(November 9, 2023)
Some speculate the ambitious Braverman’s sole aim was to upset left-wing opinion and so enhance her standing with the grassroots Tory members — a famously right-wing cohort — who will decide a future Tory leadership contest.
If so, she likely succeeded.
VILNIUS — Ukraine wanted this year’s NATO summit to end with a clear declaration that it will become an alliance member once the war ends, but President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is leaving Lithuania without that ultimate prize.
Kennedy’s positions on many other issues also cut against the media grain. His most controversial stance is on the war in Ukraine, where he strongly opposes American involvement (though his son volunteered to serve alongside Ukrainians). Back home, he believes transgender athletes should not participate in female sports; and, at time when the media itself seems to be hiring directly out of Langley, he’s harshly critical of America’s intelligence community, and particularly the CIA, which he believes is responsible for the assassination of his uncle, John F. Kennedy.
(07.03.2023)
Larkin, now incensed that police were requesting footage from inside his home for an investigation that didn’t even involve him, wanted to fight the warrant. He estimated that a lawyer would have been too expensive, and he only had about seven days to challenge it before Ring would comply. He still doesn’t understand how a judge could have signed off on a warrant asking for footage from a camera inside his home, when the investigation was on his neighbor.
“That says to me that the cops can go in and subpoena anybody, no matter how weak their evidence is,” he said.
(09.03.2023)
Michael Larkin erzählt Politico, dass er sich gegen die Herausgabe seiner privaten Aufnahmen wehren wollte. Schließlich sollte sie für eine Ermittlung genutzt werden, in der er nicht einmal Verdächtiger war. Doch Larkin konnte sich keinen Anwalt leisten. Das Unternehmen schickte deshalb nach der kurzen Einspruchsfrist von sieben Tagen alle auf ihren Servern gespeicherten Aufnahmen an die Polizei. Zum Glück hatte Larkin die Kameras in seinem Haus so eingestellt, dass sie nur im Falle eines Einbruchs filmen. Dennoch wurde auch jede Menge Material, das Larkin selbst zeigt, an die Polizei verschickt.
„Das ist das, was mich am meisten aufregt – die Tatsache, dass ein Richter das einfach so absegnet“, sagt Larkin gegenüber Politico. „Er gibt einfach Material von mir heraus, ohne dass ich in irgendeiner Form an dem Fall beteiligt bin.“
But there are signs that Blinken is operating under the assumption that a Munich meeting with Wang Yi is highly likely. “Some of the officials who would need to be there for such a meeting left with Blinken to Munich in anticipation of a potential meeting,” said a third Washington, D.C.-based diplomat familiar with the trip’s participants. All three diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to give public statements about the negotiations.
(31.08.2021)
“We coordinated very closely with the US, in particular around the Isis-K threat, which we anticipated although tragically were not able to prevent, but it is certainly right to say we got our civilians out of the processing centre by Abbey gate, but it is just not true to suggest that other than securing our civilians inside the airport that we were pushing to leave the gate open.
“In fact, and let me just be clear about this, we were issuing changes to travel advice before the bomb attack took place and saying to people in the crowd, about which I was particularly concerned, that certainly UK nationals and anyone else should leave because of the risk.”
(30.08.2021)
The British Ministry of Defence declined to respond to allegations they were to blame for keeping the gate open, but said in a statement: ‚Throughout Operation Pitting we have worked closely with the US to ensure the safe evacuation of thousands of people.
(30.08.2021)
The Pentagon criticised the leaking of the call details reported in Politico, telling the news website: “This story is based on the unlawful disclosure of classified information and internal deliberations of a sensitive nature.
“As soon as we became aware of the material divulged to the reporter, we engaged Politico at the highest levels to prevent the publication of information that would put our troops and our operations at the airport at greater risk. We condemn the unlawful disclosure of classified information and oppose the publication of a story based on it while a dangerous operation is ongoing.”
(30.08.2021)
Commanders calling in from Kabul relayed that the Abbey Gate, where American citizens had been told to gather in order to gain entrance to the airport, was “highest risk,” and detailed their plans to protect the airport.
“I don’t believe people get the incredible amount of risk on the ground,” Austin said, according to the classified notes.
On a separate call at 4 that afternoon, or 12:30 a.m. on Thursday in Kabul, the commanders detailed a plan to close Abbey Gate by Thursday afternoon Kabul time. But the Americans decided to keep the gate open longer than they wanted in order to allow their British allies, who had accelerated their withdrawal timeline, to continue evacuating their personnel, based at the nearby Baron Hotel.
Described by party colleagues as a diligent bridge builder who favors behind-the-scenes compromise to political gamesmanship, Laschet’s style and demeanor are reminiscent of Merkel’s and he is often compared to her. Like the chancellor, Laschet is a political moderate and he has been a loyal supporter of her policies on refugees, Europe and foreign affairs.
With just eight days left in office for President Donald Trump, Pompeo alleged that Iran has given safe haven to Al-Qaida leaders and support for the group, despite some skepticism within the intelligence community and Congress.
