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Category: Politics

As bank failures dominate news, Biden administration approves huge Alaska oil project

As bank failures dominate news, Biden administration approves huge Alaska oil project

The New York Times reports: The Biden administration gave formal approval Monday for a huge oil drilling project in Alaska known as Willow, despite widespread opposition because of its likely environmental and climate impacts. The president is also expected to announce sweeping restrictions on offshore oil leasing in the Arctic Ocean and across Alaska’s North Slope in an apparent effort to temper criticism over the Willow decision and, as one administration official put it, to form a “firewall” to limit…

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Elizabeth Warren: We can prevent more bank failures

Elizabeth Warren: We can prevent more bank failures

Elizabeth Warren writes: No one should be mistaken about what unfolded over the past few days in the U.S. banking system: These recent bank failures are the direct result of leaders in Washington weakening the financial rules. In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act to protect consumers and ensure that big banks could never again take down the economy and destroy millions of lives. Wall Street chief executives and their armies of lawyers and…

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The incredible tantrum venture capitalists threw over Silicon Valley Bank

The incredible tantrum venture capitalists threw over Silicon Valley Bank

Edward Ongweso Jr. writes: If the technological innovation coming out of Silicon Valley is as important as venture capitalists insist, the past few days suggest they haven’t been very responsible stewards of it. The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank late last week may have resulted from a perfect storm of ugly events. But it was also emblematic of a startup ecosystem and venture-capital apparatus that are too unstable, too risky, and too unmoored from reality to be left in charge…

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For Russian elite, Dubai becomes a wartime safe harbor

For Russian elite, Dubai becomes a wartime safe harbor

The New York Times reports: On an artificial island on the edge of the Persian Gulf, Dima Tutkov feels safe. There are none of the anti-Russian attitudes that he hears about in Europe. He has noticed no potholes or homelessness, unlike what he saw in Los Angeles. And even as his ad agency turns big profits back in Russia, he does not have to worry about being drafted to fight in Ukraine. “Dubai is much more free — in every…

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International Criminal Court to open war crimes cases against Russia but trial looks unlikely

International Criminal Court to open war crimes cases against Russia but trial looks unlikely

The New York Times reports: The International Criminal Court intends to open two war crimes cases tied to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and will seek arrest warrants for several people, according to current and former officials with knowledge of the decision who were not authorized to speak publicly. The cases represent the first international charges to be brought forward since the start of the conflict and come after months of work by special investigation teams. They allege that Russia…

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How Stalin enlisted the Orthodox Church to help control Ukraine

How Stalin enlisted the Orthodox Church to help control Ukraine

Kathryn David writes: In September 1943, as the tide of the Second World War was turning in the Soviet Union’s favour, the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin called a meeting at the Kremlin. Alongside the foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov and the head of the secret police Vsevolod Merkulov were three men in Stalin’s office for the first time: Metropolitan Sergius, Metropolitan Aleksey, and Metropolitan Nikolay, three of the few Orthodox Church hierarchs left in the Soviet Union. The fact of such…

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The U.S.-Ukraine war unity is slowly cracking apart

The U.S.-Ukraine war unity is slowly cracking apart

Poltico reports: The United States and Ukraine have largely been in lockstep since President Joe Biden’s administration pledged support for “as long as it takes” in resisting Moscow’s relentless invasion. But more than a year into the war, there are growing differences behind the scenes between Washington and Kyiv on war aims, and potential flashpoints loom on how, and when, the conflict will end. “The administration doesn’t have a clear policy objective and a clear goal. Is it to drag…

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Saudi Arabia’s golf case threatens to spill kingdom secrets

Saudi Arabia’s golf case threatens to spill kingdom secrets

The Associated Press reports: Officials who oversee Saudi Arabia’s tens of billions of dollars in U.S. investments haven’t been shy about flaunting their ties with top American business and political figures, down to wearing MAGA caps as they swing golf clubs alongside former President Donald Trump. But they’ve been silent about many of the details of these relationships. That’s changing as a result of a federal lawsuit in California pitting the Saudi-owned golf tour upstart LIV against the PGA Tour….

