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Category: Politics

The U.S. and China must work together to combat climate change, says Yellen

The U.S. and China must work together to combat climate change, says Yellen

Reuters reports: The United States and China, as the world’s two largest economies, must work together to combat the “existential threat” of climate change, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Chinese government officials and climate experts on Saturday. During a visit to Beijing, Yellen said previous cooperation on climate change between the U.S. and China had made possible global breakthroughs such as the 2015 Paris Agreement, adding that both governments wanted to support emerging markets and developing countries as they…

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There have been an average of almost two mass shootings every day in the U.S. so far this year

There have been an average of almost two mass shootings every day in the U.S. so far this year

ABC News reports: The United States has faced at least 351 mass shootings so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. This averages out to almost two mass shootings a day. Mass shootings are defined as an incident in which four or more victims are shot or killed, according to the archive. Though mass shootings don’t make up the majority of gun violence incidents in America, their impact on communities and victims is evident. Incidents like the mass…

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‘Sound of Freedom’: Box office triumph for QAnon believers

‘Sound of Freedom’: Box office triumph for QAnon believers

Miles Klee writes: “Based on a true story,” I heard from somewhere across the theater. The familiar words had appeared on screen, and an elderly man had taken it upon himself to read them aloud, to the rest of a sizable audience seated for a matinee showing of the anti-child-trafficking thriller Sound of Freedom, starring Jim Caviezel. For the seasoned moviegoer, this phrase is a joke — we know that cinema will stretch almost any “truth” to the breaking point — and the rank…

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How nationalist movements paved Ukraine’s way to freedom

How nationalist movements paved Ukraine’s way to freedom

Alexander Query writes: When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, many in the West, and in the Kremlin too, expected the Ukrainian state to crumble in weeks, if not days. The government would flee, the state would be carved up – some lands absorbed by Russia, the rest perhaps being made into a Moscow-dominated puppet state. The war might continue, but it would be an insurgency in an occupied country, so the experts said. They were wrong, and part…

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Turkey’s Erdogan says Ukraine deserves NATO membership

Turkey’s Erdogan says Ukraine deserves NATO membership

CNN reports: Ukraine deserves to have NATO membership, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during a joint press conference in Istanbul alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. During the press conference Erdogan also said he hoped the Black Sea grain deal, which Turkey helped broker with Russia, will be extended. The deal, seen as vital for world food security, is expiring in just ten days. The Turkish president went on to say he will support the rebuilding of Ukraine and that…

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Biden approves cluster munition supply to Ukraine

Biden approves cluster munition supply to Ukraine

The Washington Post reports: President Biden has approved the provision of U.S. cluster munitions for Ukraine, with drawdown of the weapons from Defense Department stocks due to be announced Friday. The move, which will bypass U.S. law prohibiting the production, use or transfer of cluster munitions with a failure rate of more than 1 percent, comes amid concerns about Kyiv’s lagging counteroffensive against entrenched Russian troops and dwindling Western stocks of conventional artillery. It follows months of internal administration debate…

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Prosecutors in Trump classified documents case are facing threats

Prosecutors in Trump classified documents case are facing threats

The Washington Post reports: Individual prosecutors involved in the classified documents case against former president Donald Trump are facing substantial harassment and threats online and elsewhere, according to extremism experts and a government official familiar with the matter. At the same time, two officials said, federal agencies have not observed a general increase in threats against law enforcement in the weeks since Trump was indicted in South Florida — a sharp contrast from the surge of violent rhetoric in the…

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The brain-rotting contrarianism of the billionaire tech bros

The brain-rotting contrarianism of the billionaire tech bros

Paul Krugman writes: But for [Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s] last name, nobody would be paying him any attention — and despite that last name, he has zero chance of winning the Democratic presidential nomination. Yet now that Ron DeSantis’s campaign (slogan: “woke woke immigrants woke woke”) seems to be on the skids, Kennedy is suddenly getting support from some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley. Jack Dorsey, who founded Twitter, has endorsed him, while some other prominent tech figures…

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That woman from Michigan would be amazing against Trump

