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Trump is not the only reason to fix this uniquely dangerous law

Trump is not the only reason to fix this uniquely dangerous law

Bob Bauer and Jack Goldsmith write: The Insurrection Act is a dangerous centuries-old federal statute that authorizes the president, with few restraints, to deploy the U.S. military inside the United States to suppress threats the president perceives to the constitutional order. Commentators have recently proposed tightening the law following reports that former President Donald Trump and his advisers are planning to use it aggressively for law enforcement and to quell domestic disturbances if Mr. Trump is once more elected. This…

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The Biden administration is quietly shifting its strategy in Ukraine

The Biden administration is quietly shifting its strategy in Ukraine

Michael Hirsh writes: With U.S. and European aid to Ukraine now in serious jeopardy, the Biden administration and European officials are quietly shifting their focus from supporting Ukraine’s goal of total victory over Russia to improving its position in an eventual negotiation to end the war, according to a Biden administration official and a European diplomat based in Washington. Such a negotiation would likely mean giving up parts of Ukraine to Russia. The White House and Pentagon publicly insist there…

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Amazon protector: the Brazilian politician who turned the tide on deforestation

Amazon protector: the Brazilian politician who turned the tide on deforestation

Nature reports: In a year that brought unrelenting bad environmental news, with record global warming, searing heatwaves and fires, Marina Silva delivered a hopeful message on 3 August. Brazil’s environment and climate-change minister announced that there had been a 43% drop in deforestation alerts on the basis of satellite images of the Amazon rainforest between January and July 2023, compared with the same period in 2022. This was a sharp shift from the previous four years, which had seen a…

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Palestinian Christian pastor slams Western silence on genocide in Gaza

Palestinian Christian pastor slams Western silence on genocide in Gaza

  Through the Christmas holiday, Israel continued its relentless bombardment and siege of the Gaza Strip that has seen over 20,000 Palestinians killed. In the West Bank, we speak with Reverend Munther Isaac, pastor at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bethlehem, which canceled Christmas festivities in the storied birthplace of Jesus to mourn the deaths in Gaza and received worldwide attention for their nativity scene depicting the baby Jesus surrounded by rubble. “Christianity started here and never ceased to exist…

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I am Gaza City’s mayor. Our lives and culture are in rubble

I am Gaza City’s mayor. Our lives and culture are in rubble

Yahya R. Sarraj writes: As a teenager in the 1980s, I watched the construction of the intricately designed Rashad al-Shawa Cultural Center in Gaza City, named after one of Gaza’s greatest public figures, and its theater, grand hall, public library, printing press and cultural salon. Students and researchers, scholars and artists from across the Gaza Strip came to visit it, and so did President Bill Clinton in 1998. The center was the gem of Gaza City. Watching it being built…

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Israelis now fear catching the diseases that are spreading across Gaza

Israelis now fear catching the diseases that are spreading across Gaza

The Times of Israel reports: The death of a badly wounded IDF soldier in an Israeli hospital who was infected with a dangerous strain of fungus while fighting in the Gaza Strip has raised concerns about disease in Gaza affecting troops and possibly spreading to Israeli civilians. According to a Kan public broadcaster report, the soldier was brought to Assuta Ashdod Medical Center two weeks ago with severe limb injuries. Despite round-the-clock care, the fungus proved to be treatment-resistant and…

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Hostages’ families heckle Netanyahu as he warns Israel ‘expanding’ Gaza fight

Hostages’ families heckle Netanyahu as he warns Israel ‘expanding’ Gaza fight

The Guardian reports: Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said the offensive in Gaza “isn’t close to finished”, as he faces heavy domestic pressure to reach a deal to bring home the more than 100 Israeli hostages thought to remain in captivity in Gaza. “We are expanding the fight in the coming days and this will be a long battle,” Netanyahu said after visiting Gaza on Monday, according to a statement from his Likud party. As he vowed to continue…

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Ukraine says it has destroyed Russian warship in Crimean port

Ukraine says it has destroyed Russian warship in Crimean port

The Guardian reports: Ukraine’s military has said it has destroyed a Russian landing ship stationed in the Crimean port city of Feodosia, with video footage showing an extensive fire in the port area. The air force said it struck the Novocherkassk navy ship, which was stationed in Crimean waters controlled by Russia. “The fleet in Russia is getting smaller and smaller! Thanks to the air force pilots and everyone involved for the filigree work!” the commander of Ukraine’s air force,…

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Amazon drought: ‘We’ve never seen anything like this’

Amazon drought: ‘We’ve never seen anything like this’

BBC World Service reports: The Amazon rainforest experienced its worst drought on record in 2023. Many villages became unreachable by river, wildfires raged and wildlife died. Some scientists worry events like these are a sign that the world’s biggest forest is fast approaching a point of no return. As the cracked and baking river bank towers up on either side of us, Oliveira Tikuna is starting to have doubts about this journey. He’s trying to get to his village, in…

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Is climate change speeding up? Here’s what the science says

Is climate change speeding up? Here’s what the science says

The Washington Post reports: For the past several years, a small group of scientists has warned that sometime early this century, the rate of global warming — which has remained largely steady for decades — might accelerate. Temperatures could rise higher, faster. The drumbeat of weather disasters may become more insistent. And now, after what is poised to be the hottest year in recorded history, the same experts believe that it is already happening. In a paper published last month,…

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Why we need to talk about ‘state terrorism’ by Israel In Gaza

Why we need to talk about ‘state terrorism’ by Israel In Gaza

Richard Jackson and Mandy Turner write: Why is it that the violent attack by Hamas against Israel on 7 October 2023 is described as ‘terrorism’, but Israel’s violent assault on the Gaza Strip in response is not? Why is it that the killing and kidnapping of some people is almost universally described in the language of terrorism, but virtually identical actions by other actors are not? In this case, why is Hamas labelled a terrorist organisation, but Israel is not…

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Israeli airstrike in Damascus kills high-ranking Iranian general, says Iran

Israeli airstrike in Damascus kills high-ranking Iranian general, says Iran

The Associated Press reports: An Israeli airstrike in a Damascus neighbourhood on Monday killed a high-ranking Iranian general, Iranian state media has said. Iranian officials and allied militant groups in the region vowed revenge for the killing but did not immediately launch any retaliatory strike. The killing of Sayyed Razi Mousavi, a longtime adviser of the Iranian paramilitary Revolutionary Guards in Syria, comes amid ongoing fears of the Israel-Hamas war sparking a regional spillover. Iran-backed groups in Yemen, Lebanon, Syria…

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In Christmas Day message, pope decries Gaza’s ‘appalling harvest’ of civilian deaths

In Christmas Day message, pope decries Gaza’s ‘appalling harvest’ of civilian deaths

Reuters reports: Pope Francis said in his Christmas message on Monday that children dying in wars, including in Gaza, are the “little Jesuses of today” and that Israeli strikes there were reaping an “appalling harvest” of innocent civilians. In his Christmas Day “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and world) address, Francis also called the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas militants “abominable” and again appealed for the release of around 100 hostages still being held in Gaza. Speaking…

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Zelenskiy hails downing of Russian jets in upbeat Christmas message

Zelenskiy hails downing of Russian jets in upbeat Christmas message

The Guardian reports: Volodymyr Zelenskiy hailed the shooting down of two Russian fighter jets on Christmas Eve and said “this Christmas sets the right mood for the entire year ahead”. In a Christmas message marking the first time Ukraine has officially observed the holiday on 25 December rather than 7 January, Zelenskiy also referred to Ukraine’s claim to have destroyed a further three Russian fighter planes on Friday. “The stronger our air defence, the fewer Russian devils will be in…

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