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Category: Politics

Inside Garland’s effort to prosecute Trump

Inside Garland’s effort to prosecute Trump

The New York Times reports: After being sworn in as attorney general in March 2021, Merrick B. Garland gathered his closest aides to discuss a topic too sensitive to broach in bigger groups: the possibility that evidence from the far-ranging Jan. 6 investigation could quickly lead to former President Donald J. Trump and his inner circle. At the time, some in the Justice Department were pushing for the chance to look at ties between pro-Trump rioters who assaulted the Capitol…

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‘Man-made famine’ charge against Israel is backed by mounting body of evidence

‘Man-made famine’ charge against Israel is backed by mounting body of evidence

Peter Beaumont writes: The accusation by the UN and other humanitarians that Israel may be committing a war crime by deliberately starving Gaza’s population is likely to significantly increase the prospect of legal culpability for the country, including at the international court of justice. Amid reports that the Israel Defense Forces are hiring dozens of lawyers to defend against anticipated cases and legal challenges, the charge that Israel has triggered a “man-made famine” by deliberately obstructing the entry of aid…

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U.S. calls for immediate Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal in draft UN resolution

U.S. calls for immediate Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal in draft UN resolution

The Guardian reports: The US has drafted a new UN security council resolution calling for an “immediate ceasefire” and hostage deal in Gaza, amid mounting pressure on Israel to halt its military campaign and allow the delivery of substantial amounts of humanitarian aid into the Palestinian territory. The CIA and Mossad spy chiefs, William Burns and David Barnea, were expected to arrive in Qatar on Friday in the hope of clinching an elusive truce-for-hostages deal between Israel and Hamas. Speaking…

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We are about to witness in Gaza the most intense famine since World War Two

We are about to witness in Gaza the most intense famine since World War Two

Alex de Waal writes: Gaza is already the most intense starvation catastrophe of recent decades. The death toll from hunger and disease may soon surpass the body count from bombs and bullets. The Famine Review Committee reported this week that Gaza is facing “imminent famine”. The Integrated Phase Classification (IPC) system, set up 20 years ago, provides the most authoritative assessments of humanitarian crises. Its figures for Gaza are the worst ever by any metric. It estimates that 677,000 people,…

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America First Legal, a Trump-aligned group run by Stephen Miller, is spoiling for a fight

America First Legal, a Trump-aligned group run by Stephen Miller, is spoiling for a fight

The New York Times reports: The legal group has filed complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission asserting that “woke corporations” like Disney, Nike, Mattel, Hershey, United Airlines and the National Football League discriminate against white males. It has filed lawsuits arguing that school districts in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland and Arizona promote “radical” pro-transgender and pro-gay attitudes. It has filed amicus briefs to protect Florida minors from drag shows and former President Donald J. Trump from a federal jury trial….

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Leonard Leo, Koch networks pour millions into groups prepping for potential second Trump administration

Leonard Leo, Koch networks pour millions into groups prepping for potential second Trump administration

NBC News reports: Huge funding from influential conservative donor networks is flowing into groups affiliated with a conservative venture aimed at creating a Republican “government-in-waiting,” including over $55 million from groups linked to conservative activist Leonard Leo and the Koch network, according to an Accountable.US review shared exclusively with NBC News. Launched by the Heritage Foundation in April 2022, Project 2025 is a two-pronged initiative to develop staunch conservative policy recommendations and grow a roster of thousands of right-wing personnel…

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Putin staged an elaborate election charade. So why did some Western media outlets play along?

Putin staged an elaborate election charade. So why did some Western media outlets play along?

Anne Applebaum writes: There was no election in Russia last weekend. There was no campaign. There were no debates, which was unsurprising, because no issues could be debated. Above all, there were no real candidates, bar one: the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, the man who has just started his fifth, unconstitutional term in office. Russians did line up at polling stations, but these were not actually polling stations. They were props in an elaborate piece of political theater, a…

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U.S. and U.K. doctors in Washington to warn of IDF’s ‘appalling atrocities’ in Gaza

U.S. and U.K. doctors in Washington to warn of IDF’s ‘appalling atrocities’ in Gaza

The Guardian reports: A delegation of American and British doctors is in Washington DC to tell the Biden administration the Israeli military is systematically destroying Gaza’s health infrastructure in order to drive Palestinians out of their homes. The doctors, who have recently returned from volunteering at Gaza’s besieged hospitals, are expected to meet White House officials and senior members of Congress this week to warn that pledges of increased aid to Palestinians under bombardment are largely meaningless without an immediate…

