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Category: Politics

White supremacists behind over 80% of extremism-related U.S. murders in 2022

White supremacists behind over 80% of extremism-related U.S. murders in 2022

Reuters reports: Mass shootings in the United States accounted for most extremism-related fatalities last year in the country with over 80% of those murders committed by white supremacists, data released by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) showed on Thursday. The advocacy group labeled 25 murders in 2022 as “extremist-related,” with 18 of those “committed in whole or part for ideological motives.” Two mass shootings – one in May in Buffalo, New York, wherein an avowed white supremacist fatally shot 10 Black…

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The invisible victims of American antisemitism

The invisible victims of American antisemitism

Yair Rosenberg writes: Last week, a gunman shot two Jews at close range as they departed morning prayer services in Los Angeles. The first victim was shot in the back on Wednesday. The second was shot multiple times in the arm on Thursday, less than 24 hours later. The attacks sent fear pulsing through the Jewish community of Los Angeles, as members wondered if their own place of worship would be targeted next. On Thursday evening, the alleged assailant was…

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If we deprive ourselves of history, everything is a surprise

If we deprive ourselves of history, everything is a surprise

Timothy Snyder writes: Teaching a lecture class on Ukrainian history last fall, I felt a touch of the surreal. The war in Ukraine had been going on for half a year when I began. A nuclear power had attacked a state that had given up its nuclear weapons. An empire was trying to halt European integration. A tyranny was attempting to crush a neighboring democracy. On occupied territories, Russia perpetrated genocidal atrocities with clear expressions of genocidal intent. And yet,…

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UN resolution demanding Russia’s immediate, unconditional withdrawal from Ukraine supported by 141 nations

UN resolution demanding Russia’s immediate, unconditional withdrawal from Ukraine supported by 141 nations

The Wall Street Journal reports: United Nations members called on Russia to withdraw from Ukraine, approving the latest U.S.-backed effort to pressure Moscow a year after the invasion—but also showing the limits of global support for Kyiv. Thursday’s resolution drew the support of 141 member countries, with seven countries voting against the measure and 32 abstaining, a similar outcome to previous resolutions related to the war. The resolution included a demand for Russia to “immediately, completely, and unconditionally withdraw all…

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U.S. to expand small troop presence in Taiwan for training against Chinese invasion

U.S. to expand small troop presence in Taiwan for training against Chinese invasion

The Wall Street Journal reports: The U.S. is markedly increasing the number of troops deployed to Taiwan, more than quadrupling the current number to bolster a training program for the island’s military amid a rising threat from China. The U.S. plans to deploy between 100 and 200 troops to the island in the coming months, up from roughly 30 there a year ago, according to U.S. officials. The larger force will expand a training program the Pentagon has taken pains…

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Increasing numbers of Trump supporters look towards post-Trump future

Increasing numbers of Trump supporters look towards post-Trump future

The Washington Post reports: One recent snowy evening at a gun range in the middle of Michigan, the police showed up at a meeting of the Saginaw County Republican Party that unraveled into a shouting match — the latest flare-up in a power struggle between loyalists to Donald Trump and people like Josiah Jaster. The 20-year-old insurance actuary, dressed up in a coat and tie, had been working with allies to elect a less Trump-centric slate of delegates to the…

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Press freedom in the crosshairs as DeSantis widens his assault on an open society

Press freedom in the crosshairs as DeSantis widens his assault on an open society

Politico reports: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ broken relationship with the mainstream media could get even worse. At the governor’s urging, Florida’s Republican-dominated Legislature is pushing to weaken state laws that have long protected journalists against defamation suits and frivolous lawsuits. The proposal is part DeSantis’ ongoing feud with media outlets like The New York Times, Miami Herald, CNN and The Washington Post — media companies he claims are biased against Republicans — as he prepares for a likely 2024 presidential…

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United West, divided from the rest: Global public opinion one year into Russia’s war on Ukraine

United West, divided from the rest: Global public opinion one year into Russia’s war on Ukraine

Timothy Garton Ash, Ivan Krastev, and Mark Leonard write: A year after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, there is little doubt the war is a turning point in world history. The conflict has challenged Europeans’ most basic assumptions about their security, brought the spectre of nuclear confrontation back to their continent, and disrupted the global economy, leaving energy and food crises in its wake. Yet while Russia’s aggression is an event of global significance, people in different parts of the world…

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Why China’s Ukraine balancing act might be tilting in Putin’s favor