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China plans new Middle East summit as diplomatic role takes shape

China plans new Middle East summit as diplomatic role takes shape

The Wall Street Journal reports: When Arab leaders met Xi Jinping at a regional summit in Riyadh last December, the Chinese head of state pitched an unprecedented idea: a high-level gathering of Gulf Arab monarchs and Iranian officials in Beijing in 2023, people familiar with the plan said. Days later, Tehran signed on as well. By Friday, China had brokered a deal to restore relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia, which had gone seven years without ties. The broader summit…

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Half a million Israelis join latest protest against Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul, organizers say

Half a million Israelis join latest protest against Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul, organizers say

CNN reports: Half a million Israelis took to the streets in the tenth consecutive week of protests against plans by the government of Benjamin Netanyahu to overhaul the country’s judicial system, organizers claimed. Israel has a population of just over 9 million, so if organizers’ estimates are correct, about 5% of Israelis came out to voice their opposition to the proposed reforms. Nearly half of the protesters – about 240,000 – gathered in Tel Aviv, the organizers said. In Jerusalem,…

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Syria’s catastrophe upon catastrophe

Syria’s catastrophe upon catastrophe

Yassin al-Haj Saleh writes: In the first few days after the earthquake that devastated southern Turkey and northwestern Syria in early February, only vehicles carrying the dead bodies of Syrian refugees crossed the Turkish border into Syria—not aid and equipment to rescue people from the rubble of collapsed buildings, not vitally needed medical supplies, not temporary shelters to protect the frightened and injured from the extreme cold. These were naturally the most crucial days for search-and-rescue efforts, but it was…

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In a sea of data there is a dwindling supply of vital economic data

In a sea of data there is a dwindling supply of vital economic data

The Wall Street Journal reports: In recent months, markets have been laser-focused on every scrap of economic data for evidence on whether inflation is coming down or a recession is approaching. Unfortunately, that data suffers from a growing problem: reduced responses from the people whose activity it seeks to measure. “There’s more data than there has ever been in the history of the world,” said Torsten Slok, the chief economist of Apollo Global Management Inc. “But the Fed has a…

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Does President Biden mean what he says on climate?

Does President Biden mean what he says on climate?

Abigail Dillen writes: In his recent State of the Union address, President Biden acknowledged the “existential threat” posed by climate change, citing an obligation to our children and grandchildren to confront it. Now, his administration is about to test its fidelity to that obligation. It will soon decide whether to approve a major drilling project in Alaska that could pump 280 million tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, derailing the administration’s ability to meet its own climate commitments. The Biden administration has set the most…

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White House denies reports that Alaska oil drilling project has been approved

White House denies reports that Alaska oil drilling project has been approved

The Guardian reports: The Biden administration has denied reports that it has authorized a key oil drilling project on Alaska’s north slope, a highly contentious project that environmentalists argue would damage a pristine wilderness and gut White House commitments to combat climate crisis. Late Friday, Bloomberg was first to report citing anonymous sources that senior Biden advisers had signed off on the project and formal approval would be made public by the Interior Department next week. The decision to authorize…

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Silicon Valley Bank chief pressed lawmakers to weaken bank risk regulations

Silicon Valley Bank chief pressed lawmakers to weaken bank risk regulations

The Lever reports: Eight years before the second-largest bank failure in American history occurred this week, the bank’s president personally pressed Congress to reduce scrutiny of his financial institution, citing the “low risk profile of our activities and business model,” according to federal records reviewed by The Lever. Three years later — after the bank spent more than half a million dollars on federal lobbying — lawmakers obliged. On Friday, California regulators shut down the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), a…

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Saudi deal with Iran worries Israel, shakes up Middle East

Saudi deal with Iran worries Israel, shakes up Middle East

The Associated Press reports: News of the rapprochement between long-time regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran sent shock waves through the Middle East on Saturday and dealt a symbolic blow to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has made the threat posed by Tehran a public diplomacy priority and personal crusade. The breakthrough — a culmination of more than a year of negotiations in Baghdad and more recent talks in China — also became ensnared in Israel’s internal politics, reflecting…

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