Browsed by
Category: Politics

Naomi Klein on Trump, Musk, the far right and ‘End Times fascism’

Naomi Klein on Trump, Musk, the far right and ‘End Times fascism’

  ‘The rise of end times fascism‘ by Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor was published in The Guardian on April 13. The movement for corporate city states cannot believe its good luck. For years, it has been pushing the extreme notion that wealthy, tax-averse people should up and start their own high-tech fiefdoms, whether new countries on artificial islands in international waters (“seasteading”) or pro-business “freedom cities” such as Próspera, a glorified gated community combined with a wild west med…

Read More Read More

Trump is carrying out a ‘personal vendetta’ against law firms

Trump is carrying out a ‘personal vendetta’ against law firms

  It was nearly impossible to get anyone on camera for this story because of the fear now running through our system of justice. In recent weeks, President Trump has signed orders against several law firms — orders with the power to destroy them. That matters because lawsuits have been a check on the president’s power. Many firms and attorneys have been targeted, among them Marc Elias, a long time opponent of Trump who is the only lawyer the president…

Read More Read More

Presidential reform necessitates diminishing presidential power

Presidential reform necessitates diminishing presidential power

Jack Goldsmith writes: Donald Trump’s wrecking-ball second term has revealed the full latent power of the presidency. His administration has done this most clearly in its comprehensive elimination of legal and norm-based checks inside the executive branch, its systematic disrespect of judicial process, its extortionate abuse of government power to crush foes and its destructive rhetoric and nastiness. Yet it is important to recognize that many of Mr. Trump’s efforts to expand the powers of the office build substantially on…

Read More Read More

Israel plans to occupy and flatten all of Gaza if no deal by Trump’s trip to the Middle East

Israel plans to occupy and flatten all of Gaza if no deal by Trump’s trip to the Middle East

Axios reports: Israel has set President Trump’s visit to the Middle East next week as a deadline for a new hostage and ceasefire deal, with a massive ground operation to commence if no deal is reached, Israeli officials say. Why it matters: Israel’s Security Cabinet approved a plan Sunday night to gradually reoccupy all of Gaza and hold it indefinitely if no deal is reached by May 15. Plans for the operation call for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to flatten any buildings that remain…

Read More Read More

Israel wages war for land and water in Syria’s south

Israel wages war for land and water in Syria’s south

Natacha Danon writes: Early last month, Abed, 45, was harvesting zucchini in the fertile valley of Syria’s southwestern Houran region when military vehicles barreled through the fields, kicking up dust and crushing his crops. “They surrounded us, and of course we couldn’t understand them because they spoke Hebrew. They took us in cars, blindfolded us, and brought us to the Israeli border,” he says, gesturing with his weathered hands toward a hill, its ridge sparsely lined with trees. His name…

Read More Read More

Von der Leyen and Macron launch effort to make Europe a ‘safe haven’ for science

Von der Leyen and Macron launch effort to make Europe a ‘safe haven’ for science

Politico reports: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Monday slammed U.S. President Donald Trump’s campaign against American higher education as she unveiled a half-billion-euro plan to attract foreign researchers. “The role of science in today’s world is questioned. The investment in fundamental, free and open research is questioned. What a gigantic miscalculation,” von der Leyen said. “Science has no passport, no gender, no ethnicity or political party.” Appearing alongside French President Emmanuel Macron at Paris’ storied Sorbonne University…

Read More Read More

Trump’s assault on the media is being welcomed by authoritarians around the world

Trump’s assault on the media is being welcomed by authoritarians around the world

The Guardian reports: As Donald Trump’s executive order in March led to the shuttering of Voice of America (VOA) – the global broadcaster whose roots date back to the fight against Nazi propaganda – he quickly attracted support from figures not used to aligning themselves with any US administration. Trump had ordered the US Agency for Global Media, the federal agency that funds VOA and other groups promoting independent journalism overseas, to be “eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with…

Read More Read More

Justice Department lawyers are losing their credibility in the eyes of the judiciary

Justice Department lawyers are losing their credibility in the eyes of the judiciary

The Washington Post reports: Justice Department lawyers defending the Trump administration’s policies are encountering mounting criticism and frustration from federal judges, a sign of deepening tension between the executive branch and courts weighing its aggressive uses of power. In recent hearings and rulings, judges appointed by presidents of both parties have criticized the statements and behavior of administration officials, accusing them of defying court orders, submitting flimsy evidence, providing inadequate answers to questions and even acting like toddlers. The cases…

