Category: World

CloseRussia conducts nuclear triad drills involving ground, naval, air forcesDonald Trump has unleashed harsh new sanctions on two of Russia’s largest oil companies, the first such sanctions in his second term as US president.
The Treasury Department said on Wednesday it was sanctioning Rosneft and Lukoil in response to Russian president Vladimir Putin’s “refusal to end this senseless war”.
In a statement, the department lashed out at Moscow’s “lack of serious commitment to a peace process to end the war in Ukraine”.
It said the sanctions would “increase pressure on Russia’s energy sector and degrade the Kremlin’s ability to raise revenue for its war machine and support its weakened economy”.
The decision came after Trump had cancelled a planned meeting with Putin, telling reporters on Wednesday that it “just didn’t feel right to me”.
“Every time I speak with Vladimir, I have good conversations, and then they don’t go anywhere. They just don’t go anywhere,” he said.
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As the government shutdown enters its 22nd day, some Republicans in both chambers are floating an idea few in their party had ever even entertained: getting rid of the legislative filibuster to bring an end to the morass.
In recent years, Democrats have floated changing the filibuster. Former senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema blocked attempts to create a carveout to codify a new version of the Voting Rights Act. They hoped to do so again with abortion rights as the Supreme Court planned to overturn Roe v Wade in the Dobbs v Jackson decision, only to fail.
But now, some hard-right Republicans are floating the idea.
“My thought is, is that I'm not willing to see children in my state go hungry, which is literally happening now, over some Senate procedure,” Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) told The Independent.
Hawley came to the Senate in Donald Trump’s first presidency, after then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell torpedoed the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees.
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Elon Musk’s hostilities with Sean Duffy reignited Tuesday with the billionaire accusing the Trump administration’s Transport Secretary of “trying to kill NASA” and attacking him with crude comments online.
The richest man in the world’s onslaught of criticism comes just a day after Duffy told CNBC that Musk’s rocket company was falling “behind” the administration’s timeline for getting humans back to the moon, and that he would now be opening up the government contract to others – including the Jeff Bezos-owned Blue Origin.
“We’re not going to wait for one company,” Duffy, who is also the Acting Administrator for NASA, said.
“We’re going to push this forward and win the second space race against the Chinese. Get back to the moon, set up a camp, a base and from there we’re gonna figure out how we can get to Mars,” he said.
The SpaceX boss posted a series of posts on his social media platform X in response to Duffy’s remarks, including a GIF of a famous exchange in which an anchor asked..

Bernie Sanders on Tuesday defended Graham Platner, the Maine oysterman running against Republican Susan Collins in the state’s marquee Senate race, who has come under fire amid allegations of racist social media posts.
“In all due respect, alright, what I'm worried about? 50,000 Americans may die unnecessarily,” the Vermont senator told The Independent when asked about some old Reddit posts from Platner that have sparked allegations of racism.
Democrats are now fretting after the progressive insurgent oysterman vying for the party’s nomination to challenge the five-term senator has come under fire for a series of inflammatory posts on Reddit and also for having a tattoo that bears a striking resemblance to Nazi ink.
Pressed further about Platner’s comments about sexual assault, Sanders defensively shot back, “Have you served four tours of duty?”
Sanders, a socialist Independent who caucuses with the Democrats, has endorsed Platner — and he’s campaigned for him in Maine.
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U.S. Border Patrol agents operating in Chicago have now been equipped with body cameras, a development confirmed on Monday during a court hearing addressing the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.
This initiative follows a judge's order amid complaints of increasingly combative tactics and over 1,000 arrests.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis mandated that uniformed agents must activate cameras where they are available during arrests, frisks, building searches and deployments to protests.
Kyle Harvick, deputy incident commander with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, informed the judge that every Border Patrol agent involved in Operation Midway Blitz “now has a body-worn camera”.
He added that 201 Border Patrol agents are stationed in the Chicago area, with other federal agencies, such as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also participating in the operation.
U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis mandated that uniformed agents must activate cameras where ..

Hulu saw its rate of cancellations double after Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show was temporarily pulled from the air, according to a new report.
Last month, ABC suspended Jimmy Kimmel Live! for about a week following comments the comedian made about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
His suspension caused a wave of outcry from celebrities, politicians and others who believed pulling the show was a violation of free speech protections. Some went as far as to boycott Hulu and Disney+, streaming services of Disney, which is the parent company of ABC.
The rate of Hulu subscription cancellations spiked to 10 percent in September, up from 5 percent in August, according to data from subscription-analytics firm Antenna. Similarly, the rate of Disney subscription cancellations rose to 8 percent from 4 percent.
open image in galleryHulu saw its rate of cancellations double after Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show was temporarily pulled from the air, according to a new report (..