bibles | Ronna McDaniel Is Terrible | RNC's Big Lie Litmus Test | The Late Show | 03/27/23 | 11:11

Extreme heat summit to urge leaders to act on threat from rising temperatures
TheGuardian | Jonathan Watts | 03/27/24

Two of the world's biggest aid agencies will host an inaugural global summit on extreme heat on Thursday as directors warn that the climate crisis is dramatically increasing the probability of a mass-fatality heat disaster.

The conference will highlight some of the pioneering work being done, from tree-planting projects to the development of reflective roof coverings that reduce indoor temperatures.

After last year's record-shattering temperatures, when 3.8 billion people - half the world's population - sweltered in extreme heat for at least one day, the organisers hope the event will prompt governments to prepare for a "silent killer" that rarely gets the attention it deserves when compared with hurricanes, tsunamis and earthquakes. ... Read more

Jordan Klepper on Trump's Bible Grift and GOP Reaction to Baltimore Bridge Collapse | The Daily Show | 03/26/24 | 10:48

Student Loans: Last Week Tonight | John Oliver | 03/21/24 | 30:01

Truth Social faces harsh reality as a public company
Axios | Sara Fischer | 03/27/24

Truth Social - the Trump-owned social media platform that started trading yesterday - currently has far fewer users and less income than any social network that has gone public before.

Why it matters: While the app does sell some ads, its business is practically non-existent.

Truth Social earned $3.4 million in revenue for the first nine months of 2023 and it lost around $49 million.

By comparison, Facebook (now Meta) earned $3.71 billion in revenue the year before it went public and was profitable. ... Read more

In photos: Baltimore bridge collapses after cargo ship collision
Axios | Ivana Saric | 03/26/24

First responders are combing the water for survivors after a container ship collision caused a major bridge in Baltimore to collapse Tuesday morning.

The big picture: Several vehicles were on the Francis Scott Key bridge when it was struck at about 1:30 am ET. Search and rescue efforts are currently underway for "upwards of seven people," Baltimore fire chief James Wallace told reporters. ... Read more

"MAN-MADE HELL ON EARTH": A CANADIAN DOCTOR ON HIS MEDICAL MISSION TO GAZA
The Intercept | Jeremy Scahil | 03/23/24

"I saw scenes that were horrific and I never want to see again," said Yasser Khan, a surgeon from Toronto.

THROUGHOUT THE PAST five and a half months, Israel has waged a full-spectrum war against the civilian population of the Gaza Strip. The United States and other Western nations have supplied not only the weapons for this war of annihilation against the Palestinians, but also key political and diplomatic support.

The results of the actions of this coalition of the killing have been devastating. Conservative estimates hold that more than 31,000 Palestinians have been killed, including 13,000 children. More than 8,000 people remain missing, many of them believed to have died in the rubble of buildings destroyed in Israeli attacks. Famine conditions are now present in large swaths of the Gaza Strip. The fact that the International Court of Justice has found grounds to investigate Israel for plausible acts of genocide in Gaza has not deterred the U.S. and its allies from continuing to facilitate Israel's war. ... Read more

Watch Rachel Maddow Highlights: March 25 | MSNBC | 03/26/24 | 20:30

With TikTok creator program, AI-sped misinformation pays
Axios | Megan Morrone | 03/26/24

TikTok's cash-for-creators program could speed the spread of spammy misinformation on the platform as video makers lean on AI to hook viewers with outlandish images, conspiracy theories and hokum.

Why it matters: The crazier the video, the higher the engagement - and now, more engagement directly translates to more dollars. ... Read more

UN Security Council passes Gaza ceasefire resolution, U.S. doesn't veto
Axios | Barak Ravid | 03/25/24

The UN Security Council passed on Monday morning a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza during the month of Ramadan and calling for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.

Why it matters: This is the first resolution demanding a ceasefire to pass at the council after four previous failures. The U.S. abstained rather than using its veto. All other members voted in favor.

Between the lines: The most recent failure was on Friday, when China and Russia vetoed a U.S. proposal. The dispute was over the U.S. insistence on linking the ceasefire call to a hostage deal and condemnation of Hamas.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled a visit by his senior advisers to the White House later this week to protest the U.S. decision not to block the resolution, which he claimed did not condition the ceasefire call on the release of hostages. ... Read more

Putin blames radical Islamists for Moscow concert hall attack but claims it is part of Ukraine's attacks on Russia
TheGuardian | Gloria Oladipo | 03/25/24

Putin added that the Moscow concert hall attack fits into a larger trend of intimidation from Ukraine, Reuters reported.

Here are more of Putin's remarks: This atrocity may be just a link in a whole series of attempts by those who have been at war with our country since 2014 by the hands of the neo-Nazi Kyiv regime ... ... Read more

Trump arrives for key hearing in New York hush money case
Axios | Erin Doherty | 03/25/24

Former President Trump arrived Monday at a Manhattan courthouse for a key hearing in his New York hush money case.

Why it matters: Judge Juan Merchan may determine whether to keep April 15 as the trial's tentative start date or push the proceeding back further. It's expected to be the first of Trump's four criminal cases to go to trial.

Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first degree in the case, which stems from a 2016 payment he allegedly made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. ... Read more

Screens are poisoning kids' minds
Axios | Erica Pandey | 03/22/24

This is the indisputable and alarming trend among American children, based on the latest polling and deep research by an NYU professor in a book out next week.

The big picture: The pandemic is often cited as a driver of the teen mental health crisis, but it was brewing long before then. A growing body of research links the acceleration of the crisis to one of this century's biggest events: the arrival of the smartphone.

Rates of depression and anxiety among U.S. adolescents were "fairly stable in the 2000s" but "rose by more than 50% in many studies from 2010 to 2019," Haidt writes in The Atlantic.

The suicide rate for kids between the ages of 10 and 14 tripled between 2007 and 2021, according to the CDC.

The share of U.S. high school girls who seriously considered attempting suicide jumped from 19% in 2011 to 30% in 2021, per the CDC. The share of boys who considered suicide rose from 13% to 14%. ... Read more

The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt, Sean Pratt

After more than a decade of stability or improvement, the mental health of adolescents plunged in the early 2010s. Rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicide rose sharply, more than doubling on most measures. Why?

In The Anxious Generation, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt lays out the facts about the epidemic of teen mental illness that hit many countries at the same time. He then investigates the nature of childhood, including why children need play and independent exploration to mature into competent, thriving adults. Haidt shows how the "play-based childhood" began to decline in the 1980s, and how it was finally wiped out by the arrival of the "phone-based childhood" in the early 2010s. He presents more than a dozen mechanisms by which this "great rewiring of childhood" has interfered with children's social and neurological development, covering everything from sleep deprivation to attention fragmentation, addiction, loneliness, social contagion, social comparison, and perfectionism. He explains why social media damages girls more than boys and why boys have been withdrawing from the real world into the virtual world, with disastrous consequences for themselves, their families, and their societies.

Trump world allies sentenced to prison
Axios | Ivana Saric | 03/22/24

Even as former President Trump wades through a complex web of legal woes to avoid prison, some of his allies and associates are already facing that fate.

The big picture: A striking number of people closely associated with the former president have been sentenced to prison for an array of crimes that include contempt of Congress and campaign finance violations.

The latest: Former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg pleaded guilty to perjury charges earlier this month, becoming the latest member of the Trump world to face legal consequences. ... Read more

Blinken: U.S. submitted draft resolution to UN calling for Gaza ceasefire
Axios | Rebecca Falconer | 03/21/24

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday the U.S. has submitted a draft resolution to the UN Security Council that calls "for an immediate ceasefire" in Gaza that's "tied to the release" of hostages held by Hamas.

Why it matters: Both Israel and Hamas are facing pressure to reach a deal to free the hostages and start a truce in Gaza, where over 30,000 Palestinians have been killed, per Axios' Barak Ravid, who noted this week that the first detailed negotiations in months were underway.

Now Blinken has said in an interview with Al-Hadath in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, that an agreement was "getting closer" and "the gaps are narrowing," according to a transcript released by the State Department Wednesday. "I think an agreement is very much possible," he added.

The big picture: Blinken said during the interview that the Biden administration was "pressing for an immediate ceasefire" tied to freeing the hostages. ... Read more

Fossil fuel firms could be tried in US for homicide over climate-related deaths, experts say
The Guardian | author | date

Each year, extreme temperatures take 5 million lives, while 400,000 people die from climate-related hunger and disease and scores perish in floods and wildfires.

Now, researchers are promoting a new legal theory that says fossil fuel companies - which, data show, are the leading contributors to planet-heating pollution - could be tried for homicide for climate-related deaths.

The radical idea, first proposed last year by consumer advocacy non-profit Public Citizen, may sound far-fetched, but it's gaining interest from experts and public officials. ... Read more

Carbon-Majors-Report-2017.pdf

Groundbreaking 'Carbon Majors' research finds 100 active fossil fuel producers including ExxonMobil, Shell, BHP Billiton and Gazprom are linked to 71% of industrial greenhouse gas emissions since 1988.

1. Carbon Majors Database is the most comprehensive dataset of historic company greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions ever compiled;
2. 100 active fossil fuel producers are linked to 71% of global industrial greenhouse gases (GHGs) since 1988, the year in which human-induced climate change was officially recognized through the establishment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC);
3. Almost a third (32%) of historic emissions come from publicly listed investor-owned companies, 59% from state-owned companies, and 9% from private investment;
4. Over half of global industrial emissions since 1988 can be traced to just 25 corporate and state producers;
5. Fossil fuel companies and their products have released more emissions in the last 28 years than in the 237 years prior to 1988;
6. Over half (52%) of all global industrial GHGs emitted since the start of the industrial revolution in 1751, have been traced to these 100 fossil fuel producers;
7. Low carbon tipping point in reach if investors and carbon majors take urgent climate action.

Top U.S. & World Headlines - March 21, 2024 | 03/21/24 | 11:52

"Humanitarian Violence" in Gaza: Architect Eyal Weizman on Mapping Israel's "Genocidal Campaign" | DM | 03/21/24 | 25:14

How Trump is Following Hitler's Playbook | Robert Reich | 03/19/24 | 5:48

MUST-SEE: Jamie Raskin drops BOMB on Republicans | btc | 03/21/24 | 8:04

Jim Jordan stumbles into BRUTAL trap at public hearing | btc | 03/21/24 | 8:05

How DOJ paved the way for the NAR (National Association of Realtors) home-selling settlement
Axios | Emily Peck | 03/21/24

For decades, the Department of Justice pushed for more competition in the real estate market - now the agency might be getting its way.

Why it matters: Pressure from the DOJ's antitrust division likely played a role in getting to the game-changing class action settlement announced by the National Association of Realtors last Friday.

Between the lines: "We've been in their crosshairs for as long as I've been involved at the National Association of Realtors," NAR president Kevin Sears, a licensed Realtor for 20+ years, told hundreds in the industry at a conference in February. ... Read more

There's a big wealth gap between union and nonunion workers
Axios | Emily Peck | 03/20/24

There's a massive wealth gap between workers in unions and nonunionized workers, across education levels, finds a new analysis from the liberal think tank Center for American Progress shared first with Axios.

Why it matters: Typically, unionized workers earn about 10%-20% more than their nonunion peers, but these wealth gaps are far wider, an indication that the benefits of union membership accrue to workers over time.

The big picture: College is still one of the best paths to accumulating wealth, this and other data show. But CAP's numbers point to an alternative for those who might not want to spend the time or money on a college education: union membership. ... Read more

Factchecking Trump's 'bloodbath' speech and his mounting legal fees | Planet America | 03/20/24 | 29:50

The U.S. crime rate is still dropping, FBI data shows
NBC/Apple News | Ken Dilanian | 03/19/24

Why does the public think it's going up? "There is definitely more disorder in cities than there was five years ago," said one expert. "People confuse disorder and crime."

New FBI data confirms previous indications that crime in the U.S. declined significantly in 2023, continuing a post-pandemic trend and belying widespread perceptions that crime is rising.

The new fourth-quarter numbers showed a 13% decline in murder in 2023 from 2022, a 6% decline in reported violent crime and a 4% decline in reported property crime. That’s based on data from around 13,000 law enforcement agencies, policing about 82% of the U.S. population, that provided the FBI with data through December.

"It suggests that when we get the final data in October, we will have seen likely the largest one-year decline in murder that has ever been recorded,"" said Jeff Asher, a former CIA analyst who now studies crime trends. ... Read more: Ken Dilanian | NBC NEWS | 03/19/24

Elon Musk's MAGA alliance
Axios | Zachary Basu | 03/19/24

In public and in private, Elon Musk is increasingly treating the prospect of President Biden's re-election as an urgent - even existential - threat to America.

Why it matters: Musk hasn't endorsed former President Trump. But the billionaire X owner has made no secret of his disdain for Biden's policies, leveraging his massive online platform to denigrate Democrats and promote Trump's messaging on the 2024 election's top issues.

