Last week, a reporter for NPR asked me, “How conservative is the GOP?” It’s an awkward question because it all depends on what you mean by the word “conservative” these days.
A few years ago I (naively) thought I knew the answer. I’m not so sure anymore, so this is what I said:
As 2024 approaches, Sykes thinks that what people think of as conservatism may at this point be more about style than substance.
"It's whoever can play most effectively to the media wing of the Republican Party, who can anger the left, who promises to fight and inflict damage on the left more more aggressively."
But it’s actually more complicated and puzzling than that, isn’t it? Because what passes for “conservatism” now, in right-wing media and MAGA circles, is not really what Edmund Burke (or J.S. Mill, Milton Friedman, Bill Buckley, George Will, or Charles Krauthammer) had in mind, is it?
Herewith a short and admittedly incomplete guide to what MAGA “conservatism” is, and what it is not. Let me know what I left out.
Leave a comment
MAGA “conservativism” is for a strong national defense…
…except, of course, when it is not.
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MAGA “Conservatives” believe in fiscal restraint…
…except when they are in the White House.
National Review’s Rich Lowry notes the “sporadic commitment to fiscal conservatism” by the GOP.
After a hiatus during the Trump years, Republicans are back in the mood for fiscal probity.
It’s very strange not to seriously pursue a deeply held goal when you have unified control of Washington, then to insist on trying to achieve much of it in one fell swoop when you barely have control of one chamber of Congress.
“Hiatus,” is kind of a nice way to put it. Actually, the Trump years added $7.8 trillion to the national debt in just four years — which is about 25 percent of the nation’s accumulated $31 trillion debt bomb.
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“Conservatives” are devoted to the constitution, which must be strictly observed…
… except when it needs to be scrapped in order to hold onto power.
“Trump calls for the termination of the Constitution in Truth Social post.”
“Do you throw the Presidential Election Results of 2020 OUT and declare the RIGHTFUL WINNER, or do you have a NEW ELECTION? A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution,” Trump wrote in a post on the social network Truth Social … “Our great ‘Founders’ did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent Elections!”
**
MAGA “Conservatives” believe in “American Exceptionalism”…
…except when they are lavishing praise on foreign leaders like Viktor Orban, or (as I wrote earlier this week) wishing that we could be more like the Philippines, or China, in our willingness to kill suspected criminals.
And then there was this:
President Donald Trump appeared to equate US actions with the authoritarian regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin in an interview released Saturday, saying, “There are a lot of killers. You think our country’s so innocent?”
**
Conservatives used to support resistance to Russian aggression…
…but MAGA “Conservatives” are now Vladmir Putin’s most useful idiots.
**
MAGA “Conservatives” are against Affirmative Action…
…except when they need to win a senate seat.
**
MAGA “Conservatives” are all about “law and order”…
…except when they say screw it. ...
