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    ‘Take the vaccine, please,’ Dr Oz urges amid rising measles cases in US

    Health official’s endorsement comes as South Carolina faces hundreds of cases and US risks losing elimination statusA senior US public health official called on Americans to get vaccinated against measles as outbreaks continue in multiple states and concerns grow that the country could lose its measles elimination designation. Dr Mehmet Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeon, spoke in support on Sunday of the measles vaccine.“Take the vaccine, please,” said Oz, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. “We have a solution for our problem.” Continue reading… More

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    Democrats will stop Trump from trying to nationalize midterms, Jeffries says

    Top House Democrat says president’s suggestion for Republicans to ‘take over’ elections really means ‘steal it’ Democrats will stop Donald Trump from trying to steal this year’s midterm elections, Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader in the US House of Representatives said on Sunday.Jeffries’ comments come amid widespread concern after Trump said Republicans should “take over the voting”. The US constitution gives states the power to set election rules and says Congress can pass laws to set requirements for federal elections. The constitution gives the president no authority over how elections are run. Continue reading… More

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    Trump calls Hunter Hess ‘a real loser’ for skier’s ambivalence about representing US

    US president attacks freestyle skier in postHess had said representing the US was ‘a little hard’Donald Trump responded to Hunter Hess on Truth Social on Sunday, calling the Olympian a “real loser” and criticizing comments the US freestyle skier made in a press conference days earlier.Hess was asked in a press conference on Wednesday what it was like to represent the US in the Olympics given the current situation in the country, which has included ICE raids in Minnesota and a number of geopolitical crises. Hess said representing the US at the 2026 Winter Olympics brought up “mixed emotions” and that it was “a little hard.” Continue reading… More

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    Trump’s EPA reapproves contentious weedkiller dicamba for some GM crops

    Environmental groups said dicamba drift has damaged vegetable farms, trees and other critical plantsThe Environmental Protection Agency on Friday reapproved the weedkiller dicamba for use on genetically modified soybeans and cotton, a pesticide that has raised widespread concern over its tendency to drift and destroy nearby crops.The agency said dicamba was critical for farmers who would otherwise have their crops threatened by fast growing weeds. To ensure the pesticide is used safely, the agency said it imposed strong protections and limits on its use. Continue reading… More

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    As goes the Washington Post: US democracy takes another hit under Trump

    Jeff Bezos’s axing of more than 300 jobs at the storied newspaper has renewed fears about the resilience of America’s democracy to withstand Trump’s attacksThe email landed in Lizzie Johnson’s in-tray in Ukraine just before 4pm local time. It came at a tough time for the reporter: Russia had been repeatedly striking the country’s power grid, and just days before she had been forced to work out of her car without heat, power or running water, writing in pencil because pen ink freezes too readily.“Difficult news,” was the subject line. The body text said: “Your position is eliminated as part of today’s organizational changes,” explaining that it was necessary to get rid of her to meet the “evolving needs of our business”. Continue reading… More

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    After years spent documenting state terror, I know it when I see it. And I see it now in the US and Israel | Janine di Giovanni

    It’s chilling to watch as Trump and Netanyahu adopt the methods of regimes their countries once condemnedJanine di Giovanni is a war correspondent and the executive director of The Reckoning Project, a war crimes unit in Ukraine, Sudan and GazaIn Syria, where I worked during the years of Bashar al-Assad’s terror, people were often taken away to torture cells before dawn by masked men. The timing was deliberate. It disoriented them at their most vulnerable, ensuring the torture to come would be even more agonising. The testimonies I recorded from survivors almost always contained the same phrase: “The morning they came for me.” One young woman, shattered by rape and violence, later told me that her life had split in two – before and after the masked men came for her.In Iraq, those who spoke against Saddam Hussein – even abroad, even casually – were punished in cruel ways by a vengeful leader determined to crush any hint of dissent.Janine di Giovanni is a war correspondent and the executive director of The Reckoning Project, a war crimes unit in Ukraine, Sudan and Gaza. She is the author of The Morning They Came for Us: Dispatches from Syria. Continue reading… More

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    NSA detected foreign intelligence phone call about a person close to Trump

    Whistleblower says that Tulsi Gabbard blocked agency from sharing report and delivered it to White House chief of staffLast spring, the National Security Agency (NSA) flagged an unusual phone call between two members of foreign intelligence, who discussed a person close to Donald Trump, according to a whistleblower’s attorney who was briefed on details of the call.The highly sensitive communique, which has roiled Washington over the past week, was brought to the attention of the director of national intelligence (DNI), Tulsi Gabbard. Continue reading… More

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    Trump news at a glance: Tulsi Gabbard faces mounting questions over handling of intelligence intercept

    Highly sensitive communique has roiled Washington over the past week – key US politics stories from Saturday 7 February at a glanceNational intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard is facing growing questions about her handling of a report about an intercepted phone call between two members of foreign intelligence, who discussed a person close to Donald Trump.A whistleblower said that Gabbard blocked the National Security Agency from sharing the report, instead delivering it to the White House chief of staff. Continue reading… More