Trial of nearly 200 people opens after Turkey protests – BBC

  1. Trial of nearly 200 people opens after Turkey protests  BBC
  2. Turkey’s opposition works to seize momentum after leader’s arrest  The Washington Post
  3. Turkey begins mass trials following protests over Istanbul mayor’s detention  CNN
  4. The Turkish protests, a work of art  Le Monde.fr
  5. Turkey : A Crisis of Legitimacy and Massive Social Mobilization in a Regional Power  Institut Montaigne
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All captives will be released from Gaza if Israel agrees to end war, Hamas says – Middle East Eye

  1. All captives will be released from Gaza if Israel agrees to end war, Hamas says  Middle East Eye
  2. Hamas says it is ready to release all remaining hostages for an end to Gaza war  Yahoo
  3. Hamas rejects ceasefire offer as far-right Israeli lawmakers call for escalation in Gaza  CNN
  4. Germany halts sale of fighter jets to Turkey after Istanbul mayor jailed - report  The Jerusalem Post
  5. Hamas rejects Israel’s ceasefire offer  Vatican News
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What a boob: Texas school district bans Virginia state flag and seal over naked breast

Students in Lamar can no longer learn about the state of Virginia on their online research database due to the ban

Virginia’s state flag and seal, depicting the Roman goddess Virtus standing over a slain tyrant, her drooping toga exposing her left breast, has been banned from younger students in a Texas school district.

The district, Lamar consolidated independent school district, near Houston, took action against the image late last year when it removed a section about Virginia from its online learning platform used by third through fifth graders, typically encompassing ages eight to 11, sparking a row, Axios reported on Thursday.

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Trump ousts IRS chief days after appointment amid Musk-Bessent feud

Treasury secretary Scott Bessent reportedly complained that Gary Shapley had been chosen without his knowledge

Donald Trump is replacing the acting commissioner of the US Internal Revenue Service after treasury secretary Scott Bessent reportedly complained to the president that the agency head had been appointed without his knowledge and under the instruction of Doge leader Elon Musk.

According to a report from the New York Times published on Friday, Bessent believed that the Doge head “had done an end-run around him” to get Gary Shapley installed as the interim head of the IRS, despite the fact that the IRS reports to Bessent. The report cited five anonymous sources with knowledge of the situation.

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Trump’s ‘lone ranger’: How Steve Witkoff became the de facto point man on America’s foreign policy challenges – CNN

  1. Trump’s ‘lone ranger’: How Steve Witkoff became the de facto point man on America’s foreign policy challenges  CNN
  2. Team Trump is slouching toward Armageddon  The Hill
  3. Steve Witkoff is embarrassingly out of his depth dealing with Putin  The Telegraph
  4. Trump Friend and ‘Envoy for Everything’ Steve Witkoff Embarks on High-Wire Diplomacy  WSJ
  5. Top Trump aides rush to defend Witkoff after CNN profile on ‘lone ranger’ Mideast envoy  The Times of Israel
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Crews restore power to nearly all after island-wide blackout hit Puerto Rico – AP News

  1. Crews restore power to nearly all after island-wide blackout hit Puerto Rico  AP News
  2. Puerto Rico faced a massive power outage. Why does this keep happening?  USA Today
  3. A look at why an island-wide blackout hit Puerto Rico and what caused it  AP News
  4. Most Power Is Restored in Puerto Rico After Islandwide Blackout  The New York Times
  5. Puerto Rico goes completely dark after another islandwide power outage  NBC News
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Trump team reveals lack of expertise – and patience – as it threatens to abandon Ukraine peace talks

Trump said he could stop war in 24 hours, but team appears daunted by negotiation with ‘a lot of detail attached to it’

One key to a successful negotiation is always being willing to walk away from the table. But it isn’t clear whether the Trump administration has threatened to give up on a Russia-Ukraine peace deal as a negotiating tactic or simply because it lacks the concentration for a complicated negotiation – a shortcoming that has dogged the administration’s foreign policy through its first three months in office.

Standing on a tarmac in Paris, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, issued a threat that the US could simply “move on” from mediating the biggest military conflict in Europe since the second world war. That would be the latest about-face for an administration that has already taken a back seat on negotiating a peace in Gaza and retreated on implementing worldwide tariffs that shook financial markets around the globe earlier this month.

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