Browsed by
Category: Politics

‘Greenland belongs to the people of Greenland’

‘Greenland belongs to the people of Greenland’

Romain Chuffart and Rachael Lorna Johnstone write: In recent days, Donald Trump’s comments regarding Greenland and the informal visit of his son Donald Trump Jr. have reignited discussions about sovereignty, geopolitics, and international law. During his previous presidency, Trump floated the idea of purchasing Greenland in 2019, which at the time was widely dismissed as an absurd proposition. Both Greenlandic and Danish governments stated that Greenland was not for sale and that the Greenlanders were in command of their own…

Read More Read More

Trump’s deportations pledge could upend Nebraska’s economy

Trump’s deportations pledge could upend Nebraska’s economy

NPR reports: Every so often, Al Juhnke, executive director of the Nebraska Pork Producers Association, says he’ll get a phone call from one of his farmers about how to solve Nebraska’s severe labor shortage.. It goes something like this: “Al, I got a great idea. Why don’t we invite any immigrants? Legal, illegal … I don’t care. Invite them to Nebraska because we have lots of openings out on our farm and we need help.” Juhnke smiles wearily as he…

Read More Read More

Hamas, Egypt and Qatar pushing for Marwan Barghouti’s release in ceasefire deal

Hamas, Egypt and Qatar pushing for Marwan Barghouti’s release in ceasefire deal

Middle East Eye reports: Egypt and Qatar, alongside Hamas, are using “all means available” to secure the release of Marwan Barghouti as part of the Gaza ceasefire agreement between the group and Israel, three sources informed on the negotiations have told Middle East Eye. The long-imprisoned Palestinian political leader is on a list “of around one hundred senior Palestinian prisoners” being discussed ahead of the second phase of the truce deal, a source close to the negotiations said. “Marwan alongside…

Read More Read More

Biden administration reaches deal limiting controversial protections for multinational corporations

Biden administration reaches deal limiting controversial protections for multinational corporations

Inside Climate News reports: The Biden administration announced a last-minute deal on trade this week, reaching an agreement with Colombia to limit protections for investors between the two countries. The move represents a small step toward reforming a system that has awarded multinational corporations more than $100 billion in taxpayer funds from countries around the globe. Investor state dispute settlement, or ISDS, allows foreign companies to bypass national courts and sue governments before panels of arbitrators if they believe their…

Read More Read More

Biden’s new constitutional amendment on women’s rights is nothing more than his opinion

Biden’s new constitutional amendment on women’s rights is nothing more than his opinion

Vox reports: Three days before leaving office, President Joe Biden has made a surprising announcement: He declared that a decades-old proposed Constitutional amendment enshrining equal rights on the basis of sex is now “the law of the land.” Except it isn’t. A senior administration official told CNN that Biden was not taking executive action but merely “stating an opinion” that the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was in effect. The National Archives — the federal government agency that is the official…

Read More Read More

How Stephen Miller has become one of the most powerful unelected people in America

How Stephen Miller has become one of the most powerful unelected people in America

The New York Times reports: When Stephen Miller met with Mark Zuckerberg at Mar-a-Lago late last year, the 39-year-old Trump adviser was in a position of power that would have been unimaginable a decade ago. Back then, Mr. Miller was a mere Senate staffer railing about the evils of immigration. Now he was holding forth on U.S. policy with the billionaire chief executive of Meta, a man he had vilified for years as a globalist bent on destroying the nation….

Read More Read More

Trump’s billionaire Treasury pick stresses importance of tax cuts for billionaires

Trump’s billionaire Treasury pick stresses importance of tax cuts for billionaires

Rolling Stone reports: President-elect Donald Trump’s Treasury Secretary pick, a billionaire who has been accused of evading taxes, says that “the most important economic issue of the day” is extending Trump’s tax cuts for the ultra rich. Scott Bessent spoke about his economic plans while sitting for his confirmation hearing before the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday. Bessent is an investor, political donor, and a hedge fund manager. He is a former partner at Soros Fund Management, liberal philanthropist George…

Read More Read More

A euphoric tech industry is ready to celebrate Trump and itself

A euphoric tech industry is ready to celebrate Trump and itself

The New York Times reports: A party at the Beaux-Arts mansion of the venture capitalist Peter Thiel. A blowout organized by hosts of the popular tech podcast “All-In” at a brand-new members-only club. A viewing ceremony hosted by an ascendant, Silicon Valley-inflected network of wealthy donors. Some of the most coveted parties during President-elect Donald J. Trump’s inaugural weekend will be hosted by the Silicon Valley donors who are flush with power at the dawn of his second administration. The…

