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If the West can welcome Ukrainians, it can accept the many climate refugees to come

If the West can welcome Ukrainians, it can accept the many climate refugees to come

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò and Beba Cibralic write: Global migration policy has started to move in a more humane direction in response to the invasion of Ukraine. While many states are welcoming displaced Ukrainians, this is a far cry from how those states typically treat refugees. Activists and scholars have lamented the lack of similar response to people displaced from south Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. The uneven global response to migration on display sets a chilling precedent for the…

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Russians feel shame and dismay as Putin ‘just threw over the chess board’

Russians feel shame and dismay as Putin ‘just threw over the chess board’

Serge Schmemann writes: It is hard to feel sorry for Russia today, when its army is savaging Ukraine. But for those of us who were in Moscow on that August morning in 1991 when a warm sun rose over people massed outside the “White House,” the embattled seat of the Russian government, and we realized that the tanks were not coming, that the coup had failed, that the Soviet yoke had been lifted, it’s also hard to escape a deep…

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Russia’s war lacks a battlefield commander, U.S. officials say

Russia’s war lacks a battlefield commander, U.S. officials say

The New York Times reports: Russia is running its military campaign against Ukraine out of Moscow, with no central war commander on the ground to call the shots, according to American officials who have studied the five-week-old war. That approach may go a long way to explain why the Russian war effort has struggled in the face of stiffer-than-expected Ukrainian resistance, the officials said. The lack of a unifying military leader in Ukraine has meant that Russian air, ground and…

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Indigenous land rights are critical to realizing goals of the Paris climate accord, a new study finds

Indigenous land rights are critical to realizing goals of the Paris climate accord, a new study finds

Inside Climate News reports: The land rights of Indigenous peoples across millions of acres of forests in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Peru must be protected and strengthened if the world has any hope of achieving the goals set forth in the 2015 Paris Agreement, a study released on Thursday found. The study, by the World Resources Institute and Climate Focus, two non-profit global research organizations focused on alleviating climate change, supports a growing body of research emphasizing the important role…

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Amazon workers score a decisive win in Staten Island!

Amazon workers score a decisive win in Staten Island!

The Nation reports: The best thing about arrogant bosses is that they underestimate the intelligence of their workers. Leaked company documents, originally given to Vice, reveal what Amazon’s general counsel, in a meeting Jeff Bezos attended, said of the activist Chris Smalls, whom the company had just fired after he helped lead a walkout early in the pandemic over Covid-related health and safety issues. “He’s not smart, or articulate, and to the extent the press wants to focus on us…

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January 6 panel puts Garland in ‘precarious’ spot, ups pressure

January 6 panel puts Garland in ‘precarious’ spot, ups pressure

The Associated Press reports: Lawmakers investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol are increasingly going public with critical statements, court filings and more to deliver a blunt message to Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Department of Justice. President Donald Trump and his allies likely committed crimes, they say. And it’s up to you to do something about it. “Attorney General Garland, do your job so we can do ours,” prodded Rep. Elaine Luria of Virginia. “We are upholding…

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Inside Ginni Thomas’ ‘insane’ hiring memos for Trump

Inside Ginni Thomas’ ‘insane’ hiring memos for Trump

The Daily Beast reports: Years before she became one of then-President Donald Trump’s most prominent coup supporters, Ginni Thomas was already notorious in his West Wing for, among other things, ruining staffers’ afternoons by working Trump into fits of vengeful rage. “We all knew that within minutes after Ginni left her meeting with the president, he would start yelling about firing people for being disloyal,” said a former senior Trump administration official. “When Ginni Thomas showed up, you knew your…

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Mikhail Khodorkovsky: ‘It is up to the Russian people to remove Putin’

Mikhail Khodorkovsky: ‘It is up to the Russian people to remove Putin’

Jo-Ann Mort writes: When I met Mikhail Khodorkovsky at his offices on March 28, he was wearing his signature jeans and leather jacket. He was busy preparing for a trip to the United States. He’ll be in Washington the first week of April for meetings at the White House, the State Department, and with members of Congress. I wondered what his message would be for Washington’s decision-makers. “I have two messages. First, we need to really help the Ukrainians, and…

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Sanctions are consolidating support for Putin among Russia’s elite

Sanctions are consolidating support for Putin among Russia’s elite

Farida Rustamova writes: “Since they adopted sanctions against us, we’re going to f*ck them. Now they’ll have to buy rubles on the Moscow Exchange to buy gas from us. But that’s just the beginning. Now we’re going to f*ck them all.” So tells me, with enthusiasm, a high-ranking Russian official. He has long been a member of Putin’s team, but has been considered a liberal thinker. A month ago he had a different attitude, saying with some chagrin that the…

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Autocracy can destroy democracy

Autocracy can destroy democracy

Anne Applebaum writes: In February 1994, in the grand ballroom of the town hall in Hamburg, Germany, the president of Estonia gave a remarkable speech. Standing before an audience in evening dress, Lennart Meri praised the values of the democratic world that Estonia then aspired to join. “The freedom of every individual, the freedom of the economy and trade, as well as the freedom of the mind, of culture and science, are inseparably interconnected,” he told the burghers of Hamburg….

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In Hungary, Viktor Orban remakes an election to his liking

In Hungary, Viktor Orban remakes an election to his liking

The New York Times reports: During the dark winter of the 2020 coronavirus wave, the Hungarian government set up a website so anxious residents could sign up for the news on the pandemic. For months, the system sent out updates about the virus, testing and where to get vaccinated. But last month, long after the vaccination drive had peaked, the system blasted out a very different type of alert: an email claiming, falsely, that opponents of Prime Minister Viktor Orban…

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‘We’ve got to stop fooling ourselves’: Enthusiasm gap keeps getting worse for Democrats

‘We’ve got to stop fooling ourselves’: Enthusiasm gap keeps getting worse for Democrats

Politico reports: At the end of October, Republicans held an 11-percentage-point advantage in voter enthusiasm. By January, that margin had ticked up to 14 points. Now, according to the most recent NBC News poll, it has swelled to 17 — a massive advantage that has foreshadowed devastating losses in Congress in prior years. The latest poll would be bad enough for Democrats. But it’s the trend line that is especially grim, seemingly impervious to a series of events — including…

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A bright star in the right place at the right time, provides a glimpse of the cosmic dawn

A bright star in the right place at the right time, provides a glimpse of the cosmic dawn

Science Alert reports: From billions of light-years across the vast gulf of space-time, from the very dawn of the Universe, astronomers have detected the light of a single star. Its discoverers have nicknamed it Earendel, from the Anglo-Saxon word meaning “morning star”; to date, it is the most distant object of its kind ever detected, dating to just 900 million years after the Big Bang. Because Earendel’s light has traveled so far to reach us, its properties are difficult to…

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An ancient solar calendar built by an unknown civilization

An ancient solar calendar built by an unknown civilization

Carly Cassella writes: Long before the Incas rose to power in Peru and began to celebrate their sun god, a little known civilization was building the earliest known astronomical observatory in the Americas. While not quite as old as sites like Stonehenge, these ancient ruins, known as Chankillo, are considered a “masterpiece of human creative genius“, holding unique features not seen anywhere else in the world. Based in the coastal desert of Peru, the archaeological site famously contains a row…

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