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The Pentagon says it will support Ukraine for ‘as long as it takes’

The Pentagon says it will support Ukraine for ‘as long as it takes’

The New York Times reports: The Defense Department is setting up a new command to oversee how the United States and its allies train and equip the Ukrainian military, the Pentagon announced on Friday along with a new package of $400 million in security assistance. The Pentagon’s commitment to supplying Ukraine with weaponry and the new command are clear signals that the United States expects the threat from Russia to Ukraine and its neighbors to persist for many years, current…

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The weird way language affects our sense of time and space

The weird way language affects our sense of time and space

Miriam Frankel and Matt Warren write: If you were asked to walk diagonally across a field, would you know what to do? Or what if you were offered £20 ($23) today or double that amount in a month, would you be willing to wait? And how would you line up 10 photos of your parents if you were instructed to sort them in chronological order? Would you place them horizontally or vertically? In which direction would the timeline move? These…

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Ukraine’s war has forced more than 14 million people to flee their homes, the UN says

Ukraine’s war has forced more than 14 million people to flee their homes, the UN says

The New York Times reports: Russia’s eight-month war in Ukraine has already created the largest and fastest refugee crisis in decades. But the United Nations and humanitarian agencies are warning that new fighting in the east and south, Moscow’s intensified targeting of power plants and other infrastructure, the approaching winter and fears of a nuclear attack could drive even more Ukrainians to flee their homes in the coming months. More than 14 million people have fled their homes since Russia’s…

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Why isn’t Trumpism hurting the GOP? Some Democrats see vexing answers

Why isn’t Trumpism hurting the GOP? Some Democrats see vexing answers

Greg Sargent writes: Something extraordinary just happened: In the space of just this week, a president and an ex-president warned that the opposition poses an existential threat to our political way of life. Joe Biden declared that “MAGA Republicans” have placed democracy “under threat.” Barack Obama warned that if GOP election deniers win in Arizona, “democracy may not survive.” Yet the ongoing MAGA threat to U.S. democracy, including from Donald Trump himself, isn’t harming Republican chances of winning the House…

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Days before the midterms, Twitter lays off employees who fight misinformation

Days before the midterms, Twitter lays off employees who fight misinformation

NBC News reports: Mass layoffs at Twitter on Friday battered the teams primarily responsible for keeping the platform free of misinformation, potentially hobbling the company’s capabilities four days before the end of voting in Tuesday’s midterm elections, one current and six former Twitter employees familiar with the cuts told NBC News, five of whom were recently laid off. Two former Twitter employees and one current employee warned that could bring chaos around the elections, as the layoffs hit especially hard…

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DOJ mulling potential special counsel if Trump runs in 2024

DOJ mulling potential special counsel if Trump runs in 2024

CNN reports: As Donald Trump inches closer to launching another presidential run after the midterm election, Justice Department officials have discussed whether a Trump candidacy would create the need for a special counsel to oversee two sprawling federal investigations related to the former president, sources familiar with the matter tell CNN. The Justice Department is also staffing up its investigations with experienced prosecutors so it’s ready for any decisions after the midterms, including the potential unprecedented move of indicting a…

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The aftermath of Israel’s gevalt election

The aftermath of Israel’s gevalt election

Ruth Margalit writes: When Merav Michaeli, the leader of Israel’s left-wing Labor Party, arrived at the ballot box near her home in Tel Aviv on Tuesday morning, she grinned from ear to ear. She poked toddlers in their strollers. Waved to photographers. But her sleepless eyes told a different story. Labor, Israel’s once dominant party—the party of Yitzhak Rabin—was inching toward extinction. So was Meretz, another dovish party to its left. So were three predominantly Arab parties. Israel’s peace camp…

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What Bolsonaro’s loss reveals about the limits of populism

What Bolsonaro’s loss reveals about the limits of populism

Yascha Mounk writes: As Sunday’s high-stakes runoff election for the presidency between Jair Bolsonaro, the far-right incumbent, and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, his left-wing challenger, approached, Brazilian political analysts kept returning to two big questions. The first was simply, “Who will win?” The second was more ominous: “Will the incumbent leave office if he loses?” The answer to the first question came late on Sunday night. Lula clearly, if narrowly, defeated Bolsonaro, with 51 to 49 percent of the…

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Major glaciers, including in Yosemite and Kilimanjaro, will be gone within 23 years due to climate change, UN report warns

Major glaciers, including in Yosemite and Kilimanjaro, will be gone within 23 years due to climate change, UN report warns

CBS News reports: One-third of the world’s most iconic glaciers have been “condemned to disappear” within 23 years, according to a new report by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The fate of these glaciers, which include those in Yosemite, Yellowstone and the Dolomites, is all but sure, UNESCO warned, as carbon emissions cause them to rapidly deteriorate. There are roughly 18,600 glaciers in 50 UNESCO World Heritage sites, spanning nearly 25,500 square-miles and making up about…

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Prosecutors are obtaining potentially crucial testimony about January 6

Prosecutors are obtaining potentially crucial testimony about January 6

New York magazine reports: As the midterm campaigns draw to a close, so too may an informal détente between Donald Trump and federal prosecutors since the search of Mar-a-Lago in August. While both sides fight in court, the Justice Department has probably refrained from taking major steps in the key investigations into his possession of classified documents and the attack on the U.S. Capitol in order to avoid influencing the elections. During this relative down period, however, the department has reportedly been fighting…

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CREW to pursue disqualification if Trump runs for reelection

CREW to pursue disqualification if Trump runs for reelection

Should Donald Trump seek reelection to the presidency or any other office, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington will pursue his disqualification under the Fourteenth Amendment for engaging in the January 6th insurrection. In a letter sent to the former president today, CREW President Noah Bookbinder outlined how Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment bars anyone who engaged in insurrection against the Constitution they swore to defend from holding office, and let Trump know that CREW is prepared to…

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Suspected Russian plot used political cartoons to influence American voters

Suspected Russian plot used political cartoons to influence American voters

Bloomberg reports: Social media users tied to Russia are using political cartoons to try to influence the outcome of tight electoral races ahead of the U.S. midterms, according to research provided exclusively to Bloomberg News. Members of a Russian group accused of meddling in prior U.S. elections have pushed internet memes that promote right-wing conspiracy theories in a way that aims to undermine support for Democratic political candidates, according to the social media analysis firm Graphika Inc. The users, who…

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Republican opposition to helping Ukraine grows, WSJ poll finds

Republican opposition to helping Ukraine grows, WSJ poll finds

The Wall Street Journal reports: The majority of Americans support continuing aid to Ukraine in what will likely be a prolonged war with Russia, but support is becoming a partisan issue as Republican opposition grows to helping the country, according to a new Wall Street Journal poll. Military and financial aid to Ukraine has emerged as one of many political flashpoints days before a midterm election in which control of the Congress is at stake. The continuing flow of aid…

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‘I’ll keep doing this until we win’: On the road with Ukraine’s aid suppliers

‘I’ll keep doing this until we win’: On the road with Ukraine’s aid suppliers

James Rushton and Michael Weiss write: It’s a cold and rainy morning as Yahoo News arrives at an anonymous industrial estate somewhere outside of Kyiv. We are here to meet the volunteers of Ukraine Aid Ops, one of a growing number of civilian organizations that supply Ukrainian troops and civilians with humanitarian and nonlethal military aid. Over the next four days they have more than 10 deliveries to make to Ukrainian troops spread across the east of the country, supplying…

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