Musk's remarkable political evolution had begun at least by 2022, when the Tesla CEO revealed he had voted Republican for the first time. ... Read more

Watch Rachel Maddow Highlights: March 18 | MSNBC | 03/18/24 | 20:23

Pandemic pact crunch time
Axios | Alison Snyder | 03/18/24

An international draft treaty aimed at bolstering readiness for the next pandemic enters a final round of scheduled negotiations Monday, with key disagreements remaining about how much knowledge and product drugmakers must share with the world.

Why it matters: COVID-19 laid bare global health inequities - and exacerbated them, as low- and middle-income countries received vaccines far later than other countries despite global sharing efforts hatched during the crisis.

That led to hundreds of thousands of deaths that could have been averted, and the inequity reverberated around the hyperconnected planet as variants arose and spread through an uneven patchwork of vaccine access.

An estimated one-quarter of the world's population still hasn't received a single dose of COVID vaccine. ... Read more

Georgia case against Trump can continue if DA or special prosecutor leave: judge
Axios | April Rubin,Jacob Knutson | 03/15/24

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her office can remain on Georgia's 2020 election interference case against former President Trump if the special prosecutor Willis hired steps aside, a judge ruled on Friday.

Why it matters: The ruling allows the case to conditionally go forward and is a win for Willis, who defense lawyers accused of improperly benefiting from her romantic relationship with the special prosecutor, Nathan Wade.

Judge Scott McAfee said he found the "appearance of impropriety" but ruled that the relationship brought no actual conflict on interest and denied the defendants' claims and requests. ... Read more

Five Biggest Border Lies Debunked | Robert Reich | 02/18/24 | 3:05

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins | Book Summary | Bestbookbits | 11/18/21 | 29:21

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (3rd Edition) by John Perkins

How do we stop the unrelenting evolution of the economic hit man strategy and China's takeover?

The riveting third edition of this New York Times bestseller blows the whistle on China's economic hit man (EHM) strategy, exposes corruption on an international scale, and offers much-needed solutions for curing the degenerative Death Economy. In this shocking expose, former EHM John Perkins gives an insider view into the corrupt system that cheats and strong-arms countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars and ultimately causes staggering income inequality and ecological devastation.

EHMs are highly paid professionals who use development loans to saddle countries with huge debts and force them to serve US interests. Now, a new EHM wave is infecting the world, and at the peak of the devastation sits China, a newly dominant economic power, with its own insidious version of the US EHM blueprint. Twelve explosive new chapters detail the allure, exploitation, and wreckage of China's EHM strategy in Latin America, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Europe.

If allowed to continue its rampage, the EHM strategy-whether executed by the United States or China-will destroy life as we know it. However, all is not lost. Perkins offers a plan for transforming this system that places profits above all into a Life Economy that restores the earth. He inspires listeners to take actions toward a new era of global cooperation that will end the United States's and China's EHM strategies for good.

SpaceX's Starship set for third and most ambitious test flight
Axios | Jacob Knutson | 03/14/24

SpaceX is scheduled to test fly its massive Starship spacecraft for a third time on Thursday, hoping to demonstrate technologies critical for any future manned missions to the moon or beyond.

Why it matters: The rocket, which is essential for NASA's Artemis program, is the largest ever built but has yet to complete a full test flight and has reached space only once.

The Starship's second test flight last year ended abruptly without meeting the stated goals for the test.

The vehicle's huge lower-stage booster exploded after a successful separation from the upper-stage spacecraft portion. The upper stage then exploded after reaching an altitude of about 90 miles.

The first test flight earlier in 2023 ended with another explosion, though that was after the rocket punched a crater through the launchpad and spread debris for miles around the launch site.

Such spectacular blunders have been a part of the company's hardware engineering philosophy: move fast, embrace failures and learn from them. ... Read more

The third flight test of Starship is targeted to launch Thursday, March 14. The 110-minute test window opens at 7:00 a.m. CT. | SpaceX | 03/14/24 | 1:43:59/video

Trump arrives for high-stakes court hearing in classified documents case
Axios | Erin Doherty | 03/14/24

Former President Trump arrived Thursday at a Fort Pierce, Fla. courthouse, where his legal team will argue for the dismissal of his classified documents case, multiple outlets reported.

Why it matters: The hearing has huge stakes for the former president and likely GOP presidential nominee. A dismissal of some or all of his charges would be a win for Trump in one of his four criminal trials.

Trump faces 40 counts in the federal case, including charges of willful retention of national defense information and making false statements and representations.

“Trump's team in a filing last month argued that he had "virtually unreviewable" executive authority to designate presidential documents as personal under the law. ... Read more

NASA's pricey mission to send U.S. back to moon faces technical challenges | 60 Minutes | 03/05/24 | 13:22

Democrats' big vulnerability: Why they're losing Black, Hispanic voters
Axios | Russell Contreras | 03/13/24

New data shows that Democrats' longtime advantage with Black, Latino and Asian American voters has shrunk to its lowest point in more than 60 years - creating a massive vulnerability for President Biden and congressional Democrats.

Why it matters: One of the most loyal parts of the Democratic coalition is suddenly in danger. Black and Hispanic men could vote Republican in numbers not seen since President Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected in the 1950s.

The big picture: Latinos, the nation's largest non-white group, still lean Democratic. But they've been shifting Republican over the last two decades, and are no longer the slam-dunk Democrats they were in 1960 when JFK ran for president.

By the numbers: Democrats' advantage among Black, Latino and Asian voters is at its lowest since 1960, Financial Times columnist and chief data reporter John Burn-Murdoch found by analyzing a massive set of polling data. ... Read more

ISRAEL'S USE OF MASS STARVATION AS A WEAPON OF WAR
TheIntercept | staff | 03/13/24

AFTER SIX MONTHS of a sustained U.S.-backed Israeli war of annihilation against the Palestinians of Gaza, President Joe Biden says he now has a "red line." Asked about Israel's threatened full-scale invasion of Rafah, Biden said, "You can't have another 30,000 Palestinians dead as a consequence of going after [Hamas]," Biden told MSNBC. "There are other ways to deal with Hamas."

The White House has taken no action to halt the transfer of arms and other support to Israel's war and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has openly said that he, not Biden, will decide whether to occupy Gaza. As the Ramadan holiday begins, the humanitarian reality of the people in Gaza has descended into horror. Israel's deliberate starvation campaign is intensifying the already indescribable suffering wrought by constant bombing and ground operations. The decimation of the health infrastructure and the attacks against hospitals have resulted in the collapse of basic health services. ... Read more

RNC's new Trump-backed team orders mass layoffs
Axios | Rebecca Falconer | 03/12/24

Trump allies welcomed reports that the Republican National Committee's new leadership team began firing dozens of staff on Monday.

Why it matters: Reports of plans to purge some 60 staffers come days after likely Republican 2024 presidential nominee former President Trump's allies were installed in key committee leadership roles.

The RNC voted for the Trump-backed Michael Whatley to become chair and the former president's daughter-in-law Lara Trump to be co-chair on Friday, some eight months before the 2024 election. ... Read more

Trump pledges to free Jan. 6 rioters in early act as president if elected
Axios | Rebecca Falconer | 03/12/24

Former President Trump vowed Monday to "free" Jan. 6 rioters as one of his first acts if he's elected for a second term in November.

Why it matters: Trump's comments on his Truth Social platform appear to mark the first time the likely Republican presidential nominee has indicated that releasing those imprisoned over the U.S. Capitol riot would be an early priority of his presidency.

What he's saying: "My first acts as your next President will be to Close the Border, DRILL, BABY, DRILL, and Free the January 6 Hostages being wrongfully imprisoned!" Trump wrote on Monday evening, in reference to the prisoners.

By the numbers: "In the 38 months since Jan. 6, 2021, more than 1,358 individuals have been charged in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol," per the latest Justice Department statement. ... Read more

Klepper Presses Haley Supporters: Biden or Trump in 2024? | The Daily Show | 03/05/24 | 5:37

Jon Stewart Calls BS on Trump & the GOP's Performative Patriotism | The Daily Show | 03/11/24 | 14:45

Mocking Biden's Stutter | Trump Loves Hitler, Admires Dictators | The Late Show | 03/11/24 | 12:45

Top U.S. & World Headlines - March 12, 2024 | 03/12/24 | 12:14

Aid Workers Say Israel Must End Attack on Gaza, Open Aid Routes | DN | 03/12/24 | 18:00

Donald Trump and Viktor Orbán: The American right's most disturbing global alliance grows desperate
Salon | HEATHER DIGBY PARTON | 03/12/24

I've been following Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's increasing influence on the American far right for some time as he hosted the likes of former Fox News celebrity Tucker Carlson and held a CPAC meeting in Budapest. (They're doing it again in April with Orbán once again doing the hosting duties.) He was the darling of a certain faction of the conservative coalition even before Donald Trump won and whose election in 2016 super-charged the "illiberal democracy" ideology here in the U.S. which we now know as MAGA. He likewise hopes to consolidate the European far-right into a MAGA-style movement throughout the continent.

Orbán's CPAC appearance got a thunderous ovation last year and just last week he came to meet with members of the Heritage Foundation which is busily putting together "Project 2025" for the second Trump term. One imagines he had quite a few tips for them. He wrote the book on how to turn a modern country into a repressive autocracy without becoming a full-fledged police state.

Trump himself doesn't seem completely sold on that idea since he's pushing for mass round-ups and deportations of non-citizens by National Guard troops and a total lockdown of the country to keep foreigners who "don't like our religion" (or Israel) out of the country. And he's promised to "root out the communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical-left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country that lie and steal and cheat on elections" which leans more in the direction of Putin's Russia or Pinochet's Chile. But Orbán's ideas about how to make the government bureaucracy into a patronage operation, gerrymander the legislature in ways that pretty much strangle real democracy while turning the independent media and academia into impotent irrelevancies are being observed very carefully by the Trump 2.0 planners and they will be implemented if they gain power. (It's also the case that Orbán demonized migrants as a political strategy and even built a fence to keep them out, so they do have that in common as well.)

After the Heritage meeting, Orban made the pilgrimage down to Mar-a-Lago to meet with Trump. (Notably, he wasn't invited, nor did he ask, to meet with the actual president of the United States.) Trump was very impressed with his guest. He apparently feted him at the usual party that takes place every night at this social club and introduced him to the crowd of paying guests saying, "He's a non-controversial figure because he says this is the way it's going to be, and that's the end of it. Right? He's the boss." ... Read more

Health care providers losing up to $1B a day from cyberattack
Axios | Tina Reed | 03/11/24

Disruptions from the Change Healthcare cyberattack are costing health providers as much as $1 billion a day and creating enough of a drag to depress first-quarter earnings, analysts and industry officials say.

Why it matters: Even though Change's parent, UnitedHealth Group, has a timeline for restoring the third-party payment systems that roughly half of U.S. health care relies on, it's not as simple as throwing a switch.

What they're saying: "I know some systems that bill $40 or $50 million a day. They're up to about $800 million so far," Chip Kahn, CEO of the Federation of American Hospitals, told Axios about lost cash flow.

The big picture: Providers that use Change systems have seen portions — and in some cases nearly all — of their revenue vanish since systems for filing claims or having them paid went offline Feb. 21. ... Read more

Biden sends his $7.3 trillion budget to Congress
Axios | Hans Nichols | 03/11/24

President Biden is proposing a $7.3 trillion FY 2025 budget that would offset spending on his key domestic priorities - including tax credits for families and new money for housing - by increasing taxes on corporations and the rich.

Why it matters: Biden is using his budget to fill out the fine print of the campaign promises he has been making for months, and to press Congress to provide funding for Ukraine, Israel and border security.

"My Budget also makes key investments in childcare and education, so every child in America can have the strong start they need to thrive," Biden said in a statement. ... Read more

Biden vs. Trump: Whose Economic Plan Is Better for You? | Robert Reich | 02/11/24 | 4:09

Uvalde shooting: New report clears officers of blame to dismay of families
Axios | Sareen Habeshian | 03/08/24

An independent report released Thursday did not assign blame to local law enforcement officers and defended their actions in response to the May 2022 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.

The big picture: The findings are somewhat contrary to other reports, including one from the Department of Justice earlier this year that heavily criticized law enforcement's response, explicitly calling it a "failure." ... Read more

7 highlights from Biden's 2024 State of the Union address | CBS News | 03/08/24 | 25:20

State of the Union address 2024: Full Biden speech | AP | 03/07/24 | 1:56:37

Biden Delivers A Feisty, Fiery, Heated State Of The Union Speech | Stephen Colbert | 03/07/28 | 11:29

My Ultimate History Crash Course | Robert Reich | 02/27/24 | 32:59

Biden plans feisty economic reset
Axios | Mike Allen,Zachary Basu | 03/07/24

President Biden will use tonight's State of the Union address to admit that prices are still too high in some areas - but argue things were worse under former President Trump, White House chief of staff Jeff Zients tells Axios.

Why it matters: Biden, in what could well be the most important speech of his presidency, aims to project fighting optimism to an audience with plenty of doubts about the nation's vigor - and that of the 81-year-old president.

