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Category: Politics

Democrats relish Trump-Biden rematch

Democrats relish Trump-Biden rematch

Politico reports: Democrats see former President Donald Trump’s post-indictment political resurgence as alarming for the country … and great for Joe Biden’s reelection hopes. Take it from Sen. Debbie Stabenow. The Michigan Democrat had front row seats to the former president’s shocking win in her state in 2016, and then to his loss to Biden four years later. She thinks a 2024 rematch would look more like the 2020 outcome. “Trump’s obviously an extremely dangerous person who would be very…

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Trump is losing the E. Jean Carroll rape case even before it starts

Trump is losing the E. Jean Carroll rape case even before it starts

The Daily Beast reports: With the rape trial of former President Donald Trump just days away, his effort to prevent jurors from hearing about another incident—when Trump allegedly forced himself on a different journalist—fell flat Monday. The federal judge overseeing the case ruled that Trump’s legal team made their appeal too late. And now jurors are poised to hear about a separate incident that could show a pattern of sexual assault from the former president. It’s the latest sign that…

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Since the invasion of Ukraine, Russia’s leadership is viewed negatively by the majority of the global public

Since the invasion of Ukraine, Russia’s leadership is viewed negatively by the majority of the global public

VOA reports: In the aftermath of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine last year, global attitudes toward Russia’s leadership have shifted dramatically, with large majorities of the population in dozens of countries reporting disapproval of the Kremlin. Data compiled from surveys of thousands of people in 137 countries and regions showed a marked decline in approval of the Kremlin, according to a report released by the Gallup organization on Tuesday. Globally, 57% of respondents reported that they disapprove of…

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Kremlin propagandists outraged that ‘our favorite, Tucker Carlson,’ got fired

Kremlin propagandists outraged that ‘our favorite, Tucker Carlson,’ got fired

Julia Davis reports: The explosive news of Tucker Carlson’s firing from Fox News came as a surprise to many, including some of his biggest fans: propagandists who are shilling for the Kremlin on Russian state TV. During Monday’s broadcast of The Evening With Vladimir Solovyov, state TV propagandists discussed the best ways for Russia to attack America on its own turf, citing internal divisions and conflicts as an opening that should be continually probed and exploited. This conversation naturally led…

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Harry Belafonte: ‘This country reveals its moral decay every day of its existence’

Harry Belafonte: ‘This country reveals its moral decay every day of its existence’

  Following Harry Belafonte’s death at age 96, Rolling Stone‘s obituary recounts: Born in 1927 in Harlem, Harold Bellanfanti was the son of immigrants from Jamaica. His first creative love was the theater. He and Poitier got into acting together, which spun off into Belafonte’s music career. Before he became known, he was once backed by a band including Charlier Parker and Miles Davis; a switch to Caribbean music followed as Belafonte became entranced by the folk music of his…

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Vivek Ramaswamy: Tucker would be ‘good addition’ to GOP presidential field

Vivek Ramaswamy: Tucker would be ‘good addition’ to GOP presidential field

Politico reports: Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said Monday that Tucker Carlson should get into the Republican primary. “I think he’d be a good addition to the race,” Ramaswamy said in an interview with POLITICO, when asked whether he thinks the former Fox News host should mount his own presidential campaign. “I think someone should only do this if they feel called to do it, but I think it’d be good for the country if he got in, to be…

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Tucker Carlson, fired by Fox, gets Moscow job offer from Putin’s lead propagandist, Vladimir Solovyov

Tucker Carlson, fired by Fox, gets Moscow job offer from Putin’s lead propagandist, Vladimir Solovyov

Gabriel Sherman reports: The media world was blindsided by the news that Tucker Carlson and Fox News would be parting ways. So was Carlson. On Monday morning, Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott called Carlson and informed him he was being taken off the air, and his Fox News email account was shut off. According to a source briefed on the conversation, Carlson was stunned by his sudden ouster from his 8 p.m. show, the most watched program in cable news…

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At U.S. behest, Ukraine held off anniversary attacks on Russia