The remnants of the Chinese balloon drift above the Atlantic Ocean, just off the coast of South Carolina, with a fighter jet and its contrail seen below it, on Saturday, Feb. 4. | Chad Fish via AP |
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On Saturday afternoon, the Chinese spy balloon that enraptured Americans’ attention for much of the last week was shot down six miles off the coast of South Carolina by an F-22 firing a Sidewinder air-to-air missile — marking the end of that spectacle and merely the beginning of what is sure to be a fierce political furor. NYT’s Helene Cooper and Ed Wong: “‘I told them to shoot it down,’ President [JOE] BIDEN told reporters in Hagerstown, Md., on his way to Camp David on Saturday afternoon. ‘They said to me, let’s wait until the safest place to do it.’ … “The president was alerted by the Pentagon on Tuesday that a spy balloon had entered continental American airspace near Idaho, White House officials said, and asked for military options. … Pentagon officials advised then against shooting down the balloon, whose belly structure was roughly the size of three buses, because of the possibility of harm to civilians and infrastructure while it was over land. Pentagon officials also said they did not view the intelligence threat from the balloon as any more extensive than what China could glean from a satellite.” WaPo’s David Ignatius: “The public spectacle of a spy balloon floating over America has been an embarrassment for the Biden administration, to be sure. But the administration can claim that it waited for the most opportune moment to destroy the balloon and capture its secret payload — and that the strange affair was a net intelligence plus for the United States.” Read Ignatius for more on the intelligence angle POLITICO’s Nahal Toosi and Phelim Kine write that the balloon affair was “not necessarily a death blow” to the U.S.-China relationship. “[T]he two countries are too interdependent to opt for a drastic downgrade in bilateral ties. Both the Biden administration and senior Chinese officials … have recently emphasized the need to improve the tenor in the U.S.-China relationship. And historically, other U.S.-Chinese incidents that have roiled the relationship eventually faded in favor of resumed, if strained, ties.” Where it may have an impact: U.S. public opinion. “Chinese spying has never been so front and center in the American public consciousness,” LYLE MORRIS, former country director for China at the Office of the Secretary of Defense, told Nahal and Phelim. “If there were any people still on the fence about a China threat or not, that’s pretty much been foreclosed.” Timeline by Lara Seligman and Sam Stein WILL BIDEN’S SOTU BE A 2024 ‘SOFT LAUNCH’? — You can expect the balloon to be a topic of discussion in Biden’s State of the Union address on Tuesday. But the thrust of the speech will be used to “paint the broad strokes of a likely campaign ahead, contrasting his notion of steady leadership with the newly elected, likely chaotic Republican House,” Jonathan Lemire writes in his must-read preview. “Privately, aides are hoping the GOP lawmakers in attendance will help him achieve the contrast. … “Biden has not yet declared his candidacy but the State of the Union could very well double as a soft launch for a 2024 bid. The president has said he intends to stand for re-election, though some of his closest advisers caution that a final decision has not yet been made. In somewhat classic Biden fashion, the timeline for an announcement has shifted, according to four people familiar with the decision.” Looking back: “Biden’s 2022 State of the Union proposals: What flopped and what succeeded,” by WaPo’s Glenn Kessler HOUSE GOP EYES BALLOON VOTE AHEAD OF SOTU — Our own Olivia Beavers reports this morning that House Republicans “are discussing moving a resolution that’d criticize the Biden admin for inaction re. the Chinese surveillance balloon. My leadership source says if they pull [the] trigger, it’d likely hit the floor Tuesday (that’d be ~SAME~ day as Biden’s State of the Union address).” COMPLICATING GOP TALKING POINTS — From deep in the AP’s writeup of the balloon incident: “U.S. officials said Saturday that similar Chinese balloons transited the continental United States briefly at least three times during the Trump administration and once that they know about earlier in the Biden administration.” … AND YET — Rep. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-Ga.) tweeted last night that she just spoke with former President DONALD TRUMP, and he “would have shot [the balloon] down before it entered the U.S.”
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A message from The American Petroleum Institute (API): The solution is here. The world’s need for more reliable, affordable energy is intertwined with the goal of building a lower-carbon future. Meeting energy demand – and alleviating energy poverty worldwide while reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is a challenge that America’s natural gas and oil sector is meeting head on. |
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President Joe Biden arrives to the podium as VP Kamala Harris looks on during the DNC winter meeting on Friday, Feb. 3, in Philadelphia. | Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images |
MARK YOUR CALENDARS — After months of hubbub, the Democratic National Committee on Saturday finally approved the 2024 nominating contest calendar chosen by Biden and top aides. The 2024 primary calendar:
- Feb. 3 … South Carolina
- Feb. 6 … New Hampshire and Nevada
- Feb. 13 … Georgia
- Feb. 27 … Michigan
In our view, the calendar’s biggest impacts are (1) de-emphasizing caucus contests, which critics have long assailed for being undemocratic and favoring candidates popular among the partisan base; (2) boosting states with much higher levels of diversity than Iowa and New Hampshire, which have traditionally kicked off the nominating contests, and; (3) all but eliminating the possibility that someone will be able to successfully mount a primary challenge to Biden. The drama largely unfolded in public, as Iowa and New Hampshire made a “final appeal to DNC members,” our Elena Schneider writes. It didn’t work. Though the calendar is official, Elena reports there are still logistical issues in New Hampshire and Georgia, where GOP control of the state governments stands in the way of the changes. Neither state has yet moved its primary date. New Hampshire has a state law that requires its primary to be the first in the nation, and it appears likely to forge ahead despite the substantial penalties the party will levy against NH Democrats and any candidates who opt to compete there if the state jumps the line. In Georgia, Republican Secretary of State BRAD RAFFENSPERGER has “already ruled out splitting the Democratic and Republican primaries into two different dates,” Elena writes. “The office also said it wouldn’t schedule a primary that jeopardizes delegates for either party.” Good Sunday morning. Thanks for reading Playbook. What are your predictions for Biden’s State of the Union speech? Drop us a line: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza.
