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Category: Politics

Why democracy is imperiled by corruption as easily as it is by authoritarianism

Why democracy is imperiled by corruption as easily as it is by authoritarianism

Will Freeman writes: President Dina Boluarte this month became the third Peruvian leader to be impeached in five years. With an approval rating hovering around 3 percent, she had become, by some estimates, one of the most loathed elected heads of state in the world. After her ouster, you would think the country would be celebrating. Ms. Boluarte, who was thrust into office in December 2022 after her predecessor was impeached, was widely blamed by Peruvians for failing to prevent…

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Steve Bannon is adamant ‘there’s a plan’ for third Trump term — despite the 22nd Amendment

Steve Bannon is adamant ‘there’s a plan’ for third Trump term — despite the 22nd Amendment

  The Daily Beast reports: Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon openly shared that there are plans to help Donald Trump circumvent the 22nd Amendment and secure a third presidential term. In an interview with The Economist, Bannon told the magazine’s editors, “He’s gonna get a third term, Trump ’28, Trump is gonna be president ’28 so people just ought to get accommodated with that.” When asked by editor-in-chief Zanny Minton Beddoes about the 22nd Amendment, Bannon replied, “There’s…

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What happened in Gaza is far worse than many Americans want to believe

What happened in Gaza is far worse than many Americans want to believe

Lydia Polgreen writes: For many Americans, there might be a temptation to disbelieve the enormity of what has happened in Gaza. After all, it is a catastrophe funded by our money, made possible by our weapons, condoned by our government and carried out by one of our closest allies. It’s little wonder that some want to downplay the damage. Their defense is to cast doubt on the numbers. It goes something like this: The death toll, counted by the Hamas-run…

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Andrew Cuomo exposes his own racism with an AI ad depicting ‘criminals for Zohran Mamdani’

Andrew Cuomo exposes his own racism with an AI ad depicting ‘criminals for Zohran Mamdani’

The Guardian reports: New York City mayoral hopeful Andrew Cuomo has been widely labeled as racist after his official X account posted – and then deleted – an AI-generated ad depicting “criminals for Zohran Mamdani”. Not even 20 minutes into the second mayoral debate, Cuomo’s official account, @andrewcuomo, tweeted the video. It was reshared by many before being deleted. The Cuomo and Mamdani campaigns did not immediately respond to the Guardian’s request for comment. The video, which has been saved…

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Sequoia Capital COO resigns because of partner Shaun Maguire’s Islamophobic attacks on Mamdani

Sequoia Capital COO resigns because of partner Shaun Maguire’s Islamophobic attacks on Mamdani

Middle East Eye reports: Sumaiya Balbale, the chief operating officer at Sequoia Capital, resigned from the Silicon Valley venture capital firm in August, after partner Shaun Maguire wrote posts about New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani that she reportedly viewed as Islamophobic, the Financial Times revealed on Wednesday. Maguire, an American venture capitalist with close ties to X owner Elon Musk, wrote in a July post on the platform: “Mamdani comes from a culture that lies about everything. It’s…

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Bodies wash ashore in Trinidad after U.S. strikes

Bodies wash ashore in Trinidad after U.S. strikes

The New York Times reports: The first body washed ashore on Trinidad’s northeastern coast soon after the United States carried out its first strike in September on a boat in the Caribbean. Villagers said the corpse had burn marks on its face and was missing limbs, as if it had been mangled by an explosion. The tides deposited another corpse on a nearby beach days later, drawing a wake of vultures. Its face was similarly unrecognizable, and its right leg…

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‘He’s not innocent’: GOP senator denounces Trump’s pardon of crypto billionaire CZ

‘He’s not innocent’: GOP senator denounces Trump’s pardon of crypto billionaire CZ

Politico reports: Republican Sen. Thom Tillis condemned President Donald Trump’s move to pardon cryptocurrency mogul Changpeng Zhao on Thursday, saying it sends “a bad signal.” “I don’t like it,” the retiring North Carolina Republican told reporters. “He was convicted. He’s not innocent.” His comments signal that some GOP lawmakers are uneasy with the move to pardon Zhao, who pleaded guilty in November 2023 to money laundering-related charges. Zhao, often known as CZ, founded the crypto exchange Binance, which federal prosecutors…

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Trump’s East Wing blitz triggers chorus of disgust

