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The three types of election-denying Republicans running for secretary of state

The three types of election-denying Republicans running for secretary of state

Chris Geidner writes: Around a dozen election-denying Republican candidates secured their party’s nomination for secretary of state this fall. This is the reality, two years on, that Donald Trump’s election lies have created. There are three types of election-denying candidates, and each one poses distinct problems for civic integrity. There are the swing-state candidates getting lots of justified attention, running in places like Arizona and Michigan, because their elections could have pivotal, clear national implications in the 2024 presidential campaign….

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How a QAnon splinter group became a feature of Trump rallies

How a QAnon splinter group became a feature of Trump rallies

The Washington Post reports: Julie McDaniel can’t say for sure who started it. It might even have been her. McDaniel was in the front section at a Trump rally earlier this month in Youngstown, Ohio, when the former president started wrapping up his speech by playing an instrumental score embraced by followers of the QAnon online conspiracy theory. She felt moved to raise her right hand and point to the sky — to God, she said. Soon everyone around her…

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For Iran’s protesters, the fight for women’s rights is now synonymous with a desire to end the rule of the ayatollahs

For Iran’s protesters, the fight for women’s rights is now synonymous with a desire to end the rule of the ayatollahs

Roya Hakakian writes: No one can predict how a revolution starts. Nor can anyone know when one injustice will be what causes a people’s fury to overcome their fear. In 2011, in Tunisia, a street vendor, Mohamed Bouazizi, sparked an uprising by setting himself on fire. In 2022, in Iran, the death in police custody of a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, has brought Iranians onto the streets in every corner of the country. Amini and her brother had traveled from…

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With Kalashnikov rifles, Russia drives the staged vote in Ukraine

With Kalashnikov rifles, Russia drives the staged vote in Ukraine

The Washington Post reports: Officials in Russian-occupied territories in eastern and southern Ukraine were forcing people to vote “under a gun barrel,” residents said on Saturday as staged referendums — intended to validate Moscow’s annexation of the territory it occupies — entered their second day. Voting is taking place in portions of Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions and will last five days, ending Tuesday. The outcome is not in doubt. The purported referendums are illegal under Ukrainian and…

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‘A way to get rid of us’: Crimean Tatars decry Russia’s mobilisation

‘A way to get rid of us’: Crimean Tatars decry Russia’s mobilisation

The Guardian reports: Rights activists in Crimea say Russia’s mobilisation drive in the occupied peninsula is disproportionately targeting Crimean Tatars, an ethnic group that has largely opposed Russian rule since the area was annexed in 2014. “Everywhere, in every town, I am hearing that the majority of those mobilised are Crimean Tatars, and we know they are particularly targeting settlements with predominantly Crimean Tatar populations,” an activist from the group still living on the peninsula said in a telephone interview….

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As Russian losses mount in Ukraine, Putin gets more involved in war strategy

As Russian losses mount in Ukraine, Putin gets more involved in war strategy

The New York Times reports: President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has thrust himself more directly into strategic planning for the war in Ukraine in recent weeks, American officials said, including rejecting requests from his commanders on the ground that they be allowed to retreat from the vital southern city of Kherson. A withdrawal from Kherson would allow the Russian military to pull back across the Dnipro River in an orderly way, preserving its equipment and saving the lives of…

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How a secretive far-right network attacks abortion rights across the globe

How a secretive far-right network attacks abortion rights across the globe

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism reports: Things were tough enough for Nelly Munyasia, the executive director of Kenya’s Reproductive Health Network. Then came a surge of hateful propaganda targeting her and others working in reproductive health. Munyasia says that as she saw her face appear on social media posts calling her a killer, she and her fellow targets were able to identify the strange driving force behind this sudden tide of hostility. CitizenGO is an online community that claims to…

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When migrants become political pawns

When migrants become political pawns

Jelani Cobb writes: The calcified cruelty, malignant politics, and questionable legality of the decisions by Governors Greg Abbott, of Texas, and Ron DeSantis, of Florida, to transport dozens of migrants in Texas to unsuspecting locales in Massachusetts and Washington, D.C., reiterate the point—often made in recent years—that the only check on the behavior of the current Republican Party is the limits of its own imagination. Most of the migrants reportedly came from Venezuela, a country so racked with discord that…

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During three conversations, Donald Trump revealed much more about himself than he intended

During three conversations, Donald Trump revealed much more about himself than he intended

Maggie Haberman writes: “Can you believe these are my customers?” Donald Trump once asked while surveying the crowd in the Taj Mahal casino’s poker room. “Look at those losers,” he said to his consultant Tom O’Neil, of people spending money on the floor of the Trump Plaza casino. Visiting the Iowa State Fair as a presidential candidate in 2015, he was astounded that locals fell in line to support him because of a few free rides in his branded helicopter….

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Iranian regime’s allergy to reform provokes an intifada

Iranian regime’s allergy to reform provokes an intifada

Trita Parsi writes: Unprecedented protest and resistance has emerged in Iran this week after Mahsa Amini’s death in the custody of Iran’s “morality” police. The level of anger and frustration in Iran today — on display in dozens of videos across social media — appears far greater than in 2009, when Iranians took to the streets to protest a stolen election and push for reform. For two decades now, attempts at reforming the system have been stymied; the regime has…

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The return of fascism in Italy

The return of fascism in Italy

Ruth Ben-Ghiat writes: “The election of the first woman prime minister in a country always represents a break with the past, and that is certainly a good thing,” Hillary Clinton said to an Italian journalist at the Venice International Film Festival earlier this month. She was speaking of Giorgia Meloni, a member of the Chamber of Deputies, who could make history if the Brothers of Italy party does as well as expected in Sunday’s elections. That would be one sort…

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The far right is having a moment in Europe — actually, everywhere

The far right is having a moment in Europe — actually, everywhere

Vox reports: Giorgia Meloni and her far-right Fratelli d’Italia are expected to lead a far right victory in Italian elections this weekend. That win, if it happens, would come shortly after the far-right Sweden Democrats won the second-largest share of the vote, helping to oust the center-left from power and giving the far right a potential role in the next government. These shifts are happening as Europe enters another precarious moment: a war on the continent that is increasingly unpredictable,…

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My family in Russian-occupied Ukraine knows that Putin will get whatever ‘referendum’ results he wants

My family in Russian-occupied Ukraine knows that Putin will get whatever ‘referendum’ results he wants

Sasha Vasilyuk writes: Starting this weekend, people in four occupied regions of Ukraine will “vote” on whether to join Russia. For many people, including my aunt and uncle, in Donetsk, what that really means is they will be forcibly absorbed into a country they do not want to be a part of. Donetsk and Luhansk, collectively known as the Donbas, in eastern Ukraine, and Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, in the south, are all at least partly occupied by Russia. The point…

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Rep. Adam Kinzinger on the GOP, ‘NAFO’ and reasons to escalate in Ukraine

Rep. Adam Kinzinger on the GOP, ‘NAFO’ and reasons to escalate in Ukraine

Michael Weiss writes: “If you want to be part of the resistance against Russian disinformation,” Rep. Adam Kinzinger said, “join the fellas.” It’s an admittedly unorthodox way to begin an interview with the outgoing Republican congressman, one of two on the House select committee investigating Jan. 6 and an outspoken opponent of former President Donald Trump. But then, Kinzinger is equally outspoken about his support for Ukraine. He is the first and only sitting U.S. legislator to enlist in the…

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