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Category: Politics

Biden is building a ‘superstructure’ to stop Trump from stealing the election

Biden is building a ‘superstructure’ to stop Trump from stealing the election

Rolling Stone reports: For years, Donald Trump has made it abundantly clear that if he doesn’t win the 2024 presidential election, he is willing to cheat and steal it. Since President Joe Biden’s inaugural address, according to sources with intimate knowledge of the situation, Biden and his inner circle have been drawing up meticulous plans and creating a large legal network focused on wargaming a close election finish, in which the former president and Republican Party launch a scorched-earth, Big…

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‘Biden dramatically misread the Israeli political dynamic.’ Daniel Levy on how Biden hitched himself to Netanyahu

‘Biden dramatically misread the Israeli political dynamic.’ Daniel Levy on how Biden hitched himself to Netanyahu

Omid Memarian writes: In the 1990s and again in the early 2000s, Daniel Levy worked as a peace negotiator in Israel’s talks with the Palestinians, under Prime Ministers Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Barak. He saw firsthand the promise of the Oslo peace process—and its ultimate failure, “eventually just becoming another way of managing the occupation,” he tells Democracy in Exile. With the Biden administration reviving vague talk of a two-state solution—even as it has vetoed three U.N. Security Council resolutions…

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How Putin’s police state leaves Russia vulnerable to terrorist attacks

How Putin’s police state leaves Russia vulnerable to terrorist attacks

Steve Gutterman writes: A week after the last Russian presidential election, in 2018, a fire at a crowded mall in Siberia killed more than 60 people, many of them children. Five days after the conclusion of this year’s voting, camouflage-clad gunmen opened fire at a concert hall just outside Moscow, killing at least 115 people in an attack claimed by the militant group Islamic State. The Kremlin casts President Vladimir Putin as something close to a savior, a strong leader…

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What happens when an AG dares to investigate Leonard Leo’s network

What happens when an AG dares to investigate Leonard Leo’s network

Politico reports: Allies of Leonard Leo have mounted a monthslong offensive against the man investigating the judicial activist’s network: Washington, D.C., Attorney General Brian Schwalb. Since news of the probe broke last August, the GOP chairs of powerful congressional committees launched their own investigation of Schwalb’s investigation; conservative media wrote articles criticizing Schwalb on unrelated crime issues — based on a social media post from a top Leo lieutenant; and a group of his Republican law enforcement peers sent letters…

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The last time a Trump company went public it didn’t go well for investors

The last time a Trump company went public it didn’t go well for investors

NBC News reports: Donald Trump’s social media company could go public as soon as next week, paving the way for a potentially huge windfall for a former president who raked in tens of millions of dollars the last time one of his companies was listed on a stock exchange. That previous, decades-ago experience, however, did not end well for the company or its investors. While a 2016 Washington Post review found that Trump made over $44 million, the company —…

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UNICEF official tells of ‘utter annihilation’ after travelling length of Gaza

UNICEF official tells of ‘utter annihilation’ after travelling length of Gaza

The Guardian reports: An aid official who travelled the length of Gaza this week has described scenes of “utter annihilation”, with “nothing left” of what were once thriving and crowded cities in the territory. “The depth of the horror surpasses our ability to describe it,” said James Elder, a spokesperson with the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef). “As soon as you drive through the north, you get that universal gesture of hunger of people putting their hands to their mouths….

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What did U.S. Gaza ‘ceasefire’ resolution say and why did Russia and China veto it?

What did U.S. Gaza ‘ceasefire’ resolution say and why did Russia and China veto it?

Patrick Wintour writes: After months of vetoing other UN security council resolutions in an effort to defend Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, the US has in recent weeks gone on to the diplomatic front foot in New York, drafting and tabling its own resolution that was put to a vote on Friday before being vetoed by Russia and China. The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said the resolution would send “a strong signal”. But what was that signal precisely?…

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Doctors, back from Gaza hospitals, tell Washington of horrors and press for immediate ceasefire

Doctors, back from Gaza hospitals, tell Washington of horrors and press for immediate ceasefire

The New York Times reports: The memories are indelible. Screaming families carrying bloodied loved ones through the doors of an overcrowded hospital. A boy trying to resuscitate a child who looked not much older than himself. A 12-year-old with shrapnel wounds to his head and abdomen being intubated on the ground. What he saw that January day at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza — after a missile strike on an aid distribution site — has haunted…

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More young Americans favor Palestinians than Israelis, while half of Americans are ignorant about the death toll in Gaza

More young Americans favor Palestinians than Israelis, while half of Americans are ignorant about the death toll in Gaza

Middle East Eye reports: More young Americans have favourable views of Palestinians than they do of Israelis in the current war in Gaza, while about half of the US population doesn’t know which side has a higher death toll, according to a new poll by Pew Research Center. The poll is the latest research conducted on American attitudes toward Israel’s war, which began in October. It found that 60 percent of Americans between the ages of 18-29 expressed favourable views…

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U.S. says ISIS was responsible for deadly Moscow concert hall attack

U.S. says ISIS was responsible for deadly Moscow concert hall attack

The New York Times reports: A branch of the Islamic State claimed responsibility on Friday for the attack in Moscow that killed at least 40 people and injured about 100 others, and U.S. officials confirmed the claim shortly afterward. The United States collected intelligence in March that Islamic State-Khorasan, known as ISIS-K, the branch of the group based in Afghanistan, had been planning an attack on Moscow, according to officials. ISIS members have been active in Russia, one U.S. official…

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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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