At U.S. behest, Ukraine held off anniversary attacks on Russia

The Washington Post reports: In February, with the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine days away, officials in Kyiv were busy making plans to attack Moscow. Maj. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, the head of the country’s military intelligence directorate, the HUR, instructed one of his officers “to get ready for mass strikes on 24 February … with everything the HUR had,” according to a classified report from the U.S. National Security Agency. Officials even mused about a sea-based strike using…

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World military expenditure reaches new record high as European spending surges

World military expenditure reaches new record high as European spending surges

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) reports: The United States remains by far the world’s biggest military spender. US military spending reached $877 billion in 2022, which was 39 per cent of total global military spending and three times more than the amount spent by China, the world’s second largest spender. The 0.7 per cent real-terms increase in US spending in 2022 would have been even greater had it not been for the highest levels of inflation since 1981. ‘The…

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Putin’s war on Ukrainian memory

Putin’s war on Ukrainian memory

Richard Ovenden writes: Librarians and archivists in Ukraine today are fighting to retain control of the country’s institutional repositories of memory. The bodies of knowledge for which they are responsible are under attack from Russian forces. According to the Ukrainian Library Association, three national and state libraries, including the National Scientific Medical Library of Ukraine, as well as some 25 university libraries, have been severely damaged or destroyed. The most shocking statistics relate to public libraries: 47 have been completely…

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China’s ambassador to France says ex-Soviet states lack basis for sovereignty

China’s ambassador to France says ex-Soviet states lack basis for sovereignty

The Wall Street Journal reports: France and countries across Eastern Europe condemned remarks by China’s ambassador in Paris claiming that post-Soviet states lack a firm basis for their sovereignty under international law. Ambassador Lu Shaye made the comments during an interview late Friday on French TV, in which he was asked whether he considered the peninsula of Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, part of Ukraine under international law. “Even these ex-Soviet Union countries do not have effective…

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As war rages in Sudan, other countries angle for advantage

As war rages in Sudan, other countries angle for advantage

The New York Times reports: As war consumes Sudan, nations from around the world have mobilized swiftly. Egypt scrambled to bring home 27 of its soldiers, who had been seized by one of Sudan’s warring parties. A Libyan warlord offered weapons to his favored side, American officials said. Diplomats from Africa, the Middle East and the West have appealed for a halt to the fighting that has reduced parts of the capital, Khartoum, to a smoking battlefield. Even the leader…

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Forced assimilation of Native American children: ‘Our history has been hidden — the attempted genocide of our people’

Forced assimilation of Native American children: ‘Our history has been hidden — the attempted genocide of our people’

Brandi Morin writes: “The U.S. has some internal searching inside that we have to do as a collective,” says Deborah Parker. The CEO of the Native American Indian Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS) — a network of Native academics, researchers, tribal leaders, boarding school survivors and their descendants working to establish a Congressional Truth Commission — Parker, 52, is at the helm of the efforts to expose the damages inflicted by the insidious 150-year program. The purpose of the commission,…

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Gun violence is actually worse in Republican states. It’s not even close

Gun violence is actually worse in Republican states. It’s not even close

Colin Woodard writes: Listen to the southern right talk about violence in America and you’d think New York City was as dangerous as Bakhmut on Ukraine’s eastern front. In October, Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis proclaimed crime in New York City was “out of control” and blamed it on George Soros. Another Sunshine State politico, former president Donald Trump, offered his native city up as a Democrat-run dystopia, one of those places “where the middle class used to flock to…

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Losing ballot issues on abortion, GOP now tries to keep them off the ballot

Losing ballot issues on abortion, GOP now tries to keep them off the ballot

The New York Times reports: Voters pushed back decisively after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year, approving ballot measures that established or upheld abortion rights in all six states where they appeared. Now, with abortion rights groups pushing for similar citizen-led ballot initiatives in at least six other states, Republican-controlled legislatures and anti-abortion groups are trying to stay one step ahead by making it harder to pass the measures — or to get them on the ballot…

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EPA to propose first controls on greenhouse gases from power plants

EPA to propose first controls on greenhouse gases from power plants

The New York Times reports: President Biden’s administration is poised to announce limits on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants that could compel them to capture the pollution from their smokestacks, technology now used by fewer than 20 of the nation’s 3,400 coal and gas-fired plants, according to three people who were briefed on the rule. If implemented, the proposed regulation would be the first time the federal government has restricted carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants, which generate…

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