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Category: Politics

What the hell happened to Biden’s human rights agenda?

What the hell happened to Biden’s human rights agenda?

Matthew Duss writes: As president, Donald Trump made no secret of his admiration for repressive rulers around the world. Joe Biden campaigned on a promise to change that. He regularly criticized Donald Trump’s silence about repressive regimes and promised that a Biden administration would “hold to account those who perpetrate human rights abuses.” Since taking office he has repeated the refrain that “human rights will be the center of our foreign policy.” Not only has Biden not honored this promise,…

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Russia sought to assassinate defector in Florida

Russia sought to assassinate defector in Florida

The New York Times reports: As President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has pursued enemies abroad, his intelligence operatives now appear prepared to cross a line that they previously avoided: trying to kill a valuable informant for the U.S. government on American soil. The clandestine operation, seeking to eliminate a C.I.A. informant in Miami who had been a high-ranking Russian intelligence official more than a decade earlier, represented a brazen expansion of Mr. Putin’s campaign of targeted assassinations. It also…

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Blinken and Xi pledge to stabilize deteriorated U.S.-China ties, but the main U.S. request is rebuffed

Blinken and Xi pledge to stabilize deteriorated U.S.-China ties, but the main U.S. request is rebuffed

The Associated Press reports: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met on Monday with Chinese President Xi Jinping and said they agreed to “stabilize” badly deteriorated U.S.-China ties, but America’s top diplomat left Beijing with his biggest ask rebuffed: better communications between their militaries. After meeting Xi, Blinken said China is not ready to resume military-to-military contacts, something the U.S. considers crucial to avoid miscalculation and conflict, particularly over Taiwan. Yet Blinken and Xi pronounced themselves satisfied with progress made…

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Bill Barr: Trump’s ‘a very petty individual who will always put his interests ahead of the country’s’

Bill Barr: Trump’s ‘a very petty individual who will always put his interests ahead of the country’s’

  ROBERT COSTA: Would he put the country at risk if he was in the White House again? FMR. ATTORNEY GENERAL BARR: He- he will always put his own interests, and gratifying his own ego, ahead of everything else, including the country’s interest, there’s no question about it. This is a perfect example of that. He’s like, you know, he’s like a nine year old, defiant nine year old kid who’s always pushing the glass toward the edge of the…

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How government rules for classified papers could help Trump delay his trial

How government rules for classified papers could help Trump delay his trial

The Washington Post reports: As former president Donald Trump prepares for trial on charges that he repeatedly violated government rules for handling classified information, his legal team may get a tactical timing advantage from an unlikely source: government rules for handling such secrets. Trump’s indictment on dozens of charges, including mishandling classified documents and trying to obstruct investigators’ efforts to recover that material, means his case will be tried under the rules of the Classified Information Procedures Act, or CIPA…

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Native Americans are major victims of Minneapolis police racism: DOJ

Native Americans are major victims of Minneapolis police racism: DOJ

Mother Jones reports: After George Floyd’s murder in 2020, Native Americans stood beside Black protesters in Minneapolis and called for changes to policing. Now, the Justice Department is highlighting how the city’s cops have been racist against them, too. On Friday, the department released a blistering report showing that for years, the Minneapolis police have discriminated against Native Americans as well as Black residents, creating the conditions that led to Floyd’s death. The police are much more likely to stop…

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‘They enjoyed this’: Ukrainian woman recounts five-month nightmare of torture and imprisonment

‘They enjoyed this’: Ukrainian woman recounts five-month nightmare of torture and imprisonment

The Observer reports: Olena Yahupova was first taken by the Russian occupiers in the Ukrainian city of Enerhodar last October. Neighbours she knew had informed on her, telling the FSB secret police that her husband was a Ukrainian military officer. What followed, she says, was two days of torture with the secret police – which turned out to be only a prelude to a nightmare of five months of detention and forced labour, during which she also had to act…

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Americans describe harsh life in remote Russian labor camp

Americans describe harsh life in remote Russian labor camp

The Wall Street Journal reports: The Russian national anthem blares from loudspeakers each morning at the IK-17 penitentiary in Russia’s Mordovia region, awakening prisoners to another day in a labor camp known for hazardous work, limited nourishment and summary stints in solitary confinement. Guards and inmates refer to IK-17 as a “fashion colony,” mainly for its brightly painted exteriors meant to impress occasional visitors. But accounts from current American inmates paint a much darker picture of the remote penitentiary, 300…

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‘The fires here are unstoppable’

‘The fires here are unstoppable’

The New York Times reports: An out-of-control fire was advancing rapidly toward a logging road on Tuesday afternoon, tearing through Canada’s immense — and highly flammable — boreal forest with a force and intensity bewildering to a team of French firefighters. Surrounded by thick smoke, a handful of them headed into the forest to search for water. A veteran knelt down and used his right finger to sketch a plan on the gravel road, pressing to attack the fire head-on….