Read More Read More

Trump’s 48-hour scramble to fly migrants to one of the most brutal prisons in the world

Trump’s 48-hour scramble to fly migrants to one of the most brutal prisons in the world

The Washington Post reports: The message from Secretary of State Marco Rubio to El Salvador’s Foreign Ministry outlined an audacious plan: The United States would be sending as many as 500 Venezuelan gang members to the Central American nation, and it planned to do so within 24 hours. The March 13 communication was part of secretive negotiations with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele and served as Rubio’s formal notice that the Trump administration was sending the Venezuelans to be imprisoned there…

Read More Read More

The world is finally seeing how dangerous El Salvador’s president really is

The world is finally seeing how dangerous El Salvador’s president really is

Nelson Rauda Zablah writes: In May 2020, during the height of Covid, El Salvador was under a military-enforced lockdown. At a news conference, I asked President Nayib Bukele a straightforward question about meeting with the business community about reopening the economy. Mr. Bukele bristled and criticized the founder of El Faro, the news outlet where I work. Afterward, I received death threats from Mr. Bukele’s supporters. One that still stands out was written on Twitter by someone outside the country:…

Read More Read More

Many in Gaza face malnutrition and hunger as Israel’s blockade enters its third month

Many in Gaza face malnutrition and hunger as Israel’s blockade enters its third month

The Associated Press reports: Malnutrition and hunger are becoming increasingly prevalent in the Gaza Strip as Israel’s total blockade enters its third month. A shortage of food and supplies has driven the territory toward starvation, according to aid agencies. Supplies to treat and prevent malnutrition are depleted and quickly running out as documented cases of malnutrition rise. The price of what little food is still available in the market is unaffordable for most in Gaza, where the United Nations says…

Read More Read More

Australia’s backlash against U.S.-style MAGA politics

Australia’s backlash against U.S.-style MAGA politics

Politico reports: Donald Trump may not have been on Australia’s ballot paper, but his shadow loomed large all the same. Over his three years as opposition leader, Peter Dutton, the hard-right prime ministerial candidate of the conservative Liberal Party of Australia, embraced MAGA-style politics and bigged up Trump. In February, for instance, Dutton called Trump a “big thinker” and lauded his “art of the deal” negotiation tactics after the American president called for the U.S. to take over Gaza and…

Read More Read More

Mohsen Mahdawi: I was detained for my beliefs. Who will be next?

Mohsen Mahdawi: I was detained for my beliefs. Who will be next?

Mohsen Mahdawi writes: On April 14, 2025, I was detained during what should have been my citizenship naturalization interview. After more than two weeks of unjust imprisonment, a federal judge ruled in favor of releasing me. In a major victory for democracy, I may be the first of the many student activists who have been detained by the Trump administration to be freed from detention. The Department of Homeland Security had effectively orchestrated a trap. It dangled the prospect of…

Read More Read More

GOP balks at approving even a fraction of Musk’s DOGE cuts

GOP balks at approving even a fraction of Musk’s DOGE cuts

The Washington Post reports: White House officials have in recent weeks brainstormed strategies for enshrining into law the government cuts implemented by billionaire Elon Musk’s team, aiming to turn the U.S. DOGE Service’s moves into lasting policy shifts. So far, however, administration officials are running into resistance not just from Democrats, but also from congressional Republicans, who have in private conversations made clear that it would be difficult to codify even a small fraction of the measures that Musk’s team…

Read More Read More

How to lose an election: emulate Trump

How to lose an election: emulate Trump

Chas Danner writes: Donald Trump keeps losing national elections — for conservatives, in other countries. Prime minister Anthony Albanese claimed a second consecutive term in Australia on Saturday, in large part by running against the trade-warring Trump and highlighting America’s now cautionary tale of what happens when anti-government extremists take over your country and start smashing things. Albanese’s center-left Labor Party is now projected to not only come from behind to win, but expand its majority in Australia’s House of…

Read More Read More

In court, Trump team backs away from its public deportation claims

In court, Trump team backs away from its public deportation claims

Aaron Blake writes: Amid all the controversy over the Trump administration’s deportations, it’s always important to emphasize where these undocumented migrants are being sent. It’s not just that the administration has deported people without legal due process; it’s that it has deported people without legal due process to a brutal prison in El Salvador. The administration says these are gang members and even “terrorists.” But its evidence has been suspect. It has made established mistakes. And a “60 Minutes” report…

Read More Read More