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A message from The American Petroleum Institute (API):  
Learn more about API’s plan to Make, Move and Improve American energy. |
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SUNDAY BEST … — Sen. MARCO RUBIO (R-Fla.) on the Chinese balloon, on CNN’s “State of the Union”: “They calculated this carefully with a message embedded in it. And I think that’s the part we can’t forget here. It’s not just the balloon. It’s the message to try to send the world that … we can do whatever we want, and America can’t stop us.” On previous reports of balloons in the U.S. under prior administrations: “That it flew briefly over some part of the U.S. or continental U.S., that’s one thing. But what we saw this week, it’s unprecedented. And that’s why everyone’s reacting the way they’re reacting. We have never seen this. So, this is no comparison to anything that may have happened up to this point.” — Sen. CORY BOOKER (D-N.J.) on the Chinese balloon, on CBS’ “Face the Nation”: “We have a real problem with China on a number of issues. From their human rights violations to their violations of international business law, to even the challenges we’ve had with them on overt spying. So I’m grateful that the military took decisive action when they did and how they did. But we obviously have issues here.” On whether bipartisan legislation on police reform is possible: “I think there’s a pathway forward, though I'm very sobered in a divided Congress about our ability to get it done.” — Transportation Secretary PETE BUTTIGIEG on U.S.-China relations, on NBC’s “Meet the Press”: “I don’t really know that you could do a one-to-one comparison with the last Cold War, but certainly you see this great power competition, and we’re seeing it a lot.” On whether Biden could have been more transparent on the documents investigations: “Coulda, woulda, shoulda is not the strategic direction or focus in this administration.” — Sen. TOM COTTON (R-Ark.) on U.S.-China relations, on “Fox News Sunday”: “China has been waging a Cold War against the United States for decades, and unfortunately, not many of our leaders have acknowledged that.” TOP-EDS: A roundup of the week’s must-read opinion and analysis pieces.
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BIDEN’S SUNDAY — The president has nothing on his public schedule.
VP KAMALA HARRIS’ SUNDAY — The VP has nothing on her public schedule. |
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JOIN POLITICO ON 2/9 TO HEAR FROM AMERICA’S GOVERNORS: In a divided Congress, more legislative and policy enforcement will shift to the states, meaning governors will take a leading role in setting the agenda for the nation. Join POLITICO on Thursday, Feb. 9 at World Wide Technology's D.C. Innovation Center for The Fifty: America's Governors, where we will examine where innovations are taking shape and new regulatory red lines, the future of reproductive health, and how climate change is being addressed across a series of one-on-one interviews. REGISTER HERE. |
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PHOTO OF THE DAY
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A train that derailed on Friday night sits on fire in East Palestine, Ohio, on Saturday, Feb. 4. | Gene J. Puskar/AP Photo The latestPresident Biden will end the national emergencies to combat the pandemic on May 11, my colleagues Tyler Pager and Lena H. Sun report. The move kicks off a massive effort to unwind a sprawling set of changes put in place during the earliest days of the crisis to give the government greater flexibility to respond. Since then, most Americans have been fully vaccinated against the virus and life has largely returned to normal. Still, an average of more than 500 Americans are dying every day from covid-19. Among the most significant effects of ending the emergencies are that many Americans could have to start paying for coronavirus testing and treatments, depending on their insurance coverage and where they live. Another would be the termination of Title 42, a public health measure put in place by the Trump administration that limited the inflow of migrants at the border. In addition, health-care providers who have come to rely on flexibility around hospital bed capacity and billing procedures will be affected. The administration announced its decision as it criticized House Republican plans to vote on bills that would immediately end the emergency declarations, saying such a move “would create wide-ranging chaos and uncertainty throughout the health care system.” The full extent of criminal activity targeting the U.S. government’s roughly $5 trillion in coronavirus aid may not be known for “years to come,” an investigative official warned Congress Wednesday, as he and others pleaded for new laws and money to combat waste, fraud and abuse, The Washington Post’s Tony Romm writes. Appearing before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, three federal officials pointed to the staggering amount of money stolen from federal aid programs since 2020. They called on lawmakers to enhance their powers to collect and monitor data on pandemic aid spending, bring civil and criminal charges, and recover taxpayer money. The requests offered an early test for House Republicans, who have promised to aggressively investigate Biden — even though much of the trouble that plagues pandemic spending dates back to the Trump administration. Check out The Post’s year-long investigation, “The covid money trail,” to learn more. Other important newsChildren lost out on more than one-third of a school year’s worth of learning when in-person instruction was halted during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a sweeping global study published this week in the journal Nature Human Behavior. Two years later, they still haven’t overcome those deficits, according to the study. Resentment over pandemic public health measures is still running deep among activist Republicans, The Washington Post’s Yasmeen Abutaleb, Rachel Roubein and Isaac Arnsdorf report. The issue is emerging as a cornerstone of the party’s messaging even though many Americans have put the virus behind them. Pharmaceutical companies are refusing to refund $1.4 billion in advance payments for coronavirus vaccines doses that were supposed to go toward immunizations in lower-income nations but have since been canceled due to plummeting demand for the shots, Stephanie Nolen and Rebecca Robbins report for the New York Times. | | | Guide to the pandemicTrack confirmed cases, hospitalizations and deaths in the U.S. and the spread around the world. Guides: When am I contagious? | At home tests | Vaccines | Buying masks Submit a question and we may answer it in a future story or newsletter. | | | Your questions, answeredI live in a 55+ co-op with many elderly and/or immunocompromised residents. Virtually all are vaccinated and boosted. We have a small exercise room with a fan and air exchanger. I noticed that after a bout with covid, some residents returned to the exercise room only days later. Is this dangerous for the next person who uses the exercise room, even if alone? How cautious should we be? Currently, it’s too cold to open the windows. — Nancy, Minn. Coronavirus spreads primarily through respiratory droplets, and the classic examples of transmission involve prolonged indoor exposure, from eating inside a restaurant with someone who is infected, or attending a wedding where guests had covid. But Nancy’s question raises an interesting point about whether we can still be exposed after the infected person has left the room. We turned to Linsey Marr, an engineering professor at Virginia Tech who specializes in the aerosolized spread of infectious diseases. She noted ventilation is a crucial part of controlling the airborne spread of coronavirus and other respiratory viruses, and the answer to Nancy’s question depends on the kind of ventilation system the exercise room has. The fact that this room has a fan and an air exchanger suggests air is regularly recirculating. “After enough time, you’ve brought in enough new clean outdoor air and removed enough of the old indoor air that any amount of virus left would be very low,” Marr said. How to define “enough time” depends on just how good the ventilation is — and how sick the infected person is. “If this person happened to be a super shedder — someone who releases a lot of virus — it’s possible air could be filled with virus,” Marr said. “But if you wait long enough, a few hours, the virus would have been removed by ventilation.” Christopher Hsu, a medical officer for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, added that virus transmission via surfaces, such as gym equipment, is rare. He noted that scientists are still learning more about how to reduce transmission through ventilation. “In the meantime, keeping a good air exchange (such as opening a window if possible) can be done,” Hsu said. |
Few positions of public service seem particularly glamorous, but almost none of them have us saying, “Damn, glad I’m not that guy,” like the U.S. secretary of state on a trip centered around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken began his fraught trip to the region amid an alarming uptick in violence. Israel carried out its deadliest army raid in years last Thursday, killing at least nine Palestinians in the Jenin refugee camp, which was followed by an attack on a synagogue in Jerusalem by a Palestinian gunman, killing seven Israelis. Two Palestinians were also fatally shot in the West Bank in separate incidents on Sunday and Monday.
