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Category: Politics

War has tamed Ukraine’s oligarchs, creating space for democratic change

War has tamed Ukraine’s oligarchs, creating space for democratic change

The Washington Post reports: Over two days in October, eight Russian cruise missiles screamed out of the sky and obliterated tens of millions of dollars’ worth of critical machinery at this city’s hulking coal-fired power plant. The attacks were designed to leave Ukraine cold and dark this winter. But they also deepened a financial crisis for the plant’s owner, Rinat Akhmetov, the country’s richest man. Akhmetov’s wealth has dived from $7.6 billion to $4.3 billion since Russia invaded Ukraine in…

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Kyrsten Sinema is playing chicken

Kyrsten Sinema is playing chicken

Jonathan Chait writes: The biggest loser of the 2022 election other than Donald Trump was Kyrsten Sinema. The Arizona senator and now-former Democrat desperately needed Democrats, especially fellow senator Mark Kelly, to lose. Only such a setback would make the party desperate enough to tolerate her continued presence. Kelly’s reelection made it certain that Sinema would face, and lose, a primary challenge in two years. Sinema’s declaration of independence from the party is a ploy to avoid the primary and…

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Donald Trump is running against himself — and losing

Donald Trump is running against himself — and losing

Susan Glasser writes: From his low-energy announcement speech at Mar-a-Lago to his dinner with the Hitler-praising Kanye West and the white supremacist Nick Fuentes, Trump has courted more controversy than votes since launching his bid in November. He has held no campaign rallies and hired no campaign manager. He has hosted a QAnon conspiracy theorist and helped raise money for the indicted insurrectionists of January 6th. More classified items have been found in his possession, and his Trump Organization was…

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Execution of Mohsen Shekari raises fear of ‘mass execution of protesters’ in Iran

Execution of Mohsen Shekari raises fear of ‘mass execution of protesters’ in Iran

BBC News reports: Iran has announced the first execution of a protester convicted over the recent anti-government unrest. Mohsen Shekari was hanged on Thursday morning after being found guilty by a Revolutionary Court of “moharebeh” (enmity against God), state media said. He was accused of being a “rioter” who blocked a main road in Tehran in September and wounded a member of a paramilitary force with a machete. An activist said he was convicted after a “show trial without any…

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Who is Viktor Bout? ‘Merchant of Death’ swapped for Brittney Griner

Who is Viktor Bout? ‘Merchant of Death’ swapped for Brittney Griner

Michael Weiss writes: “She’s on her way home after months of being unjustly detained in Russia, held in intolerable circumstances.” So President Biden announced Thursday from the Roosevelt Room of the White House, alerting the press to the news that Brittney Griner has finally been released from a Russian penal colony. Biden spoke next to Cherelle Griner, the American WNBA basketball player’s visibly affected wife. Following months of intense negotiations, the United States managed to secure Griner’s freedom in a…

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Justice Department asks judge to hold Trump team in contempt over Mar-a-Lago case

Justice Department asks judge to hold Trump team in contempt over Mar-a-Lago case

The Washington Post reports: Prosecutors have urged a federal judge to hold Donald Trump’s office in contempt of court for failing to fully comply with a May subpoena to return all classified documents in his possession, according to people familiar with the matter — a sign of how contentious the private talks have become over whether the former president still holds any secret papers. In recent days, Justice Department lawyers have asked U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell to hold…

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A case that even this Supreme Court seems torn over

A case that even this Supreme Court seems torn over

Quinta Jurecic writes: Midway through yesterday’s Supreme Court oral argument in Moore v. Harper, the case concerning the “independent state legislature” theory, Justice Elena Kagan took a moment to consider the stakes. “This is a theory with big consequences,” she noted. Kagan’s comment was a dry bit of understatement. Ever since the Supreme Court first agreed to hear the case, Moore has drawn alarm from across the political spectrum, with liberal activists and grandees of the conservative legal movement alike…

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Peru’s president tried to pull a Trump. He swiftly got impeached and arrested

