Project 2025 director leaves Heritage Foundation

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NEW YORK — The director of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 vision for a complete overhaul of the federal government has stepped down, the conservative think tank confirmed Tuesday. 

Paul Dans’ exit comes after the project “completed exactly what it set out to do: bringing together over 110 leading conservative organizations to create a unified conservative vision, motivated to devolve power from the unelected administrative state, and returning it to the people,” Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts said in a statement. Roberts said the group is sticking to its original timeline. 

The news comes after Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has increasingly disavowed Project 2025 amid escalating attacks by Democrats, prompting speculation that Trump’s campaign forced the exit. 

Democrats for the past several months have made Project 2025 a key election-year cudgel, pointing to the ultraconservative policy blueprint as a glimpse into how extreme another Trump administration could be. 

The nearly 1,000-page handbook lays out sweeping changes in the federal government, including altering personnel rules to ensure government workers are more loyal to the president. 

Yet Trump has repeatedly disavowed the document, saying on social media he hasn’t read it and doesn’t know anything about it. At a rally in Michigan earlier this month, he said Project 2025 was written by people on the “severe right” and some of the things in it are “seriously extreme.” 

“President Trump’s campaign has been very clear for over a year that Project 2025 had nothing to do with the campaign, did not speak for the campaign, and should not be associated with the campaign or the President in any way,” Trump campaign advisers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita said in a statement. “Reports of Project 2025’s demise would be greatly welcomed and should serve as notice to anyone or any group trying to misrepresent their influence with President Trump and his campaign — it will not end well for you.” 

Trump campaign representatives did not respond to messages inquiring about whether the campaign asked or pushed for Dans to step down from the project. The Heritage Foundation said Dans left voluntarily, and it was not under pressure from the Trump campaign. Dans didn’t immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. 

But it was almost certain that Trump’s campaign forced the shakeup, said one former Heritage aide granted anonymity to discuss the situation. 

LaCivita had been aggressively monitoring the situation, the person said. It was clear that Project 2025 was becoming a liability for Trump and the party. 

For months Trump’s campaign had warned outside groups, and Heritage in particular, that they did not speak for the former president, even though the Project 2025 team was staffed with his former White House aides and advisers. 

In an interview from the Republican convention first published by Politico, LaCivita said Project 2025 was a problem because “the issues that are going to win us this campaign are not the issues that they want to talk about.” 

Many Trump allies and former top aides contributed to the project, including Dans, who was a personnel official for the Trump administration. Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign and top Democrats have repeatedly tied Trump to Project 2025 as they argue against a second term for the former president. 

The Harris campaign said Project 2025 remains linked to Trump’s agenda. 

“Hiding the 920-page blueprint from the American people doesn’t make it less real — in fact, it should make voters more concerned about what else Trump and his allies are hiding,” said Harris for President Campaign Manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez. 

Project 2025’s website will remain live, and the group will continue vetting resumes for its nearly 20,000-person database of potential government officials ready to execute the group’s vision for government, the Heritage Foundation said Tuesday. The group said Roberts will now run Project 2025 operations.
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Failures leading up to attempted Trump assassination indefensible, says acting Secret Service director

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Washington — The acting director of the U.S. agency charged with protecting high-profile officials called the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump earlier this month a “failure on multiple levels,” further describing it as shameful.

Ronald Rowe testified before U.S. lawmakers Tuesday, promising immediate changes to fix breakdowns in communications and coverage that allowed a 20-year-old shooter to climb to the roof of a nearby building and fire eight shots during the July 13 rally in western Pennsylvania, killing a rally goer and wounding Trump and two others.

“What I saw made me ashamed,” he told members of the Senate Homeland Security and Judiciary committees. “As a career law enforcement officer and a 25-year veteran with the Secret Service, I cannot defend why that roof was not better secured.”

