bannork

The US will not hinder Ukraine’s obligations related to its European Union accession process in the upcoming US-Ukraine mineral deal, according to a 'Memorandum of Intent' seen by Euronews. According to the one-page document, signed by Ukraine's first deputy prime minister Yulia Svyrydenko and US Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent on Thursday evening, a key round of negotiations is set to take place in Washington between 21 and 26 April. “The United States respects Ukraine's intention to avoid conflicts in the drafting of the agreement with Ukraine's obligations under European Union accession or agreements with international financial institutions and other official creditors,” the document says. Leaked: US won’t block Ukraine’s EU path in mineral deal talks

A cyberattack of unprecedented scale has rocked the Kremlin. The international hacker collective Anonymous says it launched the operation and calls it one of their largest ever. According to reports, 10 terabytes of highly sensitive data have been exposed in the breach. Anonymous posted a statement on X: “To defend Ukraine, Anonymous has leaked 10TB of data on all companies operating in Russia, Kremlin assets in the West, pro-Russian officials, Donald Trump, and more.” The leaked data reportedly includes information on Kremlin financial assets, foreign business links, and connections to former U.S. President Donald Trump. This latest leak is being described as one of the biggest cyberattacks of the Russia-Ukraine war, with the potential for global political fallout. Massive Cyberattack Hits Putin’s Presidential Palace

You said Hamas doesn't distinguish between civilians and their own terrorists in body counts. Yet the article states the attack on the southern city of Khan Younis, resulted in at least 16 deaths, most of them women and children. So are you saying these women and children were terrorists?

Please post some links showing women and children are acting as terrorists in Gaza

For anyone interested in finding about more regarding the minerals in Ukraine, I urge them to read the following article: How Ukraine’s 2.5-bn-year-old rock deposit became central to helping stop Russia Ukraine has deposits containing 22 of 34 critical minerals identified by the European Union as essential for energy security. This positions Ukraine among the world’s most resource-rich nations. Lithium is used in electronics the world over: electric vehicles, wind turbines, solar panels and energy storage systems all require lithium, cobalt and rare earth elements which Ukraine has in abundance. The price of lithium has surged from US$1,500 (£1,164) per ton in the 1990s to around $20,000 per ton in recent years. Demand is expected to increase nearly 40-fold by 2040. Apart from lithium, Ukraine has significant deposits of rutile, iron ore, titanium, manganese ore, uranium, plus deposits of rare earth elements, including neodymium and dysprosium.

The thing is would US companies go trooping over the Ukraine countryside if the war was still on? Some say companies wouldn't want to invest all that money in digging and extraction unless the war was clearly over.

Afghanistan too.

Please update. I don't think women and children are generally terrorists. Hamas is hard line Islamic, women are subjugated to household roles from what I've read.

A wave of Israeli airstrikes on encampments for displaced Palestinians has killed at least 40 people across Gaza, as Hamas officials said consultations on response to Israel truce offer “almost complete”. Civil defence spokesperson Mahmud Bassal said two Israeli missiles hit several tents in the al-Mawasi area of the southern city of Khan Younis, resulting in at least 16 deaths, most of them women and children, and 23 others were wounded. .Aid supplies including food, fuel, water and medicine have been blocked by Israel from entering Gaza since 2 March, The medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières said on Wednesday that Gaza was becoming a “mass grave for Palestinians”. AFP, AP and Reuters contributed to this report. Wave of Israeli airstrikes kill at least 40 across Gaza, says civil defence agency | Palestinian territories | The Guardian

Surely the greatest talker of horse manure in American presidential history.

He could be arrested for online bullying, worldwide.

No, the courts have the prerogative to determine what is free speech and acceptable in a given society. The government can make laws passing Parliament/ Congress but the final judge on that is the courts, otherwise authorianism/ dictatorship takes over. Trump, of course, doesn't even bother with Congress, just issues executive orders. He needs cutting down to size.

