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AIPAC Donor Urges Jewish Republicans to Switch Parties to Vote Against Jamaal Bowman in Primary
Fri, 08 Dec 2023 18:40:58 +0000
Bowman’s opponent, George Latimer, was recruited by AIPAC as part of the group’s $100 million campaign against progressive Israel critics.
The post AIPAC Donor Urges Jewish Republicans to Switch Parties to Vote Against Jamaal Bowman in Primary appeared first on The Intercept.
This week, Joe Biden admitted that he probably would not be running for re-election if Donald Trump was not likely to be the Republican candidate. The thoughts of a rehashed presidential race in 2024 has many Americans dreading next year, and some are looking to third-party or independent candidates as potential alternatives.
So why hasn’t an outsider been more successful in the past? Is running independently of the Democrat and Republican parties a legitimate offer to voters, or nothing more than an election spoiler? And if the answer is the latter, why should the president be the one to worry?
This week, Jonathan Freedland speaks to Nitish Pahwa of Slate about why Democrats are worried that Biden could suffer the same fate as Hilary Clinton in 2016
Archive: CNN, CSPAN, CBS News, AP News
Continue reading...In state Supreme Court, ousted DA Monique Worrell fought Gov. Ron DeSantis’s attempt to turn Florida’s justice system into a partisan cudgel.
The post DeSantis Lawyer Can’t Name a Single Policy That Led to Reform Prosecutor’s Suspension appeared first on The Intercept.
Republicans understand that America loves celebrities. Democrats need funny and famous people running for office.
The post Jon Stewart for Celebrity President. This Is Not a Joke! appeared first on The Intercept.
We bring you an audio documentary, adapted from Ryan Grim’s newest book “The Squad: AOC and the Hope of a Political Revolution.”
The post “The Squad,” Part 1: The Rise and (First) Fall of Bernie appeared first on The Intercept.
The Green New Deal sputtered on launch yet still made it into global orbit. Left policymakers can learn from the experience.
The post The Rise and Rollout of AOC’s Green New Deal appeared first on The Intercept.
“The United States cannot fix Syria,” an Obama administration official said. “I simply fail to understand why we have U.S. troops there.”
The post Rand Paul Wants to End Undeclared War in Syria appeared first on The Intercept.
Trump ahead 47% to 43%, worrying some Democrats as others caution avoiding ‘mad poll disease’
Donald Trump has nudged ahead of Joe Biden in national polling for the 2024 presidential election, a survey published on Saturday revealed, a day after the US president branded his predecessor as “despicable” at an event in California.
The Wall Street Journal poll shows Biden with the lowest approval rating of his presidency, a finding broadly in line with other recent studies that have sparked concern in Democratic circles less than a year before voters go to the polls.
Continue reading...The London mayor fears most voters are unaware of the change to a first past the post system that may boost the Tory candidate
Sadiq Khan has warned progressive voters that they risk handing the London mayoralty to an “increasingly rightwing” Tory party unless they back Labour, amid concern in his camp that most Londoners are unaware of a complete overhaul of the voting system.
The battle for control of City Hall next May will be the first mayoral contest to switch to the first past the post voting system. It comes after a legal change last year that appears to be largely unknown among the capital’s voters. The previous system allowed voters to pick their second preference.
Continue reading...While Congress weighs sending more aid to both countries, a new inspector general report details oversight issues and waste within the U.S. military.
The post As U.S.-Funded Wars Rage in Israel and Ukraine, Pentagon Watchdog Warns of Military Failures appeared first on The Intercept.
After Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s 2018 primary victory, her campaign got a call from a representative of the pro-Israel lobby offering to raise big money and start a relationship with the group.
The post AOC Was Offered $100,000 by AIPAC to “Start the Conversation.” She Turned Them Down. appeared first on The Intercept.
As the Gaza death toll rises, Rep. Joyce Beatty removed her name from a letter that House Democrats sent to Biden about a ceasefire.
The post Centrist Ohio Democrat Quietly Removes Name From Letter Calling for Gaza Ceasefire appeared first on The Intercept.
How crises during the Obama administration formed the politics of the Squad.
The post “The Squad,” Part 2: From Obama to Bernie, a Crisis and a Crossroads appeared first on The Intercept.
With Senate control hanging in the balance, Nebraska Democrats are considering backing Dan Osborn in his challenge against Republican Sen. Deb Fischer.
The post Shock Poll Shows Independent Nebraska Union Leader Beating Republican Senator appeared first on The Intercept.
Kyiv condemns plans to hold Russian elections in occupied territory; Volodymyr Zelenskiy heads to Argentina for inauguration of far-right counterpart Javier Milei
Ukraine condemned Russian plans to hold presidential elections next spring on occupied territory, declaring them “null and void” and pledging to prosecute any observers sent to monitor them. Russia’s upper house set the country’s presidential election this week for next March, and chair Valentina Matviyenko said residents in four occupied Ukrainian regions would be able to vote for the first time. Ukraine’s foreign ministry said: “We call on the international community to resolutely condemn Russia’s intention to hold presidential elections in the occupied Ukrainian territories, and to impose sanctions on those involved in their organisation and conduct.”
