Protest in Dallas

trump said today that nato countries should up their defense spending to 5% (unlike the united states, which is around 3%)

a look where things stand now:

Wait a minute…Musk, Bezos, and Zuck all changed their hair and then they became even bigger douches. Correlation or causation?

Wut

It’s funny Zuck says “I started building social media to give people a voice” when in fact, he started building social media to publicly rate the hotness of undergrads.

hundreds of kilometers in 8 hours for under €60

how about it usa?

Former FBI and CIA head prods Senate to reject Patel, Gabbard William Webster, the only person to lead both the FBI and CIA, wrote that neither nominee meets the demands of top intelligence jobs.

Bravo!! www.politico.com/live-updates...

South Korean Lawmakers Impeach Acting President as Crisis Deepens The vote was the second major impeachment in two weeks after President Yoon’s ill-fated martial law bid set off turmoil. The country’s currency has plunged.

South Korean lawmakers impeach a second head of state in less than two weeks, this time removing the interim president and escalating the country's political crisis. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/26/w...

Bashar al-Assad's wife files for divorce, seeks to move to UK - report Asma al-Assad moved to Syria in 2000 and married Assad in the same year at the age of 25.

She married him for richer or for richer but not for winters in Moscow.
www.jpost.com/middle-east/...

Did Musk tank a spending bill because it would have harmed his business in China?
From @theprospect.bsky.social
prospect.org/politics/202...

I still want this man to teach me to change my oil.

The people of the nation of #georgia are absolute heroes.

#georgiaprotests

The art of the deal:

1. Make wild demands

2. Get nothing

3. Declare victory

we're cooked

A note about this story: The reporting was started by my friend, Susan Carroll, before her sudden death this spring.

The trove of public records that are the basis for the article were sitting in her email; we found them after she died, then worked to finish her story.

Read it for her, please.

A screenshot of an Axios headline from yesterday that reads Scoop: Trump, RFK Jr. dine with Pfizer and Lilly execs

A screenshot of a CNBC article from June 2023 that reads: Pharmaceutical trade group sues Biden administration over Medicare drug price negotiations

Trump and RFK Jr. are wining and dining the same Big Pharma CEOs that sued Democrats because we forced them to lower their drug prices

Rebels in Syria seize strategically important city of Hama — set sights on Homs On Thursday, rebel fighters in Syria continued their startling advance by entering and seizing the city of Hama, according to both the rebels and the Syrian government. They are now within striking di...

What we’re watching:

➡️ Syrian rebels set sights on Homs

➡️ Will Yoon survive impeachment?

➡️ Romania votes in round two

Get the details from @gzeromedia.bsky.social: www.gzeromedia.com/news/watchin...

A 2006 study found undocumented immigrants contribute more than they cost Texas. The state hasn’t updated it since. A comptroller’s report found that deporting the estimated 1.4 million undocumented immigrants living in Texas in 2005 would have cost the state about $17.7 billion in gross domestic product.

“Blanket mass deportations would be devastating not only for Texas’ economy, but for Texas families,” said Juan Carlos Cerda

wtf www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston...

Ghana Ruling Party Risks Election Loss in Debt-Crisis Aftermath Ghana’s government has overseen a restructuring of most public debt, secured a $3 billion International Monetary Fund bailout and rebooted the West African nation’s economy. That probably won’t be eno...

There is a strong anti-incumbent sentiment that positions Mahama as the frontrunner in Ghana's upcoming election.

Our expert @amakaanku.bsky.social says that Mahama will also benefit from apathy in ruling party strongholds where voters are struggling economically.

Look, @scottbraddock.bsky.social. We all need you to be filling us in on Bluesky, so we don’t have to switch back over to the bad place. Thanks, love you. #txlege

Fill the Swamp? Trump’s appointments are putting lobbyists and industry leaders into positions of immense government power.

Trump appointing industry lobbyists as well as CEOs who will now be able to regulate their own companies (or not) was utterly predictable, so much so that hardly anyone will remark upon it. Oligarchy has arrived
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

This is truly the best legal advice we can give.

syria, south korea and french govts all falling in a week.

Can we please manifest this into being?

Texas Uranium Mining Portends Nuclear Revival State leaders want nuclear reactors to provide power to large industrial facilities. But South Texas locals worry that a uranium boom could affect their groundwater.

“We’re talking about mining at the same elevation as people get their groundwater. There isn’t another source of water.”

From @dylanbaddour.bsky.social at @insideclimatenews.org: State leaders want to usher in a new age of nuclear energy in Texas, leaving residents worried about safety.

Maybe Burrows 🤷‍♂️

Paul Krugman retires as Times columnist | The New York Times Company

Paul Krugman to retire from his @nytimes.com column www.nytco.com/press/paul-k... @pkrugman.bsky.social