The man who consistently claimed he could stop the war within 24 hours of coming to power. PARIS (Reuters) - The United States will stop trying to broker a Russia-Ukraine peace deal within days unless there are clear signs that a deal can be done, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Friday. Rubio, speaking in Paris after meeting European and Ukrainian leaders, said that President Donald Trump was still interested in a deal but had many other priorities around the world and was willing to move on unless there are signs of progress. US ready to abandon efforts to broker Russia-Ukraine peace deal, Rubio says

Below are quotes from prominent Republicans picked out by long time Republican pollster Sarah Longwell in a thread posted to X on Wednesday. She explains, "Because Republicans believed the IRS under Obama was targeting conservative groups, there are tons of clips of R elected officials passionately arguing that the government targeting the tax exempt status of groups because of their political beliefs is un-American and illegal. FYI." 1. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) proclaimed that the IRS targeting political adversaries is "as wrong as things can be in this country." 2. Vice President JD Vance, at the time not in political office, told Fox News' Laura Ingraham, "This is about whether we have functional constitutional government in this country. If the IRS can go after you because of what you think or what you believe or what you do, we'd no longer live in a free country.“ 3. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), "I can also assure you that were this a Republican president, a Republican Attorney General, and a Republican IRS that were targeting Democrats, I at least would speak out just as vigorously against it because if we are going to respect rule of law, the apparatus of the federal government cannot and should not be used as a partisan tool to bludgeon your enemies." 4. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who, when he was serving as the senator for Florida, had a similar message. "Great news folks. @SecRubio will not stand for the federal government or its agencies targeting institutions or organizations because of their political beliefs. That’s third-world stuff that can’t be allowed to happen here.'' 'I would speak out vigorously!' Republicans who once decried IRS weaponization now silent Oh, how the lambs are silent now!

This Chinese export got through Chinese diplomat Zhang Zhishen shared an image of Leavitt wearing the dress on X/Twitter along with screenshots from Weibo of users discussing it as it was recognised by one of the factory’s employees. Alongside the images, they wrote: “Accusing China is business. Buying China is life. Zhang Zhisheng 张志昇 @salahzhang

Go on Jerry, let it all out

On Wednesday Fox Business correspondent Charlie Gasparino said that the Trump administration had put itself in a "difficult, self-inflicted spot" because they "decided to shoot first at the world, and then focus on China while now asking the same trading partners we p---ed off to help us triangulate a common foe." "And it was so avoidable. The damage China has done to free trade is enormous; it's a command control economy, a militaristic super power that obviously uses our public markets and openness to further its gains. You can't say that about Canada and the EU or Israel ....... a little common sense shows that we have backed ourselves into a negotiating corner." 'Weakness' in Trump's economic strategy 'may soon be exposed': Fox Business correspondent Hubris, arrogance, ignorance and narcissism, a fatal combination when a bull is in a china shop.

The dying coal town that reveals Trump’s lies about reviving mining If we’re still surprised by the disinformation spoken by Donald Trump, some of the responsibility should sit with us. The US President has consistently made claims that may sound believable, but on inspection have little basis in fact – and one of his assertions last week, about reviving America’s dying coal industry, felt especially cynical, dishonest and dangerous. For decades, the US produced most of its electricity from coal-fired plants, reaching a peak in 2007. The White House said some plants would be able to “comply with a less stringent version of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) rule for two years, instead of the more onerous version put in place by the Biden administration”. The dying coal town that reveals Trump’s lies about reviving mining MOD Edited due to text being spun with seperate text from other sources not just the link shown and no clear distinction which is which. @bannork

On Tuesday Trump signed an executive order aiming to delay Medicare negotiations for a broad category of prescription drugs, handing the pharmaceutical industry a major win as it lobbies aggressively against efforts to rein in its pricing power. Trump's order, titled "Lowering Drug Prices by Once Again Putting Americans First," instructs Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to work with Congress to "modify" the Medicare drug price negotiation program established under the Biden administration. Specifically, Trump calls for a four-year extension of the period during which small-molecule prescription drugs are exempt from price negotiations with Medicare. Under the Inflation Reduction Act, small molecule drugs, usually taken in pill form and representing 90% of medications currently in circulation, are not subject to the price negotiation process until at least nine years after their Food and Drug Administration approval date. "Extending negotiation delay periods," Steve Knievel, a drug policy advocate at Public Citizen added, "is nothing but a total capitulation to the demands of drug corporation lobbyists that want to continue to overcharge Medicare beneficiaries and taxpayers." "Make no mistake," Patients for Affordable Drugs executive director Merith Basey said of the legislation, "this is yet another attempt by Big Pharma to rig the system in its favour at the expense of patients." 'Rig the system': Alarm sounded as Trump backtracks on major promise