Blinken criticized Israeli settlement activity in the occupied West Bank as an obstacle to peace, underscoring the Biden administration’s opposition to a central piece of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government platform: strengthening and expanding the settlements. However, he also reiterated Washington’s “ironclad” commitment to Israel that has persevered through multiple administrations, while simultaneously calling for peace, and support for the elusive two-state solution.
- Blinken held a joint press conference with Netantyahu in Jerusalem yesterday, and almost everything he said echoed words of the secretaries of state who came before him. It seems that Blinken has been given the unenviable (and honestly questionable) task of trying to maintain the status quo, even as violence increases and peace seems to be receding further into the distance. Today, Blinken met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who blamed Israel for the increase in violence and criticized the “lack of international efforts to dismantle the occupation” of Palestinian territory.
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Wasn’t Jared Kushner supposed to have solved this whole thing already?
The last few weeks have been some of the deadliest in the decades-long conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The Biden administration has promised to anchor its foreign policy in human rights, while also maintaining a steadfast and unequivocal support for Israel. Many on both sides of the conflict feel that it is a low priority for President Biden, who has both a far-reaching domestic agenda and America’s role in the war in Ukraine to juggle.
The question for the Biden administration is how they can pledge support for Israel and the two-state solution concurrently, because Netanyahu’s far-right government is dominated by a coalition that vehemently opposes Palestinian statehood. In other words, the United States cannot simultaneously want to protect the “status quo” and promote moving towards the two-state solution when the ruling ideology in Israel opposes both of those aims. Criticizing Israeli settlements as an obstacle to peace is all well and good, but President Biden has not restored the decades-old legal opinion that settlements are “illegitimate” which was rescinded under President Donald Trump.
Palestinians and Israelis do seem to agree on one thing: that the United States is both interfering too much and also not helping enough. Only about one-third of each population supports the two-state solution, an all-time low in the region. The Biden administration is trying to use an old playbook, but the playing field has changed. Netanyahu’s ultranationalist government was elected on a platform of increasing settlements and arming Israeli civilians, and now it’s trying to weaken the country’s Supreme Court, eroding a key component of democratic checks and balances. The United States needs to acknowledge the current reality of the conflict, and either carve out a more coherent stance, or get out of the way.
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Get ready for the ride of your life with the X-Ray Vision Podcast! Join Jason and Rosie as they explore the world of gaming and comics, while taking a deep dive into the new HBO series - The Last of Us. We promise their insights and exciting discussions will keep you on the edge of your seat. Plus, you can watch full podcast episodes right on the X-Ray Vision Youtube channel. Don't miss a beat!