Biden needs a cure for what some advisers call "Trump amnesia" - the notion that the chaos and unpopularity of Trump's presidency has receded from some voters' memories nearly four years on. ... Read more

HOW HOMELAND SECURITY IS UNDERMINING FAITH IN U.S. ELECTIONS
TheIntercept | Daniel Boguslaw | 03/06/24

NOW THAT THE party nominees for president have all but been decided, America's entire election infrastructure is under assault, from foreign governments, hackers, and extremists. Or at least that's the frenzied message being conveyed from on high these days. Russian warning lights are flashing. Think tanks are working overtime to grind out panicked reports about cybersecurity and disinformation. Fearmongering proliferates on both sides of the political aisle.

But it is the federal government that is most active in this effort, and in its zeal to "protect" the elections, Washington is building a narrative that achieves exactly what it blames foreign adversaries for. By arguing that the elections can and will be manipulated, federal agencies are delegitimizing the highly effective and secure electoral system, and affirming the view of too many Americans that the vote can’t be trusted. ... Read more

Trump a worse appeaser than Neville Chamberlain, leading Democrat says
TheGuardian | Martin Pengelly | 03/07/24

Donald Trump is a worse appeaser in his attitude to Vladimir Putin and Russia than the 1930s British prime minister Neville Chamberlain was towards Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany, a senior Democrat on the House intelligence committee said.

Jim Himes of Connecticut, the ranking Democrat on the committee, also said Trump acted like a “single-cell organism” in obstructing aid to Ukraine.

"They both may be undertaking an act of appeasement," Himes added, “but Neville Chamberlain, love him or hate him, I think probably thought this through.

"Donald Trump is a little bit of a single-celled organism: he responds to one stimulus and one stimulus only, which is, 'Does this make me feel good or does it make me feel bad?' And Ukraine makes him feel bad because he got impeached over Ukraine." ... Read more

Maddow, MSNBC panel instantly fact-check Trump's Super Tuesday speech | 03/06/24 | 8:36

Nikki Haley suspending presidential campaign
Axion | Erin Doherty,Mike Allen | 03/06/24

Former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley will announce Wednesday that she is suspending her presidential bid, a top Haley source told Axios.

Why it matters: Haley became the first woman to win a GOP presidential primary earlier this month, but her rise in the polls and 11th-hour endorsements were not enough to break former President Trump's commanding lead.

She's expected to announce the news in remarks on Wednesday morning, the Wall Street Journal first reported. ... Read more

I code the body electric: We're putting AI brains in robot bodies now. What could go wrong?
Salon | Rae Hodge | 03/05/24

If we open a humanoid robot's metal skull right now and replaced the regular old computer in there with one that has access to a large language model (LLM) - so that the robot is controlled by artificial intelligence the same way we humans are controlled by the electrified hamburger meat between our ears - I don't think we would actually be able to tell if that robot eventually reached human-level, living consciousness. And while it's fair to say I change my opinion on this about once a week, I've recently wondered whether this sort of consciousness might be already occurring to some extent, even if only in the most primitive way.

The problem is that science doesn't yet fully know what the terms "artificial intelligence" and "consciousness" even mean. There are a hundred theories reasoned out across the two interwoven fields, but we humans are still new to the ambitious (and possibly self-contradicting) goal of quantifying sentience. ... Read more

Jon Stewart Unpacks the GOP's "Migrant Crime" Narrative | The Daily Show | 03/05/24 | 10:01

AI jobs charge ahead in the face of public skepticism
Axios | Ivana Saric | 03/05/24

New AI jobs postings continue to grow in the U.S. despite the fact that public trust in AI technology and the companies behind it is sinking.

Why it matters: The trend highlights the disconnected feelings between the public and the tech industry when it comes to the advancement of AI.

State of play: There were 10,404 new AI job postings in January, a 42% rise from Dec. 2022, according to the University of Maryland and LinkUp's AI job tracker.

By comparison, there were more than 90,000 total new IT job postings in January - a 31% drop from from Dec. 2022, per the Wall Street Journal. ... Read more

Public trust in AI is sinking across the board
Axios | Ina Fried | 03/05/24

Trust in AI technology and the companies that develop it is dropping, in both the U.S. and around the world, according to new data from Edelman shared first with Axios.

By the numbers: Globally, trust in AI companies has dropped to 53%, down from 61% five years ago. In the U.S., trust has dropped 15 percentage points (from 50% to 35%) over the same period.

Trust in AI is low across political lines. Democrats trust in AI companies is 38%, independents are at 25% and Republicans at 24%.

Tech is losing its lead as the most trusted sector. Eight years ago, technology was the leading industry in trust in 90% of the countries Edelman studies. Today, it is the most trusted in only half of countries. ... Read more

Stories about Iran | 60 Minutes | 11/26/23 | 54:12

State of the U.S.-China relationship as countries compete economically | 60 Minutes | 02/28/24 | 26:53

Sierra Nevada hit with ferocious blizzard
Axios | Shauneen Miranda,Andrew Freedman | 03/04/24

A blizzard warning was in effect until midnight Sunday for parts of the Sierra, as the massive winter storm disrupts travel in portions of California and Nevada.

The big picture: The "potentially life-threatening" blizzard which began slamming parts of the Sierra Nevada on Thursday was gradually waning on Sunday evening ahead of another storm expected on Monday night.

State of play: This storm has brought relentless hurricane-force winds to the Sierra, knocking out power, creating whiteout conditions and shutting down Interstate 80 for well over 24 hours. ... Read more

Nikki Haley makes history with D.C. Republican primary win
Axios | Rebecca Falconer | 03/04/24

Presidential candidate Nikki Haley won her first GOP presidential nominating contest on Sunday, the D.C. Republican Party announced.

Why it matters: "This makes Nikki Haley the first woman to win a Republican primary in U.S. history," noted Haley campaign spokesperson Olivia Perez-Cubas in a post to X.

The big picture: While Haley's win in Washington, D.C., doesn't affect the trajectory of the race that former President Trump has dominated, it's a welcome boost for the ex-UN ambassador ahead of this week's Super Tuesday contests. ... Read more

If One Megabank Collapses, the U.S. Economy Goes With It. Should We Have More?
Politico | Vistoria Guida | 03/01/24

In a speech at the University of Michigan last month, one of the nation’s top banking regulators posed a deceptively simple question. Michael Hsu, the acting comptroller of currency, wondered aloud: "What should the banking system look like?"

Hsu, an understated lawyer who spent his career overseeing large financial institutions at agencies like the Federal Reserve and the Securities and Exchange Commission, wasn't just asking an idle question. His meaning was more specific: How big should American banks be, and how much financial power should be concentrated in the largest ones?

It's an important question - perhaps even more so now than when Wall Street crashed the economy 15 years ago. Since then, the four universal megabanks that now dominate the economy - JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo - have grown significantly. ... Read more

Key takeaways from transcript of Hunter Biden's testimony
Axios | Rebecca Falconer | 03/01/24

A transcript of Hunter Biden's closed-door deposition before two Republican-led committees was publicly released on Thursday.

The big picture: He struck a defiant tone as he appeared before the House Oversight and Judiciary committees as part of their impeachment inquiry into his father, President Biden.

Hunter Biden maintained throughout his testimony that lasted over six hours that his father was never involved in his business dealings. ... Read more

Hunter Biden's testimony transcript

Trump's one loss this week: His 2024 courtroom strategy
Axios | Erin Doherty | 03/01/24

Former President Trump's delay tactics are paying off in court, but he may be losing one of his most potent venues for his grievance-centered campaign: courthouses.

Why it matters: It now appears likely that just one of Trump's four criminal cases - the one in New York involving hush money paid to an adult film actress - will conclude before the 2024 election.

That means Trump - who's used court appearances for rants against against Democrats and fundraising pleas - may need new backdrops in casting himself as a victim of politically motivated prosecutors. ... ... Read more

Humanoid robots draw millions from Bezos, OpenAI and more
Axios | Jennifer A. Kingson | 02/29/24

Humanoid robot startup Figure has drawn a $675 million investment from Jeff Bezos, AI chipmaker Nvidia, ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and others.

Why it matters: Bipedal robots with dexterous hands are joining the labor force this year, a trend that's expected to gain steam.

Driving the news: The infusion of capital for Figure, a Silicon Valley startup founded by "flying taxi" pioneer Brett Adcock, gives it a valuation of $2.6 billion.

Investors include Microsoft, the OpenAI Startup Fund, Nvidia, the Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund and Jeff Bezos (through Bezos Expeditions). ... Read more

Humanoid robots are coming
Axios | Jennifer A. Kingson | 03/17/23

Human-shaped robots with dexterous hands will be staffing warehouses and retail stores, tending to the elderly and performing household chores within a decade or so, according to a Silicon Valley startup working toward that vision.

Why it matters: Demographic trends — such as a persistent labor shortage and the growing elder care crisis - make fully-functioning, AI-driven humanoid robots look tantalizingly appealing.

Companies such as Amazon are reportedly worried about running out of warehouse workers, whose jobs are physically and mentally demanding with high attrition.

Driving the news: A heavy-hitting startup called Figure, which just emerged from stealth mode, is building a prototype of a humanoid robot that the company says will eventually be able to walk, climb stairs, open doors, use tools and lift boxes — perhaps even make dinner. ... Read more

Texas farmers claim company sold them PFAS-contaminated sludge that killed livestock
TheGuardian | Tom Perkins | 02/29/24

A Texas county has launched a first-of-its-kind criminal investigation into waste management giant Synagro over PFAS-contaminated sewage sludge it is selling to Texas farmers as a cheap alternative to fertilizer.

The PFAS levels independent testing found on the farm were "shockingly high", said Kyla Bennett, policy director for the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility nonprofit, which is assisting in the analyses. ... Read more

Wild weather threatens much of U.S. with snow, tornadoes, heat and fires
Axios | Rebecca Falconer | 02/28/24

Millions of Americans are facing extreme weather whiplash this week - notably in cities including Chicago and Dallas, which were forecast to swing from record highs to wintry lows.

The big picture: Ground stops were temporarily declared at Chicago Midway and O'Hare airports into early Wednesday amid multiple reports of tornadoes, powerful winds and "golf ball-size hail" in the area, as a supercell swept across parts of Illinois and into Ohio Valley.

A strong winter storm was continuing to impact much of the U.S. West, with heavy snow, gusty winds and rain, the NWS noted in its Tuesday night forecast discussion. ... Read more

Four big takeaways from Michigan's Democratic and GOP primaries
Axios | David Lindsey | 02/28/24

There wasn't much doubt that President Biden and former President Trump would romp to victories in the Michigan primaries Tuesday. But Biden's win in particular revealed his vulnerability in a crucial swing state that could decide the presidency in November.

Why it matters: Arab American and young voters - key to Biden winning Michigan in 2020 - turned out by the tens of thousands on Tuesday to vote ... not for Biden, but for "uncommitted" in the Democratic primary.

The protest vote, driven by anger over Biden's handling of the Israel-Hamas war, had drawn more than 100,000 supporters with 98.5% of the ballots counted - several times more than organizers expected.

That took some of the glow from a victory in which Biden got more than 80% of the vote, and confirmed that Biden has some serious persuading to do between now and November. ... Read more

How a $1 billion gift could transform a Bronx medical school
Axios | Felix Salmon | 02/28/24

Ruth Gottesman has donated $1 billion to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx. The money will be placed in an endowment, the income from which will fund free tuition for all students in perpetuity.

Why it matters: No one but Gottesman, a pediatrician who spent her whole career at Einstein, would have made this particular donation. But philanthropy by its nature is idiosyncratic, and this gift in particular has the potential to have some very welcome second- and even third-order effects.

The big picture: Gottesman was bequeathed her fortune by her husband, Sandy, an early investor in Berkshire Hathaway, who died in 2022 at the age of 96. ... Read more

Behind the Curtain: AI's doom or boom
Axios | Jim VandeHei,Mike Allen | 02/27/24

Not since the atomic bomb has so much money been spent in so little time on a technology its own creators admit could ... wipe out our entire species.

Why it matters: Most people ignore or dismiss the sentence above because it seems too ludicrous to be true. But as technological savants crank out new large-language-model wonders, it's worth pausing to hear their own warnings.

The big picture: Sometimes our world changes so fast, in so many head-spinning ways, that it's impossible to fully capture the wildness - and weirdness - of it all.

Dario Amodei, who has raised $7.3 billion for his AI start-up Anthropic after leaving OpenAI over concerns over ethics, says there's a 10% to 25% chance that AI technology could destroy humanity.

Geoffrey Hinton - known as "The Godfather of AI," and for 10 years one of Google's AI leaders - warns anyone who'll listen that we're creating a technology that in our lifetimes could control and obliterate us. ... Read more

Generative AI's next act: Autonomous agents
Axios | Ina Fried,Scott Rosenberg | 02/27/24

AI's key brain trusts are already looking beyond today's popular chatbots to a world in which AI agents act on your behalf.

Why it matters: As AI races from just saying things to doing things for us, its potential benefits and harms will multiply fast.

Driving the news: ChatGPT maker OpenAI is deep into development of AI agent systems, as the Information recently reported. ... Read more

War in Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict by Medea Benjamin

Yes, Russia's aggression was reckless and, ultimately, indefensible. But the West's reneging on promises to halt eastward expansion of NATO in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union played a major part in prompting Putin to act. So did the U.S. involvement in the 2014 Ukraine coup and Ukraine's failure to implement the Minsk peace agreements. The result is a conflict that is increasingly difficult to resolve, one that could conceivably escalate into all-out war between the United States and Russia―the world's two leading nuclear powers.

