The Political Thread

[Samoa Looch]

 

[Chris]

https://www.npr.org/2025/04/19/nx-s1-5370056/putin-easter-ceasefire-truce-ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a temporary Easter ceasefire in Ukraine starting Saturday, citing humanitarian reasons, as Russia and Ukraine swapped hundreds of captured soldiers in the largest exchange since Moscow's full-scale invasion started over three years ago.

According to the Kremlin, the ceasefire will last from 6 p.m. Moscow time (1500 GMT) on Saturday to midnight (2100 GMT) following Easter Sunday.

"We assume that the Ukrainian side will follow our example. At the same time, our troops must be ready to repel possible violations of the truce and provocations from the enemy, any of its aggressive actions," Putin said at a meeting with Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, in a video shared by the Kremlin's Press Service.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the ceasefire "another attempt by Putin to play with human lives." He wrote on X that "air raid alerts are spreading across Ukraine," and "Shahed drones in our skies reveal Putin's true attitude toward Easter and toward human life."

 

[Barry Poppins]

Wisconsin Supreme Court Says Governor’s 400-Year Edit Was Within Veto Authority

Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, used his veto power to increase school funding limits for four centuries longer than Republican lawmakers in the state had intended.

www.nytimes.com

Hooooly shit lmao

 

[Chris]

Hegseth Said to Have Shared Attack Details in Second Signal Chat

The defense secretary sent sensitive information about strikes in Yemen to an encrypted group chat that included his wife and brother, people familiar with the matter said.

www.nytimes.com

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared detailed information about forthcoming strikes in Yemen on March 15 in a private Signal group chat that included his wife, brother and personal lawyer, according to four people with knowledge of the chat.

Some of those people said that the information Mr. Hegseth shared on the Signal chat included the flight schedules for the F/A-18 Hornets targeting the Houthis in Yemen — essentially the same attack plans that he shared on a separate Signal chat the same day that mistakenly included the editor of The Atlantic.

Mr. Hegseth’s wife, Jennifer, a former Fox News producer, is not a Defense Department employee, but she has traveled with him overseas and drawn criticism for accompanying her husband to sensitive meetings with foreign leaders.

 

[Chris]

https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/21/politics/homeland-security-kristi-noem-purse-stolen/index.html

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem fell victim to a thief while eating dinner at a downtown Washington, DC, restaurant Sunday night, the secretary confirmed Monday.

Noem, who was asked about the theft at the White House Easter Egg Roll, acknowledged the incident and said the matter has not been resolved.

The Secret Service, which provides security for Noem, reviewed security camera footage at the Capital Burger restaurant and saw an unknown white male wearing a medical mask steal her bag and leave the restaurant, a law enforcement source said.

The thief got away with Noem’s driver’s license, medication, apartment keys, passport, DHS access badge, makeup bag, blank checks, and about $3,000 in cash.

The Secret Service has launched an investigation to trace any use of Noem’s financial instruments, the person added.

“Her entire family was in town including her children and grandchildren – she was using the withdrawal to treat her family to dinner, activities, and Easter gifts,” a DHS spokesperson said.

 

[Samoa Looch]

How long until they declare anyone wearing a medical mask is a terrorist that will be deported?

 

[Chris]

Nadine Menendez convicted on all counts in bribery trial

A jury has convicted Nadine Menendez, the wife of convicted former New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, for her role in a years-long bribery scheme with her husband.

www.cbsnews.com

A New York City jury has convicted Nadine Menendez, the wife of convicted former New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, for her role in a years-long bribery scheme with her husband.

She was convicted on all 15 counts and faces sentencing on June 12.

Before the jury was read, the judge instructed the courtroom there was to be no outbursts of any kind.

Nadine Menendez, 58, and her husband have both now been convicted of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in exchange for political favors to benefit the government of Egypt and enrich themselves.

Menendez's husband resigned his U.S. Senate seat weeks after being found guilty of accepting lavish bribes, including gold bars and cash. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison and must surrender to authorities on June 6. He has vowed to appeal his conviction.

 

[Chris]

Harvard University Sues Trump Administration

Harvard’s lawsuit comes after the administration sought to force the university to comply with a list of demands by cutting billions in federal funding the school receives.

www.nytimes.com

Harvard, the world’s wealthiest university, sued the Trump administration on Monday, fighting back against its threats to slash billions of dollars from the school’s research funding as part of a crusade against the nation’s top colleges.

The lawsuit signaled a major escalation of the ongoing fight between higher education and President Trump, who has vowed to “reclaim” elite universities. The administration has cast its campaign as a fight against antisemitism, but has also targeted programs and teaching related to racial diversity and gender ideology.

