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    US officials investigate whether ICE agents lied about Minneapolis shooting

    Charges dropped against two Venezuelan men over January shooting as investigation opened into agents’ conductFederal authorities have opened a criminal investigation into whether two immigration officers lied under oath about a shooting in Minneapolis last month, as all charges were dropped against two Venezuelan men.ICE director Todd Lyons said on Friday that his agency opened a joint investigation with the justice department after video evidence revealed “sworn testimony provided by two separate officers appears to have made untruthful statements” about the shooting of one of the Venezuelan men during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown across the Minneapolis area. Continue reading… More

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    Who are the six men named in the unredacted Epstein files?

    In a floor speech, Ro Khanna, a Democratic representative, revealed identities of six men after seeing unredacted filesRo Khanna, the US congressman, publicly revealed the names of six men whose identities were redacted from the Jeffrey Epstein files, including Leslie Wexner, a billionaire retail magnate, whom the FBI appeared to have labeled as a co-conspirator.Four of the six men had no connection to Epstein whatsoever and were simply part of a photo lineup assembled by law enforcement, according to reporting from the Guardian. Two of the men who spoke to the Guardian strongly denied knowing Epstein and said they had been arrested by NYPD for unrelated crimes in the past, which likely explains how their photos ended up in the array. Continue reading… More

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    Trump’s Random Walks: Unpredictable Politics and Chaotic Foreign Policy

    The Financial Times recently published a comment from an anonymous major oil company executive vis-à-vis investment in Venezuela, “No one wants to go in there when a random fucking tweet can change the entire foreign policy of the country…” Recently, I endured a couple of weeks of people outside the United States explaining to me,… Continue reading Trump’s Random Walks: Unpredictable Politics and Chaotic Foreign Policy
    The post Trump’s Random Walks: Unpredictable Politics and Chaotic Foreign Policy appeared first on Fair Observer. More

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    These charts show how Trump is isolating the US on the world stage

    Analysis shows that the world is moving closer to China, as Trump’s isolationism rears its head at the United NationsDonald Trump’s return to the White House has accelerated a profound shift in the global order, according to new analysis.A report from Focal Data, which analyses UN voting records, reveals how Washington’s “America First” agenda has started to redraw the geopolitical map in favour of China. Continue reading… More

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    Democrats at Munich security summit to urge Europe to stand up to Trump

    European leaders divided over how far to accommodate Trump’s ‘wrecking ball’ politics and foreign policyUS Democrats will use a security summit this weekend to urge European leaders to stand up to Donald Trump, with the continent divided over how to keep the unpredictable US president on side.Democrats at the annual Munich Security Conference will include some of Trump’s most outspoken critics, such as the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, the New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Arizona senator Ruben Gallego and the Michigan governor, Gretchen Whitmer. Continue reading… More

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    The Guardian view on Israel and the West Bank: the other relentless assault upon Palestinians | Editorial

    A campaign of ethnic cleansing and ‘tectonic’ new legal measures are killing the two-state solution to which other governments pay lip serviceProtecting archaeological sites. Preventing water theft. The streamlining of land purchases. If anyone doubted the real purpose of the motley collection of new administrative and enforcement measures for the illegally occupied West Bank, Israel’s defence minister spelt it out: “We will continue to kill the idea of a Palestinian state,” Israel Katz said in a joint statement with the finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich.While the world’s attention was fixed upon the annihilation in Gaza, settlers in the West Bank intensified their campaign of ethnic cleansing. More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed there since October 2023; a fifth of them were children. Many more have been driven from their homes by relentless harassment and the destruction of infrastructure, with entire Palestinian communities erased across vast swathes of land.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading… More

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    Monks bring balm for America’s wounds as Washington cheers peace odyssey

    Buddhist monks had walked 2,300 miles from Texas, braving snow and often barefoot – their arrival in the capital was greeted by thousandsBhante Saranapala gazed down at more than a hundred Buddhist monks wearing burnt-orange, saffron and maroon robes, most sporting woolly hats, a few clutching flowers.“These monks are awesome!” roared Saranapala, who is known as the “Urban Buddhist Monk”, prompting a cheer from the big crowd. “Their determination should be greatly appreciated. Walking from Texas to Washington DC, 2,300 miles; it requires strong determination!” Continue reading… More

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    US House backs bid to block Canada tariffs in rebuke of Trump

    Republicans join Democrats in objecting to national emergency US president declared to impose tariffsThe US House on Wednesday voted to rescind tariffs that Donald Trump imposed on Canada last year, a rare bipartisan rebuke of the White House’s trade policy as the president threatened electoral retaliation against any Republican who defied him.The largely symbolic resolution to disapprove of the national emergency Trump declared to impose tariffs on Canada passed 219 to 211, with six Republicans – Don Bacon of Nebraska, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Kevin Kiley of California, Dan Newhouse of Washington and Jeff Hurd of Colorado – voting with all Democrats except Jared Golden of Maine, who voted against it. Continue reading… More