Read More Read More

A ceasefire won’t stop Israel’s genocidal agenda

A ceasefire won’t stop Israel’s genocidal agenda

Tariq Kenney-Shawa writes: Steven Witkoff, Donald Trump’s incoming Middle East envoy, reportedly didn’t bother with pleasantries when he informed the Israelis that he would be arriving to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last Saturday. When told his visit coincided with Shabbat, meaning the prime minister would be unavailable until the evening, Witkoff made it clear that the Jewish holiday would not interfere with his schedule. Netanyahu, understanding the stakes, went to his office that afternoon to meet the envoy,…

Read More Read More

Israel has declared war on the promise of a strong, democratic Syria

Israel has declared war on the promise of a strong, democratic Syria

Omar Sabbour writes: The end of 2024 delivered a surprising turn of events in the 13-year-long war in Syria. Bashar al-Assad’s regime collapsed spectacularly when faced with a limited operation by rebel forces. Amid the turmoil, Israel expanded its occupation of Syrian land in the south of the country, expelling hundreds of Syrians from their homes. It also launched a devastating campaign of aerial bombardment, wiping out the Syrian air force and military capabilities. Some of the bombardment was so…

Read More Read More

Ceasefire: Trump envoy swayed Netanyahu more in one meeting than Biden did all year, say Arab officials

Ceasefire: Trump envoy swayed Netanyahu more in one meeting than Biden did all year, say Arab officials

  The Times of Israel reports: A “tense” weekend meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and incoming Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff led to a breakthrough in the hostage negotiations, with the top aide to US President-elect Donald Trump doing more to sway the premier in a single sit-down than outgoing President Joe Biden did all year, two Arab officials told The Times of Israel on Tuesday. Witkoff has been in Doha for the past week to take part in the…

Read More Read More

No child should ever see the horrors of Gaza

No child should ever see the horrors of Gaza

Hadeel Awad writes: For 15 months now, Gaza’s children have been reduced to a statistic. The death toll reported gives a specific count for children. Malnourishment and starvation are reported in terms of numbers of children they have affected and killed. Even the cold weather is measured in terms of how many babies it has killed in makeshift tents. But behind these numbers lie heartbreaking stories of Palestinian children whose childhood has been cut short. As a nurse working at…

Read More Read More

The Assads’ houses of death

The Assads’ houses of death

Yezid Sayigh interviews Anne-Marie McManus: Yezid Sayigh: It’s been over a month since a coalition of groups led by the Islamist militia, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, overthrew Bashar al-Assad’s regime, ending a 50-year family dictatorship. Can you give some context to the images that came out of Syrian prisons during and after those events? Anne-Marie McManus: The liberation of the prisons and intelligence branches was not marginal to the fall of the regime. In ways that are really unparalleled in modern…

Read More Read More

Trump’s half billion dollar post-election windfall

Trump’s half billion dollar post-election windfall

Axios reports: President-elect Trump is being inundated with so much money from corporations and wealthy donors that his team expects to raise about $500 million by summer — even though he can’t run again, sources in his operation tell Axios. Why it matters: By stockpiling so much cash, Trump is signaling he doesn’t want to be seen as a lame duck in his second term, and is ready to help political allies, punish opponents and help Republicans keep full control of Congress…

Read More Read More

The one Trump pick Democrats actually like: Lori Chavez-DeRemer

The one Trump pick Democrats actually like: Lori Chavez-DeRemer

Russell Berman writes: Democrats spent more than $20 million last year to end then-Representative Lori Chavez-DeRemer’s congressional career. Now, however, the Republican they worked so hard to defeat is their favorite nominee for President-Elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet. Trump’s selection of Chavez-DeRemer for labor secretary came as a pleasant surprise to many Democrats and union leaders, who expected him to follow past Republican presidents and name a conservative hostile to organized labor. But Chavez-DeRemer endeared herself to unions during her two…

Read More Read More

Trump transition plan to install conservative policymakers around RFK Jr

Trump transition plan to install conservative policymakers around RFK Jr

Politico reports: Just months after Donald Trump promised to let Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “go wild” on health care as a member of his Cabinet, some of the president-elect’s advisers are quietly trying to box him in. Transition officials plan to install several longtime GOP allies in senior roles across the health department, filling out key parts of Kennedy’s leadership team well before he could be confirmed as Health and Human Services secretary. The push aims to surround Kennedy with…

Read More Read More