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Category: Politics

Iran nuclear deal opponents conspired to oust U.S. special envoy Robert Malley

Iran nuclear deal opponents conspired to oust U.S. special envoy Robert Malley

A Middle East Eye correspondent in Tehran writes: Efforts to revive the Iran nuclear deal, which has been moribund since Washington withdrew under President Donald Trump in 2018, began showing promise in September, when the US engaged with Iran in an attempt to ease tensions. Those discussions were aimed at outlining steps to limit Iran’s nuclear programme, secure the release of detained US citizens in the Islamic Republic, and unfreeze some Iranian assets abroad. However, just when it was reported…

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What can we learn from John Rawls’s critique of capitalism

What can we learn from John Rawls’s critique of capitalism

Colin Bradley writes: Neither liberals nor their critics disentangle liberalism from capitalism (though some historians have begun to). Most liberals even emphasise the happy marriage between the two. Among those liberal egalitarians who stress the redistributive New Deal as liberalism’s moral core, few seriously grapple with big issues of political economy. Liberals advance institutional and procedural solutions – ‘structural change’ to representative processes, expanding voting access, etc – but rarely question the basics of political economy like who owns what…

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Conservative constitutional scholars present case that would disqualify Trump from holding office

Conservative constitutional scholars present case that would disqualify Trump from holding office

The New York Times reports: Two prominent conservative law professors have concluded that Donald J. Trump is ineligible to be president under a provision of the Constitution that bars people who have engaged in an insurrection from holding government office. The professors are active members of the Federalist Society, the conservative legal group, and proponents of originalism, the method of interpretation that seeks to determine the Constitution’s original meaning. The professors — William Baude of the University of Chicago and…

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Special counsel proposes January date for Trump’s election interference trial

Special counsel proposes January date for Trump’s election interference trial

The New York Times reports: The prosecutors overseeing the indictment of former President Donald J. Trump on charges of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election asked a judge on Thursday to set a trial date in the case for early January, laying out an aggressive schedule for the proceeding. In a motion filed to Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, who is presiding over the case in Federal District Court in Washington, the prosecutors said they were ready not only to go…

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How Clarence Thomas enjoys ‘the lifestyle of a billionaire’

How Clarence Thomas enjoys ‘the lifestyle of a billionaire’

ProPublica reports: During his three decades on the Supreme Court, Clarence Thomas has enjoyed steady access to a lifestyle most Americans can only imagine. A cadre of industry titans and ultrawealthy executives have treated him to far-flung vacations aboard their yachts, ushered him into the premium suites at sporting events and sent their private jets to fetch him — including, on more than one occasion, an entire 737. It’s a stream of luxury that is both more extensive and from…

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Christianity Today editor: Evangelicals call Jesus ‘liberal’ and ‘weak’

Christianity Today editor: Evangelicals call Jesus ‘liberal’ and ‘weak’

The New Republic reports: The editor in chief of Christianity Today is warning that evangelical Christianity is moving too far to the right, to the point that even Jesus’s teachings are considered “weak” now. Russell Moore resigned from the Southern Baptist Convention in 2021, after years of being at odds with other evangelical leaders. Specifically, Moore openly criticized Donald Trump, whom many evangelical Christians embraced. Moore also criticized the Southern Baptist Convention’s response to a sexual abuse crisis and increasing…

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Private jets are awful for the climate. It’s time to tax the rich who fly in them

Private jets are awful for the climate. It’s time to tax the rich who fly in them

Sen. Edward J Markey writes: The climate crisis is not in transit, it’s arrived at the gate. It’s in our skies, our water, and our land – with record-shattering heat waves, increasingly severe wildfires and flooding from superstorms and rising seas. We have no time for delays. Tackling this crisis and protecting frontline environmental justice communities will take all of us. And the tax-dodging ultra-wealthy need to stop fueling the problem and start supporting first-class solutions. That’s why, this July,…

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Ohio vote shows abortion’s potency to reshape elections

Ohio vote shows abortion’s potency to reshape elections

The New York Times reports: Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio, a Republican, argued that Tuesday’s vote over how to amend the State Constitution was about protecting the state from a flood of special interest money. Secretary of State Frank LaRose, another Republican, urged voters to protect the “very foundational rules” of their constitution. But Ohio voters clearly didn’t buy it. About three million of them showed up for a vote dominated by the debate over abortion rights — an issue…