Skillfully bringing together the historical record and current analysis, War In Ukraine looks at the events leading up to the conflict, surveys the different parties involved, and weighs the risks of escalation and opportunities for peace. For anyone who wants to get beneath the heavily propagandized media coverage to an understanding of a war with consequences that could prove cataclysmic, reading this timely book will be an urgent necessity.

Economists see much stronger 2024 growth: NABE survey
Axios | Courtenay Brown | 02/26/24

An influential group of economists has "sharply revised upwards" America's 2024 growth expectations, in what could be another year that stuns forecasters.

Driving the news: As the U.S. economy continues to outperform, the National Association for Business Economics — which has conducted semi-regular survey of professional forecasters since 1965 - is the latest to say the economy won't see a sluggish year.

The median forecast for GDP is nearly a full percentage point higher than that expected just two months ago. It's now 2.2%, compared to the 1.3% expected in December.

That includes much stronger growth for the current quarter — an annualized 2%, not the 0.7% previously forecast. ... Read more

Palestinian prime minister resigns amid calls to reform Palestinian Authority
Axios | Barak Ravid | 02/26/24

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh resigned on Monday amid growing pressure by the U.S. and Arab countries on President Mahmoud Abbas to conduct wide-ranging reforms, including injecting "new blood" into the Palestinian Authority's leadership.

Why it matters: Shtayyeh's resignation had been expected for weeks. U.S. and Arab countries want to see a "revitalized" Palestinian Authority that can stabilize itself in the occupied West Bank and play a role in the management of post-war Gaza.

Abbas and his aides are working with the U.S. and Arab countries on forming a new technocratic government.

Abbas is expected to nominate his confidant and chair of the Palestinian Investment Fund, Mahammad Mustafa, to head the new government, according to two U.S. and Palestinian officials. ... Read more

State of the U.S.-China relationship as countries compete economically | 60 Minutes | 02/26/24 | 26:53

Erik Prince Calls for U.S. to Colonize Africa and Latin America
Axios | Jon Schwarz | 02/10/24

ERIK PRINCE HAS been many things in his 54 years on Earth: the wealthy heir to an auto supply company; a Navy SEAL; the founder of the mercenary firm Blackwater, which conducted a notorious 2007 massacre in the middle of Baghdad; the brother of Betsy DeVos, Donald Trump's secretary of education; a shadow adviser to Trump; and the plaintiff in a lawsuit against The Intercept.

Last November, Prince started a podcast called "Off Leash," which in its promotional copy says he "brings a unique and invaluable perspective to today's increasingly volatile world." On an episode last Tuesday, his unique and invaluable perspective turned out to be that the U.S. should "put the imperial hat back on" and take over and directly run huge swaths of the globe. ... Read more

Jon Stewart on Tucker Carlson’s Putin Interview & Trip to Russia | The Daily Show | 02/20/24 | 15:11

Supreme Court Ethics: Last Week Tonight | John Oliver | 02/22/24 | 30:20

Klepper Calls for Gun Control After KC Parade Shooting & Trump Might Get Off In GA | The Daily Show | 02/16/24 | 9:07

CNN's Dana Bash has book coming on America's "most violent election"
Axios | Mike Allen | 02/21/24

Dana Bash, CNN anchor and chief political correspondent, will be out Sept. 3 with "America's Deadliest Election," a book about the little-known 1872 Louisiana gubernatorial election.

Why it matters: The book, being published two months before our own contentious election, "is an eye-opening warning of what's at stake and what it takes to protect our democracy," the forthcoming announcement says.

Details: The election "led to hundreds of murders, warfare in the streets of New Orleans, [dueling] governors of Louisiana," the publisher, Hanover Square Press/HarperCollins, says.

"The entire country watched in grim fascination as the wounds of the Civil War were ripped open and the promise of President Grant's Reconstruction faltered in the face of violent resistance and the birth of the Ku Klux Klan." ... Read more

America's Deadliest Election: The Cautionary Tale of the Most Violent Election in American History Hardcover | Sept 3, 2024 | by Dana Bash & David Fisher

The Election of 1872 was the most contentious in American history. After both parties complained of corruption, neither candidate would concede, two governors claimed office and chaos erupted. Rival newspapers engaged in a bitter war of words, politicians plotted to overthrow the government, and their supporters fought in the streets and attempted assassinations. The entire country watched in grim fascination as the wounds of the Civil War were ripped open and the promise of President Grant’s Reconstruction faltered in the face of violent resistance and the birth of the Ku Klux Klan.

In this riveting book, Dana Bash and David Fisher tell the incredible, little-known story of the election that pushed democracy to the breaking point, and sparked historic events including:

1. The Colfax Massacre, in which at least 150 Black men were killed by white supremacists
2. The extraordinary train race from New York to New Orleans for control of the state government
3. The election of the first black Congressman from Louisiana in the face of violent resistance
4. The Supreme Court ruling that ended Reconstruction and became the foundation of Southern segregation, changing the American legal system for the next century

Readers will find eerie parallels to today's divided political landscape and leaders willing to seize power no matter the cost. An eye-opening warning of what's at stake and what it takes to protect our democracy, this is a must-read tale of America's deadliest election.

Inside a Chinese Ghost Town of Abandoned Mansions | WSJ | 02/20/24 | 5:13

How Wall Street banks fought to keep control of a profitable but secretive trading business
Axios | Matt Phillips | 02/20/24

Court documents reviewed by Axios show just how alarmed Wall Street banks were by efforts to regulate their derivatives trading desks after the 2008 financial crisis.

Why it matters: These emails, presentations and internal memos illuminate the financial sector's attempts to shape the rules and shield key profit centers - a technique alive and well today. They were produced during discovery in an ongoing litigation and later seen by Axios.

Flashback: When the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul became law in 2010, a major part of it directed agencies to write rules for the previously unregulated Wall Street derivatives trading business.

Depending on how they were written, these rules threatened to transform the banks' highly profitable interest rate swap business into a low-margin business akin to stock market-style exchange trading. ... ... Read more

The $160 trillion market for U.S.-dollar interest rate swaps — contractual bets on the direction of interest rates - is one of the largest markets in the world.

Watch Rachel Maddow Highlights: Feb. 19 | MSNBC | 02/20/24 | 20:23

Stephen's Public Service Announcement: "This Is F***ed Up" | The Late Show | 02/16/24 | 11:02

Storm-hit California faces fresh atmospheric river flood threat
Axios | Rebecca Falconer | 02/19/24

The U.S. West Coast faces a fresh round of heavy rainfall and snow this week, as another atmospheric river began slamming California on Sunday - bringing with it the threat of flooding, mudslides and possibly tornadoes.

The big picture: Flood watches stretched across much of California's coast, as rainfall began to hit northern coastal area Sunday afternoon and began spreading south by the evening. ... Read more

Tlaib calls to vote against Biden in Michigan primary
Axios | Andrew Solender | 02/19/24

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) on Saturday urged Michigan Democrats to vote "uncommitted" in the state's Feb. 27 primary rather than for President Biden.

Why it matters: It marks an escalation in the rupture between Biden and his party's most left-wing members over his administration's support of Israel.

Driving the news: In a video posted to social media by Listen to Michigan, a campaign to get Michigan Democrats to vote "uncommitted," Tlaib said "it is important, as you all know, to not only march ... [but] to create a voting bloc."

"We don't want a country that supports war and bombs and destruction," the Palestinian-American congresswoman said. "This is the way you can raise our voices. Don't make us even more invisible." ... Read more

Why no one is winning the war in Ukraine | TheGuardian | 02/19/24 | 3:51

What the fall of Avdiivka means for Ukraine, Russia and the war | DW News | 02/19/24 | 5:30

Alexey Navalny and Putin's history of suspected poisonings and crackdowns | 60 Minutes | 02/18/24 | 54:00

Putin critic Alexei Navalny has died, Russia's prison service says
Axios | Dave Lawler | 02/16/24

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has died, according to a statement from Russia's prison service.

The big picture: Navalny, 47, was imprisoned after exposing rampant corruption in Vladimir Putin's inner circle and forming the most effective political movement opposing the Russian leader. His death, if confirmed, has happened in the custody of the Russian state that persecuted him relentlessly.

Driving the news: Vice President Harris said Friday ahead of a speech at the Munich Security Conference that the U.S. was working to confirm the "terrible news" that Navalny had died.

Navalny's wife Yulia told the conference in Munich that if it was true her husband was dead, "I want Putin, his entourage, Putin's friends and his government to know they will be held responsible for what they have done to our country, my family, and my husband." ... Read more

Kansas City Shooting Highlights Missouri's Pro-Gun Laws in "Pro-Life" State | DN | 02/16/24 | 12:16

How Gaza's 'safe' city Rafah came to be on the precipice of catastrophe - visualised
TheGUardian | Ashley Kirk, Harvey Symons, Paul Scruton and Elena Morresi | 02/16/24

Last October, following the Hamas attacks, Israel's military delivered evacuation orders for many of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, telling them to head south for their own safety.

Multiple evacuation orders ensued, and it is now estimated that more than 1.5 million Palestinians are taking refuge in and around the southern city of Rafah, vastly swelling its pre-war population of 280,000.

Many of those now in Rafah, which sits on Gaza's southern border with Egypt, are living in temporary accommodation. Satellite imagery from Planet Labs, dated from 13 October and 14 January, shows a significant increase in tents around the city. ... Read more

Russia's Gazprom - Corrupt politicians and the greed of the west | DW Documentary | 02/10/24 | 50:35

Why John Bolton Is Certain Trump Really Wants to Blow Up NATO
Axios | Kelly Garrity | 02/14/24

John Bolton doesn't really buy Donald Trump's story about telling an unnamed head of state he would encourage Russia to do "whatever the hell they want" to countries that didn't meet NATO's defense spending standards.

But he does think the former president's threats - and his desire to abandon the alliance - are chillingly real.

"Look, I was there when he almost withdrew, and he's not negotiating," said Bolton, who served as Trump's national security adviser. "His goal here is not to strengthen NATO, it's to lay the groundwork to get out."

Bolton, one of the loudest critics to emerge from the Trump White House, has long expressed dismay at Trump’s tenure. In his post-mortem book, "The Room Where it Happened," he portrayed Trump as unfamiliar with basic facts and driven, above all, by a desire to win another term. In Bolton's telling, it's no different with Trump's recent comments about NATO. ... Read more

Trump's billion-dollar man: Chris LaCivita will steer spending by campaign, RNC
Axios | Sophia Cai,Alex Thompson | 02/15/24

Chris LaCivita, a Trump campaign senior adviser, is in line to take over a GOP operation expected to spend $1 billion on the '24 race - effectively merging Donald Trump's campaign with the Republican National Committee, and enhancing his already tight grip on the party.

Why it matters: Trump's move to have LaCivita, one of his campaign's top two officials, also serve as the RNC's chief operating officer will make the two entities "a distinction without a difference," one senior Trump adviser told Axios. ... Read more

Trump crosses NATO's red line with threat to "encourage" Russian attack
Axios | Zachary Basu | 02/13/24

Former President Trump's incendiary comments about NATO this weekend represent the most belligerent public posture he's taken against the Western alliance in his eight years as a politician.

Why it matters: In Europe, where the war in Ukraine is approaching its second anniversary, Trump's remarks supercharged the existing angst among NATO leaders who fear his potential return to the White House.

At a rally in South Carolina on Saturday, Trump claimed he told the president of an unidentified NATO member that he would "encourage" Russia "to do whatever the hell they want" to that NATO nation if it were behind on its defense obligations. ... Read more

How the push to limit Chinese biotech could threaten U.S. edge
Axios | Alison Snyder | 02/12/23

Efforts in Congress to restrict U.S. market access for Chinese biotech companies and investors face a central dilemma: They could disrupt key relationships and supply chains U.S. life sciences companies rely on.

Why it matters: Bipartisan consensus for action is growing amid deteriorated U.S.-China relations, but it's running into the reality that they'll have to balance moves to address U.S. national security concerns with the risk of setting back companies that underpin the country's competitive edge.

The "geopolitics and trade and investment parts of the U.S.-China relationship are on totally different planes," says Scott Michael Moore, director of China Programs and Strategic Initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania. ... Read more

Chris Wallace DESTROYS former colleague Tucker Carlson | btc | 02/11/24 | 8:22

Vladimir Putin-Tucker Carlson's Most Scandalous Interview | Shocking Confessions Rock the World |TOI | 02/10/24 | 2:05:51

Trump faces potentially crippling week of legal penalties | MSNBC | 02/10/24 | 8:38

Supreme Court hears Trump ballot eligibility case | Special Report | CBS | 02/09/24 | 2:49:36

Trump to attend N.Y. criminal trial hearing on Thursday
Axios | Erin Doherty | 02/13/24

Former President Trump is expected to be in New York on Thursday for a hearing in his criminal trial over a 2016 hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, his attorney Steve Sadow said.

