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Category: Politics

A broken immigration system keeps workers out of jobs the U.S. needs to fill

A broken immigration system keeps workers out of jobs the U.S. needs to fill

The Washington Post reports: The leaders of Sanford Medical Center had waited all summer to learn the fate of the 59 nurses planning to move across the world to their isolated state capital. The reinforcements from the Philippines, Kenya and Nigeria would allow the hospital to expand its heart unit and staff a new wing. Costly temporary nurses would go. The scramble to fill shifts would finally be over. But by the time the hospital’s department heads gathered in a…

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Chris Hayes: The war in Gaza must end

Chris Hayes: The war in Gaza must end

.@chrislhayes: “There is no terrorist attack, no matter how horrific—and truly Oct. 7 was horrific—that can wash clean what we are seeing in Gaza and what we as Americans and our government are abetting. It must end. We must stop it.” pic.twitter.com/2nKYlWoaGl — All In with Chris Hayes (@allinwithchris) December 20, 2023

Humanitarian groups urge Defense Secretary Austin to halt Israel aid over Gaza operations

Humanitarian groups urge Defense Secretary Austin to halt Israel aid over Gaza operations

Politico reports: A group of prominent humanitarian organizations is calling on Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to halt military and other aid to Israel over its operations in Gaza that they say have caused “staggering” civilian harm, according to a letter sent to the Pentagon chief on Wednesday. The groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, urged Austin in the letter to “withhold U.S. assistance, in accordance with U.S. law and policy, that would facilitate violations of international humanitarian law”…

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What may follow from Colorado Supreme Court’s decision that Trump is not eligible for primary ballot

What may follow from Colorado Supreme Court’s decision that Trump is not eligible for primary ballot

  The Colorado Supreme Court, having agreed that Trump engaged in insurrection, ruled in a 4-3 decision that Trump is disqualified from the presidency. Therefore, he is not eligible to be on the 2024 primary ballot in Colorado. Trump’s lawyers have already stated they plan to appeal the decision. Former federal prosecutor, Harry Litman, outlines the various ways in which the U.S. Supreme Court may rule if it takes up the case.   Discussion between Lawfare Editor in Chief Benjamin…

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What happened when the U.S. failed to prosecute an insurrectionist ex-president

What happened when the U.S. failed to prosecute an insurrectionist ex-president

Jill Lepore wrote earlier this month: Jefferson Davis, the half-blind ex-President of the Confederate States of America, leaned on a cane as he hobbled into a federal courthouse in Richmond, Virginia. Only days before, a Chicago Tribune reporter, who’d met Davis on the boat ride to Richmond, had written that “his step is light and elastic.” But in court, facing trial for treason, Davis, fifty-eight, gave every appearance of being bent and broken. A reporter from Kentucky described him as…

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America has a McGonigal problem

America has a McGonigal problem

Mattathias Schwartz writes: The case of Charles McGonigal is bigger than one corrupt FBI agent. In fact, it’s bigger than the entire FBI. The legal case against Charles McGonigal, the FBI’s former New York counterintelligence chief — a scandal that launched a thousand conspiracy theories — is beginning to wind down. Last week, a judge in the Southern District of New York sentenced McGonigal to 50 months in prison; a second judge in Washington, DC, is expected to sentence McGonigal…

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Xi warned Biden during summit that Beijing will reunify Taiwan with China

Xi warned Biden during summit that Beijing will reunify Taiwan with China

NBC News reports: Chinese President Xi Jinping bluntly told President Joe Biden during their recent summit in San Francisco that Beijing will reunify Taiwan with mainland China but that the timing has not yet been decided, according to three current and former U.S. officials. Xi told Biden in a group meeting attended by a dozen American and Chinese officials that China’s preference is to take Taiwan peacefully, not by force, the officials said. The Chinese leader also referenced public predictions…

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Colorado Supreme Court kicks Trump off the state’s 2024 primary ballot for violating the U.S. Constitution

Colorado Supreme Court kicks Trump off the state’s 2024 primary ballot for violating the U.S. Constitution

NBC News reports: In a bombshell decision, Colorado’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that former President Donald Trump’s candidacy in the state’s primary next year is prohibited on constitutional grounds. The first-of-its kind ruling stems from a lawsuit that focused a little-known provision in the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Similar challenges in other states have proven unsuccessful. “A majority of the court holds that President Trump is disqualified from holding the office of President under Section Three of…

