Donald Trump barred from second state’s Republican primary ballot. “The move [by Maine’s] secretary of state – following a similar decision from the Colorado Supreme Court earlier this month – worsened a growing crisis for Trump’s campaign and strengthened the rationale for the US Supreme Court to take up the issue, arising from the 14th Amendment’s ‘insurrectionist ban’. ….two states have now found that a former president engaged in an insurrection against the US government – an unheard of state of affairs at any other moment in history. The controversy, however, also raises new questions over whether efforts to make Trump pay for January 6 are justified on the grounds of protecting America’s democracy from a uniquely pernicious challenge, [or if they] could backfire politically against President Joe Biden and Democrats next fall.” https://edition.cnn.com/2023/12/29/politics/trump-maine-ballot-2024-election/index.html
Russia carries out its ‘biggest air attack on Ukraine’ of the war, no military targets were reported to have been hit, 12 civilians killed. “Russia has launched the biggest air attack on Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the Ukrainian military told CNN, with an unprecedented number of drones and missiles fired at targets across the country, killing at least 12 people and injuring dozens more. ….Russia used 158 drones and missiles, including hypersonic Kinzhal missiles, cruise missiles and Shahed drones, to strike targets in Kyiv, the east, south and west of the country, Ukraine’s air force said.” https://edition.cnn.com/2023/12/29/europe/ukraine-russia-airstrikes-intl-hnk/index.html Targets reportedly included a warehouse, a metro station, a residential building, a hospital and a school building. They wasted all those missiles and drones on non-military targets, but despite their attempt to terror bomb random civilians, they only managed to kill 12! They obviously need some help from Israel. (sarcasm)
NYPD deploying thousands of officers to protect New Year’s Eve crowds from protesters. “‘They’re going to be on alert for something different than what we’ve had in the past, but they are mostly concerned [about] the people who go out [to] enjoy their night, and they want to keep the protests and the freedom of speech from interfering with other people’s freedom and enjoying themselves,’ [former deputy police commissioner Richard Esposito told CBS New York]. ….’If you’re going to come and try to disrupt the event, you’re probably not gonna be successful, and if you are, you’re going to be arrested,’ Times Square Alliance president Tom Harris said. ‘So stay home and protest someplace else.'” https://nypost.com/2023/12/27/metro/nypd-bracing-for-pro-palestinian-protest-at-nye-ball-drop/ Times Square is apparently not a ‘free speech zone’. I assume this means the police will be monitoring people’s signs and arresting those who they feel are ‘off message’.
Surveillance video shows Oxford, OH police officer repeatedly punching restrained college student. “A video circulating on TikTok shows an Oxford police officer striking Devin Johnson, who is a Miami University student, who was being held by Brick Street Bar staff while the officer tried to make an arrest around 1:30 a.m. Nov. 18. ….The department said when they originally reviewed the November incident, they didn’t have that camera angle. They now have opened a use of force investigation, and officer Mathew Blauvelt has been placed on administrative leave. ….The video does not show what led to the incident, but according to court documents, police say Johnson ‘entered Brick Street through a side access against the wishes of bar staff’ and then was confronted by the bar manager. Johnson then allegedly ‘refused to leave’ and ‘assaulted bar staff’. Police said it then led to a fight outside the bar with bar staff, which is where the TikTok video begins. Brick Street declined to comment on the matter. After he was arrested, Johnson was charged with assault, resisting arrest, criminal trespassing and underage possession of alcohol. Johnson is scheduled to be in court on Jan. 25. Johnson’s lawyer [has] not responded to a request for comment.” https://www.journal-news.com/crime/oxford-police-investigate-after-video-shows-officer-strike-miami-football-player-during-arrest/GRSSDGLRCVBJVEREGGCU3YSPCQ/ Video of the arrest can be seen here: https://www.tiktok.com/@bbbunhead/video/7315917519573765418
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. campaign submits enough signatures to appear on Utah’s presidential ballot. “Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has met the signature requirement to qualify to be on Utah’s 2024 general election presidential ballot, the Salt Lake County clerk’s office confirmed to CBS News Thursday, pushing the independent candidate one step closer to getting on the ballot in that state. ….Once Kennedy officially files, Utah would mark the first state’s ballot for which he has qualified. …. A recent Quinnipiac nationwide poll showed that in a three-way race between Kennedy, [President Joe] Biden and former President Donald Trump, Biden receives 38% of support, Trump receives 36%, and Kennedy gets 22%.” https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rfk-jr-meets-utah-signature-threshold-to-qualify-for-presidential-election-ballot/
