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Category: Politics

Failing state: More than a quarter of Israelis want to leave the country

Failing state: More than a quarter of Israelis want to leave the country

Sruli Fruchter writes: Amid this brutal cycle of war, trauma and sacrifice, more than 25% of Israelis are now considering leaving Israel behind. The stunning results of this survey, conducted in April 2025 and published on Sunday by the Israel Democracy Institute, reveal an existential fissure in the country. Israelis are losing faith in their nation’s future, and they don’t believe they can get it back. It’s a shocking turnaround, after narratives of Israeli society’s exemplary resilience and social cohesion…

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Bloomberg: Witkoff advised Russia on how to pitch Ukraine plan to Trump

Bloomberg: Witkoff advised Russia on how to pitch Ukraine plan to Trump

Bloomberg News reports: US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff, fresh from the triumph of the Gaza peace deal, held a phone call last month with a senior Kremlin official to suggest they work together on a similar plan for Ukraine — and that Vladimir Putin should raise it with Donald Trump. In an Oct. 14 phone call that lasted a little over five minutes, Witkoff advised Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s top foreign policy aide, on how the Russian leader should broach the…

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Trump’s immigration forces deploy ‘less lethal’ weapons dangerously, skirting rules and maiming protesters

Trump’s immigration forces deploy ‘less lethal’ weapons dangerously, skirting rules and maiming protesters

By A.C. Thompson, ProPublica and FRONTLINE, and J. David McSwane, ProPublica This story was originally published by ProPublica As the Trump administration’s immigration dragnet intensified in June, a nurse in Portland, Oregon, left work one midafternoon and drove to a nearby detention facility to voice his opposition. Federal agents had set off smoke grenades, driving away many protesters at the front of the facility, but Vincent Hawkins lifted his megaphone anyway. “You should stop and think about what you’re doing!”…

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ICE offers up to $280 million to immigrant-tracking ‘bounty hunter’ private surveillance firms

ICE offers up to $280 million to immigrant-tracking ‘bounty hunter’ private surveillance firms

Wired reports: Immigration and Customs Enforcement is expanding plans to outsource immigrant tracking to private surveillance firms, scrapping a recent $180 million pilot proposal in favor of a no-cap program with multimillion-dollar guarantees, according to new contracting records reviewed by WIRED. Late last month, the Intercept reported that ICE intends to hire bounty hunters and private investigators for street-level verification work. Contractors would confirm home and work addresses for people targeted for removal by—among other techniques—photographing residences, documenting comings and…

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Censoring remarks on Trump: The BBC succumbs to the ‘paralysing cowardice’ of today’s elites

Censoring remarks on Trump: The BBC succumbs to the ‘paralysing cowardice’ of today’s elites

The Guardian reports: The BBC has been plunged into a new row over its treatment of Donald Trump, after an academic accused it of censoring his remarks about alleged corruption by the US president. Rutger Bregman, a Dutch author and historian, said the BBC had removed a “key line” from a flagship address he had been invited to give by the corporation. Bregman, who is giving the BBC’s prestigious annual Reith Lectures, said his claim that Trump was “the most…

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Brazil’s former president Bolsonaro to start serving 27-year sentence over coup plot

Brazil’s former president Bolsonaro to start serving 27-year sentence over coup plot

The New York Times reports: Brazil’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered former President Jair Bolsonaro to start serving a 27-year sentence for overseeing a failed plot to hold onto power after losing the country’s last election. After the nation’s top court rejected an initial appeal by Mr. Bolsonaro’s lawyers challenging his sentence, the court ruled that he will begin serving his sentence at a federal police facility in Brasília, the capital. Mr. Bolsonaro is already in custody at that same…

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Ukraine: Trump’s national security team is ‘working cohesively towards a shared goal.’ Or, creating chaos

Ukraine: Trump’s national security team is ‘working cohesively towards a shared goal.’ Or, creating chaos

Politico reports: Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, an unusual choice to play diplomat, spent two days last week delivering a tough message to Ukraine and its European allies: Accept the offered 28-point peace proposal by Thanksgiving, or else. Then, Secretary of State Marco Rubio showed up. Rubio’s arrival in Geneva on Sunday, to join Driscoll and resume discussions with senior Ukrainian officials, changed the tenor of the conversations. The Trump administration team backed away from a firm Thursday deadline and, in…