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy was travelling to the inauguration of Argentina’s president-elect, Javier Milei, Kyiv said on Saturday. Zelenskiy congratulated Milei, a far-right populist who has challenged Argentina’s political establishment, on his victory and both leaders spoke on the phone soon after Milei’s election. Zelenskiy then thanked Milei for his “clear support for Ukraine”, saying: “This is well-noticed and appreciated by Ukrainians.” Milei’s office published a statement after the call saying he had “offered that Argentina could be the host of a summit between Ukraine and Latin America”.
Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, warned that Ukrainians were in “mortal danger” of being left to die if western countries did not continue their financial support. Zelenska made the remarks a day after Republican senators in the US blocked a key aid bill that would have provided more than $60bn worth of support to Ukraine.
The Polish government denied reports that the delivery of military equipment to Ukraine was being hindered by protesting Polish truckers blockading the border. “I categorically deny that such a situation occurred,” said Polish vice-minister of national defence, Marcin Ociepa. “Military convoys that cross the border are convoys escorted by military police.”
Avdiivka, the eastern Ukrainian city that has seen some of the most intense fighting of the war, is on the verge of “imminent collapse” to Russian forces, according to a report. A dispatch in the Times by its former Kyiv correspondent said Ukrainian troops defending the frontline area were “starved of ammunition” and hamstrung in their attempts to repel the advancing enemy soldiers.
Olympic chiefs have been criticised for allowing Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete next year as neutrals, outside team events and if they do not actively support the invasion.
The Finnish supreme court has blocked the extradition of a Russian neo-Nazi group leader who fought in Ukraine, Jan Petrovsky, warning of the risk that he could be susceptible to inhuman treatment, which is precluded under the European convention on human rights.
Continue reading...ERG lawyers conclude plans will not forestall court challenges, echoing concerns of goverment’s own legal team
Rishi Sunak has been dealt a fresh blow over his Rwanda legislation as a legal assessment for the Tory right has concluded that the prime minister’s plans are not fit for purpose.
Bill Cash, who chairs the “star chamber” of lawyers for the European Research Group, wrote in the Daily Telegraph that “at present” the legislation is not “sufficiently watertight to meet the government’s policy objectives” such as circumventing individual legal challenges by people seeking to remain in the UK.
Continue reading...Local Republicans praised the former House speaker but unfashionable Bakersfield largely greeted his exit with a shrug
For the brief period that he stood at the pinnacle of national politics, Kevin McCarthy cast an odd sort of light on Bakersfield, his unfashionable, hardscrabble home town in southern California that might never have penetrated the national consciousness without him.
The city has none of the trappings of what we think of when we think of the Golden state – no beaches, no cable cars, no redwood forests, and only an intermittent view of the Tehachapi mountains, depending on the intensity of the smog that rises from the inland oilfields and large tract farms that provide its lifeblood. The Beach Boys never immortalized Bakersfield in song – and neither, for the most part, has anyone else.
Continue reading...Follow all the day’s news
Palaszczuk reveals she changed her mind in recent weeks
It was only a couple of months ago that Annastacia Palaszczuk insisted she would lead the Labor party to next year’s state election.
I feel refreshed, I feel energised and I’m absolutely determined to lead the party and this government to the next election. I just want to make that very clear to everybody.
In 2015 Annastacia promised good, decent government for the people of Queensland. That’s exactly what she’s delivered for the last nine years. Congratulations on your premiership. You are one of the true Qld Labor greats
Continue reading...On Fox News, wife of Ron DeSantis mistakenly invites ‘moms and grandmoms’ to cross state lines and illegally vote in caucus
Casey DeSantis, the wife of Republican presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis, has upset party officials in Iowa by urging her husband’s supporters from around the US to “descend” on the state and illegally take part in next month’s caucuses.
The former television news reporter, who has become the Florida governor’s chief supporter on the campaign trail, made the faux-pas during an appearance with him on Fox News on Friday, in which she wrongly stated it was legal for out-of-state residents to participate.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Pre-election agreement would provide a major boost to Narendra Modi and Rishi Sunak
Senior Downing Street officials have flown to Delhi to kickstart talks over a multibillion pound free trade agreement, with the government of Narendra Modi having indicated it is keen to finalise a deal in the next three months.
UK trade negotiators are in the Indian capital talking to their Indian counterparts as they look to revive a deal that looked a distant prospect just a few months ago.
Continue reading...The Murdoch empire’s twisted read of “The Squad.”
The post Correcting the Record on My Book appeared first on The Intercept.
Fees for foreign investors who leave properties vacant will double and taxes will triple for those who buy existing houses
Foreign investors in Australia will face higher fees and steeper penalties for buying existing homes and leaving them empty as the government aims to address housing affordability.
The federal government on Sunday announced new rules tripling taxes for foreigners who buy existing houses in Australia and a doubling in fees for those who leave dwellings vacant.
Continue reading...High court demolished indefinite detention system and ‘within one month the Albanese government’s resolved it’, Labor minister says
Labor frontbencher Bill Shorten said it would have been “helpful” if the high court had given its reasons for ruling indefinite detention was unconstitutional at the same time it handed down its decision.
The Albanese government has spent the last month weathering criticism it was too slow to react to the high court’s decision, which overturned a 20-year precedent allowing the government to indefinitely detain refugees and migrants it could not deport.
