USA

Trump removes Bannon from National Security Council in staff shakeup

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has removed his controversial chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, from the powerful National Security Council in a staff reshuffle that consolidated the power of the White House national security adviser, H.R. McMaster. During the first weeks of his presidency, Trump was sharply criticized for authorizing his political adviser to attend […]

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International, USA

Schwarzenegger blasts Trump for proposed education cuts

LOS ANGELES — In the latest round of the simmering feud between Arnold Schwarzenegger and President Donald Trump, the former California governor Wednesday blasted the president’s proposal to slash federal funding for after-school programs. “President Trump promised us that he wants to make America great again. That’s not how you make America great, by taking

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Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

Pepsi pulls controversial Kendall Jenner ad after widespread backlash

Perhaps having celebrity model and reality TV star Kendall Jenner re-enact a seminal moment in the Black Lives Matter protest movement to sell Pepsi wasn’t such a good idea after all. After initially defending its online video featuring Jenner and a can of soda as peacemakers in a street standoff between marchers and police, PepsiCo

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Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

Alex Jones’s Threat to Congressman May Be a Felony

Law enforcement officials are not saying whether they will charge broadcaster Alex Jones, the right-wing conspiracy theorist ally of President Donald Trump, for publicly threatening to “beat” Representative Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and telling Schiff to “fill your hand”—a reference to taking up a pistol. But, says an attorney with expertise in federal law, Jones’s threats

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USA

Texas inmate wins Orthodox Jews the right to kosher meals in prison

FORT WORTH, Texas — A Texas inmate has won a 12-year battle with the state over access to kosher meals in prison. Inmate Max Moussazadeh dropped his federal lawsuit against the Texas Department of Criminal Justice after persuading the state to provide kosher food not only to him but to all Orthodox Jewish inmates in

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Jewish Religion, USA

Cambridge, Massachusetts, City Council votes to impeach Donald Trump

The city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, one of America’s hotspots for liberals-slash-progressives, just voted on a resolution to start impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump. Sigh. The City Council actually voted on this. Seven-to-one, with one abstention. The resolution asks the House of Representatives to “look into the president’s various business interests, and their potential violation

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USA

Trump Just Killed Internet Privacy Protections

President Donald Trump has signed a repeal of internet privacy rules despite criticism that it threatens to undermine online safety and enable unconstitutional mass surveillance. The overturning of the Obama-era privacy protections, which was supported by Congress in a March 28 vote, will allow internet providers to share personal information with advertisers and other third

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USA

Trump Adviser Carter Page Reportedly Passed Documents To Russian Spy

Former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page confirmed he passed documents to a Russian spy in 2013 but the information was not sensitive, BuzzFeed reported Monday. Page, an energy consultant, met with Russian intelligence agent Victor Podobnyy at a January 2013 energy conference in New York as the SVR agent tried to recruit Page. Podobnyy and

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International, USA

GOP suddenly nervous about special congressional races

Special congressional elections are notoriously quirky and often hazardous to ruling parties. So with Donald Trump struggling in Washington, it’s hardly surprising that Republicans are nervous about four contests this spring, especially one this month in Atlanta’s suburbs. The poster child for what could happen occurred in Mississippi in 1981, six months after Ronald Reagan

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USA

Ethics official says Mnuchin should not be disciplined for ‘Lego Batman’ pitch

WASHINGTON — A top government ethics official said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin should not be disciplined for plugging “The Lego Batman Movie” — as long as he keeps his promise not to do it again. Mnuchin handled the controversy better than White House adviser Kellyanne Conway did when she ran afoul of the same law

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Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

Susan Rice insists she did not use intelligence for political gain

Former National Security Adviser Susan E. Rice said Tuesday the notion she used her powers to unmask members of the Trump campaign or transition for political purposes is “absolutely false.” Speaking to MSNBC, Ms. Rice also said she never kept a spreadsheet of instances in which intelligence community picked up conversations involving the Trump campaign

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International, USA