Why it matters: The plan means that Trump will not attend a hearing on the same day in Fulton County over misconduct allegations against the prosecutors overseeing his Georgia 2020 election case. ... Read more

Biden: "I am an elderly man ... I know what the hell I'm doing"
Axios | Alex Thompson,Hans Nichols | 02/09/24

For years now, President Biden's advisers have carefully choreographed his every move to avoid what exploded into view over six hours Thursday: a vivid display of an elderly, irritable man struggling on a public stage.

Why it matters: Days after repeatedly referencing talks with dead world leaders, Biden, 81, went before cameras to bash a just-released special counsel's report that portrayed him as feeble and forgetful - and then confused Egypt's president with Mexico's.

Biden's hastily arranged nighttime remarks came after the special counsel's report said he wouldn't be charged for having classified documents, but blistered him as "an elderly man with a poor memory" - a political indictment sure to resonate through the 2024 campaign. ... Read more

Netanyahu's War on the Truth
The Intercept | Jeremy Scahill | 02/07/24

Israel's Ruthless Propaganda Campaign to Dehumanize Palestinians

TWO WEEKS BEFORE Hamas commandos led a series of raids into Israel on October 7, Benjamin Netanyahu stood before an empty chamberOpens in a new tab at the United Nations headquarters in New York City. The Israeli prime minister brandished a map of what he promised could be the "New Middle East." It depicted a state of Israel that stretched continuously from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. On this map, Gaza and the West Bank were erased. Palestinians did not exist.

"What a historic change for my country! You see, the land of Israel is situated on the crossroads between Africa, Asia, and Europe," Netanyahu bellowedOpens in a new tab at a handful of spectators in the large hall, nearly all of whom were his loyalists or underlings. "For centuries, my country was repeatedly invaded by empires passing through it in their campaigns of plunder and conquest elsewhere. But today, as we tear down walls of enmity, Israel can become a bridge of peace and prosperity between these continents." ... Read more

The Anti-Trump Republicans: A Data Breakdown | WSJ | 02/03/24 | 5:01

"Maddening": Epic double debacle stings House GOP
Axios | Andrew Solender & Juliegrace Brufke | 02/07/24

It's 10 minutes of humiliation that will live in House lore. Even in an era of ousted speakers and wild, daily internal disarray, Tuesday night's back-to-back defeats for House Republicans were epic.

1. Speaker Mike Johnson lost by one vote - a Republican vote! - the first impeachment of a Cabinet official in 148 years.
2. The Israel vote was an important House GOP counter-measure as the Senate struggles to pass a bill to fund Israel, Ukraine, Taiwan and border security. The final Israel vote was 250 for and 180 against, which fell short of the two-thirds majority needed for passage. 14 Republicans joined Democrats in voting against the bill. 46 Democrats voted for the bill.

Middle East crisis live: Hamas peace proposal is 135-day ceasefire, return of all hostages and full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, reports say
TheGuardian | | 02/07/24

Hamas has proposed a ceasefire of four-and-a-half months, during which all hostages would go free, Israel would withdraw its troops from the Gaza Strip and an agreement would be reached on an end to the war, according to a document seen by Reuters.

The group's proposal is a response to an offer sent last week by Qatari and Egyptian mediators.

The Hamas offer, in a document seen by Reuters and confirmed by sources, appears to include Hamas's longstanding demand for a full end to the war as a pre-condition before releasing hostages it seized on 7 October.

A second source said Hamas still wanted guarantees from Qatar, Egypt and other states that the ceasefire would be upheld and not collapse as soon as hostages go free. ... Read more

Biden admin officials push pharmacy execs on Paxlovid costs
Axios | Tina Reed | 02/07/24

Biden administration officials this week pushed executives from leading pharmacy chains to make sure frontline staff are providing patients with accurate information about costs of the COVID-19 treatment Paxlovid, officials told Axios first.

Why it matters: Uptake of the Pfizer antiviral has remained stubbornly low since it transitioned to the commercial market in the fall, in part because of patients sometimes being charged up to the full list price of $1,400. ... Read more

Appeals court rejects Trump's presidential immunity claim in Jan. 6 case
Axios | Erin Doherty | 02/06/24

A federal appeals court said Tuesday that former President Trump is not immune from prosecution in his federal 2020 election trial.

Why it matters: The decision is a setback for the former president, who has argued that he is immune from prosecution over his alleged efforts to subvert the 2020 election results.

Driving the news: "For the purpose of this criminal case, former President Trump has become citizen Trump, with all of the defenses of any other criminal defendant," the three-judge panel wrote in a Tuesday filing.

"But any executive immunity that may have protected him while he served as president no longer protects him against this prosecution." ... Read more

What to know about Trump's immunity claims in the 2020 election cases
Axios | Jacob Knutson | 02/06/24

A federal appeals court has rejected former President Trump's claims of "absolute immunity" from charges that he plotted to overturn the 2020 election.

Why it matters: The precedent set by his case will have bearing on executive power and how presidents may be held accountable for abusing it.

He is the first former president to have been denied immunity from criminal charges, though that's primarily because no other sitting or former president has been charged with a crime.

The Supreme Court previously rejected special counsel Jack Smith's request to quickly rule on Trump's immunity claims, forcing the immunity question to go through normal federal judicial proceedings. ... Read more

"Dangerous" atmospheric river threatens Southern California
Axios | Andrew Freedman | 02/02/24

As California begins to dry out from its latest atmospheric river event, residents are preparing for a much stronger storm beginning late Saturday, lasting into Wednesday.

Threat level: Confidence is growing in for a high-impact, extremely dangerous storm that could hit Southern California the hardest. The National Weather Service's Los Angeles office warned Thursday night the storm could have "life-threatening impacts."

Depending on the storm's track and intensity, it may bring a swath of at least 4-to-8-inch rainfall totals, with locally heavier amounts, to areas from Monterey, California southward to San Diego. ... Read more

Behind the Curtain: Trump's conviction scenario
Axios | Mike Allen & Jim VandeHei | 02/02/24

Former President Trump is breezing to the GOP nomination - but, in private, is bracing for the genuine possibility that he'll be the first convicted felon in U.S. history to represent a major party.

Why it matters: Sources tell us Trump believes he'd likely be convicted if the Jan. 6 case comes to trial later this spring in Washington. If that's delayed, he could face a guilty verdict in the Manhattan hush-money case.

State of play: U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is presiding over the Jan. 6 case, has been tough on Capitol rioters tried in her court, and has signaled she'll cut Trump no breaks. Jurors will be drawn from D.C., which is overwhelmingly Democratic.

nation's cartoonists on the week in politics on Politico
Politico | 02/02/24

Biden tells Bibi he's not in it for a year of war in Gaza
Axios | Barak Ravid | 01/29/24

President Biden last week pressed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to scale down the Israeli military operation in Gaza, stressing he is not in it for a year of war, two U.S. officials told Axios.

Why it matters: Biden's comments during the two leaders' call last Friday reflect the growing U.S. concern about the continuation of the war and the president's desire to see it end long before the November elections.

A Biden adviser told Axios the White House is very concerned about losing young voters, many of whom are opposed to the president's policy on the Gaza war.

The Jan. 19 call was the first between the two leaders in nearly a month. During their previous call on Dec. 23, a frustrated Biden ended the call by saying the "conversation is over" and hanging up the phone.

In the first two months of the war that began Oct. 7, the two leaders had talked almost every other day. ... Read more

Israeli defense chief tells U.S. he won't allow rebuilding of settlements in Gaza
Axios | Barak Ravid | 01/29/24

Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant told U.S. officials last week that he and the Israeli military will not allow the rebuilding of illegal outposts or settlements by Israeli settlers inside the Gaza Strip, four U.S. and Israeli officials told Axios.

Why it matters: The Biden administration is concerned that a one-kilometer buffer zone Israel is planning to establish inside Gaza will be used for the rebuilding of the settlements that were dismantled during the 2005 Israeli pullout from the enclave.

This concern has been growing in recent weeks after the settler lobby in Israel and members of the governing coalition started to increase pressure and call for full occupation of Gaza and the rebuilding of settlements. ... Read more

Evergrande collapse: Hong Kong court orders liquidation of China property giant
TheGuardian | Helen Davidson in Taipei | 01/28/24

Judge says 'enough is enough' after developer, which has $300bn in debt, fails to provide convincing restructuring plan

Embattled Chinese development company, Evergrande, has been ordered to liquidate by a Hong Kong court after an 18-month long hearing.

Evergrande, which holds the ignominious title of the world’s most indebted property developer with about $300bn in liabilities, failed to convince the court that it had a viable restructuring plan, after having been given seven extensions since court proceedings were first brought in June 2022.

Evergrande had been working on a $23bn debt revamp plan but this fell apart in September when the company announced its founder, billionaire Hui Ka Yan, was under investigation for "suspected illegal crimes". ... Read more

Behind the Curtain: Trump's exponential power surge
Axios | Jim VandeHei,Mike Allen | 01/25/24

Something shocking - and telling - has unfolded beyond Donald Trump's onstage, online and courtroom theatrics: He's running a professional, well-managed, disciplined presidential campaign.

His 2024 operation is more sophisticated - dare we say traditional - than the slapdash improvisation of his White House and two previous runs.

Why it matters: Trump likely will wrap up the nomination in record time, with almost universal GOP establishment backing.

If he were to win — and run the White House like he has his campaign - he could reshape America and its government more quickly, and in more lasting ways, than he did during his first term. ... Read more

New Hampshire primary exposes Trump's shrinking tent
Axios | Zachary Basu | 01/25/24

Former President Trump's 11-point victory in New Hampshire has been upstaged not just by Nikki Haley's refusal to drop out, but by a set of flashing red alarms about his weaknesses with independents and moderate voters.

Why it matters: Trump, like any candidate, will need a broad coalition to win in November - one that casts a far wider net than the core MAGA base responsible for his dominant victories in Iowa and New Hampshire.

As the primary gives way to the longest general election campaign in modern history, there's no indication that Trump will moderate or change to the degree necessary to bring back swing voters he lost in 2020.

MSNBC's Steve Kornacki pointed out, New Hampshire's GOP primary has never seen a wider gap between the preferences of independents and Republican voters than last night's results:

Trump won Republican voters 74% to 25%, while Haley won independents 58% to 39%, according to CNN's exit polls.

83% of Haley voters - and 42% of voters overall - said they would not consider Trump to be fit for office if he were convicted of a crime. ... Read more

Atmospheric rivers to threaten California, raising flood concerns
Axios | Andrew Freedman | 01/24/24

San Diego's dangerous flash flood on Monday may not be the state's last such event of the next couple of weeks, as a weather pattern favorable to atmospheric rivers takes shape across the Pacific Ocean.

Why it matters: Atmospheric rivers are responsible for the majority of the Golden State's precipitation, and are associated with some of its worst floods on record.

Zoom in: On Monday, a relatively weak atmospheric river, along with favorable winds in the mid-to-upper atmosphere, combined to deliver a deluge to San Diego, with the city seeing 2.73 inches of rainfall. ... Read more

DOJ tells SCOTUS curbing abortion pill access "threatens profound harms"
Axios | Rebecca Falconer | 01/24/24

The Biden administration told the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday that a lower court's decision to curtail the widely used abortion pill mifepristone would have "disruptive consequences" for women and the FDA if it's allowed to stand.

The big picture: The Supreme Court has agreed to review the New Orleans-based federal appeals court's ruling - setting the stage for another significant abortion case following its June 2022 decision to end federal abortion protections and overturn Roe v. Wade. ... Read more

Why replacing fossil fuels is "a whale of an issue"
Axios | Ben Geman | 01/23/24

It will take far more than renewables growth to sustain communities facing local revenue loss if strong climate policies curtail fossil fuel production and use.

Driving the news: New research from Resources For the Future and the University of Michigan explores how different forms of energy provide revenues in 79 counties across 10 states.

Why it matters: Limiting climate change will require moving away from fossil fuels. Yet they provide vital tax revenue and other money streams for services like schools, roads, and safety. ... Read more

Israelism Documentary

New Film Examines American Jews' Growing Rejection of Israel's Occupation | DN | 01/22/24 | 19:30

U.S. debt hits record high as rich economies pile on IOUs
Axios | Deena Zaidi | 01/22/24

The world's richest economy is piling on more debt, with no end in sight as the stakes get higher.

Why it matters: The U.S. public debt surged during the pandemic and recently passed $34 trillion — a record even when accounting for inflation, according to recent data.

Public borrowing is expected to set records this year in many of the world's major economies.

Between the lines: As Washington bickers, the long-term solvency of entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security remains an open question.

Another fight over the debt ceiling looms early next year. An agreement reached to raise it last May expires in January 2025.

By the numbers: In the last century, the U.S. federal debt has risen from an inflation-adjusted $403 billion in 1923 to $33.17 trillion in 2023.

The U.S. debt-to-GDP ratio surpassed 100% in 2013 and currently stands at 123%, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). ... Read more

War warnings everywhere: Global risks are heating up
Axios | Dave Lawler | 01/19/24

While the U.S. has been focused on Gaza and Ukraine, several other long-simmering global threats are getting hotter.