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A statement from Jewish Americans opposing AIPAC

A statement from Jewish Americans opposing AIPAC

A statement from Jewish Americans opposing AIPAC says: We are Jewish Americans who have varying perspectives. We’ve come together to highlight and oppose the unprecedented and damaging role of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and its allied groups in US elections, especially within Democratic Party primaries. We recognize that the purpose of AIPAC’s interventions in electoral politics is to defeat any critics of Israeli government policy and to support candidates who vow unwavering loyalty to Israel, thereby ensuring…

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How the unedifying ‘lessons of Iraq’ reappraisals obscure the war’s real lessons

How the unedifying ‘lessons of Iraq’ reappraisals obscure the war’s real lessons

Muhammad Idrees Ahmad writes: During the 1992 U.S. presidential campaign, Democratic Party candidate Bill Clinton distinguished himself from the Republican incumbent George H. W. Bush with regard to Bosnia by supporting a “lift and strike” policy. Armed with weapons from the old Yugoslav Army, Bosnian Serbs were on a rampage, and a United Nations embargo was preventing Muslim Bosniaks from being able to defend themselves, even as the Bush administration looked on. Clinton’s proposal would lift the arms blockade and…

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Former Giuliani associate names names in shocking video that Fox News won’t air

Former Giuliani associate names names in shocking video that Fox News won’t air

HuffPost reports: Former Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas made some startling accusations during a House Oversight Committee impeachment inquiry hearing on Wednesday, but don’t expect to see it air on Fox News. Parnas, who helped Donald Trump by attempting to pressure Ukraine into investigating Joe Biden, told the committee that various GOP politicians and members of the conservative media purposely spread disinformation about the current president. And he named names, including Fox News host Sean Hannity and Rep. Pete Sessions,…

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Gaza: ‘highest number of people facing catastrophic hunger ever recorded… anywhere, anytime,’ new report warns

Gaza: ‘highest number of people facing catastrophic hunger ever recorded… anywhere, anytime,’ new report warns

CNN reports: Famine is imminent in northern Gaza where 70% of the population are already suffering with catastrophic levels of hunger, a UN-backed report said Monday, as the EU’s top diplomat accused Israel of using “starvation as a weapon of war.” All 2.2 million people in Gaza do not have enough food to eat, with half of the population on the brink of starvation and famine projected to arrive in the north “anytime between mid-March and May 2024,” according to…

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Jared Kushner: Palestinians should be moved to the Negev desert to ‘clean up’ Gaza’s ‘valuable’ waterfront

Jared Kushner: Palestinians should be moved to the Negev desert to ‘clean up’ Gaza’s ‘valuable’ waterfront

The Daily Beast reports: Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner has offered his own solution to the mass bloodshed and displacement in Gaza: some good, old-fashioned real estate development. During an interview with Tarek Masoud, the faculty chair of Harvard’s Middle East Initiative, Kushner proposed moving Palestinians to Israel’s arid desert region to “clean up” Gaza’s “valuable” waterfront. “Gaza’s waterfront property could be very valuable to—if people would focus on building up livelihoods,” Kushner said, without clarifying who exactly would profit…

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Why won’t rich Republicans loan money to upstanding businessman Donald Trump?

Why won’t rich Republicans loan money to upstanding businessman Donald Trump?

Jonathan Chait writes: The Republican Party is united in its belief that Donald Trump’s court-ordered financial distress is the product of Democratic Party “lawfare.” Liberal prosecutors and courts have set out to persecute an upstanding businessman, hounding him over minor or nonexistent financial discrepancies. He is being forced to liquidate his extremely solid business to pay trumped-up fines. The conservative talk-show host Mark Levin has absorbed these complaints and earnestly raises a natural follow-up question: Why aren’t any patriotic conservative…

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Judge Aileen Cannon could get herself booted from Trump’s classified documents case

Judge Aileen Cannon could get herself booted from Trump’s classified documents case

Ray Brescia writes: For the last few weeks, the legal and political world had its eyes on the spectacle of an effort to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from the prosecution of former President Donald Trump, over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia. Yet over the last six months, a slow-moving car-crash of a case has been unfolding, with a judge who seems committed to protecting the former president at every turn of the…

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