pelespirit

Ushakov reiterated Russia's demands: Ukraine must recognize Russia's annexation of Crimea and four southeastern regions, withdraw troops from lands claimed by Russia and pledge never to join NATO. He said he "hopes [the United States] knows our position and wants to believe that they will take it into account as we work together going forward."

Moscow also seeks limits on Ukraine's military, protections for Russian speakers and elections to replace Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has slashed two programs that provided more than $1 billion for schools and food banks to purchase food from local farms and ranchers. About $660m of those funds were contained in the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program, which provided funds to schools and child care facilities but is now being eliminated. The rest were part of the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program, which provided funds to local food banks and other organizations. The USDA unfroze funds for existing agreements, but a second round of funding in fiscal year 2025 has been nixed.

Rollins responded with a rambling, and transphobic, explanation in which she called the programs “nonessential” and equated them to other contracts she said the USDA canceled that supported what she called “food justice for trans people in New York and San Francisco.” In essence, the secretary portrayed these vital programs, which help make sure kids and poor people don’t starve, as forms of Biden administration largesse, baselessly claiming they are evidence of the previous administration trying to “push ... taxpayer dollars out that is not reaching its intended target.”

But much like Elon Musk, who stood earlier this year and admitted his so-called Department of Government Efficiency would make "mistakes" that he vowed to correct "quickly," Rollins seemed to leave room for a reversal. “As we have always said, if we are making mistakes, we will own those mistakes and we will reconfigure,” she said. “But right now, from what we are viewing, that program was nonessential, that it was a new program, and that it was an effort by the left to continue spending taxpayer dollars that were not necessary.”

First, Department of Justice lawyers requested a two-month extension on Monday in a lawsuit seeking to reimpose outdated restrictions on the abortion pill mifepristone — changes that would limit access nationwide by ending telemedicine prescriptions. There should be no need for an extension. It’s a case that the Biden DOJ asked a federal judge to dismiss in January after the Supreme Court decided last term that the original plaintiffs weren’t injured by the Food and Drug Administration’s actions on mifepristone and didn’t have legal standing to sue.

Next, the administration asked on Tuesday to participate in Supreme Court arguments alongside South Carolina in a case about whether states can exclude Planned Parenthood from their Medicaid programs, even for non-abortion services. South Carolina seeks to disqualify any abortion provider from Medicaid because it claims that “payment of taxpayer funds to abortion clinics, for any purpose, results in the subsidy of abortion.” Arguments are on April 2. If the Supreme Court sides with the state, it would mean people with Medicaid can’t use their insurance at Planned Parenthood or other abortion providers, which would decimate people’s access to affordable birth control, cancer screenings, STI testing and more.

Finally, the administration dismissed a lawsuit on Wednesday that Biden’s DOJ had filed against Idaho because its abortion ban violates a federal law regarding care in emergency rooms. The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) requires any hospital that receives federal funds, which is most of them, to provide stabilizing care to patients. For pregnant women facing complications like their water breaking too early, that care can include abortion. But Idaho’s abortion ban prohibits terminating a pregnancy unless someone’s life is at risk — threats to their health aren’t enough.

“This reporting system will provide a direct channel for officers and employees to report any failure by their agency to comply with Florida’s immigration enforcement policies,” Keefe said. “Let there be no misunderstanding — Florida law will be enforced.”

The Freedom Cities Coalition is a project of NeWay Capital, a company that has been centrally involved in the development of Prospera, a private, “free market,” crypto-friendly enclave in Honduras. Prospera was made possible by a special regulatory setup, dubbed a special economic zone (or ZEDE), that was established in the country in 2013 in the wake of a U.S.-backed coup. ZEDEs allow for private actors to essentially move into geographically partitioned areas and write their own regulatory and judicial rules.

Prospera is also part of something called the “Network State,” an anarcho-capitalist ideological movement, backed by tech-billionaires, that seeks to create privately run cities with native cryptocurrencies.

Where will America’s new “Freedom Cities” be built? It seems quite possible that the Network Staters want to build them in our national parks. On its website, the Freedom City Coalition notes that 28 percent of U.S. land is “federally owned and ready for innovative development.” It doesn’t specify what kind of federal land is “ready” for this “innovation,” but most of the government land that isn’t used for farming and energy development is used for wildlife conservation.

The U.S. General Services Administration, which orders many of the vehicles and owns EV chargers used by other federal agencies, has "temporarily suspended" orders of zero-emission vehicles, stopped the installation of new EV charging stations, and ordered some existing stations to be shut down, according to internal memos obtained by NPR and Colorado Public Radio.

