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J. Lester Feder is a journalist and senior fellow with the global LGBTIQ organization Outright International, which is supporting 27 queer organizations in Ukraine through the war.KYIV — Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has galvanized Ukrainian society in many unexpected ways, but perhaps one of the most remarkable is how it has advanced the rights of LGBTQ people.On Tuesday, in a move that would have been nearly unthinkable a year ago, a Ukrainian lawmaker introduced legislation in the country’s parliament that would give partnership rights to same-sex couples. This legislation, along with a prohibition against anti-LGBTQ hate speech abruptly adopted in...

The interchangeable terms "war economy" or "wartime economy" bring to mind dramatic measures from dark days gone by: Governments reconfiguring their entire economic systems and industrial output to prioritize production for the war effort. EU Commissioner Thierry Breton started invoking the concept regularly in early March as he sought — and continues to seek — a rapid ramp-up in EU government orders for and manufacturing of ammunition and weapons, both to supply Ukraine and refill their own stockpiles. The commissioner has just toured more than a dozen weapons-manufacturing facilities throughout the bloc where he would have heard complaints about the...

The Biden administration is searching for ways to push the world’s largest polluter to reduce carbon emissions, as superpower rivalries engulf a fragile bilateral relationship that could determine the future of global warming. Since negotiations between U.S. climate envoy John F. Kerry and his Chinese counterparts stalled in August, Chinese provinces have accelerated their approvals of new coal power plants, sparking fears that China is moving away from its climate goals, not toward them. Now Biden administration officials are trying to get talks back on track even as they also explore other tools, such as tariffs, that could be tied...

CHICAGO -- It's been a violent and deadly Memorial Day weekend in Chicago with at least 50 shot, 10 fatally, police said. The shooting victims range in age from 2 to 77 years old, representing every part of the city. The violence occurred despite a collaborative public safety effort that the new mayor hopes to implement all summer. In Back of the Yards, a man critically-wounded in the back, and another man was shot in the face in a South Chicago home. Police said three people were shot while standing on the sidewalk in the 9100-block of South Harper Avenue...

Russian authorities reported several drone attacks on the capital Moscow Tuesday morning, damaging several residential buildings. Explosions were reported in several districts of Moscow and outlying regions of the city as Russian air defense systems attempted to intercept the drones. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin confirmed minor damage to several residential buildings but reported no serious injuries. City rescue crews are cleaning up the debris and Russia's Investigative Committee said its inspectors were also on the scene gathering forensics evidence. Russia's Defense Ministry called the incident a "terrorist attack" and insisted just eight drones had been spotted over the capital. Independent...

Target projects over $1 billion in losses due in large part to shoplifting. And that is its own fault. Target CEO Brian Cornell responded to the BLM race riots with a memo claiming that, “the murder of George Floyd has unleashed the pent-up pain of years, as have the killings of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor.” Much of that pain was directed at robbing Target. After a massive wave of arson and looting, targeted its own chain stores, Target doubled down on its Racial Equity Action and Change strategy. The Target Foundation was one of the signatories of the Philanthropic...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis attacked the bipartisan deal to raise the debt ceiling Monday, saying the country was “careening towards bankruptcy” and criticizing the “massive” amount of spending in the deal, as DeSantis’ top rival for the 2024 GOP presidential primary—former President Donald Trump—remains mum on the agreement. In an interview with Fox News’ Fox & Friends, DeSantis aligned himself with some members of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus who do not support the agreement to hold non-military spending flat at 2023 levels—which many Republicans believed were too high. DeSantis said the U.S. government’s spending habits have been out of...

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Good news of a tentative deal for the U.S. debt ceiling impasse may quickly turn out to be bad news for financial markets. While an end to uncertainty would be welcome, the relief that may come from a deal may be a short-lived sugar high for investors. That's because once a deal is reached, the U.S. Treasury is expected to quickly refill its empty coffers with bond issuance, sucking out hundreds of billions of dollars of cash from the market. The raising of ceiling is expected to be followed by the issuance of nearly $1.1 trillion in new Treasury bills...

Weeks after Russia's former head of the Roscomsmos space agency cast doubt on the US moon landing in 1969, China announced plans to put a person on the moon by 2030.Moon Base Alpha by digital painter Jon HrubeschIn a Monday announcement, Lin Xiqiang, the deputy director of China’s Manned Space Agency, said that the CCP's moon landing project - part of the country's broader Lunar Exploration Project (Chang'e Project, named after the Chinese moon goddess) - had only "recently" been kick started. The project seeks to eventually enable short-term stays on the lunar surface, as along with the collection of...

