onthedarkside

Ukraine war: Evacuation prompts Zaporizhzhia nuclear safety warning The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has voiced concern about the safety of Europe's largest nuclear plant as Russian occupation forces evacuate civilians from the nearby Ukrainian town of Enerhodar. The IAEA statement said that "while operating staff remain at the site, Director General Grossi expressed deep concern about the increasingly tense, stressful, and challenging conditions for personnel and their families". It said the IAEA experts present at the plant had "received information that the announced evacuation of residents from the nearby town of Enerhodar - where most plant staff live - has started". https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65515443

The White House is bracing for the political fallout from the charging decision in the Hunter Biden case. And they’ve concluded that Republicans will attack them over it whether President Joe Biden’s son is criminally indicted or not. In conversations, Democrats and senior West Wing aides are downplaying the potential impact, arguing Hunter Biden was a factor in the 2020 election and voters elected his father anyway. They point out the president’s top rival, Donald Trump, was just indicted himself. READ MORE https://www.politico.com/news/2023/05/06/bracing-for-impact-biden-world-preps-for-hunter-biden-fallout-00095636

Gates is among many election officials whose lives were upended as they became high-profile targets under the false notion that widespread fraud had tainted the 2020 election. It is an idea that continues to be promoted by former president Donald Trump and his allies. Efforts to forcefully combat these false narratives — including when Gates testified before the House Oversight Committee in October 2021 — are nearly always accompanied with threats and harassment. Even today, more than two years after the election, it is not unusual for election workers to take different routes to their homes and offices to avoid being tailed, train in de-escalation techniques and bolster their home security systems. READ MORE https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/05/06/bill-gates-maricopa-county-arizona-ptsd/ Archive link no paywall

A foreign language video has been removed. Foreign language phone screenshots removed. Some of the posts discussing specifics of prostitution in Thailand also removed: Please note forum rule: 29. You will not discuss the specifics of prostitution. Although Thailand has a visible sex industry and acknowledgement of that fact is not forbidden, ASEAN NOW is not the place to seek or give information on this topic. ASEAN NOW seeks to protect children and other at risk groups from exploitation on the internet. Any content that appears to be inappropriate or exploitative will be removed.

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The Mexican president says his country has proof that illegal shipments of the powerful opioid drug fentanyl are arriving from China. A container with hidden packages of the drug was intercepted in the Pacific port of Lázaro Cárdenas, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said. "We already have proof," he said, adding that he would ask the Chinese government to help stop the shipments. READ MORE https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-65506087

Very sad loss but he's at peace now, thoughts to his family. RIP Joe

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds on Thursday said she will sign a bill to roll back labor protections for children, allowing them to work longer hours and take jobs that had been prohibited. The measure would permit children as young as 14 to work in roofing, construction and demolition, provided they are part of educational or apprenticeship programs and a parent has granted permission for the work. They would also be allowed to do light assembly work and assist customers in businesses that sell fireworks, as long as no machines are present. READ MORE https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/iowa-governor-sign-bill-letting-232115760.html

With yesterday’s Proud Boys verdicts, 14 right-wing extremists have now been convicted of seditious conspiracy against the United States for their roles in planning and executing the Jan. 6 attack. Andre Mundell, a 63-year-old retired DC resident, sat on the Proud Boys jury hearing evidence since February. I sat down with Mundell just hours after the verdicts were rendered and jurors were excused. Our conversation has been edited for length. READ MORE https://www.vice.com/en/article/epvxqw/enrique-tarrio-proud-boys-jury

Eight Republican activists who falsely claimed to be legitimate presidential electors for Donald Trump have accepted immunity deals from the Atlanta-area district attorney investigating Trump’s bid to subvert the 2020 election. Kimberly Debrow, a lawyer for the false electors, revealed the arrangement — reached last month — in a court filing Friday, opposing a bid by District Attorney Fani Willis to disqualify her from representing the large group. It’s the latest indication of Willis’ advancing investigation, which she recently revealed could result in charges — possibly against Trump himself and a slew of high-profile allies — as soon as July. READ MORE https://www.politico.com/news/2023/05/05/trump-false-electors-immunity-00095664