Why it matters: The last 72 hours have seen menacing Chinese patrols near Taiwan, an exchange of fire between Iran and Pakistan, and further escalation between the U.S. military and Houthi rebels.

Then there's North Korea, which has been largely off Washington's radar - but where the risks appear to be growing.

China conducted joint air and sea patrols around Taiwan on Wednesday in the first significant military activity in the Taiwan Strait since Taiwanese voters elected Democratic Progress Party presidential candidate William Lai - whom Beijing has condemned as a "separatist through and through."

Pakistan conducted airstrikes inside Iran on Thursday in response to strikes inside Pakistan by Iran. Both sides said the rare cross-border attacks targeted militants.

The latest: The U.S. conducted a fifth round of strikes on weapons and other assets belonging to the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen on Thursday.

Fears continue to grow that the war in Gaza will spread to Lebanon. Hezbollah militants there have far greater capabilities than Hamas. ... Read more

Who Donald Trump Should - and Shouldn't - Pick for Vice President
Politic | Opinion by RICH LOWRY | 01/19/24

The usual rules apply to any vice presidential selection: First, do no harm, and then try to find someone who can help either in the campaign or during an administration, or ideally both.

The Establishmentarians
Nikki Haley
Mike Pompeo
Tim Scott

The True Believers
Kari Lake
Tucker Carlson
J.D. Vance

The Other Contenders
Kristi Noem
Sarah Huckabee Sanders
Elise Stefanik
Kim Reynolds ... Read more

Greenland Ice Sheet lost 20% more ice mass than thought, study says
Axion | Andrew Freedman | 01/18/24

Scientists may have underestimated the amount of Greenland Ice Sheet melting since 1985 by as much as 20%, a new study found.

Why it matters: Such an underestimate of Greenland ice mass loss indicates a heightened risk of shifts in ocean currents and global weather patterns, the study notes.

According to the new research, published in the journal Nature, since 1985, the Greenland Ice Sheet has lost about 5,091 square kilometers (1,965 square miles) of area due to its retreating calving front, which amounts to about 1,034 gigatons of ice that has slid into the sea.

The study combines 236,328 manual and AI-generated observations of glacier terminus, or end, positions with a model to capture ice flow. The researchers used this to provide insights into the monthly aerial extents of the entire ice sheet between 1985 and 2022. ... Read more

House Republican hardliners plot revenge on Mike Johnson
Axios | Andrew Solender, Juliegrace Brufke | 01/18/24

The House Freedom Caucus may begin to routinely hijack Republican messaging bills as an act of retaliation against House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), according to multiple members of the right-wing group.

Why it matters: It would mark a significant escalation in hardliners’ rebellion against Johnson after he pursued bipartisan deals to pass critical government funding bills.

What they're saying: "If they don't want or need our votes for the material legislation that impacts the country or the large spending packages ... you shouldn't presume that you have our votes for the messaging bills that will go nowhere in the Senate," said Freedom Caucus Chair Bob Good (R-Va.). ... Read more

The huge open question for business leaders on AI economics
Axios | Neil Irwin | 01/16/24

DAVOS, SWITZERLAND — When it comes to the economic impact of artificial intelligence, is 2024 going to be more like 1987 or more like 1995?

Driving the news: That, in a nutshell, is the question beneath much of the (abundant) AI discussions taking place among global leaders and top thinkers at the World Economic Forum this year.

Why it matters: In the 1990s and early 2000s, a revolution in information technology helped fuel a productivity boom - and with it, an environment of rapid growth, rising wages and low inflation.

Many in the Davos crowd envision something similar - or more significant - emerging from AI advances. Less clear is when. ... Read more

In 2021 the artificial intelligence (AI) company DeepMind stunned many scientists with the release of predicted structures for some 350,000 proteins, part of the work recognized as Science's 2021 Breakthrough of the Year.

Yesterday (07/29/2022), DeepMind and its partners went much, much further. The company unveiled the likely structures of nearly all known proteins, more than 200 million from bacteria to humans, a striking achievement for AI and a potential treasure trove for drug development and evolutionary studies. Thus determing the 3D stuctures of a protien used to take many months or years... now it takes seconds!

The New York Times sues OpenAI, Microsoft over use of its stories used to train chatbots
Politico | Associated Press | 12/xx/23

NEW YORK — The New York Times has filed a federal lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, seeking to end the practice of using its stories to train chatbots.

In the suit filed Wednesday in the Southern District of New York in Manhattan, the Times said OpenAI and Microsoft are advancing their technology through the "unlawful use of The Times’s work to create artificial intelligence products that compete with it" and "threatens The Times's ability to provide that service."

OpenAI and Microsoft did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Media organizations have been pummeled by a migration of readers to online platforms and while many publications have carved out a digital space online as well, artificial intelligence technology has threatened to upend numerous industries, including media. ... Read more

Extreme weather alerts cover every state as bomb cyclone intensifies
Axios | Andrew Freedman | 01/12/24

A rapidly intensifying storm that could be one of the most intense on record for the Midwest in January is helping to prompt watches and warnings for the entire Lower 48 states on Friday.

Threat level: The storm's hazards are multifaceted, from "life-threatening" blizzard conditions in Iowa to powerful winds that may cause damage in at least a dozen states.

Conditions in Iowa have disrupted campaigning as all eyes are on turnout ahead of Monday's caucuses.

In addition, more rounds of severe thunderstorms with possible tornadoes are likely Friday and Saturday across the Southeast, with flooding rains along the East Coast.

Details: The storm, which will reach its maximum intensity over Michigan this weekend - causing waves on the Great Lakes to reach or exceed 20 feet - will help accelerate a push of Arctic air south and southeastward from Montana to the Gulf Coast. ... Read more

"Tectonic shift in power": How MAGA pastors boost Trump's campaign
Axios | Sophia Cai | 01/12/24

DAVENPORT, Iowa - Donald Trump doesn't have the support of Iowa's most prominent evangelical leader in Monday's caucuses. But in Iowa and across the country, MAGA pastors are among Trump's most loyal backers.

Why it matters: It's not just that they like the former president for appointing three Supreme Court justices who helped overturn abortion rights.

Some of Trump's most enthusiastic believers are pastors who share his dark view of U.S. politics - or who've touted him as they've risen to prominence on social media.

Zoom in: Faith leaders who've endorsed Trump include hundreds of traditional conservatives a lot like Bob Vander Plaats - the influential Iowa evangelical leader who's backing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

They also include MAGA pastors who, in speeches and podcasts, offer an apocalyptic view of U.S. politics — casting Democrats as demonic, promoting Christian nationalism and touting Trump as chosen by God to save Christianity. ... Read more

Buckle Up, The 2024 Election Is Here | Robert Reich | 01/12/24 | 2:31

Swytch eBikeKit | swythhbike.com | 2:00

Winter whiplash: Why a parade of storms is suddenly slamming the U.S.
Axios | Andrew Freedman | 01/11/24

The winter of 2023-24 has suddenly shifted from being delayed, with snow-starved ski areas and balmy northern cities, to highly active.

Driving the news: After a mild and tranquil start, a parade of storms are bringing cold and snow for millions, and rain and wind for others, all within a matter of days.

The big picture: The multiple winter storms crossing the country can be partially traced to weather patterns high above the Arctic, specifically the contortions of the polar vortex and a strong area of high pressure meandering near Greenland.

Yes, but: A new study published Wednesday found that over the long term, there is a detectable trend toward less spring snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere, including in many places where the liquid contained in the snowpack is crucial to water supplies. ... Read more

Microsoft overtakes Apple as largest U.S. company on AI boost
Axios | Matt Phillips | 01/11/24

Microsoft has overtaken Apple as the largest U.S. company by market value.

Why it matters: It's a potential changing of the guard among tech titans.

The big picture: Microsoft has briefly overtaken Apple as the most valuable U.S. company on a couple of occasions since COVID hit.

Microsoft's recent romp higher - it's up more than 60% over the last 12 months, compared to Apple's 38% - reflects the fact that it's seen as well positioned for the AI boom that many investors view as a near certainty.

State of play: Microsoft was roughly flat on Thursday while Apple had slipped by about 0.8% shortly before noon. ... Read more

"A sorry record:" World Bank warns of miserable decade
Axios | Neil Irwin & Courtenay Brown | 01/09/24

The global economy of the 2020s will be more bleak - with sluggish economic activity, less trade growth and crushing borrowing costs - than the decade that preceded it.

Driving the news: This is the new warning from the World Bank Tuesday morning that says the global economy so far had its weakest performance in more than 30 years.

Why it matters: Economic prospects appear much brighter than a year ago as the global inflation shock recedes without tipping the world into a recession. But growth is slowing, with further threats from geopolitics and tightening credit conditions.

"As the world nears the midpoint of what was intended to be a transformative decade for development, the global economy is set to rack up a sorry record by the end of 2024," the World Bank says in its release.

Global growth will slow for the third consecutive year to 2.4%, down 0.2 percentage point from 2023, the "Global Economic Prospects" report projects. ... Read more

Intense winter storm causes power outages, snares travel across U.S.
Axios | Rebecca Falconer & Andrew Freedman | 01/09/24

One in a fusillade of winter storms is bringing blizzard conditions, damaging winds, heavy rain, flooding and the threat of additional tornadoes across large parts of the U.S. Tuesday into Wednesday.

The big picture: A whopping 196 million people are under wind advisories, warnings and watches, including entire states from Florida to Maine, as a powerhouse cold front associated with an intensifying storm pushes east. ... Read more

Boeing 737 near-catastrophe lands company back in hot water
Axios | author | 01/09/24

Last week's near-catastrophe involving a Boeing 737 is drawing fresh scrutiny of the company and its manufacturing, quality control and safety practices.

The big picture: Boeing had been trying to revive its once-sterling reputation ever since a combined 346 people were killed in crashes involving its 737 MAX 8 in 2018 and 2019.

But then Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 - a Boeing 737 MAX 9 - returned to Portland International Airport shortly after takeoff last Friday after a "plugged" emergency exit door flew off, exposing passengers to the open air.

The aircraft landed safely with no fatalities. ... Read more

How the Republican Party memory-holed Jan. 6
Axios | Zachary Basu | 01/05/24

Three years on from Jan. 6, the GOP establishment's shock, shame and fury at the Trump-inspired mob that ransacked the Capitol has melted away in favor of realpolitik and revisionist history.

Why it matters: President Biden is preparing a full-court press - starting with two anniversary speeches and his first campaign ad of 2024 - to remind Americans of former President Trump's actions after the 2020 election.

Biden's bet is that when a binary choice is presented in November, voter fears about the threat Trump poses to democracy will outweigh their concerns about the economy and the border.

How we got here: The GOP's journey of reconciliation with Trump and Jan. 6 - to the point where 34% of Republicans recently polled falsely believe the FBI organized the Capitol attack - can be broken down into five key inflection points. ... Read more

The UFO Movie THEY Don't Want You to See (2023) | Brian Dunning | 2023 | 1:33:19

Sirius | Dr. Steven Greer | | 1:58:26

Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind: Contact Has Begun - Dr. Steven Greer | unidentifiedtv.com | | 1:58:43

Unacknowledged | Dr. Steven Greer | 2021 | 1:43:41

From the Sierra Nevada to the Great Lakes, winter is running late
Axios | Andrew Freedman | 01/04/24

Ski areas across the U.S. and Canada are in increasingly desperate need of natural snow for a ski season that typically would already be in full swing.

The big picture: From the West Coast of the U.S. and Canada on eastward, milder and drier than average conditions have prevailed, preventing resorts from building up a wintry base for would-be skiers.

This season offers a preview of future winters, as the season warms faster than any other, partly in response to human-caused climate change. ... Read more

Winter storm to bring long-awaited snow to mid-Atlantic, Northeast this weekend
Axios | Andrew Freedman | 01/04/24

The long-running snow drought from Washington to Boston could end, or at least ease, as a winter storm develops and moves across the region this weekend.

Threat level: The event does not look like a major snowstorm for D.C., Baltimore or Philadelphia, but the New York to Boston corridor stands a much higher chance of receiving a more significant, plowable snowfall.

The big picture: The storm system likely to affect the heavily populated Amtrak Acela corridor is projected to spin up from a combination of atmospheric disturbances moving across the country. Into the weekend, these will tap into moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. ... Read more

BYD's Rapid Pivot to Electric Cars
Statista | Felix | 01/04/24

There is perhaps no better example of China's rapid transformation towards electric mobility than BYD. The carmaker successfully pivoted from international combustion vehicles to what's known as "new energy vehicles" in China, i.e. battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids. As our chart shows, the company did so at breakneck speed, ramping up production of its electric passenger vehicles at a pace European or American legacy carmakers can only dream of. ... Read more

Epstein-linked John Does are about to be named publicly.
CNN | Allison Morrow, Michelle Watson, Kara Scannell, Emma Tucker and Samantha Delouya | 01/03/24

New York (CNN) The identities of dozens of people linked to Jeffrey Epstein are expected to be revealed as soon as this week, potentially removing a cloak of anonymity that had shielded much of the accused sex trafficker's prominent network of friends and business partners from public scrutiny.