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Inside the unexpectedly wild landmark Montana youth climate trial

Inside the unexpectedly wild landmark Montana youth climate trial

Karin Kirk writes: When I got an assignment to cover the landmark youth climate lawsuit that went to trial in Montana this week, I thought I was going to be able to pop in, grab some salient quotes, and write up a story. But the trial at a state district court in Helena has turned out to be unexpectedly wild. The testimony has been gripping. And the contrast between the polished lawyering of the plaintiffs’ side compared to the somewhat…

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Evidence in Trump documents case hints at ‘ongoing investigations,’ filing says

Evidence in Trump documents case hints at ‘ongoing investigations,’ filing says

The New York Times reports: The federal prosecutors overseeing the classified documents case against former President Donald J. Trump said in court papers on Friday that the evidence they are poised to give the defense as part of the normal process of discovery contained information about “ongoing investigations” that could “identify uncharged individuals.” The court papers — a standard request to place a protective order on the discovery material — contained no explanation about what those other inquiries might be…

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Why the evidence suggests Russia blew up the Kakhovka dam

Why the evidence suggests Russia blew up the Kakhovka dam

The New York Times reports: Even in a war that has razed entire cities, the destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric dam in southern Ukraine stands out. Thousands of people were displaced by flooding from one of the world’s largest reservoirs, which was vital for irrigating farmland considered the breadbasket of Europe. The disaster puts global food supplies for millions at risk and could threaten fragile ecosystems for decades. The dam was visibly scarred by fighting in the months before the…

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How George Soros became a target for nationalists, populists and people who promote antisemitic beliefs

How George Soros became a target for nationalists, populists and people who promote antisemitic beliefs

George Soros in a 2017 photo. Olivier Hoslet/EPA via AP By Armin Langer, University of Florida Billionaire investor and philanthropist George Soros is handing control of his US$25 billion holdings, including his Open Society Foundations, to one of his sons, Alexander Soros. As a sociologist who researches immigrants and minorities in Europe and conspiracy theories about them, I study how Soros became a scapegoat and bogeyman for nationalists and populists and a target of people who harbor and spread antisemitic…

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Twitter suspends the accounts of prominent Tesla and Elon Musk critic, PlainSite founder Aaron Greenspan

Twitter suspends the accounts of prominent Tesla and Elon Musk critic, PlainSite founder Aaron Greenspan

I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 25, 2022 CNBC reports: Twitter suspended the accounts of PlainSite and its founder Aaron Greenspan, a prolific Tesla and Elon Musk critic, Tuesday afternoon. PlainSite is an online database that makes state and federal court filings and other public records available to users for free. The site also offers analytics features to paying subscribers, meant to help lawyers…

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‘A sense of betrayal’: Liberal dismay as Muslim-led Michigan city bans Pride flags

‘A sense of betrayal’: Liberal dismay as Muslim-led Michigan city bans Pride flags

The Guardian reports: In 2015, many liberal residents in Hamtramck, Michigan, celebrated as their city attracted international attention for becoming the first in the United States to elect a Muslim-majority city council. They viewed the power shift and diversity as a symbolic but meaningful rebuke of the Islamophobic rhetoric that was a central theme of then Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign. This week many of those same residents watched in dismay as a now fully Muslim and socially conservative…

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In Trump prosecution, special counsel seeks to avoid distracting fights

In Trump prosecution, special counsel seeks to avoid distracting fights

The New York Times reports: Jonathan Goodman, the magistrate judge assigned to handle Donald J. Trump’s arraignment, did something of a double take during the proceeding on Tuesday, when the Justice Department offered the former president a bond deal that was not merely lenient but imposed virtually no restrictions on him at all. Jack Smith, the special counsel overseeing the prosecution for the department, opted not to request conditions routinely imposed on other defendants seeking to be released from custody,…

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