Why China’s Ukraine balancing act might be tilting in Putin’s favor

NBC News reports: A flurry of European diplomatic activity over Russia’s war in Ukraine has offered a stark contrast this week: While President Joe Biden made a surprise visit to Kyiv, one of China’s most senior diplomats was heading to Moscow. Wang Yi, Chinese President Xi Jinping‘s senior foreign policy adviser, gave one of the strongest indications yet of Russia and China’s strengthening ties on Wednesday. “We are ready to deepen our strategic partnership,” he said according to Reuters. “Other…

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Those who fetishize ‘peace,’ open the door to greater violence

Those who fetishize ‘peace,’ open the door to greater violence

Vasyl Cherepanyn writes: The “never again” slogan, the EU’s common ideological denominator, has become a self-fulfilling prophecy in a perverted sense. Indeed, if one literally accepts the principle that “it should never happen again,” then war is thought of as impossible simply because it’s unimaginable in spite of realities on the ground. The EU has fetishized the idea of peace to the extent that it completely repressed the realities of war—only to be totally unprepared when the repressed came back….

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Fiona Hill: War won’t end until Russia abandons its imperial ambitions

Fiona Hill: War won’t end until Russia abandons its imperial ambitions

Freddie Sayers, at Unherd, interviews Fiona Hill, former advisor to Presidents Bush, Obama and Trump: FS: But how does this end? I understand that we must appear strong and united. But as the years pass, if proposing a settlement is seen as a sign of weakness, how will we ever reach one? FH: That’s not the way to look at this. The way to look at this is to try to create the circumstances for a real negotiation, not a…

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How retired U.S. Colonel Douglas Macgregor serves as a propagandist for Vladimir Putin

How retired U.S. Colonel Douglas Macgregor serves as a propagandist for Vladimir Putin

Polygraph.info reports: On February 15, Russia’s RIA Novosti state news agency quoted retired U.S. Colonel Douglas Macgregor’s interview with the “Judge Napolitano – Judging Freedom” program, streamed on YouTube that same day. The Russian translation of Macgregor’s claim isn’t precise but represents his ideas accurately: “We just don’t have ammunition to send. We have reached the limit; our own reserves are rapidly coming to an end.” This statement is misleading and fits into the Kremlin’s anti-U.S. and anti-Ukraine propaganda targeting…

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Head of the Wagner mercenary group accuses Russian army command of treason

Head of the Wagner mercenary group accuses Russian army command of treason

The New York Times reports: The head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group accused the country’s defense minister and its most senior general of treason on Tuesday, intensifying the most high-profile dispute in the Russian forces since the invasion of Ukraine began. Wagner’s founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who has been taking aim at military leaders in a series of increasingly hostile audio messages on social media this week, accused the “chief of the general staff and minister of defense” of withholding ammunition…

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Biden administration announces first-ever wind energy lease sale in Gulf of Mexico

Biden administration announces first-ever wind energy lease sale in Gulf of Mexico

CNN reports: The Biden administration on Wednesday announced the first-ever US offshore wind energy lease sale for the waters in the Gulf of Mexico, an area long dominated by oil and gas production. The White House and US Department of Interior said they are proposing to open up more than 300,000 acres of offshore waters for offshore wind development — one area off the coast of Lake Charles, Louisiana, and two off the coast of Galveston, Texas. However, Interior is…

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War in Ukraine triggered ‘unstoppable’ growth in renewable energy production across Europe

War in Ukraine triggered ‘unstoppable’ growth in renewable energy production across Europe

Vox reports: One year ago, on the cusp of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it seemed unimaginable that renewable energy in Europe could overtake electricity from oil and gas. But not even a year later, it did. By the end of 2022, wind and solar combined overtook natural gas in electricity generation. The latest data on Europe’s renewable transition tells a remarkably upbeat story about the hard things countries can accomplish on climate change with enough political will. Before the Russia-Ukraine…

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Leaked document shows how Russia plans to take over Belarus

Leaked document shows how Russia plans to take over Belarus

Michael Weiss and Holger Roonemaa report: A leaked internal strategy document from Vladimir Putin’s executive office and obtained by Yahoo News lays out a detailed plan on how Russia plans to take full control over neighboring Belarus in the next decade under the pretext of a merger between the two countries. The document outlines in granular detail a creeping annexation by political, economic and military means of an independent but illiberal European nation by Russia, which is an active state…

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