Tune in every Wednesday and Friday for new episodes of X-Ray Vision on Youtube or wherever you get your podcasts! |
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| The House January 6 Committee concluded that the FBI and other federal security agencies could have prevented insurrectionists from breaching the Capitol had they acted on volumes of intelligence collected beforehand, an opinion the committee omitted from its televised hearings and final report. The committee’s chief investigative counsel Tim Heaphy, a former federal prosecutor, said that while he endorses the panel’s main findings, his inquiry documented the ways in which federal law enforcement failures contributed to the riot. He was exacting in his words, saying, “Law enforcement had a very direct role” in those failures which led to the violence, and that the advanced intel provided to them was copious and specific enough for them to have taken a different course of action. According to Heaphy, investigators found that particularly the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security (the two agencies charged with collecting intelligence about domestic terrorism) did not adequately sound the alarm. Why the House January 6 Committee chose to downplay this element in its hearings and reporting is unclear, but it’s unsettling to think that those vulnerabilities in our nation’s most sophisticated intelligence agencies will not receive rigorous, necessary scrutiny. |
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The Kremlin abolished one of Russia’s oldest rights groups in a renewed push to extinguish dissent, as the country’s war in Ukraine approaches its one-year mark, with more than 100,000 casualties estimated on each side. Russian prosecutors also banned the work of Meduza, a popular news site made up of journalists in exile as an “undesirable organization” and threatens to prosecute anyone caught aiding or promoting it. The Kremlin has steadily dismantled Russia’s independent media since the war began, exiling independent journalists, and cutting off access to Facebook, the BBC, and other news sources. The European Union condemned the decision, calling it “yet another serious politically motivated attack on media freedom,” and also denounced government plans to terminate the leases of a Moscow museum dedicated to the history of Soviet abuses. Not great, folks! |
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SPECIAL EDITION: UKRAINE Russia claims gains in relentless battles in east Ukraine. The locations of reported fighting indicated clear Russian gains, after around two months in which front lines had largely been frozen in place. Why Western companies still can’t quit Russia. As the war drags on and public pressure wanes, there are few signs that a mass exodus of companies from Russia will happen. The divestment rates barely changed during the fourth quarter of 2022. Morocco first African country to support Ukraine’s war efforts.
Morocco has become the first African country to send heavy weapons to Ukraine, delivering 20 T-72B battle tanks. This goes against the neutral stance which many African nations have adopted.
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POLITICS Retired Czech army general Pavel wins the presidential election. Petr Pavel, a former NATO general, will succeed Milos Zeman in the largely ceremonial but prestigious post. His election is expected to cement the country’s Western orientation following Zeman’s decade in office. Tanzania’s top opposition figure returns from exile. Tundu Lissu, a former presidential candidate, left in 2020. He returned after the country’s leader lifted a ban on political rallies. Mr Lissu said pushing for a new constitution would be his party’s main priority in the coming months. Tunisians elect weakened parliament on 9% voter turnout. Tunisians voted to elect a new parliament, to the backdrop of a soaring cost-of-living crisis and concerns of democracy backsliding in the North African country, the cradle of Arab Spring protests a decade ago. Bahrain and Qatar reactivate diplomatic ties. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt had broken off diplomatic and trade ties with Qatar back in 2014. Bahrain and Qatar’s leaders held a phone call, agreeing to continue to communicate to achieve common goals. UK PM fires minister after tax investigation. An independent review found that Mr Zahawi did not declare that his tax affairs were being investigated when he was made finance minister last year and failed to disclose details when the Prime Minister appointed him to his current role.
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CONFLICT US general predicts China conflict over Taiwan in 2025. He instructed building "a fortified, ready, integrated and agile Joint Force Maneuver Team ready to fight and win inside the first island chain." The first island chain stretches from Japan's Okinawa islands and Taiwan to the Philippines. Suicide bomber breaches high security in Pakistan mosque, kills 59.
A suicide bomber blew himself up inside a crowded mosque in a highly fortified security compound in Pakistan, killing 59 people, including 27 police officials. This was the latest attack targeting police. Turkey's Erdogan signals lack of support for Sweden’s NATO bid.