The expected revelations in a trove of court documents come more than four years after Epstein, a convicted sex offender who nevertheless kept elite company, died in jail while awaiting federal sex-trafficking charges.

For years, the names of many of Epstein's accusers and associates had been redacted in court documents, referred to only as a John Doe or Jane Doe.

But last month, a federal judge in New York ordered the documents to be released with nearly 200 names unredacted. Some names, including those of accusers who were under 18, will remain anonymous. ... Read more

Iran: Scores killed in blasts near ceremony honoring slain commander Soleimani
Axios | Barak Ravid | 01/03/24

More than 100 people were killed on Wednesday in two explosions near a ceremony honoring a top Iranian commander killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2020, Iranian state media reported, citing an emergency services official.

The big picture: It was unclear what - or who - was behind the explosions, but state media quoted an official in Kerman, the province where the blasts took place, as saying they were caused by "terrorist attacks." More than 100 others were injured. ... Read more

Who Funds Canary Mission? James Bamford on Group That Doxes Students & Profs for Palestine Activism | DN | 12/27/23 | 11:47

The world's hottest year may soon be an average one
Axios | Andrew Freedman | 01/02/24

Humanity's hottest year in at least 125,000 is now over. But with further warming ahead, we may soon look back on it as an average year, rather than an aberration.

Why it matters: Climate change dominated the headlines at several points during 2023, despite armed conflicts around the world, the unprecedented criminal indictments of a former U.S. president, and other major stories.

The big picture: Last year's warming surprised many climate scientists and policymakers alike, and contributed to the sense of urgency diplomats addressed during the COP28 climate summit in Dubai. ... Read more

I Calculated How Much of My Money the U.S. Sent to Kill Palestinians. You Can Too.
The Intercept | Jon Schwarz | 12/28/23

AS 2023 ENDS, I've been asking myself: How much money am I, personally, contributing to Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories and its attack on Gaza?

The Israeli assault on Gaza launched after the October 7 attacks by Hamas has so far killed more than 20,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including thousands of children and over 100 journalists. Nearly 90 percent of the territory's residents have been displaced, and it has been calledOpens in a new tab "one of this century's most destructive wars."

So how much have I chipped in to create this hell on earth? The best answer I've come up with is $150. There are two ways of looking at this number. ... Read more

BlackRock: The Company that Controls* The World's Governments
Aperture.gg | staff | 05/09/23

You wake up to the sound of the alarm on your iPhone. Annoyed that you couldn't get more sleep, you grudgingly unlock your phone to see what's going on in the world. There's an email from Amazon telling you that your package has been delivered.

You force yourself out of bed to get the package. It's some Johnson & Johnson medicine you ordered the night before. The wonders of overnight shipping, you think to yourself. You glance across the room to see the clock, it's 8 a.m., and you have to be at work by 9!

Flustered, you open your Microsoft computer to answer some work emails before getting dressed. There's no time to cook breakfast, so you'll just grab something at Mcdonald's on your way to work. What if I told you that every single company you just interacted with in the first hour of your day is heavily influenced in large part by one company - BlackRock. ... Read more

BlackRock: the Company That Controls* the World's Governments | Aperture | 05/29/23 | 13:42

Network of Lies: The Epic Saga of Fox News, Donald Trump, and the Battle for American Democracy by Brian Stelter

The ongoing criminal trials of Donald Trump are also a trial for the nation he once led. We are undergoing a stress test of American democracy, the rule of law, and the very notion of a shared political reality. Can we achieve accountability for premeditated assaults on democracy and what forms should accountability take?

In Network of Lies, New York Times bestselling author Brian Stelter answers these questions by weaving together private texts, unpublished emails, depositions, and other primary sources to tell the chilling story of Trump's alleged conspiracy to steal the 2020 election, and the right-wing media’s mission to put him back in office in 2024.

Trump couldn't have convinced millions of Americans of the Big Lie without Fox News. From the moment Joe Biden became president-elect in 2020, Fox hosts fueled a fire of misinformation and violence by spreading Trump's tales of election fraud and suppressing the truth. Come January, Sean Hannity insisted Trump needed to stop listening to "crazy people" who swore he could stay in power, but it was too late-thousands of Trump's deluded followers had stormed the Capitol and Trump operatives had breached Dominion Voting Systems' voting machines in Georgia. ... ...

Israeli military 'regrets harm to civilians' after dozens killed in refugee camp strike
The Guardian | staff | 12/28/23

The Israeli military has said it “regrets the harm” caused by an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) strike that killed dozens of people in the Maghazi refugee camp in the centre of Gaza earlier this week.

About 86 people were killed in the Israeli airstrike in the Maghazi camp, east of Deir al-Balah, late on Sunday, according to figures by the UN human rights office.

An Israeli military official, speaking to Israel's Kan news today, said:

The type of munition did not match the nature of the attack, causing extensive collateral damage that could have been avoided.... Read more

Trump Shares J.L. Partners survey
Axios | vana Saric | 12/28/23

The word cloud comes from a J.L. Partners survey for the Daily Mail that asked 1,000 likely voters to use one word to describe what both Trump and President Biden want out of a second term.

Trump shared his word cloud in an uncaptioned Truth Social post, which prominently featured words like "revenge," "power, "economy" and "dictatorship" in large, brightly colored letters.

Biden's word cloud prominently featured words like "nothing," "economy," "democracy" and "peace." ... Read more

Israel shows Hamas' 'largest tunnel yet' | ABC News | 12/20/23 | 3:15

"Extraordinary torrential downpours" flood Southern California
Axios | Rebecca Falconer & Emma Hurt | 12/22/23

A storm that's been flooding Southern California streets with historic rainfall, disrupting travel and prompting water rescues and evacuations is expanding into the Southwest on Friday.

The big picture: The slow-moving storm on Thursday morning dumped a month's worth of rain in one hour on Oxnard, a Ventura County city west of Los Angeles. As of Friday morning, more than 26 million people were under flood watches from Southern California to Central Arizona.

Why it matters: The "dramatic" storm has already unleashed historic rainfall rates. Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with UCLA, said during a Thursday briefing that the Ventura County downpour is likely "the heaviest rainfall that has been observed in this area in recorded history and is likely a multi-centennial kind of event."

"These are genuinely extraordinary torrential downpours and importantly, they're continuing." ... Read more

Gaza's entire population facing crisis levels of hunger, risk of famine, report finds
Axios | Laurin-Whitney Gottbrath | 12/22/23

Gaza's entire population - more than 2.2 million people - is facing crisis or worse levels of hunger, with the risk of famine increasing every day as Israel's ground offensive and bombardment of the enclave continues, a UN-backed body said in a report on Thursday.

The big picture: It is the highest share of people facing such levels of food insecurity that has ever been reported by the multi-partner body known as the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), which monitors global hunger. ... Read more

2025 Mandate For Leadership (900pg).pdf

The comprehensive policy guide for a new conservative President, offering specific reforms and proposals for Cabinet departments and federal agencies, pulled from the expertise of the entire conservative movement. "The next conservative President must dismantle the administrative state and return power back to the states and the American people. This publication is a blueprint to do just that." -Mike Lee, U.S. Senator, Utah "A sweeping plan to end the weaponization of the government against Americans and the values they care about." -Mollie Hemingway, Editor in Chief, The Federalist

Preparing Political Appointees to be Ready on Day One.

The project will create a playbook of actions to be taken in the first 180 days of the new Administration.

Supreme Court showdown with Trump
Axios | Sam Baker | 12/21/23

The Supreme Court is stuck with Donald Trump, whether the justices like it or not.

The big picture: The court may not have any real way to avoid a starring role in the 2024 campaign, or to shield itself from the constant firestorm that swirls around Trump.

Almost no one in politics has managed to escape that maelstrom undamaged, and that's bad news for the court at a time when its seams are more visible than they've been in decades - already under fire from the left, divided internally on the right and losing its luster with the public.

"There's no winning," Notre Dame law professor Derek Muller told Axios. ... Read more

'Trump Knows What He's Doing': The Creator of Godwin's Law Says the Hitler Comparison Is Apt
Politico | CALDER MCHUGH | 12/19/23

In comparing Trump to Hitler, is the Biden campaign losing the argument based on Godwin's law?

I've never said that just because you're invoking the Nazis you're losing the argument. If you're going to compare somebody to Hitler or the Nazis or raise the specter of the Holocaust, be sure you've got your facts right. But there's nothing categorically wrong with Biden's - or anyone else's - comparison of Trump calling people vermin or talking about blood poisoning to Hitler.

I wasn't a particular scholar of Hitler or the Nazis before, and I still don't count as one, but I've always taken pains to know enough history to know whether a comparison was valid. And in general, dehumanizing rhetoric is a hallmark of Hitler's rhetoric. So, Trump's opening himself up to the Hitler comparison. ... Read more

World Population (1820-2023)

World Religions Ranking - Population Growth by Religion (1800-2023)

Rep. Scott Perry ordered to turn over phone data to DOJ in Jan. 6 case
Axios | Rebecca Falconer | 12/20/23

Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) must turn over almost 1,700 records recovered from his phone to the Department of Justice for special counsel Jack Smith's investigation into former President Trump's 2020 election interference case, a judge ruled Tuesday.

Why it matters: The federal judge's ruling in D.C. is the latest turn in a long-standing battle with the DOJ for Perry, the chair of the House Freedom Caucus who helped press Trump's baseless voter fraud claims in the run-up to the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot.

Driving the news: After FBI agents seized Perry's phone last year as part of the DOJ's Jan. 6 investigation, the Trump ally argued that more than 2,000 of the seized communications "were privileged under the Constitution's Speech or Debate Clause" - which grants sitting Congress members immunity from criminal investigation. ... Read more

Can We Still Find Common Ground? | Robert Reich | 12/20/23 | 2:37

IRS delivers Christmas gift: $1 billion in tax penalties waived
Axios | Kelly Tyko | 12/20/23

Days before Christmas, the Internal Revenue Service said it is waiving $1 billion in tax penalties for 4.7 million individuals, businesses and organizations who owe back taxes.

Why it matters: The rare relief is about $200 on average for each affected taxpayer and about 70% of those affected have household incomes below $100,000, the IRS announced Tuesday.

What's happening: The IRS said taxpayers who owe on their 2020 and 2021 taxes could be eligible for relief depending on the amount of their tax bill.

The agency said it's waiving the penalties because it stopped mailing automated reminders in February 2022 because of the pandemic. ... Read more

Tom Nichols on Trump's Recent Rhetoric: "An Actual Fascist Has Shown Up" | Amanpour and Company | 12/12/23 | 18:07

Lies, Politics and Democracy (full) | FRONTLINE | 2022 | 1:53:18

Experts Agree: AI Will Be the "Ruin" of Mankind. | Beeyond Ideas | 06/11/23 | 14:19

"Hell Again": An Audiodiary of Life Under Israeli Bombardment
Mother Jones | DANIELLE CAMPOAMOR | 12/19/23

In the wake of the October 7th Hamas attack that claimed 1,200 lives, Israel has struck Gaza relentlessly.

In the first six days of the war, Israel dropped 6,000 bombs, more than the United States dropped in Afghanistan in all of 2019; by early November, according to the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor. Israel had deployed more than 25,000 tons of explosives on Gaza, the equivalent of two nuclear bombs. To date, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, more than 18,000 Palestinians, including at least 7,700 children, have been killed and an additional 49,500 people have been injured. Women and children are believed to account for at least two-thirds of the death toll. ... Read more

Change in share of U.S. adults who say healthcare players are providing excellent or good quality services
Axios | Maya Goldman | 12/19/23

Americans' satisfaction with almost every major part of the health care system has dropped since 2010, according to a new Gallup analysis.

Driving the news: Drugmakers took the biggest reputational hit, and ratings for physicians fell sharply, too.

69% said the same about physicians this year, down from 84% percent in 2010.

Americans were least satisfied with nursing home care. Just 25% rated nursing homes as excellent or good, while 37% rated them as poor. ... Read more

2023 led to fewest laws in decades
Axios | Andrew Solender | 12/19/23

The 118th Congress is on track to be one of the most unproductive in modern history, with just a couple dozen laws on the books at the close of 2023, according to data from data analytics firm Quorum.

Why it matters: It's the product of not only divided partisan control of Washington, but infighting within the House Republican majority that has routinely ground legislative business to a halt.

Just 20 bills have been passed by both chambers and signed into law this year, with another four currently awaiting President Biden's signature, according to the Quorum data.

