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Category: Politics

Israel spirals into chaos

Israel spirals into chaos

The Washington Post reports: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Sunday, a day after Gallant called for a halt to the judicial reform that has spurred a national crisis. “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided, this evening , to dismiss Defense Minister Yoav Gallant,” said a statement by Netanyahu’s office. Gallant had become the first cabinet member to break with Netanyahu over the judicial overhaul a day earlier, saying in a public address that the…

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Ukraine offensive takes shape, with big unknowns

Ukraine offensive takes shape, with big unknowns

The Wall Street Journal reports: After months of new weapons deliveries from the West, Ukraine is poised to punch back at Russia’s invasion forces in coming weeks—a high-risk campaign that will set the course of subsequent battles and potential peace negotiations. Ukraine’s operational plans remain confidential, but some aspects of what is to come are discernible from a look at the equipment each side has—or doesn’t have—and their recent performance on the battlefield. Both are struggling to make gains and…

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Putin’s timeline for storing tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus is hard to believe

Putin’s timeline for storing tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus is hard to believe

Julian Borger writes: Like a lot of what Vladimir Putin says about nuclear weapons, his suggestion that Russia would start storing its bombs in Belarus may add up to less than it appears. In February last year, Putin said he was putting Russia’s nuclear arsenal on high alert, but there was no perceptible change in the country’s nuclear posture, or any unusual movements of its weapons. Putin and the leader of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, have been hinting at some kind…

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Trump lawyer threatens: Ron DeSantis will emerge a ‘bloodied pulp’ if he challenges her boss

Trump lawyer threatens: Ron DeSantis will emerge a ‘bloodied pulp’ if he challenges her boss

The Daily Beast reports: Donald Trump lawyer and Right Side Broadcasting Network contributor Christina Bobb declared Ron DeSantis will emerge “bloody” if he challenges the former president in 2024. The fighting words from a top Trump official follow increasingly vicious attacks being directed at the Florida governor by the former president. “I would not want to enter the octagon with Donald Trump. Nobody comes out of that and looks pretty,” Bobb said at a MAGA rally in Waco, Texas, Saturday…

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Would President DeSantis be worse for American democracy than President Trump?

Would President DeSantis be worse for American democracy than President Trump?

Brian Klaas writes: After Donald Trump sabotaged the 2022 midterm elections for Republicans by endorsing unelectable extremists, a comforting narrative took root among GOP elites. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis would offer a return to “normal” politics, continuing Trump’s aggressive, unapologetic defense of traditional American culture and values but without all that pesky authoritarianism. He would continue to wrap himself in an American flag, but he wouldn’t invite people to dinner who preferred wearing the Nazi one. Many on the political…

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How forcing TikTok to completely separate its U.S. operations could actually undermine national security

How forcing TikTok to completely separate its U.S. operations could actually undermine national security

Yoel Roth writes: Back in August 2020, the Trump White House issued an executive order purporting to ban TikTok, citing national security concerns. The ban ultimately went nowhere — but not before TikTok and Oracle cobbled together “Project Texas” as an attempt to appease regulators’ privacy worries and keep TikTok available in the United States. The basic gist of Project Texas, Lawfare reported earlier this year, is that TikTok will stand up a new US-based subsidiary named TikTok US Data Security (USDS) to…

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The many myths of the term ‘Anglo-Saxon’

The many myths of the term ‘Anglo-Saxon’

Mary Rambaran-Olm and Erik Wade write: The few uses of “Anglo-Saxon” in Old English seem to be borrowed from the Latin Angli Saxones. Manuscript evidence from pre-Conquest England reveals that kings used the Latin term almost exclusively in Latin charters, legal documents and, for a brief period, in their titles, such as Anglorum Saxonum Rex, or king of the Anglo-Saxons. The references describe kings like Alfred and Edward who did not rule (nor claim to rule) all the English kingdoms. They were specifically referring to…

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Why is Donald Trump kicking off his 2024 campaign in Waco?

Why is Donald Trump kicking off his 2024 campaign in Waco?

Dan Solomon writes: On Saturday evening, Donald Trump will hold his first official rally of the 2024 campaign cycle. He won’t be doing so in his home state of Florida, however. Nor will he address a crowd of potential swing voters in Michigan, Pennsylvania, or Wisconsin. No, the twice-impeached former president will formally launch his third bid for the office at Waco Regional Airport—less than ten miles northwest of the heart of the city, along a remote stretch of land…

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What are the judges saying to the Jan. 6 defendants at sentencing?