Continue reading...Britain must pressure Israel to halt the theft of land in the West Bank. Settlers are killing hopes for a two-state solution and Sunak’s government does nothing
• Read more: Labour steps up criticism of ‘intolerable’ killings in Gaza
The rocky hills of Wadi as-Seeq, in the heart of the occupied West Bank, feel a long way from the war in Gaza. But the silence of its abandoned homes speaks also of Palestinian suffering. In the last year, the Palestinian Bedouin community there has faced relentless harassment and violence from settlers who set up an illegal outpost next to their community, and destroyed a UK donor-funded school. On 12 October, days after Hamas’s appalling terrorist massacre in southern Israel, an armed group of illegal settlers, reportedly including members of the IDF, descended on the Palestinian Bedouin hamlet. Many of the residents were beaten and abused, before being driven out of their homes.
It was not easy to reach those people, now staying in borrowed tents outside of Ramallah in the village of Taybeh. Travelling there last month, with the West Bank Protection Consortium, under thick fog, our route was blocked by piles of sand, a shot-out car with its lights still on and a soldier urging us to turn around. Reaching Taybeh, we were welcomed with cups of qahwah sadah, a bitter coffee, by people who had nothing, after being forced to leave behind all their possessions. A community leader told me: “The settlers took my home, my memories and the dreams I had for my children.”
Continue reading...The Tories blow up as the Rwanda scheme hits £290m
Continue reading...What will be an appropriate epitaph to inscribe on the tombstone of this Conservative government? Simon Case, the cabinet secretary, came up with a compelling contender when he wrote: “I’ve never seen a bunch of people less well-equipped to run a country.” His verdict, which would have stayed undisclosed had it not been revealed by the Covid inquiry, related to the atrociously bungled handling of the pandemic, but it could serve as an overarching judgment on these 13 years and counting of Conservative rule.
Four successive Tory prime ministers have been and gone, each arriving at Number 10 brandishing promises to deliver a better Britain, each departing a humiliated failure and leaving Britain in a worse place than they found it. Now, in another zoom around the Tory doom loop, a fifth prime minister is struggling to keep his head above water in a raging tempest of division and chaos self-generated by the Conservatives. As Rishi Sunak foolishly makes his Rwanda plan a defining test of his premiership, there is feverish chatter among Tory MPs about triggering a ballot to try to eject yet another leader. The party chairman warns his colleagues that it would be “insanity” to oust Mr Sunak. That’s risky talk. Insanity is one thing that the Conservatives have consistently excelled at.
Continue reading...Visa changes may cut numbers of students and skilled workers who enjoy public support while Rwanda plan won’t address concerns over small boats
‘If you don’t fix immigration, immigration will fix you.” This was new foreign secretary David Cameron’s stern warning to US senators, but it could equally have been addressed to parliamentary colleagues back home.
Last week saw the latest in a series of immigration reform packages, yet nearly a year on from Rishi Sunak’s pledge to “stop the boats” his government seems no closer to a fix which satisfies his party or its supporters.
Continue reading...PM likely to be asked about WhatsApp messages from pandemic that he says are irretrievable, despite reports number accessed
Fresh questions are being raised over whether Rishi Sunak has handed over all relevant material to the Covid inquiry, after reports that pranksters have been able to access an old phone number he used during his time as chancellor.
The prime minister will face a day of questioning at the inquiry on Monday, where he is expected to be questioned about his claims that scientists had too much power. He will also be asked detailed questions about the “eat out to help out” scheme that many experts believe allowed the virus to spread.
Continue reading...Judith King and Bridget Cousins on how they will be separated from their children and grandchildren
Claire Armitstead’s article struck a chord with us (Thanks to James Cleverly, I may never live in the same country as my kids again, 6 December). We are in the same situation. Our elder son and his Polish fiancee are getting married in four months’ time. The plan was to apply for a spousal visa immediately after the wedding. They were looking at properties and making plans for their life together in Britain. Because of the increase in the salary threshold to £38,700, they now have to rethink their entire future at short notice. Personable young people, with several languages and three degrees between them, they have a lot to contribute to whatever country they settle in.
Why should my son have to choose between his wife and his country? British citizens should not be forced to emigrate on marriage.
Judith King
Droitwich, Worcestershire
Prime minister holds emergency press conference to try to regain control over immigration debate as Tory rebellion grows
Rishi Sunak was forced into a desperate defence of his new Rwanda asylum law as he battled to hold together the fractured Conservative party amid speculation that he could face a challenge to his position.
The prime minister told an emergency Downing Street press conference that he would “finish the job” of getting his controversial deportation plan off the ground despite criticism from the Tory right and anxiety among centrist MPs.
Continue reading...Chicago police officer Raymond Piwnicki has 99 civilian complaints on his record, many of them involving racist invective and violence.
The post Why Does the Chicago Police Department Tolerate Abusive Racists in Its Ranks? appeared first on The Intercept.
Many are struggling to understand what the future holds under the next leader, but two astrologers have a few ideas
As one of Argentina’s foremost astrologers, Gael Policano Rossi spends much of his life contemplating the future – and his prognosis for 2024 is bleak.
“I see chaos,” he replied when asked what the new year had in store for his country after the temperamental far-right libertarian Javier Milei became president.
Continue reading...Another rare security + squid story:
The woman—who has only been identified by her surname, Wang—was having a meal with friends at a hotpot restaurant in Kunming, a city in southwest China. When everyone’s selections arrived at the table, she posted a photo of the spread on the Chinese social media platform WeChat. What she didn’t notice was that she’d included the QR code on her table, which the restaurant’s customers use to place their orders.
Even though the photo was only shared with her WeChat friends list and not the entire social network, someone—or a lot of someones—used that QR code to add a ridiculous amount of food to her order. Wang was absolutely shocked to learn that “her” meal soon included 1,850 orders of duck blood, 2,580 orders of squid, and an absolutely bonkers 9,990 orders of shrimp paste...
Families who lost loved ones during the Covid-19 pandemic gathered outside Dorland House in central London on Wednesday as the former prime minister Boris Johnson appeared as a witness at the UK's Covid inquiry. Johnson, PM for three years from 2019 to 2022, resigned in disgrace after a series of scandals including reports that he, and other officials, had been present at alcohol-fuelled gatherings in Downing Street in 2020 and 2021, when most people in Britain were required to stay at home. Johnson faces two days of questioning in what are likely to be the most emotionally charged sessions so far of the official investigation into why Britain ended up with one of the world's highest death tolls during the pandemic
Continue reading...Seven of the world’s “most trusted” media companies produce and promote content touting the key talking points of oil and gas.
The post Leading News Outlets Are Doing the Fossil Fuel Industry’s Greenwashing appeared first on The Intercept.
They discuss Grim’s new book, “The Squad: AOC and the Hope of a Political Revolution.”
The post Krystal Ball and Ryan Grim on the Squad appeared first on The Intercept.
Labor leader says state is ‘in good shape’ and ‘now is the time for me to leave’ following months of speculation about her future
The Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, has announced her retirement from politics, saying she had “given my all” and “now is the time for me to leave”.
Palaszczuk made the announcement at a press conference on Sunday following months of speculation about her future.
Continue reading...Research by centre-right thinktank says gap between the mainstream and poorest in society is widening
Covid lockdowns had a “catastrophic effect” on the UK’s social fabric and the most disadvantaged are no better off now than at the time of the financial crash, a new report claims.
The country is in danger of sliding back into the divisions of the Victorian era, marked by a widening gap between the mainstream and the poorest in society, according to an inquiry by the centre-right thinktank the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ).
Continue reading...Newspaper tycoon’s son seeks meeting with foreign secretary as Briton, 76, faces trial and possible life sentence
Foreign secretary David Cameron is being urged to demand the release of newspaper tycoon Jimmy Lai as the British national prepares for a high-profile trial in Hong Kong this month.
Lai, 76, is facing a life sentence, accused of colluding with foreign forces under the draconian national security law introduced by Beijing in 2020 following mass protests.
Continue reading...  | submitted by /u/Wagamaga [link] [comments] |
Shadow foreign secretary David Lammy slams Israeli ‘death and destruction’ and urges UK travel ban on violent settlers
• Read more: Labour will oppose expulsions of Palestinians and bar violent settlers from UK
The Labour party today delivers its strongest criticism of Israel over its attacks on Palestinians, describing the death and destruction in Gaza over the past two months as “intolerable” and attacking two far-right Israeli cabinet ministers for “totally unacceptable” support of illegal settlements in the West Bank.
In a sharp change of tone, David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, with the full backing of party leader Keir Starmer, attacks the Israeli authorities for “turning a blind eye” to violence by settlers in the West Bank, which has “forcibly displaced” more than 1,000 Palestinians from their homes since the attacks on Israel by Hamas on 7 October.
Continue reading...Furore over the controversial Rwanda scheme labelled far from ‘helpful’ as Britain seeks to fulfil role in the international forum
Tensions between the Home Office and Foreign Office are said to be “strained” before the largest international gathering in years on the refugee crisis, with the UK’s contribution overshadowed by the row over Rwanda.
Headed by development minister Andrew Mitchell, the UK delegation at this week’s UN Global Refugee Forum will unveil what it describes as an “ambitious package” that includes delivering schooling to hundreds of thousands of refugee children.
Continue reading...The fallout from AI’s ‘Pearl Harbor moment’ has been dramatic. In tech, 12 months can seem like an eternity
If a week is a long time in politics, a year is an eternity in tech. Just over 12 months ago, the industry was humming along in its usual way. The big platforms were deep into what Cory Doctorow calls “enshittification” – the process in which platforms go from being initially good to their users, to abusing them to make things better for their business customers and finally to abusing those customers in order to claw back all the value for themselves. Elon Musk was ramping up his efforts to alienate advertisers on Twitter/X and accelerate the death spiral of his expensive toy. TikTok was monopolising every waking hour of teenagers. FTX had just gone bankrupt and at least $1bn of investors’ money had gone awol. Here in the UK, the bedraggled online safety bill was wending its way through parliament. And nobody outside the tech world had ever heard of Geoffrey Hinton or Sam Altman.
And then one day – 30 November 2022, to be precise – everything changed. OpenAI, an upstart tech company headed by Altman that had been building so-called large language models (LLMs) for some years, released ChatGPT. The strange thing, though, was that, even weeks earlier, ChatGPT wasn’t a product. OpenAI’s focus was elsewhere – on GPT-4, the biggest and most powerful model the company had built. This was a machine that could apparently answer almost any question using information gleaned from having “read” everything ever published, but which would sometimes also make stuff up and was therefore deemed not ready for public consumption. Altman, possibly spooked by the fear that a rival company, Anthropic, would launch something big, then made a fateful decision: to release an older, less powerful version of the GPT technology – GPT-3 with a bolted-on chatbot front end – and see what happened.