That woman from Michigan would be amazing against Trump

Jonathan Martin writes: Democrats in Michigan’s congressional delegation have pleaded with [Gov. Gretchen] Whitmer to run [for president], I’m told by officials familiar with the conversations, and the lawmakers have themselves been nudged by colleagues from other states to push her. Notably, that roster of congressional Democrats from other states eager for a Whitmer bid included members of the Congressional Black Caucus. These backstage conversations have taken place as Biden’s approval ratings show little sign of improvement and increasingly appear…

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Restricting the govt. from speaking to tech companies will spread disinformation and harm democracy

Restricting the govt. from speaking to tech companies will spread disinformation and harm democracy

Leah Litman and Laurence H. Tribe write: On July 4, federal Judge Terry A. Doughty in the Western District of Louisiana issued a preliminary injunction in Missouri v. Biden, a case that basically turns some elected Republicans’ fixation on social media censorship into legal reality. The impetus behind the case is the now thoroughly debunked conspiracy theory that the government is somehow strong-arming Big Tech into censoring conservative speech and speakers in violation of the First Amendment. While there are, in theory, interesting questions about when…

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Swing state Republicans bleed donors and cash over Trump’s false election claims

Swing state Republicans bleed donors and cash over Trump’s false election claims

Reuters reports: Real estate mogul Ron Weiser has been one of the biggest donors to the Michigan Republican Party, giving $4.5 million in the recent midterm election cycle. But no more. Weiser, former chair of the party, has halted his funding, citing concerns about the organization’s stewardship. He says he doesn’t agree with Republicans who promote falsehoods about election results and insists it’s “ludicrous” to claim Donald Trump, who lost Michigan by 154,000 votes in 2020, carried the state. “I…

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Russia’s war on Ukraine has forced us in Germany to think differently about our role in the world

Russia’s war on Ukraine has forced us in Germany to think differently about our role in the world

Annalena Baerbock, Germany’s foreign minister, writes: Our security is not a given. For too long, we did not listen to the warnings of our eastern neighbours who urged us to take the threats emanating from Russia seriously. We learned that “hoping for the best” is not enough when dealing with an increasingly autocratic leader. Besides all our efforts to construct a European security architecture with Russia, our economic and political interaction also did not sway the Russian regime toward democracy….

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Ukraine warns Russia might attack the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. How worried should we be?

Ukraine warns Russia might attack the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. How worried should we be?

CNN reports: Russian troops have placed “objects resembling explosives” on roofs at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP), Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address Tuesday that instantly sparked concerns around the world. “Perhaps to simulate an attack on the plant. Perhaps they have some other scenario,” Zelensky speculated. But on one point, he was unequivocal: “In any case, the world sees – can’t but see – that the only source of danger to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power…

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Wagner rebellion raises doubts about stability of Russia’s nuclear arsenal

Wagner rebellion raises doubts about stability of Russia’s nuclear arsenal

The Washington Post reports: The rebellion in Russia by Wagner mercenaries confronted Western officials with one of their gravest fears: the possibility of political chaos and instability in the country with the world’s largest nuclear arsenal. Anxiety over who might gain control of Russia’s weapons of mass destruction has long tempered Western hopes that President Vladimir Putin might be ousted from power. But months of nuclear posturing by Putin and other senior Russian officials, and a new debate among Moscow…

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Kremlin ‘can’t confirm’ China’s president urged Putin not to use nuclear arms in Ukraine

Kremlin ‘can’t confirm’ China’s president urged Putin not to use nuclear arms in Ukraine

The Guardian reports: The Kremlin has denied a report that the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, had personally warned his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, against using nuclear weapons in Ukraine. “No, I can’t confirm it,” Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters on Wednesday when asked about a Financial Times report that said Xi delivered the message when he visited Moscow in March. Peskov said the two countries had issued statements at the time on the content of their talks, calling all…

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Kidnapped scholar Elizabeth Tsurkov deserves America’s every effort to bring her to safety

Kidnapped scholar Elizabeth Tsurkov deserves America’s every effort to bring her to safety

New Lines magazine reports: Our last contact with Elizabeth Tsurkov was on March 19. She told us she’d had enough of doing field research in the Middle East and wanted to return to Princeton University to write her doctoral dissertation. “No more fieldwork,” she said. We were relieved. We did not want her to stay in an Iraq that was increasingly dominated by pro-Iranian militias. Just over a week later we learned from our sources that a pro-Iranian militia had…

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