"We gave Sweden a list of 120 persons and told them to extradite those terrorists in their country. If you don't extradite them, then sorry about that," Erdogan said, referring to Turkey's previous agreement with Sweden. Rwanda-DRC relations further strained as DRC fighter jet is hit mid-air. A DRC fighter jet was hit whilst flying in Rwanda. Rwanda said it took defensive measures after a violation of their airspace, but the DRC has refuted these claims and sees it as an act of aggression. Top Islamic State leader killed during US raid in Somalia. An operation led by US special forces has resulted in the death of Islamic State leader Bilal al-Sudani and 10 of his operatives. He was responsible for fostering the growing presence of ISIS in Africa and allegedly funded the group’s activities globally. Israeli jets hit Gaza after rocket fire. Israeli aircraft struck several military sites in the Gaza Strip, hours after Palestinian militants fired a missile into southern Israel in a move apparently linked to rising tension in the occupied West Bank, Israel said.
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ECONOMICS EU lines up 70 projects to rival China’s Belt and Road infrastructure spending. Europe's flagship Global Gateway projects seek to offer developing countries an alternative to China's Belt and Road Initiative. Projects include a digital cable under the Black Sea; a submarine optical fiber cable to connect the Mediterranean and North Africa, and a dam and hydroelectric plant. US economy grows strongly but interest rate rises starting to slow momentum. Gross domestic product increased at a 2.9% annualised rate in the fourth quarter, but economists expect a recession later this year. Pakistani rupee sees highest one-day fall in 20 years. The Pakistani rupee fell 9.6% against the dollar in the inter-bank market, the biggest one-day drop in over two decades, after foreign exchange companies removed a cap on the exchange rate. Japan, Netherlands agree to restrict chip exports to China. Both countries have established talks with the US to restrict the exports of chip equipment to China, which could represent a major diplomatic move to slow China’s technological and military advances. Insecurities holding back progress in Africa. Africa is less secure, safe and democratic, according to the Ibrahim Index of African Governance. It finds itself hit by the effects of Covid and the Russia-Ukraine war; with the climate crisis leaving the continent on the brink of conflict over resources and soaring debt.
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DEVELOPMENT The end of affordable medicine. Pharmaceutical companies are close to a cure for many cancers and genetic diseases, but the hefty price tags of the treatments are likely to make them unaffordable for most of the world. France, Netherlands agree on ways EU could deal with US protectionist policies. "We have agreed to first look closely at the funds already available in the EU," the Dutch Prime Minister said, referring to discussions on whether the EU needs fresh funds to support industries that could be hit by these policies. All countries dangerously unprepared for future pandemics. The world is "dangerously unprepared" for future pandemics, according to a report from the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, which called on countries to update their preparedness plans by year-end. Plans for nuclear-propelled rockets to reach Mars in record time. In partnership with the US government’s Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, NASA plans to use a nuclear thermal rocket to reach Mars, and first tests could begin as early as 2027. Colombia cocaine seizures break record in 2022. Security forces seized 671 tonnes of the drug last year, surpassing the 2021 total by about 1.7 tonnes. The data showed that the Narino, Bolivar and Valle del Cauca provinces were the sites of the most seizures.
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SOCIAL NASA spacecraft discovers a formation on Mars resembling a bear. NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter snapped a photo of the formation. Two beady eyes are formed by two craters. A hill with a "V-shaped collapse structure" resembles a snout. A "circular fracture pattern" outlines a head. Number of EU students enrolling in the UK decreases post-Brexit. Data shows a sharp decline in students from Italy, Germany and France with Brexit as the primary deterrent. The Higher Education Statistics Agency figures show there are 120,000 EU students in the system, down from 152,000 in 2020-21. Nicaragua stops travellers bringing cameras and video cameras into country. Daniel Ortega's government has restricted the entry of photographic and video cameras into the country, as well as lenses, lights and accessories for recording images and sound. They are accused of aiming to impede the work of journalists and documentary filmmakers visiting the country. Lebanon's top Christian cleric says judge probing port blast must be allowed to pursue truth. He called for the judge struggling to investigate the Beirut port explosion to be able to pursue his work and get help from any outside authority to pinpoint those responsible for the devastating blast. Scientists say Earth’s inner core has changed its rotation. A study analysing seismic wave data over the past 60 years by researchers at Peking University in China has concluded that the core’s rotation stopped around the year 2009, and then restarted in the opposite direction.
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