Towns in Pennsylvania and Delaware break rainfall records. “The heavy rain overnight targeted Philadelphia, New York City and New Haven, Connecticut. ….Several cities in the mid-Atlantic saw daily records on Wednesday, including Allentown, Pennsylvania, which received about 2.05 inches of rain. That topped the previous record of 1.55 inches, which was set in 1930. ….Mount Pocono’s rainfall hit 1.49 inches, beating the 1.39-inch record set in 2011. And Reading logged 1.4 inches, matching the record from 1930. Wilmington, Delaware, also recorded a new daily rainfall record at 1.84 inches, besting a record of 1.76 inches in a single day in 1930.” https://abcnews.go.com/US/rain-soaks-northeast-after-downpours-set-records-mid/story?id=105961079
Gaza war protesters block sites around New York City. “Thousands of anti-Israel protesters swarmed Manhattan Thursday — with one group shutting down the front entrance to the World Trade Center’s Oculus and another organizing a funeral procession for children who were killed in Gaza. ….the ‘Flood NYC for Palestine’ emergency march… overwhelmed several landmark lower Manhattan locations, including City Hall, Zuccotti Park (of Occupy Wall Street movement fame) and the Bank of New York Mellon headquarters. ….The persistent demand for a ceasefire and an end to US military aid to Israel came just days after the Jewish state escalated its ground invasion of Gaza.” https://nypost.com/2023/12/28/metro/thousands-of-pro-palestinian-protesters-swarm-manhattan-to-call-for-ceasefire/
Air Force sergeant arrested after allegedly threatening to shoot teen during road rage incident. “A driver was arrested after Surprise police say a road rage incident was caught on camera. 40-year-old Charles Bass was taken into custody after pointing a gun twice at a teen driver earlier this month. ….Court documents say Bass is a First Sergeant with the Air Force. ….Bass was booked on multiple charges including aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.” https://www.abc15.com/news/crime/surprise-driver-arrested-after-road-rage-altercation-caught-on-camera “Charles Bass, 40, was arrested after allegedly being seen in shocking footage filmed by Shi’Anna Bamba, 19, berating the young woman for her driving before asking: ‘Do you want to f****** die?'” https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12908571/US-Air-Force-sergeant-charles-bass-bamba-road-rage.html
Russian woman who posted anti-war comments on social media being held in psychiatric hospital. “[Viktoria] Petrova was arrested at her home in St. Petersburg on May 6, 2022. Agents from the Interior Ministry’s Anti-Extremism Center and an organized-crime unit searched her apartment and confiscated her telephone, her computer, and several anti-war posters. Law enforcement had been investigating her social media posts since at least March 25, [attorney Anastasia] Pilipenko said. Although she had never been politically active before and her social media account — with about 300 readers — generally featured photos from the gym and portraits of her cat, Petrova told police at her initial questioning that she had every intention of continuing to write against the war. ….After she had been held for nearly a year without trial, a cellmate filed a complaint against Petrova alleging that she ‘continued to spread anti-war propaganda’ in jail. As a result, a judge sent her for a psychiatric examination during which doctors determined she ‘could not and cannot understand her actions or control them’. It was tantamount to a diagnosis of mental incompetence. Before her arrest, Petrova had never sought or received psychological care. ….On October 24, the court ordered her confined to the Skvortsov-Stepanov Psychiatric Hospital. ….When Petrova refused to shower in front of staff members, she was threatened with corporal punishment. At times, she was bound to her bed and forcibly injected with unknown substances that left her unable to speak for days.” https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-woman-anti-war-psychiatric-petrova-ukraine/32743777.html Russian poets sentenced to years in prison for reading anti-government poems at protest. “Artyom Kamardin, 33, received a seven-year sentence for reciting a poem, and Yegor Shtovba, 23, was sentenced to five and a half years for attending the protest. The two were seen behind a glass partition in a heavily guarded courtroom. ….On the eve of his arrest in September 2022, [Kamardin] had recited his poem ‘Kill me, militia man!’ on a Moscow square where dissidents have been gathering since the Soviet era. Kamardin also shouted offensive slogans against the imperial ‘New Russia’ project aiming to annex the south of Ukraine. ….In his last statement in court, published by independent site Mediazona, [Shtovba] asked the judge: ‘What have I done that’s illegal? Read poetry?’ ….Nikolai Dayneko, who was arrested at the same time, was sentenced to four years in prison last May after entering a pre-trial agreement, according to OVD-info.” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/28/moscow-court-hands-long-jail-terms-to-two-men-for-reciting-poetry
Unions in Argentina protest against decree abolishing labor protections. “Thousands of union members and activists took to the streets of Argentina’s capital Wednesday to protest a decree from President Javier Milei that imposes sweeping deregulation and austerity measures meant to revive the country’s struggling economy. Unions had asked a court for a prior injunction to block measures lifting some labor protections, but a judge rejected the appeal, noting the decree had not yet entered into effect. It does so on Friday. ….The protest went off peacefully, except for a confrontation between a small group of protesters and police. Journalists were caught up in the scuffle as police broke up the group of protesters, and some were beaten by police. ….The General Labor Confederation read a statement at the march on Wednesday saying Milei’s decree ‘introduces a ferocious, regressive labor reform whose only purpose is to hamstring union activity, punish workers and benefit business interests.'” https://apnews.com/article/argentina-milei-protests-economy-austerity-9f8a41c0149b71d2480ae380191e52ec