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders' Fighting Oligarchy Tour continues to draw massive crowds, even in states where people overwhelmingly voted for Republican President Donald Trump. For instance, more than 20,000 people attended his rally in deep red Utah where Trump won the 2024 election by over 20 points, whilst over 12,000 attended his rally in Nampa, Idaho where Trump thrashed Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris by 36%. Last Saturday's rally in Los Angeles drew approximately 36,000 people. Sanders said: "I invite the president to come to LA. Tell the people here why you think it's a great idea to cut Medicaid and nutrition and healthcare, so you can give tax breaks to billionaires." "Musk and his friends see you as nothing more than workers to be disposed of," the senator continued. "They got rid of tens of thousands of federal workers. They don't give a damn about you. And what we have got to do is say, 'Sorry, We are human beings.'" "Because they know what you know and what I know, is that they are the 1%, we are the the 99%'' Sanders said, echoing one of his slogans from his 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns. "They own Congress, they own the White House, but they don't own us.'' Continuing his theme, Sanders added,'' I don't care whether you're Republican, Democrat, or Independent—the people of this country do not want oligarchy, they do not want authoritarianism, and they want a government that works for all of us, not just the 1%." 'Scaring the hell out of' Trump: Senator says new Dem strategy is working

Ukrainian partisans have disrupted the railway logistics of Russian forces in the temporarily occupied city of Melitopol, Zaporizhzhia region, according to the Telegram channel of the partisan movement Atesh. Agents successfully carried out a sabotage operation in occupied Melitopol, destroying a relay cabinet, which delivered a serious blow to the railway control system used by Russia. This precision strike significantly disrupted enemy logistics, affecting their combat readiness. Melitopol is a key transport hub used by Russian forces to move ammunition, fuel, and military equipment to combat operations in the Robotyne and Kamianske areas. Other news: Partisans attacked a railway line near the Russian city of Kemerovo, delaying the delivery of ammunition to a local military facility whilst Atesh agents destroyed a Lorandit electronic warfare system in the Kherson region. Ukrainian partisans disrupt key Russian supply routes in Melitopol

In a memo to Harvard students and faculty released on Monday, the university's president, Alan Garber, noted that "the administration issued an updated and expanded list of demands, warning that Harvard must comply if we intend to 'maintain [our] financial relationship with the federal government.'" "It makes clear that the intention is not to work with us to address antisemitism in a cooperative and constructive manner. Although some of the demands outlined by the government are aimed at combating antisemitism, the majority represent direct governmental regulation of the 'intellectual conditions' at Harvard," he added. Explaining the university's position on the matter, Garber said, "No government —regardless of which party is in power — should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue.” The statement was widely welcomed, including by Barack Obama, who praised Harvard for setting "an example for other higher-ed institutions." “Let’s hope other institutions follow suit," Obama wrote on the social platform X. Political writer Amanda Marcotte said that Harvard's decision to stand up to the president is important because many other institutions who received similar demands surrendered to Trump. Talking about Columbia University's ceding to a list of stringent anti-student policies after Trump threatened $400 million in federal funding, she remarked that the university capitulated to Trump's demands by claiming the university was 'fighting anti-semitism.' Marcotte said Harvard may have understood that saying no to Trump did not "cost" them two billion dollars. She added, " Trump was always going to find an excuse to withhold the money. Might as well not give up your dignity along with it. Compliance, however, amounted to consenting to what Stanford professor Adrian Daub calls 'a controlled demolition, with each demand a charge to knock out another pillar of academic freedom.'" 'Ground shifted': Major institutions are realizing 'complicity' with Trump only makes things worse