That's far below even historically unproductive first years: The 104th, 112th and 113th Congresses, in which Republicans controlled one or both chambers with Democrats Bill Clinton and Barack Obama in the White House, passed between 70 and 73 laws. ... Read more

Conservative commentators and right-wing Christian media deny climate change by claiming God controls the weather
MediaMatters.org | Payton Armstrong | 12/11/23

Concern over climate change has declined among evangelicals, despite the scientific consensus that climate change is real and worsening natural disasters. According to a recent study by the Public Religion Research Institute, "while the proportion of all Americans who consider climate change a crisis has risen 16% since 2014, among white evangelicals it has dropped 38%." [PRRI, 10/4/23; Religion News Services, 10/4/23]

In public polling, right-wing Christians who express little concern about climate change and reject government action to curtail it cite a host of reasons, including the notion that God controls the climate and the belief that natural disasters are a sign of the End Times. Notably, the 2023 PRRI poll found that "agreement with the severity of natural disasters as evidence of the end of times is greater among Americans who most trust Fox News (52%) or far-right news outlets (43%)." [Pew Research Center, 11/17/22; PRRI, 10/4/23]

Republican politicians, prominent figures on the religious right, and key right-wing media funders have for years invoked religion to deny climate change and reject action to curtail it. ... Read more

To His Last Breath, Daniel Ellsberg Fought to Save the World | theanalysis.news | 12/18/23 | 31:03

The minimum wage is going up in 22 states on Jan. 1
Axios | Emily Peck | 12/18/23

The minimum wage is set to increase in 22 states on Jan. 1, 2024.

Why it matters: For Americans making minimum wage, it's an automatic raise - but it also ripples out. Typically, increasing the wage floor for the lowest earners pushes up pay for those who make a bit more than the minimum, as employers have to adjust pay scales upwards.

Zoom in: In 13 states wages are going up because they're indexed to inflation, including California, Ohio and South Dakota.

Three more states and Washington, D.C., are set to raise the wage later in the year.

The last time the federal minimum wage ($7.25) was increased was in 2009. ... Read more

U.S. economy will pull off soft landing in 2024, CBO projects
Axios | Courtenay Brown | 12/15/23

The U.S. economy is on track to avoid a recession next year as inflation returns to normal, according to new economic projections released by the Congressional Budget Office.

Why it matters: The nonpartisan agency expects more moderate economic conditions in 2024 - including slower growth and higher jobless rates - than previously anticipated. But its projections suggest America will skirt an all-out contraction in growth.

By the numbers: The CBO projects the economy will grow 1.5% in 2024 - a slower rate of growth than the 2.5% estimated in February - before rebounding to 2.2% in 2025. ... Read more

PENTAGON TAPS “TIGER TEAM” TO RUSH WEAPONS TO ISRAEL
The Intercept | Ken Klippenstein | 12/14/23

THE PENTAGON IS working to expedite weapons exports to Israel by deploying a so-called Tiger Team of experts to facilitate the transfers, according to procurement records reviewed by The Intercept. Some of the arms sales will be carried out through a new Army initiative designed specifically for the provision of weapons to Israel.

The Israel-specific program, called the Israel Significant Initiatives Group, is located within the Army’s Defense Exports and Cooperation office, which oversees policy for U.S. arms sales.

The Tiger Team meets daily with the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency, or DSCA, which executes U.S. arms sales, to overcome barriers to arms sales to Israel. ... Read more

Taking Down Trump: 12 Rules for Prosecuting Donald Trump by Someone Who Did It Successfully by Tristan Snell

A former prosecutor provides an essential guide to ensuring that Donald Trump, and other oligarchs of his ilk, no longer beat the rap, and face serious jail time for their crimes...

For a half century Donald Trump has evaded justice. Now he finally faces trials for his lies, cons, and misdeeds—but many fear Trump will never face any real consequences.

Is our system so broken that some people are now above the law?

In Taking Down Trump, Tristan Snell—a former assistant attorney general for New York State who took on and beat Trump in a court of law—argues that Donald Trump can indeed be defeated, and shares his secrets for how to beat him. ...

"This Quantum Computer Will CHANGE Everything!" ft. Michio Kaku | Beeyond Ideas | 08/xx/23 | 13:41

Senate passes defense bill despite culture-war pushback from GOP hardliners
Axios | Sareen Habeshian | 12/14/23

The Senate on Wednesday passed a $886 billion defense bill, advancing funding and setting policy for the Pentagon.

Why it matters: The move goes against demands from staunchly conservative Republicans, who tried to add provisions to the bill that took on culture war issues that have become a cornerstone of the GOP agenda.

These include proposed amendments on abortion, diversity, equity and inclusion programs and transgender health care.

The Senate bill includes $844.3 billion for the Department of Defense and $32.4 billion for the Department of Energy's national security initiatives. ... Read more

PENTAGON FAILS SIXTH AUDIT IN A ROW, CLAIMING "PROGRESS SORT OF BENEATH THE SURFACE"
The Intercept | Ken Klippenstein | 11/17/23

THE U.S. MILITARY appears unfazed in its inability to account for billions of dollars. On Thursday, the Department of Defense failed its sixth consecutive audit — but hailed its "incremental progress."

As the Pentagon budget nears a watershed $1 trillion - the largest of any federal government agency - it has never passed a single one of the annual audits mandated by Congress. In a press briefing, the Department of Defense said it had no timeline for passing an audit.

"We've heard the same platitudes about audit progress for years," said Julia Gledhill, an analyst at the Project on Government Oversight's Center for Defense Information. "They're meaningless, especially since the Pentagon can't even commit to a timeline for achieving a clean audit." ... Read more

What Did James Webb Really See At The Beginning Of Time? | History of the Universe | 10/14/23 | 52:06

The Bin Laden Papers: Examining the documents seized from the al Qaeda leader's compound | 60 Minutes | 2022 | 13:13

Opening Up Bin Laden's Secret Hard Drives | Investigators | VICE | 11/30/23 | 10:51

Bin Laden's Hard Drive | Full Episode | National Geographic | 2022 | 44:23

U.S. delaying sale of M16 rifles to Israel over settler violence
Axios | Barak Ravid | 12/13/23

The Biden administration is again holding up the licenses for selling more than 20,000 U.S.-made rifles to Israel over concerns about attacks by extremist Israeli settlers against Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank, two U.S. officials told Axios.

Why it matters: The decision to send the rifle deal for another review by the State Department signals the Biden administration remains concerned the Israeli government isn't doing enough to curb violence by extremist settlers.

Catch up quick: Israel in the first week of the war requested the rifles for civilian initial response teams in Israeli villages close to the borders with Gaza, Lebanon and Syria. Those teams of local residents receive weapons and training from the Israeli police in order to be first responders in case of a terror attack. ... Read more

World's first 'artificial womb facility,' will let parents design child's height, strength, intelligence
StudyFinds | staff | 12/13/22

Controversial clinic expects to develop 30,000 lab-grown babies yearly. Developer expects technology will be used around world within next 10-15 years. And parents would be able to watch growth and development of their child in see-through womb, while monitoring health via app ... Read more

From the Womb to the Tomb

Donald Trump's Plot Against America
Democracy Docket | Marc Elias | 12/06/23

Donald Trump is plotting to overthrow American democracy. It is not a secret, and he is not subtle. The only question is whether enough people will care enough to stop it.

Trump is not hiding his intentions for a second term. Echoing Hitler's rise to power, he has called his political enemies "vermin" and promised his supporters that, if elected, he would be their "retribution."

Trump's enablers have outlined a plan for him to replace tens of thousands of career civil servants with MAGA loyalists and to take personal control of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to prosecute his political rivals. He is almost certain to use an old law - the Insurrection Act - to convert the military into his personal domestic police force. ... Read more

Political scientist Ian Bremmer on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict | Big Think | 11/11/23 | 57:37

U.S. accuses Beijing of undermining regional security in South China Sea
Axios | Rebecca Falconer | 12/11/23

U.S. officials demanded the Chinese coast guard on Sunday "desist from its dangerous and destabilizing conduct" in the South China Sea following clashes with Philippine vessels.

Driving the news: State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller in a statement condemned what he said were "reckless maneuvers" on Saturday and Sunday against the Filipino crews on supply missions to the Second Thomas Shoal, where Philippine service members are stationed.

This included the use of water cannons and the "forcing" of a collision, "causing damage to Philippine vessels undertaking official supply missions to those locations, and jeopardizing the safety" of the Filipino crew, he said. ... Read more

Billionaires Don’t Want You to Know About This Supreme Court Case | Robert Reich| 12/05/23 | 2:14

Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning bby Liz Cheney

In the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump and many around him, including certain other elected Republican officials, intentionally breached their oath to the Constitution: they ignored the rulings of dozens of courts, plotted to overturn a lawful election, and provoked a violent attack on our Capitol.

Liz Cheney, one of the few Republican officials to take a stand against these efforts, witnessed the attack first-hand, and then helped lead the Congressional Select Committee investigation into how it happened. In Oath and Honor, she tells the story of this perilous moment in our history, those who helped Trump spread the stolen election lie, those whose actions preserved our constitutional framework, and the risks we still face.

'A biodiversity catastrophe': how the world could look in 2050 - unless we act now
The Guardian | Patrick Greenfield, Phoebe Weston and Ajit Niranjan | 11/29/23

The continued destruction of nature across the planet will result in major shocks to food supplies and safe water, the disappearance of unique species and the loss of landscapes central to human culture and leisure by the middle of this century, experts have warned.

By 2050, if humanity does not follow through on commitments to tackle the five main drivers of nature loss critical natural systems could break down just as the human population is projected to peak.

The Guardian asked leading scientists, Indigenous leaders and conservationists around the world about the consequences of inaction on biodiversity loss by the middle of this century. ... Read more

All the times Trump said the constitution let's him do whatever he wants | WP | 2020 | 0:50

What Trump's Second Term Could Look Like
The Atlantic | Tom Nichols | 12/04/23

For years, Donald Trump's many opponents were often accused of alarmism, and early on, this seemed a justified criticism: Before he was even sworn in, words such as fascist and autocrat were in the air. Although I was a charter member of the Never Trump movement, I worried that catastrophizing Trump and depicting him as an invincible Demogorgon would induce helplessness and resignation among American citizens. When Trump was defeated in 2020, however, many voters took that as a sign that the guardrails had held and that America was out of danger. Even January 6, 2021, has receded from the public's consciousness, and a fair number of Americans seem unaware of just how close we came to the violent overthrow of our electoral institutions. ... Read more

Tom Nichols on Trump's Recent Rhetoric: "An Actual Fascist Has Shown Up" | Amanpour and Company | 12/01/23 | 18:07

Behind the Curtain - Exclusive: How Trump would build his loyalty-first Cabinet
Axios |Mike Allen & Jim VandeHei | 12/07/23

Former President Trump, if elected, would build a Cabinet and White House staff based mainly on two imperatives: pre-vetted loyalty to him and a commitment to stretch legal and governance boundaries, sources who talk often with the leading GOP presidential candidate tell Axios.

Why it matters: Trump would fill the most powerful jobs in government with men like Stephen Miller, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio and Kash Patel - with the possible return of Steve Bannon. If Trump won in 2024, he'd turn to loyalists who share his zeal to punish critics, purge non-believers, and take controversial legal and military action, the sources tell us.

Trump and his prospective top officials don't mince words about their plans: ... Read more

GOP's "dictator" test
Axios | Zachary Basu | 12/07/23

Hannity chose to give the 2024 GOP frontrunner not one but two opportunities to try to shut down the media's obsession with his authoritarian flirtations.

Instead, Trump decided to play troll - dodging the question while offering a wink-and-a-nod to his supporters.

"We're closing the border. And we're drilling, drilling, drilling. After that, I'm not a dictator," Trump told Hannity, describing two mainstream Republican priorities that don't sound all that authoritarian. ... Read more

NewsNation hosts fourth GOP primary debate | NewsNation | 12/06/23 | 1:42:02

Hannity Trump Town Hall | 12-5-23 | 43:53

Trump, MAGA and the insidious underbelly of white supremacy in America
The Hill | Derald Wing Sue | 11/28/23

Despite boycotting three Republican primary debates and taking multiple setbacks in criminal and civil court proceedings against him, Donald Trump continues to enjoy a commanding lead in the polls. Even as he stokes the flames of hate and violence on the campaign trail, the former president is supported by an astounding 60-70 percent of Republican voters and narrowly beats President Biden in a hypothetical 2024 faceoff.

Why do people continue to vote for a person with such bigoted views and obvious character flaws, whose selfish self-interest takes precedence over the needs of others and the good of the nation?

Psychologists are at the forefront of studying bias and discrimination in various forms; we have long known that people are not necessarily "rational" beings but "rationalizing" ones. Many voters acknowledge Trump's immoral and unethical nature, but when asked why they back him, they rationalize their actions as support of conservative judges, anti-abortion legislation, overturning unfair trade agreements, tax benefits, or protecting the Second Amendment. ... Read more

How Elon Musk may be spinning up a Plan B to save X
Axios | Dan Primack | 12/06/23

Elon Musk may have a plan to save X, and it doesn't involve advertising, free speech, or financial services.

Why it matters: There are fascinating signs Musk is turning his attention - and business bull case - to AI. There may be a hidden plan behind what looks like random rants.

The big picture: Musk has publicly admitted that he overpaid for what was then known as Twitter, as did his co-investors. It's still unprofitable, with decreased revenue and increased debt. ... Read more

"The Next Computing Revolution is with AI-Quantum" ft. Michio Kaku | Beeyong Ideas | 09/06/23 | 26:01

"Godfather of AI" Geoffrey Hinton | 60 Minutes Interview | 11/04/23 | 13:11

Tensions over Israel-Hamas war simmer on college campuses | 60 Minutes | 12/04/23 | 13:38