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Democratic lawmakers who served in military and CIA urge Biden to push Israel to change course in Gaza

Democratic lawmakers who served in military and CIA urge Biden to push Israel to change course in Gaza

NBC News reports: A number of Democratic lawmakers who served in the military and in the CIA say Israel’s tactics in the Gaza Strip are endangering efforts to defeat Hamas militants and called on President Joe Biden to use “all our leverage” to secure an immediate shift in Israel’s approach. In a letter sent Monday to Biden, the House lawmakers said they were “deeply concerned” by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s current military strategy in Gaza. “The mounting civilian death…

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Poll finds wide disapproval of Biden on Gaza with sharp generational divide on Israel

Poll finds wide disapproval of Biden on Gaza with sharp generational divide on Israel

The New York Times reports: Voters broadly disapprove of the way President Biden is handling the bloody strife between Israelis and Palestinians, a New York Times/Siena College poll has found, with younger Americans far more critical than older voters of both Israel’s conduct and of the administration’s response to the war in Gaza. Voters are also sending decidedly mixed signals about the direction U.S. policy-making should take as the war in Gaza grinds into its third month, with Israelis still…

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Red Sea attacks on ships pose another threat to an already precarious global economy

Red Sea attacks on ships pose another threat to an already precarious global economy

The New York Times reports: The wave of attacks against merchant ships in the Red Sea is forcing companies to send ships on longer routes and threatens to hurt an already wobbly global economy. The Houthis, an armed group backed by Iran that controls much of northern Yemen, have been using drones and missiles to target ships since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7. That has forced some shipping giants and oil companies to avoid the Suez Canal, a development…

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Ukraine finally moves to fortify front line, but could it be too little too late?

Ukraine finally moves to fortify front line, but could it be too little too late?

The Kyiv Independent reports: “If you want to live, dig.” The words, often spoken by Ukrainian troops, are universal advice for trench warfare in general, but especially for both sides in Russia’s war against Ukraine. Normally expressed as advice to the individual soldier, the maxim now applies to the country as a whole. Twenty-one months into the full-scale war, World War I-style tactics, with the high-tech edge brought by drones and other innovations, continue to dominate. Russia and Ukraine are…

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What does it mean to erase a people – a nation, culture, identity? In Gaza, we are beginning to find out

What does it mean to erase a people – a nation, culture, identity? In Gaza, we are beginning to find out

Nesrine Malik writes: I will start this column with a question for you, dear reader. What connects you with your country, and makes you feel it is yours? What gives you a sense of identity and belonging? It’s the physical things, of course – where you live, where you were born, where your family and friends reside. But underlying those practical aspects, I suspect, are all the other things that you don’t think about, that you take for granted. The…

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‘We have to recognize everyone’s safety is intertwined’: Peter Beinart of Jewish Currents on Gaza

‘We have to recognize everyone’s safety is intertwined’: Peter Beinart of Jewish Currents on Gaza

  Katie Couric talks with Peter Beinart, editor-at-large at Jewish Currents, about how his views on the Israel Palestine conflict changed after visiting the West Bank and talking with Palestinians. He also shares his ideas for how the conflict could finally end, using South Africa and Northern Ireland as guides.

Pope condemns Israeli attack on Catholic church in Gaza as ‘terrorism’

Pope condemns Israeli attack on Catholic church in Gaza as ‘terrorism’

  BBC News reports: Civilians trapped in a church in Gaza City are living in an “unreal” sense of fear, a relative of one of those confined there has said. Fifi Saba, whose sister is trapped inside the Holy Family Church, said people were scared to move out of fear of being shot. A mother and her daughter were killed inside the church by sniper fire on Saturday, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said. Pope Francis condemned the attack. “A…

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Mehdi Hasan interviews Jewish journalist Masha Gessen on comparing Gaza to a Nazi-era ghetto

Mehdi Hasan interviews Jewish journalist Masha Gessen on comparing Gaza to a Nazi-era ghetto

  Russian-American writer Masha Gessen received backlash in Germany and a scaled-back ceremony for a prominent award after they compared conditions in Gaza to those of Nazi-era Jewish ghettos in Eastern Europe in a recent piece. MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan speaks with Gessen, a staff writer at The New Yorker, about the controversy.