Israeli draftee who refused to join army sentenced to 30 days in prison. “Tal Mitnick, an 18-year-old Israeli who is refusing to serve in the IDF, began an initial 30-day sentence in military prison Tuesday — the first known case of a conscientious objector since the Hamas assault on Israel on October 7. ….In a lengthy statement circulated on social media, Mitnick said that ‘there is no military solution’ to the ongoing conflict with the Palestinians. ‘Even with all the violence in the world, we could not erase the Palestinian people or their connection to this land, just as the Jewish people or our connection to that same land cannot be erased. Violence cannot solve the situation — neither by Hamas, nor by Israel,’ he added. ‘There is no military solution to a political problem. Therefore, I refuse to enlist in an army that believes that the real problem can be ignored, under a government that only continues the bereavement and pain.’ ….Mitnick called the Israeli response ‘a revenge campaign’ against not just Hamas, but all Palestinians, including ‘indiscriminate bombings of residential neighborhoods and refugee camps in Gaza, full military and political support for settler violence in the West Bank and political persecution on an unprecedented scale inside Israel.'” https://www.timesofisrael.com/teen-sent-to-military-prison-over-draft-refusal-cited-revenge-campaign-in-gaza/
Google settles lawsuit over tracking ‘incognito’ Chrome users. “Now, after a failed attempt to get it dismissed, the company has agreed to settle the complaint that originally sought $5 billion in damages. According to Reuters and The Washington Post, neither side has made the details of the settlement public, but they’ve already agreed to the terms that they’re presenting to the court for approval in February. When the plaintiffs filed the lawsuit, they said Google used tools like its Analytics product, apps and browser plug-ins to monitor users. They reasoned that by tracking someone on Incognito, the company was falsely making people believe that they could control the information that they were willing to share with it. At the time, a Google spokesperson said that while Incognito mode doesn’t save a user’s activity on their device, websites could still collect their information during the session. The lawsuit’s plaintiffs presented internal emails that allegedly showed conversations between Google execs proving that the company monitored Incognito browser usage to sell ads and track web traffic.” https://www.engadget.com/google-agrees-to-settle-5-billion-lawsuit-accusing-it-of-tracking-incognito-users-042435935.html
Judge upholds California’s content moderation disclosure law. “X sued California in September to undo the state’s content moderation law, saying it violated free speech rights under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment and California’s state constitution. Today, U.S. District Judge William Shubb dismissed the social media company’s request in an eight-page decision. The law requires large social media companies to issue semiannual reports that describe their content moderation practices. They must also provide data on the number of objectionable posts and how they were addressed. ‘While the reporting requirement does appear to place a substantial compliance burden on social medial companies, it does not appear that the requirement is unjustified or unduly burdensome within the context of First Amendment law,’ Shubb wrote.” https://deadline.com/2023/12/elon-musk-x-loses-bid-change-california-content-moderation-law-1235683053/ I think the point he’s making is that the law doesn’t tell social media companies what to prohibit, or how to moderate their users’ posts, only to report their moderation methods and the number of posts that were moderated. That’s my guess. This information would actually be quite useful to the public. Some people want strict moderation, while others hate it, so they could choose their social media sites accordingly.
Russian troops accused of killing surrendering Ukrainian soldiers. “Footage shared on social media of the alleged incident appears to show three unarmed figures collapsing from a stationary position after being fired upon. Reuters could not independently verify the video. The Airborne Assault Troops said unidentified enemy personnel, ‘acting intentionally, in violation of the laws and customs of war’, had deliberately killed the three men, whom it described as captured members of its 82nd Airborne Assault Brigade.” https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2023-12-28/ukraine-gives-more-details-of-latest-alleged-killing-of-pows
World population to hit 8 billion by New Year’s Day. “The world population grew by 75 million people over the past year and on New Year’s Day it will stand at more than 8 billion people, according to figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Thursday. The worldwide growth rate in the past year was just under 1%. ….The growth rate for the United States in the past year was 0.53%, about half the worldwide figure.” https://www.courthousenews.com/world-population-up-75-million-this-year-topping-8-billion-by-jan-1/
Progressive News Service 