Rowe, who took charge of the Secret Service following last week’s resignation of former director Kimberly Cheatle, said the agency’s own investigation indicates responsibility for securing the section of roof used by the shooter had been assigned to local sniper teams.

Those teams should have had a clear view of the shooter as he climbed into place, he said.

“We were told that building was going to be covered,” Rowe told lawmakers. “I could not, and I will not, and I cannot understand why there was not better coverage or at least somebody looking at that roof line when that’s where they were posted.”

Rowe also admitted to lawmakers that even though local law enforcement had identified the shooter as a suspicious person more than an hour before the rally, that information never got to the Secret Service agents protecting the former president.

“It appears that that information was stuck or siloed in that state and local channel,” he said. 

“It is troubling,” Rowe added. “We didn’t know that there was this incident going on. … Nothing about a man on the roof. Nothing about a man with a gun.”

Cheatle resigned a day after she was berated by a congressional committee for failing to prevent the attempt on Trump’s life.

Cheatle testified that the Secret Service had been told about a suspicious person up to five times prior to the shooting.

Meanwhile, the FBI’s ongoing investigation into the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, has yet to determine why he tried to kill the former president.

FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate told lawmakers Tuesday that the bureau has now conducted more than 460 interviews but has so far come up empty.

“The investigation has not identified a motive, nor any coconspirators or others with advance knowledge,” Abbate said, adding, “absolutely nothing has been ruled out.”

But the deputy FBI director said a newly discovered social media account used in 2019-2020 may shed some new light on the shooter’s motivation.

“There were over 700 comments posted from this account,” he told lawmakers. “Some of these comments, if ultimately attributable to the shooter, appear to reflect antisemitic and anti-immigration themes to espouse political violence and are described as extreme in nature.”

“While the investigative team is still working to verify this account to determine if it did in fact belong to the shooter, we believe it important to share it … particularly given the general absence of other information to date from social media and other sources of information that reflect on the shooter’s potential motive and mindset.”

FBI officials, who briefed reporters on Monday, described Crooks as an intelligent loner and said it appears he “made significant efforts to conceal his activities,” which may have begun more than a year ago.

Investigators said that is when he began using encrypted email accounts and aliases to make online, gun-related purchases, followed by a series of online purchases of chemicals to make the three explosive devices found in his car and bedroom.

Crooks also began to do internet searches on mass shootings, power plants, a variety of elected officials and attempted assassinations.

They also noted a lack of communication between the shooter and others, in general.

“We have identified only a couple people who we would call his friends, and most of those contacts were, in fact, dated,” said FBI Special Agent Kevin Rojek.

Rojek added that even the shooter’s accounts on gaming platforms showed “very little interaction,” describing it as outside the norm.
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China’s top leaders vow to support consumers and improve confidence in its slowing economy 

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BANGKOK — China’s powerful Politburo has endorsed the ruling Communist Party’s long-term strategy for growing the economy by encouraging more consumer spending and weeding out unproductive companies to promote “survival of the fittest.”

A statement issued after the meeting of the 24 highest leaders of the party warned that coming months would be tough, perhaps alluding to mounting global uncertainties ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November.

“There are still many risks and hidden dangers in key areas,” it said, adding that the tasks for reform and stability in the second half of the year were “very heavy.”

The Politburo promised unspecified measures to restore confidence in financial markets and boost government spending, echoing priorities laid out by a wider meeting of senior party members earlier in July. After that gathering, China’s central bank reduced several key interest rates and the government doubled subsidies for electric vehicles bought to replace older cars as part of the effort to spur growth.

The Politburo’s calls to look after low- and middle-income groups reflect pledges to build a stronger social safety net to enable families to spend more instead of socking money away to provide for health care, education and elder care. But it provided no specifics on how it will do that.

“This sounds promising on paper. But the lack of any specifics means it is unclear what it will entail in practice,” Julian Evans-Pritchard of Capital Economics said in a commentary.

The party’s plans for how to improve China’s fiscal policies at a time of burgeoning local government debt were “short on new ideas,” he said.

Instead, the emphasis is on moving faster to implement policies such as the government’s campaign to convince families to trade in old cars and appliances and redecorate their homes that includes tax incentives and subsidies for purchases that align with improved efficiency and reducing use of polluting fossil fuels.

China’s economy grew at a 4.7% annual rate in the last quarter after expanding 5.3% in the first three months of the year. Some economists say the official data overstate the rate of growth, masking long-term weaknesses that require broad reforms to rebalance the economy away from a heavy reliance on construction and export manufacturing.

Under leader Xi Jinping, China has prioritized developing industries using advanced technologies such as electric vehicles and renewable energy, a strategy that has made the country a leader in some areas but also led to oversupplies that are now squeezing some manufacturers, such as makers of solar panels.

The Politburo’s statement vowed support for “gazelle enterprises and unicorn enterprises,” referring to new, fast-growing companies and high-tech start-ups. It warned against “vicious competition” but also said China should improve mechanisms to ensure “survival of the fittest” and eliminate “backward and inefficient production capacity.”

The party has promised to help resolve a crisis in the property sector, in part by encouraging purchases of apartments to provide affordable housing and to adapt monetary policy to help spur spending and investment.

But the document issued Tuesday also highlighted longstanding concerns. The countryside and farmers need more support to “ensure that the rural population does not return to poverty on a large scale,” it said.

It also condemned what analysts have said is widespread resistance to fresh initiatives, saying that “formalism and bureaucracy are stubborn diseases and must be corrected” and warning that economic disputes should not be resolved by “administrative and criminal means.”

Chinese markets have not shown much enthusiasm for the policies outlined in recent weeks.

On Tuesday, the Hong Kong benchmark Hang Seng index sank 1.4%, while the Shanghai Composite index lost 0.4%. The Hang Seng has fallen 4.3% in the past three months while Shanghai’s index is down 7.3%.
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Суд РФ у Ростові-на-Дону засудив українку до 7 років ув’язнення у справі про теракт

SocNet Новини, Політика, Суспільство 0 Comment

За версією звинувачення, 2022 року Куліш нібито погодилася на пропозицію неназваної особи зірвати фіктивний референдум на окупованому Запоріжжі
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UCLA ordered by judge to craft plan in support of Jewish students

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LOS ANGELES — A federal judge ordered Monday that the University of California, Los Angeles, craft a plan to protect Jewish students, months after pro-Palestinian protests broke out on campus.

Three Jewish students sued the university in June, alleging that they experienced discrimination on campus amid demonstrations against the Israel-Hamas war. Yitzchok Frankel, a UCLA law student who is Jewish, said in the lawsuit that he declined an invitation from the director of student life to help host a lunch gathering because he did not feel safe participating.

“Under ordinary circumstances, I would have leapt at the chance to participate in this event,” Frankel said. “My Jewish identity and religion are integral to who I am, and I believe it is important to mentor incoming students and encourage them to be proud of their Judaism, too.”

But Frankel argued UCLA was failing to foster a safe environment for Jewish students on campus.

UCLA spokesperson Mary Osako said the school is “committed to maintaining a safe and inclusive campus, holding those who engaged in violence accountable, and combatting antisemitism in all forms.”

“We have applied lessons learned from this spring’s protests and continue to work to foster a campus culture where everyone feels welcome and free from intimidation, discrimination and harassment,” Osako said in a statement.

The University was ordered to craft a proposed plan by next month.

The demonstrations at UCLA became part of a movement at campuses across the country against the Israel-Hamas war. At UCLA, law enforcement ordered in May that over a thousand protesters break up their encampment as tensions rose on campus. Counter-demonstrators had attacked the encampment overnight, and at least 15 protesters suffered injuries. In June, dozens of protesters on campus were arrested after they tried to set up a new encampment.
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