Continue reading...One woman’s bizarre claim about a Scholastic book featuring a single kiss is part of a coordinated assault on US free speech
A moment of silence, please, for 20-year-old Lanah Burkhardt, who has suffered through a harrowing ordeal that should chill us all to the very core. The tragic tale began when Burkhardt was just 11 years old and opened up a Scholastic children’s book which contained what she describes as “a single kiss”.
Continue reading...UK’s former climate chief Alok Sharma says phase-out crucial to limit global warming to 1.5C
Failure to agree a phase-out of fossil fuels at the UN Cop28 climate summit would push the world beyond the crucial 1.5C temperature limit and into climate breakdown, the UK’s former climate chief has warned.
Alok Sharma, who was president of the Cop26 summit in Glasgow, said it was vital that governments made a clear commitment in the next few days to eliminate coal, oil and gas.
Continue reading...From Paul Murray’s brilliant tragicomedy to Barbra Streisand’s epic memoir, Guardian critics pick the year’s best fiction, politics, science, children’s books and more. Tell us about your favourite books in the comments
Zadie Smith’s first foray into historical fiction, medieval magical realism from Salman Rushdie and Paul Murray’s Booker-shortlisted tragicomedy – Justine Jordan looks back on the year in fiction.
Continue reading...Major study finds public see ties with Europe as more important than links with US and many ‘exhausted’ by ‘toxic’ debate
Almost twice as many UK voters now believe a close relationship with the EU is more important for peace, prosperity and security than ties with the US, according to a major new study of post-Brexit attitudes.
The report, based on extensive polling and discussion groups with people of all Brexit persuasions, finds that attitudes towards the EU are becoming more favourable across a range of policy areas, and that the entire Brexit debate is now far less toxic and more pragmatic.
Continue reading...Ministers have cut another £90m from public service broadcasting, dressing up an ideological attack as a saving for struggling households
Pity the poor BBC: it is a political football in a game with hostile referees and 24 million stakeholders – its licence holders – who all seem to want different things. Its job is to serve all of them, while under constant attack for spending too much time at the wrong end of a multidimensional argument: left v right; local v national and international; news and current affairs v sport and light entertainment.
A combination of high inflation and a two-year freeze of the licence fee – its main source of income – has left the BBC facing a £500m gap in its funding. It was hoped that this dire situation would at least get no worse next year, when an end to the freeze would allow it to raise the fee in line with inflation.
Continue reading...US Republicans block funding bill for Ukraine; the spat between Ukrainian and Polish lorry drivers
Every week we wrap up essential coverage of the war in Ukraine, from news and features to analysis, opinion and more.
Continue reading...An allegation of rape, fiercely denied, in a ministerial office is being interrogated by weeks of testimony and cross-examination in a defamation trial brought by the accused
It has become one of Australia’s most convoluted and damaging political sagas, polarising the public.
An allegation of rape, fiercely denied, in a ministerial office in Parliament House has been discussed in news reports, interviews, speeches, and reams of commentary. It was examined in an aborted criminal trial, covered in four separate inquiries and now the first of several related civil cases is again calling witnesses and poring over evidence.
Continue reading...Top civil servant summoned to give ‘full and frank’ answers after costs of scheme rose from £140m to £290m
The Home Office has been ordered to disclose the full costs of Rishi Sunak’s secretive deal to deport migrants to Rwanda, as insiders told of turmoil within the department over the controversial policy.
Matthew Rycroft, the permanent secretary of the Home Office, will be hauled before the public accounts committee on Monday, after the initial costs of the scheme rose from £140m to £290m.
Continue reading...Ministers criticised after civil servant tells MPs payment was made in April after £140m had already been sent
UK ministers have been accused of using “cloak and dagger” tactics after a leading civil servant revealed in a letter that they had paid Rwanda a further £100m to send asylum seekers there.
Sir Matthew Rycroft, the Home Office’s top civil servant, told MPs the payment was made in April after £140m had already been sent. He added that a further payment of £50m was expected next year.
Continue reading...On December 9, join me and Amy Goodman for the Belmarsh Tribunal, a live conversation on the WikiLeaks founder.
The post Julian Assange Could Face Extradition to the U.S. by Early 2024 appeared first on The Intercept.
As Israel resumes its bombing of Gaza, the risk of a wider regional war grows. Mouin Rabbani analyzes the military and propaganda battles between Hamas and Israel.
The post Two Months That Shook the World: The First Phase of the Gaza War appeared first on The Intercept.
Chinese military aircraft including 12 fighter jets also detected in Taiwan’s air defence zone in past 24 hours
Taiwan’s defence ministry has said that a Chinese balloon crossed the Taiwan Strait median line on Thursday, about a month before Taiwan’s presidential election.
The ministry of national defence (MND) earlier described it as a “surveillance balloon” but the defence minister, Chiu Kuo-cheng later told reporters at parliament: “our initial understanding is that it was a sounding balloon”.
Continue reading...Interesting analysis:
This paper discusses the protocol used for electing the Doge of Venice between 1268 and the end of the Republic in 1797. We will show that it has some useful properties that in addition to being interesting in themselves, also suggest that its fundamental design principle is worth investigating for application to leader election protocols in computer science. For example, it gives some opportunities to minorities while ensuring that more popular candidates are more likely to win, and offers some resistance to corruption of voters...