Trump’s East Wing blitz triggers chorus of disgust

The Guardian reports: When Barack Obama roasted Donald Trump at the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, the icing on the cake was a cartoon illustration of what the White House might look like if Trump ever became US president. The name “Trump” was emblazoned across the top in giant capital letters, followed by “the White House” in lurid purple cursive, then “hotel  casino  golf course” and “presidential suite”. The parody imagined gold pillars, a giant crystal chandelier and two scantily clad…

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The only check-and-balance that actually matters isn’t written in law

The only check-and-balance that actually matters isn’t written in law

Garrett Graff writes: The destruction this week of the East Wing of the White House has been uniquely shocking, a physical manifestation of what Donald Trump is doing to our presidency and our country — the excavators and heavy equipment demolishing a 120-year-old literal piece of American history feels in many ways a microcosm of so many Trump controversies. It came out of left field, with no real warning or public debate, no permissions asked or given, to serve Donald…

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Prominent Jews across the globe call on UN and world leaders to sanction Israel

Prominent Jews across the globe call on UN and world leaders to sanction Israel

The Guardian reports: Prominent Jewish figures around the world are calling on the United Nations and world leaders to impose sanctions on Israel over what they describe as “unconscionable” actions amounting to genocide in Gaza. Over 450 signatories, including former Israeli officials, Oscar winners, authors and intellectuals have signed an open letter demanding accountability over Israel’s conduct in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. The letter’s release comes as EU leaders meet in Brussels on Thursday amid reports…

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Trump considering offering ‘refugee’ status to white far-right English-speakers who oppose immigration

Trump considering offering ‘refugee’ status to white far-right English-speakers who oppose immigration

The New York Times reports: The Trump administration is considering a radical overhaul of the U.S. refugee system that would slash the program to its bare bones while giving preference to English speakers, white South Africans and Europeans who oppose migration, according to documents obtained by The New York Times. The proposals, some of which already have gone into effect, would transform a decades-old program aimed at helping the world’s most desperate people into one that conforms to Mr. Trump’s…

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Generals and senior officers say trust in Hegseth has evaporated

Generals and senior officers say trust in Hegseth has evaporated

The Washington Times reports: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has lost the trust and respect of some top military commanders, with his public “grandstanding” widely seen as unprofessional and the personnel moves made by the former cable TV host leading to an unprecedented and dangerous exodus of talent from the Pentagon, said current senior military officers and current and former Defense Department officials. Numerous high-ranking officers painted Mr. Hegseth’s Sept. 30 speech to hundreds of generals and admirals gathered at Marine…

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Federal thugs head to San Francisco Bay Area to incite ‘backlash, chaos and violence.’ Don’t be baited

Federal thugs head to San Francisco Bay Area to incite ‘backlash, chaos and violence.’ Don’t be baited

San Francisco Chronicle reports: The Trump administration has dispatched more than 100 federal agents, including from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, to Coast Guard Base Alameda and they will begin to arrive Thursday, according to the U.S. Coast Guard and a source familiar with the operation. The surge of federal agents was seen as a likely precursor to President Donald Trump deploying National Guard troops to San Francisco. In other cities around the nation, the administration has increased immigration enforcement…

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A veteran journalist opens up on the censorship that led to his resignation

A veteran journalist opens up on the censorship that led to his resignation

Alan Greenblatt writes: The censorship you never hear about may be the worst, or at least the most insidious. Thankfully, many journalists are speaking out at a crucial moment for the press. Virtually every major outlet refused the Pentagon’s edict that they publish or broadcast only information handed to them by the Department of Defense (which the administration calls the Department of War). And there have been several other examples just in recent days of journalists leaving their jobs in…

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‘Access to good food should be a universal right’

‘Access to good food should be a universal right’

Hannah Goldfield writes: One morning in late September, the writer and former Times columnist Mark Bittman walked into the Lower East Side Girls Club, a rec center in Alphabet City and the site of what would become, in less than eight hours, his first restaurant. At 6 P.M., an inaugural group of guests would arrive for the soft opening of Community Kitchen, a not-for-profit fine-dining experiment that Bittman spent years concocting, and which had found a home—for the next few…

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Stephen Miller is directing Trump’s war on drug boats

Stephen Miller is directing Trump’s war on drug boats

Jonathan Blitzer writes: Late this summer, James Story, who served as U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela for three years of Donald Trump’s first term and for two of Joe Biden’s, felt that anything was possible in the relationship between Washington and Caracas. It had been six years since the U.S. closed its Embassy in Venezuela, to protest the rule of the Socialist authoritarian Nicolás Maduro. The issue of how to dislodge Maduro’s regime has been an American political conundrum for at…

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