Semifinal Details If you wish to wade through 99 pages of details, here's the full text of the Allegedly Final Debt-Ceiling Deal.The Wall Street Journal has a synopsis in Biden, McCarthy Agree to Final Details of Debt-Ceiling DealWith some conservative Republicans in both chambers signaling initial opposition to the deal, Biden urged both chambers of Congress to approve the agreement and said McCarthy would have sufficient votes in the Republican-led House to secure passage.He also sought to quell concerns among Democrats over some of the deal’s provisions, such as additional work requirements for certain government safety-net programs, and rejected criticism...

Late last week, we were the first to correctly summarize what the bottom line of the so-called "debt ceiling deal" meant for the US, for future generations of Americans, and for the ridiculous melodrama gripping Washington: a -0.2% of GDP cut in nominal spending.Hey @mattgaetz, the debt ceiling deal "cuts" spending by 0.2% of GDP or about $50 billion. Is that good enough? — zerohedge (@zerohedge) May 28, 2023That's right: that 0.2% cut in spending is what all the brewhaha was over, a cut which will not only push total debt to $35 trillion by the end of Biden's term,...

I am not entirely sure how it was possible, but it appears that Kevin McCarthy was able to find a deal that may, in fact, be worse than a clean debt ceiling increase. But based on feedback from conservatives in Congress and activists from around the country, that appears to be what we have.In previous writings, I contended that, as long as Republicans didn’t snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, any deal would be a win and progressives acted as though this was the case. But McCarthy, true to form for Republican leadership, seems to have done exactly that...

Election irregularities have haunted Maricopa County, Ariz. for the past ten years, raising doubts about the legitimacy of a number of elections, including the 2020 presidential election, where Biden’s state-certified victory was a tiny fraction of the overall vote, and again in 2022 in the election between Katie Hobbs and Kari Lake. Since then, Republicans in Arizona — and other states with election issues — have sought to reform the state’s elections to help ensure that everyone in the state can feel confident that results were conducted fairly. Democrats have aggressively opposed the efforts and on Friday, Hobbs vetoed several...

The criticisms that some conservative critics of President Trump have is that he had too much "baggage." The "baggage" is Trump's confrontational style, his "mean" social media posts, and the myriad "scandals" during his administration. They complain that Trump's "baggage" makes him impossible to defend. They complain that Trump often invites trouble. In Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida, they think they have their ideal candidate: someone who purportedly stands for the MAGA agenda but is devoid of "baggage." So does the "baggage" make Trump a target? The eminent thinker and military historian Victor David Hanson enumerated the "baggage" that President...

California has mandated that all new homes built are to be all-electric, and starting in 2030, all new home appliances will be electric. I expect that Washington will soon follow California's lead of all-electric homes and appliances. In addition, Washington has mandated that fifty percent of new automobiles are to be electric. Sacramento and Washington Democrats possess the power to enact these mandates but cannot, with a pen stroke, rebuild America's electrical grid.American families have met their energy needs for over a hundred years with electricity, gas, and gasoline. Now families are being forced to depend solely on electric utilities...

Vladimir Putin could be ousted by Russia's private military group, the Wagner army, according to Igor Girkin, a former Federal Security Service officer who once led a group of Russian militants in Donetsk. Girkin, who is also known by his alias "Strelkov" and is now a prominent war blogger , said that Wagner's chief Yevgeny Prigozhin could overthrow the Russian president, the Daily Mail reported. "If Prigozhin remains the head of Wagner, the mutiny will come quickly and radically," Girkin said in a video shared by WarTranslated. "A coup attempt has been declared...What will happen next, I don't know, especially...

At least nine people were shot Monday night when gunfire erupted near a popular Florida beach packed with Memorial Day revelers, authorities said. The shooting was sparked when two groups got into an altercation, police said during a press conference. One person of interest was arrested, Hollywood Police spokesperson Deanna Bettineschi said during the news briefing. Another suspect is still on the run.

Despite striking a deal with President Joe Biden, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's (R-CA) week could be made difficult by three powerful Republican colleagues. As part of his campaign to secure the speaker's gavel earlier this year, McCarthy promised changes to the House Rules Committee, or "the speaker’s committee" — a pledge that was pivotal to him gaining the votes of Reps. Chip Roy (R-TX) and Ralph Norman (R-SC), who were among the last holdouts. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) was also given a seat on the committee. Now, those same three additions are in a position to hold up a vote...

Progressive Democrats pushing their green energy agenda during the debt ceiling negotiations are claiming at least some partial victories in the tentative deal struck this weekend between President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Hundreds of billions of dollars in clean energy spending they included in their 2022 Inflation Reduction Act will remain in the agreement, according to several news reports Sunday, though neither side has officially announced specifics. In other potential wins for green energy Democrats, McCarthy, a California Republican and the lead congressional negotiator in the debt ceiling talks, reportedly promised Biden he would pursue ways to speed...