When you get a push notification on your Apple or Google phone, those notifications go through Apple and Google servers. Which means that those companies can spy on them—either for their own reasons or in response to government demands.
Sen. Wyden is trying to get to the bottom of this:
In a statement, Apple said that Wyden’s letter gave them the opening they needed to share more details with the public about how governments monitored push notifications.
“In this case, the federal government prohibited us from sharing any information,” the company said in a statement. “Now that this method has become public we are updating our transparency reporting to detail these kinds of requests.”...
The White House requested billions to support refugee resettlement from Ukraine and Gaza in October.
The post Netanyahu’s Goal for Gaza: “Thin” Population “to a Minimum” appeared first on The Intercept.
Marina Hyde ponders the small slip that sent Omid Scobie’s Harry and Meghan book into orbit (1m18s); and an English couple, a Ukrainian surrogate and a baby: the extraordinary story of how war united two unlikely families (8m51s).
Continue reading...Tang Tan, the Apple Inc. AAPL executive who headed product design for the iPhone and Apple Watch, is leaving amid a shake-up of the division responsible for the company’s most critical product lines, according to a Bloomberg report. Tan reports to John Ternus, senior vice president of hardware engineering, and the division is reshuffling duties to handle the transition. Earlier this week, Bloomberg reported that Steve Hotelling, who worked on key technologies like the iPhone’s multitouch screen, Touch ID, and Face ID, is retiring from Apple. Shares of Apple are up 0.7% in trading Friday. Apple had no comment on the departures.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
Wheat futures headed lower Friday, set for their first daily loss in nine sessions, while soybean futures inched lower after a monthly supply and demand report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The government agency raised its forecast for global wheat production by about 1 million metric tons to 783.01 million for the 2023/2024 marketing year. While there is plenty of wheat, it’s “interesting that the world is projected to use more wheat than it produces,” said Sal Gilbertie, chief executive officer at Teucrium. For soybeans, the USDA lowered its forecast for 2023/2024 global production by 1.5 million metric tons to 398.88 million metric tons due to lower production in Brazil. It also raised Brazil’s soybean exports forecast by 2 million metric tons and left its U.S. exports forecast unchanged. “This continues to indicate the U.S. remains a secondary player in the global soybean market due to the ongoing trade war with China,” said Darin Newsom, Barchart senior market analyst. In Chicago, the most-active March wheat futures contract WH24 traded at $6.29 a bushel, down 13 ¼ cents, or 2.1%. January soybeans SF24 fell 5 cents, or 0.4%, to $13.06 ¾ a bushel.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
Robyn Cowen is joined by Paul MacInnes, Nedum Onuoha and Sanny Rudravajhala as Everton’s fine run of form continues with a 3-0 win over Newcastle
Rate, review, share on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast and Stitcher, and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and email.
On the podcast today; Everton have already turned around their-10 point deduction to move away from the relegation zone – the panel ask, are Everton actually quite good? One thing’s for sure, Newcastle players are definitely tired.
Continue reading...Crown Castle Inc.’s stock CCI was up by 0.6% in premarket trading on Friday after activist investor Elliott Investment Management LP said the company’s move to replace its chief executive marked a “step in the right direction” for the cell tower real estate investment trust. Crown Castle said late Thursday that Jay Brown plans to retire as chief executive on Jan. 16. The company named board member Anthony Melone as interim chief executive at that time. The board will conduct a search to find a permanent chief executive. Elliott said it plans to work with Crown Castle on the transition. “We believe that additional significant changes are needed to ensure that Crown Castle is best positioned to fulfill its potential for shareholders,” Elliott said. “We look forward to continuing our dialogue with the company’s board regarding the necessary next steps, including a comprehensive review of the Fiber business, meaningful governance enhancements and a robust and transparent search process for Crown Castle’s next CEO.”
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
In 2019, a looming crisis over pollution led the Dutch government to crack down on farm emissions. The response was furious – and offers a warning to other countries about protecting the environment without losing public trust
Archive: AP, Euronews
Continue reading...The Guardian’s investigation into safety concerns at Europe’s most hazardous nuclear plant
The Guardian has found that the UK’s most hazardous nuclear site, Sellafield, has been hacked into by cyber groups closely linked to Russia and China, as well as uncovering other safety concerns. Reporters Anna Isaac and Alex Lawson tell Michael Safi about the Guardian’s investigation.
A Sellafield spokesperson said: “We take cybersecurity extremely seriously at Sellafield. All of our systems and servers have multiple layers of protection. Critical networks that enable us to operate safely are isolated from our general IT network, meaning an attack on our IT system would not penetrate these.