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Trump regime’s threat to refugees in U.S. viewed as ‘unspeakably cruel’

Trump regime’s threat to refugees in U.S. viewed as ‘unspeakably cruel’

CNN reports: The Trump administration is moving to reinterview certain refugees who were admitted to the United States under former President Joe Biden as part of a comprehensive review of their cases, according to an internal memo and a source familiar with the plans. The effort marks an unprecedented step in President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown — this time, targeting one of the world’s most vulnerable populations. Refugees must show that they were persecuted or face persecution in their home…

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Michael Popok on the dismissal of the Comey and James indictments

Michael Popok on the dismissal of the Comey and James indictments

  In a stunning reversal of fortune for Trump and his DOJ, a federal judge has not only declared Lindsey Halligan illegally appointed as a prosecutor, but she has dismissed both the criminal indictment against Former FBI Dir. James Comey and current NY Attorney General Tish James. Popok explains what that means for the DOJ, the “new” prosecutor to be appointed, an attempt to indict Comey and James in the future, and so much more.

Republican voters increasingly disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy

Republican voters increasingly disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy

Axios reports: Voters increasingly disapprove of the way President Trump is handling the economy and believe his policies are raising prices, according to a new poll from CBS News/YouGov. Why it matters: The discontent is also showing up in significant numbers among Republican voters, as the affordability crisis is affecting sentiment within Trump’s own base. By the numbers: Trump’s approval on the economy has fallen to 36%, down from 51% in March, per the poll. A majority say his policies are raising food and grocery costs….

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The Epstein class

The Epstein class

Anand Giridharadas writes: As journalists comb through the Epstein emails, surfacing the name of one fawning luminary after another, there is a collective whisper of “How could they?” How could such eminent people, belonging to such prestigious institutions, succumb to this? A close read of the thousands of messages makes it less surprising. When Jeffrey Epstein, a financier turned convicted sex offender, needed friends to rehabilitate him, he knew where to turn: a power elite practiced at disregarding pain. At…

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The night America’s doomed ruling class gorged on lamb, blood, and oil

The night America’s doomed ruling class gorged on lamb, blood, and oil

Will Bunch writes: Apparently, time really does heal all wounds — even those caused by the bone saw of a murderous prince and his personal goon squad after they hacked an intrepid Washington Post opinion journalist into pieces for speaking the truth about a corrupt and contented regime. It’s hard to believe now, but there was actually a very brief time — in 2018, to be exact — when corporate America and even some political leaders pretended to have enough…

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Rubio insists U.S. ‘authored’ the Ukraine peace plan, despite contradictory reporting

Rubio insists U.S. ‘authored’ the Ukraine peace plan, despite contradictory reporting

The New York Times reports: Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Saturday that the United States “authored” a 28-point peace plan to end the war in Ukraine, after a Republican senator asserted that Mr. Rubio had distanced himself from the proposal and called it a Russian initiative. Mr. Rubio made the assertion on social media after Senator Mike Rounds, Republican of South Dakota, said Mr. Rubio had earlier on Saturday held a call with a bipartisan group of U.S….

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Trump officials’ meeting with sanctioned Russian in Miami spurs questions about Ukraine proposal

Trump officials’ meeting with sanctioned Russian in Miami spurs questions about Ukraine proposal

Reuters reports: U.S. officials and lawmakers are increasingly concerned about a meeting last month in which representatives of the Trump administration met with Kirill Dmitriev, a Russian envoy who is under U.S. sanctions, to draft a plan to end the war in Ukraine, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. The meeting took place in Miami at the end of October and included special envoy Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Dmitriev, who leads the Russian…

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As Trump’s inquisitors face scrutiny, Judge Aileen Cannon could play a new role

As Trump’s inquisitors face scrutiny, Judge Aileen Cannon could play a new role

Charlie Savage writes: The U.S. attorney in Miami, who is running a sprawling investigation into former officials who investigated President Trump, has been granted an unusual request to convene an extra grand jury at the federal courthouse in Fort Pierce, Fla. The location ensures that just one judge can oversee it: Aileen M. Cannon. That raises a question with intriguing political and legal overtones. Could Judge Cannon again end up as a key player in a Trump-centric case, this one…

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