🗳 Trump’s bid to shape GOP faces test with voters in May races

The first test comes on Tuesday when voters in Ohio choose between the Trump-backed JD Vance for an open US Senate seat and several other contenders who spent months clamoring for the former president’s support. In the following weeks, elections in Nebraska, Pennsylvania and North Carolina will also serve as a referendum on Trump’s ability to shape the future of the GOP.

Few states may be a higher priority for Trump than Georgia, where early voting begins on Monday ahead of the May 24 primary.  If Republican voters in the early states rally behind the Trump-backed candidates, the former president’s kingmaker status would be validated, likely enhancing his power as he considers another bid for the presidency.

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🎞 Netflix Drops Animated Series Created by Meghan Markle

The now-cancelled series “Pearl,” which was still in the development stage at the time it was axed, centered on the adventures of a 12-year-old girl who "finds inspiration in a variety of influential women throughout history."

The series was “quietly dropped” by Netflix as the streaming platform deals with the loss of subscribers and falling stock prices.

The series was created by Markle via Archewell Productions, which the media outlet describes as a "shingle" that Meghan and her husband Prince Harry set up at Netflix in 2020 to "create noscripted series, docuseries, documentaries, features and children’s programming."

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EU says that Apple Pay is anticompetitive

Apple has been hit with an antitrust accusation by the European Union over its exclusion of rivals from its Apple Pay mobile payment system. The EU sent Apple a formal “Statement of Objections” with the preliminary view that Apple has abused its dominant position in mobile wallets on iOS.

According to the EU, Apple’s exclusionary behavior “leads to less innovation and less choice for consumers for mobile wallets” The EU has the ability to levy fines up to 10% of Apple’s global revenue ($36 billion) as well as force changes to the company’s business practices.

This is only the initial formal stage of antitrust proceedings against Apple, and the company will have the chance to respond to the Commission’s list of objections.

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⚖️ Barricades are up around the US Supreme Court, minutes after a leaked opinion detailed the potential overturn of Roe v. Wade

Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion, which illustrates a direct assault on the landmark 1973 decision of Roe V Wade allowing women the federal constitutional right to abortion, was circulated inside the Supreme Court.

Alito’s draft opinion is an ominous prelude for those who desire the freedom of full autonomy over their bodies as well as their individual right to make private health decisions when confronted with an unwanted, or a desired but life-risking pregnancy.

It’s possible that the court may change its tide before the final ruling which is expected by either late June or early July. But Alito’s draft opinion was labeled as a proposed majority opinion, with a 6-3 conservative majority Supreme Court.

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Telegram ‘Premium’ subnoscription is showing up in beta builds of the app

From the little we know so far, Telegram’s approach to paid features appears to follow the Discord model of messaging app monetization, giving to the users more power and toys to play with: more emoji, better bandwidth for video and audio, improved badges and avatars, and more.

With more than 500 million users on the platform, Telegram might only need to convince a small percentage to subscribe in order to become the break-even business.

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⚡️ Russian military delivers more than 40 tonnes of humanitarian cargo to Kharkov region

⚡️Zelensky does not need any peace agreement, peace is the end for him, Medvedev says

⚡️ Warehouses with Bayraktar drones, missiles from US, European countries destroyed in Odessa region, Russian MoD says

📌 The Russian MoD’s latest statement on the Ukraine crisis:

▪️ Russian Onyx missiles destroyed a logistics centre at a military airfield near Odessa, through which foreign weapons were channelled;

▪️ High-precision air-based missiles hit six Ukrainian military targets;

▪️ Operational-tactical and army aviation hit 69 strong points, areas of concentrated manpower and Ukrainian military equipment;

▪️ Missile troops hit the command posts near Dolina and Podolovka, in the region of Kharkov;

▪️ Artillery units eliminated 54 Ukrainian artillery firing positions, 38 strong points, and 195 areas of Ukrainian manpower and military equipment concentration;

▪️ Russian air defence have shot down six Ukrainian drones overnight;

▪️ In total, 146 aircrafts and 112 helicopters, 696 drones, 286 anti-aircraft missile systems, 2,783 tanks and other armoured combat vehicles, 316 multiple launch rocket systems, 1,255 field artillery and mortars, as well as 2,590 units of special military vehicles of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were destroyed during the operation

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Russia's Ministry of Defence has published footage of a Sukhoi Su-24M aircraft conducting an airstrike against Ukrainian forces

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A little girl from Mariupol has already become accustomed to seeing dead people in the streets. 10-year-old Amina remembers how she saw the body of an old woman who was in her courtyard. Although she does not fear the corpses lying in the streets, she recalls how terrified she was when there was shelling and Ukrainian tanks were firing from her courtyard

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As a result of Ukrainian neo-Nazis shelling in the area near Gorlovka, two secondary schools, a boarding school, an art centre and a kindergarten were damaged.

🗣 "They choose quarters where most education establishments and residential areas are located", says the Gorlovka Administration's Department of Education chief

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Russia's Ministry of Defence has published a video showing the launch of a Russian high-precision Onyx missile which destroyed a hangar at a military airfield near Odessa with weapons supplied to the Ukrainian forces by western countries

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Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev believes a peace treaty with Russia could be "the end for Zelensky" and outlined how the Ukrainian president will try to stay in power:

1. Begging the West for money and weapons, proving he is in the game, that he is the hope of the liberal world, that he is the last bastion of European democracy, which the bear in the padded jacket wants to tear to pieces.
2. Faking concern for the Ukrainians, periodically exposing them as a human shield in front of neo-Nazis.
3. Assassinating Russian journalists.
4. Producing criminal untruths about the Russian military operation.
5. Appearing unshaven on camera and with eyes burning from stimulants.