Earlier this month, it sent Harvard a list of demands that included auditing professors for plagiarism, reporting to the federal government any international students accused of misconduct, and appointing an outside overseer to insure that academic departments were “viewpoint diverse.”

Alan M. Garber, Harvard’s president, accused the government in a statement on Monday of trying to wield “unprecedented and improper control” of the university. Dr. Garber said the consequences of the government’s actions would be “severe and long lasting.”

 

[Chris]

Over 150 US university presidents sign letter decrying Trump administration

Statement signed by Harvard, Princeton and Brown leaders denounces White House’s ‘undue government intrusion’

www.theguardian.com

More than 150 presidents of US colleges and universities have signed a statement denouncing the Trump administration’s “unprecedented government overreach and political interference” with higher education – the strongest sign yet that US educational institutions are forming a unified front against the government’s extraordinary attack on their independence.

The statement, published early on Tuesday by the American Association of Colleges and Universities, comes weeks into the administration’s mounting campaign against higher education, and hours after Harvard University became the first school to sue the government over threats to its funding. Harvard is one of several institutions hit in recent weeks with huge funding cuts and demands they relinquish significant institutional autonomy.

The signatories come from large state schools, small liberal arts colleges and Ivy League institutions, including the presidents of Harvard, Princeton and Brown.

 

[Chris]

Top Producer of ‘60 Minutes’ Quits, Saying He Lost Independence

The news program has faced mounting pressure from both President Trump and its corporate ownership at Paramount, the parent company of CBS News.

www.nytimes.com

CBS News entered a new period of turmoil on Tuesday after the executive producer of “60 Minutes,” Bill Owens, said that he would resign from the long-running Sunday news program because he had lost his journalistic independence.

In an extraordinary declaration, Mr. Owens — only the third person to run the program in its 57-year history — told his staff in a memo that “over the past months, it has become clear that I would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it, to make independent decisions based on what was right for ‘60 Minutes,’ right for the audience.”

“So, having defended this show — and what we stand for — from every angle, over time with everything I could, I am stepping aside so the show can move forward,” he wrote in the memo, which was obtained by The New York Times.

“60 Minutes” has faced mounting pressure in recent months from both President Trump, who sued CBS for $10 billion and has accused the program of “unlawful and illegal behavior,” and its own corporate ownership at Paramount, the parent company of CBS News.

Paramount’s controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone, is eager to secure the Trump administration’s approval for a multibillion-dollar sale of her company to Skydance, a company run by the son of the tech billionaire Larry Ellison. She has expressed a desire to settle Mr. Trump’s case, which stems from what the president has called a deceptively edited interview in October with Vice President Kamala Harris that aired on “60 Minutes.”

 

[Barry Poppins]

Yuck

 

[Samoa Looch]

https://www.avclub.com/washington-post-openai-partnership

You know what they say: if you can’t beat ’em, sublimate yourself into their algorithm. On Tuesday, The Washington Post announced a new “strategic partnership” with OpenAI. With this deal, ChatGPT will feature WaPo‘s news content in generated responses to users’ searches. This will include “summaries, quotes, and links to original reporting from The Post in response to relevant questions,” according to the outlet.

 

[Comrade Khan]

Awful

 

[Chris]

Rubio Skipping Ukraine Talks as Zelensky Rebuffs U.S. on Crimea

The decision by Secretary of State Marco Rubio to pull out of the meeting and an objection by Ukraine’s leader to a key U.S. proposal raised questions about the state of the negotiations.

www.nytimes.com

Secretary of State Marco Rubio decided on Tuesday to skip the next stage of the Ukrainian cease-fire talks, while Ukraine rebuffed one of President Trump’s key proposals for a deal that would halt the fighting with Russia.

Negotiators from the United States, Europe and Ukraine will still meet in London on Wednesday to continue hammering out a cease-fire proposal. But the back-to-back developments are a double blow, raising fresh questions about how much progress is being made toward winding down the three-year war.

Mr. Rubio took part in a meeting on Ukraine last week in Paris, but afterward warned that Mr. Trump was growing impatient with the peacemaking process and might move on to “other priorities.”

While in Paris, two European officials said, the negotiators were briefed on the Trump administration’s framework for a cease-fire deal, which includes demands that Ukraine recognize Russia’s annexation of Crimea and rules out NATO membership for Ukraine.

 

[Barry Poppins]

So basically "Let's throw Ukraine under the bus and make them even weaker and more pliable to Russian influence."