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Ex-federal judge and prominent conservative, J. Michael Luttig: ‘There is no Republican Party’

Ex-federal judge and prominent conservative, J. Michael Luttig: ‘There is no Republican Party’

  CNN reports: J. Michael Luttig, a conservative retired federal judge and key adviser to former Vice President Mike Pence, declared on Wednesday that “there is no Republican Party” and said former President Donald Trump is even more dangerous than he was in the aftermath of the 2020 election. “American democracy simply cannot function without two equally healthy and equally strong political parties. So today, in my view, there is no Republican Party to counter the Democratic Party in the…

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Special counsel obtained search warrant for Donald Trump’s Twitter account

Special counsel obtained search warrant for Donald Trump’s Twitter account

Politico reports: Special Counsel Jack Smith obtained a search warrant for Donald Trump’s Twitter account, @realDonaldTrump, earlier this year, according to newly revealed court documents. Twitter’s initial resistance to complying with the Jan. 17 warrant resulted in a federal judge holding the company, now called X, in contempt and levying a $350,000 fine. A federal court of appeals upheld that fine last month in a sealed opinion. On Wednesday, the court unsealed a redacted version of that opinion, revealing details…

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Previously secret memo laid out strategy for Trump to overturn Biden’s win

Previously secret memo laid out strategy for Trump to overturn Biden’s win

The New York Times reports: A lawyer allied with President Donald J. Trump first laid out a plot to use false slates of electors to subvert the 2020 election in a previously unknown internal campaign memo that prosecutors are portraying as a crucial link in how the Trump team’s efforts evolved into a criminal conspiracy. The existence of the Dec. 6, 2020, memo came to light in last week’s indictment of Mr. Trump, though its details remained unclear. But a…

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‘Weak dictator’ Ron DeSantis ousts another elected prosecutor he dislikes

‘Weak dictator’ Ron DeSantis ousts another elected prosecutor he dislikes

The Daily Beast reports: The Orlando-area prosecutor ousted by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday hit back at the shock suspension, calling the stunt a “smokescreen” to distract from DeSantis’ spiraling presidential campaign. Monique Worrell is now the second democratically elected state prosecutor to lose her job to a DeSantis power grab. The governor attributed Worrell’s suspension to her being too forgiving on crime, despite her comfortably winning 67 percent of the vote in Orange and Osceola counties in 2020….

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Secrecy in China

Secrecy in China

Michael Schuman writes: The disappearance of Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang has generated a torrent of speculation about what might have happened to him. The mystery points to a larger, and disconcerting, truth: We understand very little about the inner workings of Chinese politics at a moment when we need to know more than ever. China’s Communist regime has always been opaque. But the more China’s global power rises, the more problematic the Communist Party’s secrecy becomes. The decisions made…

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DeSantis’s Florida approves climate-denial videos in schools

DeSantis’s Florida approves climate-denial videos in schools

E&E News reports: Climate activists are like Nazis. Wind and solar power pollute the Earth and make life miserable. Recent global and local heat records reflect natural temperature cycles. These are some of the themes of children’s videos produced by an influential conservative advocacy group. Now, the videos could soon be used in Florida’s classrooms. Florida’s Department of Education has approved the classroom use of material from the Prager University Foundation, a conservative group that produces videos that distort science,…

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Florida schools will restrict access to Shakespeare in English classes

Florida schools will restrict access to Shakespeare in English classes

The Messenger reports: Some Florida educators don’t plan on teaching William Shakespeare in full this fall. Instead, they’re required to teach only excerpts of the plays in an effort to comply with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ conservative education policies. Joseph Cool, a teacher at Gaither High School in Hillsborough County, told the Tampa Bay Times, “There’s some raunchiness in Shakespeare,” and he hardly blames the district for taking the “safe” route in limiting Shakespeare. However, he still thinks the new…

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Special counsel still scrutinizing finances of Trump’s PAC

Special counsel still scrutinizing finances of Trump’s PAC

Politico reports: Special counsel Jack Smith’s probe of efforts by Donald Trump and others to subvert the 2020 election remains ongoing — with at least one interview this week that focused on fundraising and spending by Trump’s political action committee. Meanwhile, the grand jury that indicted Trump last week was spotted meeting Tuesday in the federal courthouse in Washington. In a closed-door interview on Monday with Bernard Kerik, investigators asked multiple questions about the Save America PAC’s enormous fundraising haul…

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