European Union Presidency Sounds The Alarm On Democracy In 2024

The European Union presidency on Tuesday warned that the foundations of democracy will be put to the test during the November U.S. election, envisaging a scenario where the longstanding trans-Atlantic alliance could unravel ever more.

Prime Minister Alexander De Croo of Belgium, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, said that “if 2024 brings us ‘America first’ again, it is really more than ever ‘Europe on its own.’”

De Croo spoke in an address to the EU legislature only hours after former President Donald Trump’s landslide win in the Republican Party’s Iowa caucuses.

His words harked back to the 2017-2021 Trump administration, when U.S. relations with Europe took a nosedive because of near-incessant trans-Atlantic quarrels about trade, security and military cooperation that eroded trust and cooperation.

De Croo said the 27-nation EU should quickly learn to stand more on its own and that in case of a Trump victory in November, “we should, as Europeans, not fear this perspective. We should embrace it.”

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Martin Luther King Jr. was just an “ersatz pastor” and a “communist,” and the 1960s civil rights movement was “crap,” according to a series of Facebook posts by Mark Robinson, the leading Republican candidate to be North Carolina’s next governor. Robinson, who is currently the state’s lieutenant governor, regularly criticized King and the civil rights movement for years on Facebook ― specifically on MLK Day ― HuffPost found amid a review of his posts. The Black politician also downplayed slavery, rejected the idea that he’s part of the African American community, and attacked the late congressman and civil rights icon, John Lewis.

Millionaires who were overdue on their taxes have coughed up more than half a billion dollars since the Internal Revenue Service stepped up its enforcement of the tax code against the ultrawealthy, the IRS revealed on Friday. Using new funding earmarked for the IRS to target wealthy and corporate tax cheats, the IRS since mid-2022 has collected more than $520 million from about 1,600 households with income of more than $1 million and that are known to have unpaid tax bills of more than $250,000. But the funding that has made it possible for the IRS to target wealthy tax dodgers is in jeopardy.

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