Continue reading...Levi Strauss & Co. LEVI said late Thursday that Chief Executive Chip Bergh will be retiring on April 26, and that, ahead of his departure, the company’s board has chosen Michelle Gass, the company president, as his successor. Gass will take the reins on Jan. 29, Levi Strauss said. Gass is a former CEO of Kohl’s and joined Levi Strauss last year. Bergh will remain as the board’s executive vice chair until his retirement date and then transition to the role of senior adviser through the end of fiscal 2024, the company said. Shares of Levi Strauss rose 1.4% after the news and following an advance of 0.9% in the regular session.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
The lead of Tesla Inc.’s TSLA Dojo supercomputer project, Ganesh Venkataramanan, has left the company, Bloomberg reported Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. The executive, who oversaw the project for the past five years, left Tesla in November, Bloomberg said. According to the report, former Apple Inc. AAPL executive Peter Bannon is now leading the effort. Tesla did not immediately return a request for comment. Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk said in July that the company would spend “well over” $1 billion on Dojo, which Tesla hopes to use to process data and video to improve the EV maker’s autonomous driving capabilities, with the goal of full autonomy. Dojo was unveiled at the company’s first AI day in 2021 alongside Tesla’s humanoid robot Optimus.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
The British poet Benjamin Zephaniah died this week after a short illness. Here we revisit a conversation between Zephaniah and George the Poet from 2020. They discussed why, having been born a generation apart, their work was exposing racial injustice
After the death of Benjamin Zephaniah at the age of 65, we are revisiting this episode from 2020.
Benjamin Zephaniah had his first poetry book published by a worker’s co-op in 1980. He believed poetry should be accessible and that readings should be as lively as gigs, so he started performing with a reggae band. George the Poet (real name George Mpanga), who was born in in 1991, rose to prominence first as a spoken-word poet, then as a rapper, and more recently as a podcaster mixing narrative fiction with contemporary news and rap.
Continue reading...Edwards Lifesciences Corp.’s stock EW rose 1.9% in premarket trading Thursday after it said it plans to form an independent company out of its Critical Care unit in a tax-free spinoff transaction by the end of 2024. The business is expected to generate about $905 million of sales in 2023. Katie Szyman will be chief executive of the new company. She has been corporate vice president of Critical Care since 2015. The maker of aortic valve replacements also announced plans to buy back $1 billion in stock. Edwards Lifesciences said it expects to generate 2024 adjusted profit of $2.70 to $2.80 a share, compared to the FactSet consensus estimate of $2.80 a share. Edwards Lifesciences said it expects 2024 sales of $6.3 billion to $6.6 billion, while analyst are projecting 2024 sales of $6.51 billion.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
Robyn Cowen is joined by Jonathan Liew, Will Unwin and Nooruddean Choudry as Manchester United beat Chelsea, while Aston Villa emerge as potential title contenders
Rate, review, share on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast and Stitcher, and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and email.
On the podcast today: Manchester United deliver, arguably, their best performance of the season, beating Chelsea 2-1 at Old Trafford. Are things finally starting to click? They’re only three points outside the top four despite losing six times already this season.
Continue reading...US uses emergency declaration to provide $106.5m worth of rounds for immediate delivery to Israel, Pentagon says
Heavy fighting continued overnight in northern Gaza, both from the air and on the ground, the Israel Defense Forces said on Saturday.
According to the IDF, fighters from the battle team of the Kafir brigade fought and killed a group in the area of a school in the Shejaiya neighbourhood. IDF forces later found a number of Kalashnikov weapons, grenades and ammunition inside the classrooms.
Continue reading...The state department used an emergency declaration to sell $106.5m worth of ammo for Israel’s Merkava tanks
The Biden administration has used an emergency authority to allow the sale of about 14,000 tank shells to Israel without congressional review, the Pentagon said on Saturday.
The state department on Friday used an Arms Export Control Act emergency declaration for the tank rounds worth $106.5m for immediate delivery to Israel, the Pentagon said in a statement.
Continue reading...Despite facing multiple criminal charges, Donald Trump remains the frontrunner in the 2024 Republican presidential primary. But in South Carolina, a traditionally conservative southern state, a split is opening up between Trump loyalists and more moderate Republicans who are fearful of what their party has become. The Guardian’s Oliver Laughland and Tom Silverstone investigate
Continue reading...A radical faction within the Likud party plotted to kill Kissinger in 1977, according to a news report from the time.
The post Members of Israel’s Ruling Likud Party Once Planned to Assassinate Henry Kissinger appeared first on The Intercept.
Ilya Sutskever, one of the leading AI scientists behind ChatGPT, reflects on his founding vision and values. In conversations with the film-maker Tonje Hessen Schei as he was developing the chat language model between 2016 and 2019, he describes his personal philosophy and makes startling predictions for a technology already shaping our world. Reflecting on his ideas today, amid a global debate over safety and regulation, we consider the opportunities as well as the consequences of AI technology. Ilya discusses his ultimate goal of artificial general intelligence (AGI), ‘a computer system that can do any job or task that a human does, but better’, and questions whether the AGI arms race will be good or bad for humanity.
These filmed interviews with Ilya Sutskever are part of a feature-length documentary on artificial intelligence, called iHuman
Continue reading...
Are you looking for a new graphic design tool? Would you like to read a detailed review of Canva? As it's one of the tools I love using. I am also writing my first ebook using canva and publish it soon on my site you can download it is free. Let's start the review.
Canva has a web version and also a mobile app
Canva is a free graphic design web application that allows you to create invitations, business cards, flyers, lesson plans, banners, and more using professionally designed templates. You can upload your own photos from your computer or from Google Drive, and add them to Canva's templates using a simple drag-and-drop interface. It's like having a basic version of Photoshop that doesn't require Graphic designing knowledge to use. It’s best for nongraphic designers.
