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Majority of Democrats believe Biden is not doing enough on climate change

Majority of Democrats believe Biden is not doing enough on climate change

Inside Climate News reports: Democrats who favor strong action on climate change are deeply dissatisfied with what they see as the slow pace of progress under President Joe Biden, according to a Pew Research Center report released Thursday. The survey of more than 10,000 adults conducted in early May showed a deep partisan divide over Biden’s climate policies—much in line with the split between Democrats and Republicans that has shown up in public opinion polling for more than a decade….

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Russia bans news outlet Bellingcat, labels it a security threat

Russia bans news outlet Bellingcat, labels it a security threat

Reuters reports: Russia on Friday banned investigative news outlet Bellingcat and its main local partner from operating inside the country, branding them security threats. Netherlands-based Bellingcat exposed the Russian-backed soldiers behind the downing of Malaysian Airlines jet MH17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014 and unmasked FSB agents sent to poison Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny in 2020. Russia’s Prosecutor General said the activities of Bellingcat its partner The Insider “posed a threat to… the security of the Russian federation.” Both will…

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‘Oh, God, no’: Republicans fear voter backlash after Indiana child rape case

‘Oh, God, no’: Republicans fear voter backlash after Indiana child rape case

Politico reports: Republicans knew the minute Roe v. Wade was overturned that they had a political problem, particularly with moderates in the suburbs who they need to vote for GOP candidates in the midterms. The unfolding story of a 10-year-old rape victim who crossed state lines from Ohio for an abortion in Indiana is confirming just how damaging the issue may be. “Oh, God no,” one prominent Republican strategist said, after members of his party suggested the victim should have…

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Why Democrats are begging Trump to start 2024 right now

Why Democrats are begging Trump to start 2024 right now

Politico reports: Democrats aren’t just eager for Donald Trump to cannonball into the 2024 presidential race before the fall midterms. Across the country, they are actively plotting ways to immediately capitalize on a pre-November announcement. Campaigns and officials at major Democratic outfits are planning to capture the anticipated cash windfall that would come their way should Trump announce he’s making another run at the White House. Candidates also are exploring ways to exploit Trump’s premature entry to energize despondent base…

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Secret Service deleted January 6 text messages after oversight officials requested them

Secret Service deleted January 6 text messages after oversight officials requested them

The Intercept reports: The Secret Service erased text messages from January 5 and January 6, 2021, according to a letter given to the January 6 committee and reviewed by The Intercept. The letter was originally sent by the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General to the House and Senate homeland security committees. Though the Secret Service maintains that the text messages were lost as a result of a “device-replacement program,” the letter says the erasure took place shortly…

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January 6 was Trump’s own project all along

January 6 was Trump’s own project all along

Donald Ayer, Stuart Gerson, and Dennis Aftergut write: After seven hearings held by the January 6 committee thus far this summer, doubts as to who is responsible have been resolved. The evidence is now overwhelming that Donald Trump was the driving force behind a massive criminal conspiracy to interfere with the official January 6 congressional proceeding and to defraud the United States of a fair election outcome. The evidence is clearer and more robust than we as former federal prosecutors—two…

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Janet Yellen’s global campaign to defund Russia’s war machine

Janet Yellen’s global campaign to defund Russia’s war machine

The Washington Post reports: Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen was feted by Japan’s leaders after arriving here on Sunday, lunching with the country’s top economists, meeting with senior executives from Sony and Panasonic and lighting incense at the wake of former prime minister Shinzo Abe. But beneath the public bonhomie, Yellen’s hosts quietly expressed concerns about potential fallout from her push to create a new global price cap on Russian oil. Japanese officials have communicated that they are worried that…

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Prominent conservatives issue report rebutting Trump election claims

Prominent conservatives issue report rebutting Trump election claims

CNN reports: A group of conservatives, including prominent lawyers and retired federal judges, issued a 72-page report on Thursday categorically rebutting each of the claims made in court by former President Donald Trump and his supporters over the 2020 election results. The report, “LOST, NOT STOLEN: The Conservative Case that Trump Lost and Biden Won the 2020 Presidential Election,” looked at more than 60 court cases Trump and his supporters filed and lost in six key battleground states. It reached…

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Young voters are fed up with their elderly leaders

Young voters are fed up with their elderly leaders

The New York Times reports: Alexandra Chadwick went to the polls in 2020 with the singular goal of ousting Donald J. Trump. A 22-year-old first time voter, she saw Joseph R. Biden Jr. as more of a safeguard than an inspiring political figure, someone who could stave off threats to abortion access, gun control and climate policy. Two years later, as the Supreme Court has eroded federal protections on all three, Ms. Chadwick now sees President Biden and other Democratic…

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What’s next after Supreme Court’s climate ruling?

What’s next after Supreme Court’s climate ruling?

Dana Nuccitelli writes: The Supreme Court’s June 30 ruling in the West Virginia v. EPA, as detailed by Lexi Smith on this site, substantially curtailed the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to regulate climate pollutants. Though the language of the decision itself appears to be narrow – limiting the extent of regulatory options for existing power plants under Section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act – it also elevated the newly-conceived “major questions doctrine.” That principle holds that any “major” new…

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‘Ancient ethnic hatreds’ is poor shorthand and dangerous

‘Ancient ethnic hatreds’ is poor shorthand and dangerous

Marko Attila Hoare writes: The pop group U2 staged a concert in Sarajevo in September 1997 that I attended when I was a 25-year-old student doing fieldwork in the city. I got talking to another foreign visitor who was sitting next to me, a young North American about my age. He told me he preferred women with dark features, so in Sarajevo he was most attracted to the Muslim girls. It was a comment that exemplified the way visitors often…

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The threat of political violence is now at the heart of the MAGA Republican movement

The threat of political violence is now at the heart of the MAGA Republican movement

The Center for American Progress Action Fund reports: The insurrection on January 6, 2021, underscored the growing threat of political violence in the United States. Far from being an isolated incident, American right-wing political violence and domestic terrorism has increased in recent years. Some of this violence comes in the form of mass shootings; some comes in the form of specific threats against politicians and poll workers; and some comes in the form of the insurrectionist riot at the Capitol…

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U.S. calls for end of forced deportations of Ukrainians being sent to Russian concentration camps

U.S. calls for end of forced deportations of Ukrainians being sent to Russian concentration camps

Politico reports: The United States has called on Russia to immediately stop its systematic “filtration” and forced deportation of millions of Ukrainians in territories under Moscow’s control and to allow outside observers access to camps through which they pass. “The unlawful transfer and deportation of protected persons is a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention on the protection of civilians and is a war crime,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement Wednesday. Blinken said Russian authorities have “ interrogated, detained, and forcibly…

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Nature is in crisis. A UN report says short-sighted economics is to blame

Nature is in crisis. A UN report says short-sighted economics is to blame

Grist reports: When governments make decisions, economic considerations often trump everything else — human well-being, social connections, the health of the environment. According to a new report from the United Nations, this imbalance is driving the global biodiversity crisis and the human suffering associated with it. “Despite the diversity of nature’s values,” the report says, “most policymaking approaches have prioritized a narrow set of values at the expense of both nature and society, as well as future generations.” It calls…

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