WASHINGTON — A coalition of abortion and civil rights groups are launching an effort Monday to put constitutional protections for abortion on Florida's ballot in next year's election. The ballot initiative seeks a state constitutional amendment to bar restrictions on abortion before fetal viability, considered to be at about the 24th week of pregnancy, undoing the state’s current 15-week ban and recently passed six-week ban, according to Planned Parenthood, which provided NBC News with a preview of the effort. "No law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s healthcare provider," the ballot summary will say. READ MORE https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/abortion-civil-rights-groups-aim-put-abortion-floridas-2024-ballot-rcna83081

The video deposition of Donald Trump played before the jury in the E. Jean Carroll civil battery and defamation trial was made public Friday, showing the former president discussing the accusations against him, the “Access Hollywood” tape and the Russia “hoax.” The edited deposition runs for nearly an hour. Trump was interviewed in October 2022. In the video, Trump confirms that he made the allegedly defamatory statements denying knowing Carroll, calling her allegations that he raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman’s dressing room in the mid-1990s a “hoax,” and saying she is not his type. READ MORE https://edition.cnn.com/2023/05/05/politics/trump-deposition-released-e-jean-carroll-trial/index.html

Good news. However a vaccine misinformation post has been removed. The pandemic is officially over as designated by WHO. That does not mean you can post vaccine conspiracy information. Any posts scaremongering, deliberately misleading or which deliberately distort vaccine information will be removed. As per forum rules.

The April jobs report showed the US labor market remains robust, with more than a quarter million new jobs added to the economy last month as the unemployment rate fell to match its lowest level since May 1969. The US economy added 253,000 nonfarm payroll jobs last month, with the unemployment rate unexpectedly dropping to 3.4%, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed Friday. Economists had expected the report to show nonfarm payrolls rose by 185,000 last month while the unemployment rate was forecast to rise to 3.6%. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/april-jobs-report-may-5-2023-215956320.html

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared that Covid-19 no longer represents a "global health emergency". The statement represents a major step towards ending the pandemic and comes three years after it first declared its highest level of alert over the virus. Officials said the virus' death rate had dropped from a peak of more than 100,000 people per week in January 2021 to just over 3,500 on 24 April. https://www.bbc.com/news/health-65499929

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After 26 years behind bars, nine execution dates, three last meals and two independent investigations that raised serious doubts about his conviction, Oklahoma death row inmate Richard Glossip is facing what could be the final days of his life. “There has never been an execution in the history of this country where the state and the defense agreed that the defendant was not afforded a fair trial,” state Rep. Kevin McDugle said Thursday, as legislators and faith leaders called on Gov. Kevin Stitt to issue a third 60-day reprieve to give the courts time to review Glossip’s case. “Oklahoma cannot become the first.” Last week, the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board declined to recommend clemency despite the unprecedented support of the AG, who in a rare move attended the hearing to advocate on Glossip’s behalf, saying it would be “a grave injustice” for the execution to go forward. https://edition.cnn.com/2023/05/04/us/richard-glossip-oklahoma-execution/index.html

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Attorneys for E. Jean Carroll and Donald Trump rested their respective cases in the battery and defamation trial against the former president in Manhattan federal court on Thursday evening. Carroll, a former magazine columnist, alleges Trump raped her in the Bergdorf Goodman department store in the mid-1990s and then defamed her when he denied her claim, said she wasn’t his type and suggested she made up the story to boost sales of her book. Trump has denied all wrongdoing. While resting his case means Trump legally waived his right to testify in his own defense, District Judge Lewis Kaplan left a window for Trump to change his mind over the weekend. READ MORE https://edition.cnn.com/2023/05/04/politics/e-jean-carroll-trump/index.html

Social media giant Meta announced on Wednesday that it had booted 107 accounts in a China-linked network behind the phony news outlet dubbed the New Europe Observation. The outlet, which Meta researchers say was linked to a Chinese technology company, appeared to be aimed at trying to stir up unrest in European countries. The fake network posted anti-immigration screeds, opposed boycotts of the 2022 Beijing Olympics, criticized Taiwanese politicians, and pushed propaganda about China’s treatment of its Uighur Muslim minority population. READ MORE https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/china-internet-trolls-russia-copycat-1234728307/