Canva is a great tool for small business owners, online entrepreneurs, and marketers who don’t have the time and want to edit quickly.
To create sophisticated graphics, a tool such as Photoshop can is ideal. To use it, you’ll need to learn its hundreds of features, get familiar with the software, and it’s best to have a good background in design, too.
Also running the latest version of Photoshop you need a high-end computer.
So here Canva takes place, with Canva you can do all that with drag-and-drop feature. It’s also easier to use and free. Also an even-more-affordable paid version is available for $12.95 per month.
The product is available in three plans: Free, Pro ($12.99/month per user or $119.99/year for up to 5 people), and Enterprise ($30 per user per month, minimum 25 people).
To get started on Canva, you will need to create an account by providing your email address, Google, Facebook or Apple credentials. You will then choose your account type between student, teacher, small business, large company, non-profit, or personal. Based on your choice of account type, templates will be recommended to you.
You can sign up for a free trial of Canva Pro, or you can start with the free version to get a sense of whether it’s the right graphic design tool for your needs.
When you sign up for an account, Canva will suggest different post types to choose from. Based on the type of account you set up you'll be able to see templates categorized by the following categories: social media posts, documents, presentations, marketing, events, ads, launch your business, build your online brand, etc.
Start by choosing a template for your post or searching for something more specific. Search by social network name to see a list of post types on each network.
Next, you can choose a template. Choose from hundreds of templates that are ready to go, with customizable photos, text, and other elements.
You can start your design by choosing from a variety of ready-made templates, searching for a template matching your needs, or working with a blank template.
Inside the Canva designer, the Elements tab gives you access to lines and shapes, graphics, photos, videos, audio, charts, photo frames, and photo grids.The search box on the Elements tab lets you search everything on Canva.
To begin with, Canva has a large library of elements to choose from. To find them, be specific in your search query. You may also want to search in the following tabs to see various elements separately:
The Photos tab lets you search for and choose from millions of professional stock photos for your templates.
You can replace the photos in our templates to create a new look. This can also make the template more suited to your industry.
You can find photos on other stock photography sites like pexel, pixabay and many more or simply upload your own photos.
When you choose an image, Canva’s photo editing features let you adjust the photo’s settings (brightness, contrast, saturation, etc.), crop, or animate it.
When you subscribe to Canva Pro, you get access to a number of premium features, including the Background Remover. This feature allows you to remove the background from any stock photo in library or any image you upload.
The Text tab lets you add headings, normal text, and graphical text to your design.
When you click on text, you'll see options to adjust the font, font size, color, format, spacing, and text effects (like shadows).
Canva Pro subscribers can choose from a large library of fonts on the Brand Kit or the Styles tab. Enterprise-level controls ensure that visual content remains on-brand, no matter how many people are working on it.
Create an animated image or video by adding audio to capture user’s attention in social news feeds.
If you want to use audio from another stock site or your own audio tracks, you can upload them in the Uploads tab or from the more option.
Want to create your own videos? Choose from thousands of stock video clips. You’ll find videos that range upto 2 minutes
You can upload your own videos as well as videos from other stock sites in the Uploads tab.
Once you have chosen a video, you can use the editing features in Canva to trim the video, flip it, and adjust its transparency.
On the Background tab, you’ll find free stock photos to serve as backgrounds on your designs. Change out the background on a template to give it a more personal touch.
The Styles tab lets you quickly change the look and feel of your template with just a click. And if you have a Canva Pro subscription, you can upload your brand’s custom colors and fonts to ensure designs stay on brand.
If you have a Canva Pro subscription, you’ll have a Logos tab. Here, you can upload variations of your brand logo to use throughout your designs.
With Canva, you can also create your own logos. Note that you cannot trademark a logo with stock content in it.
With Canva, free users can download and share designs to multiple platforms including Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Slack and Tumblr.
Canva Pro subscribers can create multiple post formats from one design. For example, you can start by designing an Instagram post, and Canva's Magic Resizer can resize it for other networks, Stories, Reels, and other formats.
Canva Pro subscribers can also use Canva’s Content Planner to post content on eight different accounts on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Slack, and Tumblr.
Canva Pro allows you to work with your team on visual content. Designs can be created inside Canva, and then sent to your team members for approval. Everyone can make comments, edits, revisions, and keep track via the version history.
When it comes to printing your designs, Canva has you covered. With an extensive selection of printing options, they can turn your designs into anything from banners and wall art to mugs and t-shirts.
Canva Print is perfect for any business seeking to make a lasting impression. Create inspiring designs people will want to wear, keep, and share. Hand out custom business cards that leave a lasting impression on customers' minds.
The Canva app is available on the Apple App Store and Google Play. The Canva app has earned a 4.9 out of five star rating from over 946.3K Apple users and a 4.5 out of five star rating from over 6,996,708 Google users.
In addition to mobile apps, you can use Canva’s integration with other Internet services to add images and text from sources like Google Maps, Emojis, photos from Google Drive and Dropbox, YouTube videos, Flickr photos, Bitmojis, and other popular visual content elements.
In general, Canva is an excellent tool for those who need simple images for projects. If you are a graphic designer with experience, you will find Canva’s platform lacking in customization and advanced features – particularly vectors. But if you have little design experience, you will find Canva easier to use than advanced graphic design tools like Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator for most projects. If you have any queries let me know in the comments section.
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