What are the judges saying to the Jan. 6 defendants at sentencing?

NPR reports: Nearly all of these cases are being heard by 21 judges in the federal district court in Washington, D.C. They were appointed by presidents from both parties from President Reagan to President Biden. It’s difficult to compare the rulings of judges because every case is different, but there are common themes in what the judges have been saying to the defendants before them. For one, the judges aren’t looking at these crimes in isolation. The significance of Jan….

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The problem with how the West is supporting Ukraine

The problem with how the West is supporting Ukraine

Phillips Payson O’Brien writes: For the past four months, people around the world have witnessed the macabre process of Russian forces making repeated assaults near the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut for only the tiniest of gains. By some counts, Russia has lost about five of its soldiers for every Ukrainian soldier lost—to say nothing of massive equipment losses. Although in theory a country can win a war by using its military forces to make forward assaults against an enemy’s forces,…

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Documentary: How mysterious explosions in Bulgaria are connected to Russia’s war in Ukraine

Documentary: How mysterious explosions in Bulgaria are connected to Russia’s war in Ukraine

  A string of mysterious explosions and a poisoning have targeted Bulgaria’s arms industry, which has been a crucial supplier of weapons to Ukraine. But amid mounting evidence of Russian involvement, critics accuse Bulgarian authorities of dragging their feet in their investigations of these unsolved blasts. A new @svobodna-evropa documentary looks into evidence of Russian sabotage, claims that there have been cover-ups by Bulgarian authorities, and whether Bulgarian arms depots are still at risk as Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine…

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Putin wouldn’t win a war of attrition in Ukraine

Putin wouldn’t win a war of attrition in Ukraine

Douglas London writes: Vladimir Putin seeks to prevail in Ukraine through an exhausting war of attrition in which he outlasts his opponents, or so the expert consensus has it. The U.S. is supplying weapons to Ukraine at a remarkably slow pace, perhaps for fear of provoking a calamitous Russian escalation. It seems as if Washington is playing right into Mr. Putin’s hands. But maybe not everything is as it seems. If I learned anything from decades as a Russian-speaking Central…

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The American volunteers in Ukraine who lie, waste and bicker

The American volunteers in Ukraine who lie, waste and bicker

The New York Times reports: They rushed to Ukraine by the thousands, many of them Americans who promised to bring military experience, money or supplies to the battleground of a righteous war. Hometown newspapers hailed their commitment, and donors backed them with millions of dollars. Now, after a year of combat, many of these homespun groups of volunteers are fighting with themselves and undermining the war effort. Some have wasted money or stolen valor. Others have cloaked themselves in charity…

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Inciting terrorism: Trump tries to intimidate prosecutors and jurors with threats of ‘death & destruction’

Inciting terrorism: Trump tries to intimidate prosecutors and jurors with threats of ‘death & destruction’

The Washington Post reports: Former president Donald Trump warned early Friday of “potential death & destruction” if he is charged in Manhattan in a criminal case related to alleged hush-money payments to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels to conceal an affair. The post-midnight posting on Truth Social, Trump’s social media platform, was his latest — and most explicit — allusion to violence that could follow an indictment stemming from an investigation led by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D), whom Trump…

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Donald Trump is on the wrong side of the religious right

Donald Trump is on the wrong side of the religious right

Tim Alberta writes: The sanctuary buzzed as Mike Pence climbed into the elevated pulpit, standing 15 feet above the pews, a Celtic cross over his left shoulder. The former vice president had spoken here, at Hillsdale College, the private Christian school tucked into the knolls of southern Michigan, on several previous occasions. But this was his first time inside Christ Chapel, the magnificent, recently erected campus cathedral inspired by the St. Martin-in-the-Fields parish of England. The space offers a spiritual…

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The Republican plan to make voting irrelevant

The Republican plan to make voting irrelevant

Sherrilyn Ifill writes: On Tuesday, it was reported by NBC News that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell continues to recover at a rehabilitation center after his fall at a restaurant in Washington earlier this month. McConnell spoke with fellow Republican Senators over the phone from the facility and “sounded like Mitch,” according to Senate Minority Whip John Thune. The news brought to mind McConnell’s exceptional instincts as a political calculator, and in particular his past cynical and perhaps prescient deliberations…

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