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Judge narrows trial of analyst who reported salacious claims about Trump

Judge narrows trial of analyst who reported salacious claims about Trump

The New York Times reports: John H. Durham, the Trump-era special counsel, set off political reverberations last year when he unveiled a lengthy indictment of an analyst he accused of lying to the F.B.I. about sources for the so-called Steele dossier, a discredited compendium of political opposition research about purported ties between Donald J. Trump and Russia. But the trial of the analyst, Igor Danchenko, which opens on Tuesday with jury selection in federal court in Alexandria, Va., now appears…

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How the U.S. can block China from getting microchips made abroad

How the U.S. can block China from getting microchips made abroad

Henry Farrell writes: On Friday, the Biden administration issued aggressive new regulations, aimed at making it harder for China to access and build high-end semiconductors. Monday saw the publication of “Chip War,” a new book on global fights over semiconductors, written by Chris Miller, an associate professor of history at Tufts University’s Fletcher School and a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. I interviewed Chris by email over what the new developments mean and how they reflect a longer…

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Why some countries are leading the shift to green energy

Why some countries are leading the shift to green energy

Berkeley News reports: Oil and gas prices skyrocketed following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in spring 2022, creating a global energy crisis similar to the oil crisis of the 1970s. While some countries used the price shock to accelerate the transition to cleaner sources of energy, such as wind, solar and geothermal, others have responded by expanding the production of fossil fuels. A new study appearing today in the journal Science identifies the political factors that allow some countries to…

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Putin appoints notorious general to lead Ukraine offensive

Putin appoints notorious general to lead Ukraine offensive

The Guardian reports: Russia has appointed a notorious general who opened fire on pro-democracy protesters in the 1990s as its first overall commander for the war in Ukraine, as the Kremlin struggles to halt a Ukrainian counteroffensive that has left its forces in disarray. The appointment of Gen Sergei Surovikin came on the same day as Vladimir Putin was dealt a humiliating blow after an explosion on the Kerch bridge sank a section of the motorway into the Kerch Strait…

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Crimea bridge explosion disrupts crucial supply route for Russian forces

Crimea bridge explosion disrupts crucial supply route for Russian forces

The Wall Street Journal reports: A major explosion on Saturday severely damaged the bridge connecting Russia’s mainland to the occupied Crimean Peninsula, disrupting traffic on a crucial artery for the supply of fuel, military equipment and food to Russian troops fighting to hold ground in southern Ukraine. The bridge, opened by President Vladimir Putin to great fanfare in 2018, was meant to symbolize the might of the Russian state and the permanence of Russia’s annexation of the peninsula four years…

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Kremlin, shifting blame for war failures, axes military commanders

Kremlin, shifting blame for war failures, axes military commanders

The Washington Post reports: Russian Ground Forces Gen. Alexander Dvornikov, who over a 44-year military career was best-known for scorched-earth tactics in campaigns he led in Syria and Chechnya, was named overall operational commander of the war in Ukraine in April. He lasted about seven weeks before being dismissed as part of what appeared to be a wider shake-up in response to heavy losses and strategic failures. Around the same time, Col. Gen. Andrey Serdyukov, another four-decade serviceman, the commander…

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How Hitler’s enablers undid democracy in Germany

How Hitler’s enablers undid democracy in Germany

Christopher R. Browning writes: The short-lived Weimar Republic—which spanned the years after Germany’s defeat in World War I until 1933, when Hitler came to power—has become a paradigmatic example of democratic collapse. That has brought it renewed attention at this moment in America, when democracy is under threat from illiberal, would-be-authoritarian forces. We should rightly be suspicious of facile comparisons, especially the casual use of fascism as an imprecise epithet, yet Weimar’s fate provides us with some instructive parallels and…

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Ex-business partner of fake Mar-a-Lago ‘Rothschild’ heiress shot in Quebec

Ex-business partner of fake Mar-a-Lago ‘Rothschild’ heiress shot in Quebec

Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project: A Russian businessman whose affairs were the subject of a recent OCCRP investigation was shot and badly injured in a parking lot in a small town in Quebec, Canada, on Friday afternoon. His shooting is expected to widen a cross-border investigation into a fake charity and a woman who masqueraded as a Rothschild at former U.S. President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. Police in Estėrel, a sleepy resort town in the French-speaking province, continue investigating…

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How Trump deflected demands for documents, enmeshing aides

How Trump deflected demands for documents, enmeshing aides

The New York Times reports: Late last year, as the National Archives ratcheted up the pressure on former President Donald J. Trump to return boxes of records he had taken from the White House to his Mar-a-Lago club, he came up with an idea to resolve the looming showdown: cut a deal. Mr. Trump, still determined to show he had been wronged by the F.B.I. investigation into his 2016 campaign’s ties to Russia, was angry with the National Archives and…

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Biden just made marijuana reform a major 2022 issue. Democrats should run with it

Biden just made marijuana reform a major 2022 issue. Democrats should run with it

John Nichols writes: President Joe Biden on Thursday granted “a full, complete, and unconditional pardon” to every American who has been convicted under federal law for simple possession of marijuana. It was a responsible, necessary, and incredibly popular move. More than 70 percent of Americans favor expungement of the records of those with marijuana convictions, according to 2020 polling data compiled by YouGov.com. At a time when Republicans candidates are attacking Democrats for supporting criminal justice reform, this is a…

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Michael Flynn’s holy war stirs up fear and hatred across America

Michael Flynn’s holy war stirs up fear and hatred across America

The Associated Press reports: By the time the red, white and blue-colored microphone had been switched off, the crowd of 3,000 had listened to hours of invective and grievance. “We’re under warfare,” one speaker told them. Another said she would “take a bullet for my nation,” while a third insisted, “They hate you because they hate Jesus.” Attendees were told now is the time to “put on the whole armor of God.” Then retired three-star Army general Michael Flynn, the…

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Morale is plummeting in Wagner Group, Putin’s elite mercenaries, as Russia’s war in Ukraine falters

Morale is plummeting in Wagner Group, Putin’s elite mercenaries, as Russia’s war in Ukraine falters

CNN reports: The Ukrainians’ bodies lay side-by-side on the grass, the earth beside them splayed open by a crater. Dragged to the spot by Russian mercenaries, the victims’ arms pointed to where they had died. “Let’s plant a grenade on them,” a voice says in husky Russian, in what appears to be a plan to booby-trap the bodies. “There is no need for a grenade, we will just bash them in,” another says of the Ukrainian soldiers who will come…

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As Ukraine war falters, Russians ask a risky question: Could Putin fall?

As Ukraine war falters, Russians ask a risky question: Could Putin fall?

The Washington Post reports: When President Vladimir Putin yelled, “We will win!” at a Red Square concert to celebrate his illegal annexation of Ukrainian lands on Friday, he projected the hubris of a man who cannot accept defeat. Putin has said Russia will not lose in Ukraine. But multiple battlefield defeats and national fury over a botched military mobilization have broken a taboo in Moscow on discussions about what would happen if Putin did lose — not just the war,…

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Putin confronted by insider over Ukraine war, U.S. intelligence finds

Putin confronted by insider over Ukraine war, U.S. intelligence finds

The Washington Post reports: A member of Vladimir Putin’s inner circle has voiced disagreement directly to the Russian president in recent weeks over his handling of the war in Ukraine, according to information obtained by U.S. intelligence. The criticism marks the clearest indication yet of turmoil within Russia’s leadership over the stewardship of a war that has gone disastrously wrong for Moscow, forcing Putin last month to order the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of troops in a desperate bid…

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