"All existing charging stations that are deemed not to be mission-critical should be disconnected from the network and turned off," reads a March 3 memo on EV chargers signed by Michael Peters, the new commissioner of the GSA's Public Buildings Service, appointed by President Trump.

The National Weather Service confirms that an EF-2 tornado impacted portions of Florida on 10 March. The EF-2 tornado winds reached up to 115mph (185km/h) with the path of the tornado running about 4 miles (6.4km) in length.

The tornado destroyed homes cutting off power for 500 residents. Despite the damage of the tornado, no injuries were reported.

One woman who was in her vehicle at the time of the tornado filmed as debris hit her car from the fast winds.

1) The Self Fawning Exhibitionist Phase

Does overconfident, stupid, shit and no one tells you. Also, you will never be the same if you watch that video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spn0MJZr-QQ

2) The Fart on live TV Phase

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PP-iVIbUXbY

3) The Hair Dye Phase

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbBSUrAwfRM

4) The Disbarrment Phase

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0I0ZzlIH5U

5) The Trump Dismisses You Phase

https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/16/politics/giuliani-trump-legal-bills/index.html

But the former president, who is notoriously strict about dipping into his own coffers, didn’t seem very interested. After Costello made his pitch, Trump verbally agreed to help with some of Giuliani’s legal bills without committing to any specific amount or timeline.

Trump also agreed to stop by two fundraisers for Giuliani, a separate source said.

Another source told CNN that Trump only agreed to cover a small fee from a data vendor hosting Giuliani’s records. And months later, Trump’s Save America PAC paid $340,000 to that vendor, Trustpoint, federal campaign filings show. CNN has now confirmed the payment was intended to settle Giuliani’s outstanding bill with the company.

Trump on Jan. 20 issued an executive order directing a freeze of foreign assistance funding and a review of all U.S. aid and development work abroad. Trump charged that much of foreign assistance was wasteful and advanced a liberal agenda.

Rubio’s social media post Monday said that review was now “officially ending,” with some 5,200 of USAID’s 6,200 programs eliminated. Those programs “spent tens of billions of dollars in ways that did not serve, (and in some cases even harmed), the core national interests of the United States,” Rubio wrote.

He said about 1,000 remaining contracts would now be administered by the State Department.

Democratic lawmakers and others call the shutdown of congressionally funded programs illegal, saying such a move requires Congress’ approval.

The $300 million trial between Dakota Access Pipeline developer and Greenpeace reached the halfway mark on Monday as the company wrapped up its side of the case.

Energy Transfer claims Greenpeace aided and abetted criminal behavior by protesters during demonstrations against the pipeline in 2016 and 2017, and deliberately defamed the company to pressure banks to pull their financing for the project.

Greenpeace denies all of Energy Transfer’s claims and has called the lawsuit a veiled effort to chill environmental advocacy.

In his order, Judge Christopher Cooper of U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia wrote that the Department of Government Efficiency, led by Musk, had all the hallmarks of an agency that would typically be subject to laws like the Freedom of Information Act. He said Musk’s team appeared to be exercising “substantial authority over vast swaths of the federal government,” much greater than other federal agencies that are subject to the law.

Cooper required Musk’s team and the Office of Management and Budget to turn over email correspondence between their offices that the group suing had requested, and to “begin producing documents on a rolling basis as soon as practicable.”

Donald Trump has ordered an increase in tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum and threatened to impose more levies, after Ontario yesterday slapped a 25% surcharge on electricity exports to three US states.

In a lengthy post on Truth Social, Trump said he would “permanently shut down the automobile manufacturing business in Canada” if the country did not end unspecified tariffs it had placed on US goods:

Based on Ontario, Canada, placing a 25% Tariff on “Electricity” coming into the United States, I have instructed my Secretary of Commerce to ad an ADDITIONAL 25% Tariff, to 50%, on all STEEL and ALUMINUM COMING INTO THE UNITED STATES FROM CANADA, ONE OF THE HIGHEST TARIFFING NATIONS ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD. This will go into effect TOMORROW MORNING, March 12th. Also, Canada must immediately drop their Anti-American Farmer Tariff of 250% to 390% on various U.S. dairy products, which has long been considered outrageous. I will shortly be declaring a National Emergency on Electricity within the threatened area. This will allow the U.S to quickly do what has to be done to alleviate this abusive threat from Canada. If other egregious, long time Tariffs are not likewise dropped by Canada, I will substantially increase, on April 2nd, the Tariffs on Cars coming into the U.S. which will, essentially, permanently shut down the automobile manufacturing business in Canada. Those cars can easily be made in the USA!

Ontario’s addition of a 25% electricity surcharge affects New York, Minnesota and Michigan, which receive electricity from the province. Here’s more about that: