Interest-group Spending, In Shadows, Skyrockets

Thailand’s Constitutional Court accepted a petition by a group of senators seeking to remove Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin on ethical grounds but allowed the premier to perform his duties until it ruled on the case. The court will scrutinize the plea by 40 senators that Srettha’s decision to appoint Pichit Chuenban as a cabinet minister last month had constituted a serious violation of ethical standards under the constitution, the court said in a statement on Thursday. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Read More: The Thai Activist-Turned-Politician Who’s Bringing the Protest to Parliament The court voted six to three to accept the petition for consideration whether Srettha should be removed from duties, while voting five to four against suspending his duties in the meantime.

China, Japan and South Korea are set to hold their first summit in more than four years, with a gathering in Seoul next week for talks that offer the neighbors a chance to manage their relations amid heightened tensions between Washington and Beijing. Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol will attend the summit on Sunday and Monday, an official for Yoon’s office said Thursday, according to Yonhap News.

Max the Cat has become a treasured member of the Vermont State University’s Castleton campus. He is so beloved they are giving him an honorary VTSU degree. A Vermont university has bestowed the honorary degree of “doctor of litter-ature” on Max the cat, a beloved member of its community, ahead of students’ graduation on Saturday. Vermont State University’s Castleton campus is honoring the feline not for his mousing or napping, but for his friendliness. [] He’s been socializing on campus for about four years, and students get excited when they see him.

Just about the time you thought the Alito story couldn't get worse, it did. The New York Times reports that there was not just the upside down American flag insurrectionist message flying high and proud above Alito's home, but he also flew the Appeal to Heaven flag over his beach house last summer. This time, it was the “Appeal to Heaven” flag, which, like the inverted U.

Russian propagandist Vladimir Solovyov played the widely-mocked clip from French channel 24 and then went into a rant on how Israel uses political assassination to further their goals. Source: Daily Beast Russian propagandist Vladimir Solovyov says the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi should really be viewed as a potential “political murder”—because have you seen the reports that the pilot was a Mossad agent named “Eli Copter?” In an episode of his show on Rossiya 1 late Monday, Solovyov raged against those who celebrated the death of Ebrahim Raisi and took on a stern tone as he fell for a viral internet meme that exploded in the wake of the Iranian leader’s death. Citing “a French channel,” Solovyov aired a clip from a French-language segment of an Israeli TV network in which the anchor told viewers that Hamas “claims the helicopter pilot was a Mossad agent” named “Eli Copter.” The anchor, Daniel Haik, has already been widely mocked for taking the internet joke at face value and reciting it on-air. A shorter version of the clip. Solovyov fell for Eli Copter!!!

It's getting harder to tell The Onion from real news anymore. Upset with a new measure requiring schools to use children’s preferred names, Colorado Republicans sent out a fiery e-mail, blasting the new law and calling for all parents to remove their children from public schools. Source: KUSA COLORADO, USA — The Colorado Republican Party is issuing a call to its members to pull their children from public school, saying Democrats are using schools to “turn more kids trans.” The message was delivered in an email blast to Republicans statewide Tuesday. “All Colorado parents should be aiming to remove their kids from public education,” read the directive from Darcy Schoening, director of special initiatives for the Colorado GOP. Schoening is a former leader of the El Paso County chapter of the conservative activist group Moms for Liberty. Under the leadership of Colorado GOP Chairman Dave Williams, the state Republican Party has tacked to the hard right despite holding less electoral power than at any time since before World War II. Culture war issues, like attacks on gay and transgender people, especially youth, have become a focus of Republicans nationwide in 2024.