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Trump won’t commit to backing the Republican nominee in 2024

Trump won’t commit to backing the Republican nominee in 2024

The New York Times reports: Donald J. Trump refused to say he would support the next Republican presidential nominee if it was not him, exposing a potential quagmire along the party’s path toward reclaiming the White House in 2024 and showcasing, once again, the former president’s transactional spin on political loyalty. In a radio interview on Thursday, the conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt asked Mr. Trump if he would support “whoever” wins the party’s nomination next year. Mr. Trump announced his…

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Melting Alaska wants to drill more oil

Melting Alaska wants to drill more oil

Bill McKibben writes: If you wanted an example of the reason we’re still losing the fight to slow the earth’s heating, the proposed Willow oil project in Alaska should suffice. This should be the no-brainer of all time. The ConocoPhillips plan for a massive new oil field development flies in the face of all climate science and reason. It would be producing huge quantities of oil for at least the next three decades—long past the point when scientists say we…

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Microplastics are filling the skies. Will they affect the climate?

Microplastics are filling the skies. Will they affect the climate?

Nicola Jones writes: Plastic has become an obvious pollutant over recent decades, choking turtles and seabirds, clogging up our landfills and waterways. But in just the past few years, a less-obvious problem has emerged. Researchers are starting to get concerned about how tiny bits of plastic in the air, lofted into the skies from seafoam bubbles or spinning tires on the highway, might potentially change our future climate. “Here’s something that people just didn’t think about — another aspect of…

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Petr Pavel: Ukraine deserves to join NATO, says new Czech leader

Petr Pavel: Ukraine deserves to join NATO, says new Czech leader

BBC News reports: Czech President-elect Petr Pavel has told the BBC that Ukraine should be allowed to join Nato “as soon as the war is over”. Mr Pavel, a retired Nato general, said Ukraine would be “morally and practically ready” to join the Western alliance once the conflict had ended. In his first broadcast interview with the international media since his election, Gen Pavel gave a robust defence of Western military support to Kyiv, saying there should be “almost no…

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U.S. expected to send Ukraine longer-range smart bombs in next aid package

U.S. expected to send Ukraine longer-range smart bombs in next aid package

The Wall Street Journal reports: The next batch of U.S. military aid for Ukraine that could be announced as soon as Friday is expected to include longer-range smart bombs for the first time, people familiar with the matter said. The new smart weapon is a Ground-Launched Small Diameter Bomb, or GLSDB, a precision-guided 250-pound bomb that is strapped to a rocket. It has a range of 94 miles, which is farther than any bomb the U.S. has so far provided…

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Obnoxious candidates lose elections

Obnoxious candidates lose elections

David Frum writes: Let’s say you’re a politician in a close race and your opponent suffers a stroke. What do you do? If you are Mehmet Oz running as a Republican for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, what you do is mock your opponent’s affliction. In August, the Oz campaign released a list of “concessions” it would offer to the Democrat John Fetterman in a candidates’ debate, including: “We will allow John to have all of his notes in front of him…

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The difference between speaking and thinking

The difference between speaking and thinking

Matteo Wong writes: Language is commonly understood to be the “stuff” of thought. People “talk it out” and “speak their mind,” follow “trains of thought” or “streams of consciousness.” Some of the pinnacles of human creation—music, geometry, computer programming—are framed as metaphorical languages. The underlying assumption is that the brain processes the world and our experience of it through a progression of words. And this supposed link between language and thinking is a large part of what makes ChatGPT and similar…

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The neurological impact of losing social status

The neurological impact of losing social status

Science reports: When two male mice meet in a confined space, the rules of engagement are clear: The lower ranking mouse must yield. But when these norms go out the window—say, when researchers rig such an encounter to favor the weakling—it sends the higher ranking male into a depressionlike spiral. That’s the conclusion of a new neuroimaging study that reveals how the mouse brain responds to an unexpected loss of social status, which has been shown to be a major…

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At the Supreme Court, ethics questions over chief justice’s wife’s business ties

At the Supreme Court, ethics questions over chief justice’s wife’s business ties

The New York Times reports: After Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. joined the Supreme Court, his wife, Jane Sullivan Roberts, gave up her career as a law firm partner to become a high-end legal recruiter in an effort to alleviate potential conflicts of interest. Mrs. Roberts later recalled in an interview that her husband’s job made it “awkward to be practicing law in the firm.” Now, a former colleague of Mrs. Roberts has raised concerns that her recruiting work…

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Retired conservative Judge J. Michael Luttig helped stop Trump on Jan. 6. He wants to finish the job

Retired conservative Judge J. Michael Luttig helped stop Trump on Jan. 6. He wants to finish the job

The Washington Post reports: His obsessively precise written opinions for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in Richmond had marked Luttig as one of the leading conservative intellectuals in the legal system — the most conservative judge on the most conservative court in America. More than a quarter-century later, it was Luttig (pronounced LEW-tig) who would get a late-night call to come to the aid of his tribe: Mike Pence, in his final days as vice president,…

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Why DeSantis is on track to beat Trump

Why DeSantis is on track to beat Trump

Jonathan Chait writes: As they watch Donald Trump launch his third consecutive presidential campaign, many Republicans have been gripped by a sickening feeling of déjà vu. The Atlantic’s McKay Coppins believes the only plan is to sit around and hope Trump dies of natural causes. “Somebody is going to have to make the case that he cannot be the nominee in 2024 in the Republican Party,” urges John Podhoretz. After the trauma of 2016, it is easy to see why Republicans fear a repeat performance….

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When Americans lost faith in the news

When Americans lost faith in the news

Louis Menand writes: When the Washington Post unveiled the slogan “Democracy Dies in Darkness,” on February 17, 2017, people in the news business made fun of it. “Sounds like the next Batman movie,” the New York Times’ executive editor, Dean Baquet, said. But it was already clear, less than a month into the Trump Administration, that destroying the credibility of the mainstream press was a White House priority, and that this would include an unabashed, and almost gleeful, policy of lying and denying. The Post kept…

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Lawrence Freedman interview: For Putin, the war in Ukraine is hard to win and even harder to end

Lawrence Freedman interview: For Putin, the war in Ukraine is hard to win and even harder to end

RFE/RL: Can Russia be defeated outright? Lawrence Freedman: If Ukraine was able to push Russian forces out of all of Ukraine, that would be a defeat. It’s not wholly impossible, but I think at the moment it’s very difficult. It’s not impossible. I think to lose Crimea would be unequivocally a big defeat for Putin. To have the Russians being pushed back elsewhere — to the 2013 borders or the 1991 borders — could probably be manageable with guarantees for…

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Destruction of Khan al-Ahmar should be tipping point for U.S. ‘special relationship’ with Israel

Destruction of Khan al-Ahmar should be tipping point for U.S. ‘special relationship’ with Israel

Democracy for the Arab World Now: The Biden Administration should reevaluate its “special relationship” with Israel if the Israeli government advances its plans to forcibly displace the Palestinian villagers of Khan al-Ahmar and destroy the village in the occupied West Bank, war crimes under international law. On Wednesday, February 1, 2023, the Israeli government is required to inform the country’s High Court of Justice whether, and when, it intends to carry out its long-delayed plans to demolish the entire village….

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