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    Steve Bannon, Tucker Carlson and … Liz Truss? Inside the former PM’s audition for Maga

    Her delivery might be stilted – but Truss’ new YouTube show has grand ambitions: a ‘Trump revolution’ in Britain with the help of an influential US conservative ecosystemLiz Truss, Britain’s shortest-serving prime minister, began the first edition of her YouTube show with a vow to unmask “the evil-doers” attempting to bring down Britain, the US and Europe. She would, she explained, reveal how an “international network of leftists work to subvert democracy and the will of the people”.Despite her bleak monologue, Truss pointed to hope from across the Atlantic. “We’re going to look at the Trump revolution and see how this can be achieved in Britain,” she said. “We’ll be talking to the leading lights of the Maga movement.” Continue reading… More

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    Cuba denounces US seizure of oil tanker off Venezuela’s coast as ‘piracy’

    Cuban foreign ministry called US military action ‘maritime terrorism’ under a policy of ‘economic suffocation’Cuban officials have denounced the US seizure of the Skipper oil tanker off Venezuela’s coast on Wednesday, calling it an “act of piracy and maritime terrorism” as well as a “serious violation of international law” that hurts the Caribbean island nation and its people.“This action is part of the US escalation aimed at hampering Venezuela’s legitimate right to freely use and trade its natural resources with other nations, including the supplies of hydrocarbons to Cuba,” the Cuban foreign ministry statement said. Continue reading… More

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    Belarus releases 123 prisoners including opposition leaders after US lifts sanctions

    Nobel prize winner Ales Bialiatski and opposition figure Maria Kalesnikava among those freed after US talks with Alexander LukashenkoThe Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, has freed 123 prisoners, including Nobel peace prize winner Ales Bialiatski and leading opposition figure Maria Kalesnikava, after the US lifted sanctions on Belarusian potash, a key export.The announcement came after two days of talks with an envoy of the US president, Donald Trump, the latest diplomatic push since the Trump administration started talks with the autocratic leader. Continue reading… More

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    ‘Not a gift-giving year’: student loan debt upends US borrowers’ holiday spending

    After Trump ended key repayment plan, 40% of borrowers say their student loans make it harder to cover essentialsA recent survey found that a whopping 40% of student loan borrowers say that their loans have negatively affected their ability to cover their basic needs, such as food, housing and transportation – a financial burden that becomes even more apparent around the holiday season.At first glance, someone like Ben L should not be struggling financially. He attended Georgetown University and Columbia University for his undergraduate and graduate degrees, respectively, and now earns a six-figure salary working at a biotech company. Still, the 36-year-old is drowning in student debt. Continue reading… More

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    ‘They fought for American values’: Afghan immigrants and advocates push back against Trump crackdown

    The US has been punishing ‘an entire group’ since the arrest of an Afghan in the shooting of two national guard troopsAfghan immigrants and advocates across the United States are pushing back firmly against the Trump administration’s most recent crackdown on legal immigration, saying the American government is punishing hundreds of thousands of people for the alleged actions of one man.Since the shooting of two national guard soldiers in Washington DC late last month, with the authorities charging an Afghan man as the suspect, the Trump administration has taken harsh action, especially against Afghans in the US, generating a mix of fear, outrage and defiance in the diaspora. Continue reading… More

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    The ethnic cleansing of the US will destroy it | Heba Gowayed

    Trump’s racist remarks on Ilhan Omar and Somali immigrants reveals his vision for the US as a white Christian nationA rally on affordability in Pennsylvania on 9 December devolved into a racist tirade when Donald Trump said to the crowd: “We only take people from shithole countries. Why can’t we have some people from Norway, Sweden, just a few? … From Denmark. Do you mind sending us a few people? Send us some nice people. But we always take people from Somalia, places that are a disaster, right? Filthy, dirty, disgusting, ridden with crime.”Referring to the US representative Ilhan Omar’s hijab as a “little turban”, Trump continued: “She should get the hell out. Throw her the hell out.” His supporters erupted in chants of: “Send her back.” Continue reading… More

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    You and me against the world: who was behind Trump’s anti-Europe foreign policy?

    The US’s national security strategy, shared last week, claims European immigration will cause ‘civilisational erasure’How do you create a foreign policy manifesto for a US president who leads from the gut?The initial draft fell to Michael Anton, a Maga firebrand whom officials have called the lead author behind the US’s radical new national security strategy (NSS). The document shocked US allies, warning that immigration to Europe would cause “civilizational erasure”, reviving the Monroe doctrine in the western hemisphere, and downgrading the US’s responsibility for great power competition with China and Russia. Continue reading… More

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    The Trump administration keeps picking fights with pop stars. It’s a no-win situation | Adrian Horton

    By using music from SZA, Sabrina Carpenter and Olivia Rodrigo in ICE videos, the government is playing a game of rage-baitLast week, as the Trump administration was engulfed in controversy over its illegal military strikes near Venezuela (among numerous other crises), a Department of Homeland Security employee – I picture the worst sniveling, self-satisfied, hateful loser – got to work on the official X account. The state-employed memelord posted a video depicting Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) officials arresting people in what appeared to be Chicago, celebrating the humiliation and incarceration of undocumented immigrants as some sort of patriotic achievement. The vile video borrowed, as they often do, from mainstream pop culture; in this case, a viral lyric from Sabrina Carpenter’s song Juno – “Have you ever tried this one?”, referring to sex positions – overlaid on clips of agents chasing, tackling and handcuffing people, cheekily nodding to all the methods in ICE’s terror toolbox.Carpenter, as a pre-eminent pop star, was caught in an impossible position. Say nothing, as her friend and collaborator Taylor Swift did weeks earlier when the White House used her music in a Trump hype video, and risk appearing as if you condone the administration’s use of your art for a domestic terror campaign (the administration hasn’t yet used Swift for an ICE video, but I’m sure it’s coming); or engage, even if to honestly express your utter disgust, and risk bringing more attention to objectionable propaganda designed to provoke a response. Continue reading… More