On Monday, Pompeo was seen meeting with Mossad Chief Yossi Cohen, according to Politico‘s White House Correspondant Meredith McGraw.
Pressure has also been growing on Boris Johnson from within his own party to keep all pupils in school at the start the new term – but the PM has sided with SAGE scientists, who are pushing for schools, especially secondary schools to close for all of January, at least, because of the new super-strain of Covid-19, according to Politico.
Mr Johnson was reportedly told last week by SAGE, led by Chief Scientific Adviser Patrick Vallance, that a stricter lockdown is required because the one in November, where schools remained open, did not keep the ‚R‘ rate below 1, an adviser has claimed.
(12.12.2020)
The audit states the conversion tool had coding errors that spit out inaccurate numbers and caused confusion about the accuracy of the results, eventually leading to delays in reporting. But the state party’s app never malfunctioned nor was hacked, the report concludes.
The company halted its U.S. trial in early September over safety concerns, after a trial participant reported neurological problems. The study resumed earlier this month after FDA concluded that no evidence linked the volunteer‘s symptoms to the shot.
Politico reported Pelosi told White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin that Birx was the „worst“ and that they were in „horrible hands“ with her.
Asked on ABC‘s „This Week“ whether the account was true and if she has confidence in Birx, Pelosi said, „I think the President is spreading disinformation about the virus and she is his appointee, so I don‘t have confidence there, no.“
“Deborah Birx is the worst. Wow, what horrible hands you’re in,” Pelosi said at the meeting, according to Politico.
A New York Times article in July on the Trump administration’s coronavirus response portrayed Birx as overly optimistic about the course of the pandemic. While voicing “tremendous respect” for Pelosi, Birx on Sunday criticized the newspaper’s reporting.
The new, poor numbers for the president come as his chief rival for the presidency, former Vice President Joe Biden, opens up as much as a double-digit lead in some swing states in recent polling, with Election Day only four months away.
The poll found sinking voter optimism as well, with only a quarter of voters responding that the country is headed in the right direction, while 75 percent said things had “pretty seriously” gotten off on the wrong track — a record high for the Trump presidency.
THIS ISN’T OVER A SINGLE PIECE OF LEGISLATION or a specific policy, but rather something far more valuable: the access to information and intelligence. THE WHITE HOUSE and the administration have it, and Congress wants it — and believes it’s entitled to it.
AT ISSUE: the NYT report about Russians allegedly paying bounties to the Taliban in Afghanistan to kill American soldiers.
(12.06.2020)
About two weeks after protests began in New York City, several indicators tracking the spread of the coronavirus have yet to register a meaningful spike.
However, Mayor Bill de Blasio and health experts said Friday morning that they are waiting until the end of the month to draw any hard conclusions from the data.
In the end, the most influential politician of 2020 might be the one who has been the most silent.
With Bernie Sanders exiting the race and Joe Biden taking on the mantle of presumptive nominee, the man who hovered quietly over the race for more than a year, Barack Obama, will soon return to the political fray.
“The military is the best logistical organization in the nation. If there are ventilators being produced anywhere in the country, we need to get them to New York. Not weeks from now or months from now, in the next 10 days.“
“Why are they at their bases? Why are they not being allowed to serve?“ de Blasio said. “I guarantee you, they‘re ready to serve. But the president has to give the order.“
House leaders are closing in on a bipartisan deal to renew a set of federal surveillance powers expiring this weekend, but no final agreement has been reached, according to lawmakers and aides of both parties.
Centrist lawmakers are relieved that they may not have to run with a democratic socialist atop the ticket.
Super Tuesday was a demonstration that, when the stakes are highest, politics is not about fashion. It is about power.
For months, the Vermont senator was written off by Democratic Party insiders as a candidate with a committed but narrow base who was too far left to win the primary. Elizabeth Warren had skyrocketed in the polls and seemed to be leaving him behind in the race to be progressive voters’ standard-bearer in 2020.
But in the past few weeks, something has changed.
Only 37 percent of voters support Trump’s decision regarding Syria, the poll shows, less than the 43 percent who oppose it. But a sizable number, 20 percent, say they don’t have an opinion about Trump’s decision.
A new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll is just the latest survey showing the former VP with the biggest lead over Trump. It has Biden up 7 points over the president in a hypothetical general election matchup, 42 percent to 35 percent. Other than Bernie Sanders, who led Trump by 5 points, every other Democrat is either tied with the incumbent or trails him.
(3.12.2018)
(4.12.2018) Just when we thought the bogus Assange smear couldn’t get worse, Politico asks the world to hold their beer.
France’s sudden U-turn over an unpopular fuel tax in the face of violent anti-government protests sent shivers through the COP24 climate summit.
That’s because the sight of one of Europe’s most climate ambitious countries beating a hasty retreat over a proposal that would have hiked gasoline tax by 4 cents, or just under 3 percent, highlighted the difficulty of imposing any economic pain in the name of tackling climate change.
(28.11.2018)