Peru’s president tried to pull a Trump. He swiftly got impeached and arrested

Too bad the U.S. Senate, acquitting Trump of impeachable insurrection, lacked the cojones that Peru’s Congress had on display when it dispatched President Castillo for similarly self-aggrandizing high crimes . . . https://t.co/yqHR4z2uiY — Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) December 7, 2022 CNN reports: Dina Boluarte became Peru’s first female President on Wednesday, capping off a dramatic day which saw her predecessor arrested for the alleged crime of rebellion and impeached by lawmakers. Boluarte, the country’s former vice president, was sworn into…

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China scraps most Covid testing, quarantine requirements in policy shift

China scraps most Covid testing, quarantine requirements in policy shift

The Wall Street Journal reports: China dropped many of its quarantine and testing requirements and curtailed the power of local officials to shut down entire city blocks, as the government accelerates plans to dismantle zero-Covid controls in the wake of nationwide protests. The speed of Beijing’s retreat from its pandemic regime suggests the country’s leaders are now more concerned about the damage those controls have caused to China’s economy than the risk of worsening Covid infections that surged to a…

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State, local governments increasingly turn to zoning reforms

State, local governments increasingly turn to zoning reforms

Sarah Wesseler writes: Transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gases in the United States, and passenger vehicles — the cars most Americans rely on to meet their daily needs — account for more than half of transportation emissions. Conversations about reducing these emissions typically focus on electric vehicles. But increasingly, government officials across the country are aiming not just to get Americans into different kinds of cars, but to radically reduce the need to drive in the first place….

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What Warnock’s win in Georgia means for 2024

What Warnock’s win in Georgia means for 2024

Ronald Brownstein writes: Senator Raphael Warnock’s win in yesterday’s Georgia Senate runoff capped a commanding show of strength by Democrats in the states that decided the 2020 race for the White House—and will likely pick the winner again in 2024. With Warnock’s victory over Republican Herschel Walker, Democrats have defeated every GOP Senate and gubernatorial candidate endorsed by Donald Trump this year in the five states that flipped from supporting him in 2016 to backing Joe Biden in 2020: Michigan,…

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Sister of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei condemns his rule, urges Guards to disarm

Sister of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei condemns his rule, urges Guards to disarm

Reuters reports: A sister of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has condemned his crackdown on nationwide protests and called on the widely-feared Revolutionary Guards to lay down their weapons, according to a letter published by her France-based son. Iran has been gripped by unrest since the death of 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini in police custody on Sept 16., and is facing a three-day general strike movement which started on Monday. Badri Hosseini Khamenei, who lives in Iran…

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Democrats ramp up investigation of Kushner family business dealings

Democrats ramp up investigation of Kushner family business dealings

The Washington Post reports: Democrats on a pair of congressional committees have launched an aggressive new effort to obtain information about whether Jared Kushner’s actions on U.S. policy in the Persian Gulf region as a senior White House adviser were influenced by the bailout of a property owned by his family business. Citing previously undisclosed emails and other documents related to former president Donald Trump’s son-in-law, the committees on Monday night sent letters to the State and Defense departments requesting…

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UK coalmine approval shows PM doesn’t care if he is seen as green

UK coalmine approval shows PM doesn’t care if he is seen as green

Fiona Harvey writes: Opening a new coalmine when the world stands on the brink of climate catastrophe is “absolutely indefensible”, in the words of the UK government’s independent climate adviser, the chair of the Climate Change Committee and the former Conservative minister Lord Deben. The £165m mine in Cumbria will produce coking coal for steelmaking, which the government has said will still be needed, even though steelmakers must move to low-carbon production in the next 13 years. Two of the UK’s existing steel…

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German police arrest 25 suspects in plot to overthrow state

German police arrest 25 suspects in plot to overthrow state

Deutsche Welle reports: In a nationwide raid, 25 suspected members and supporters of a terrorist organization were arrested early Wednesday. Officials said the network, part of a wider right-wing movement, was already well established with a concrete plan to overthrow the German state by force and install a new government. The raids were announced by Germany’s federal prosecution agency and German Justice Minister Marco Buschmann. Buschmann said the investigations were directed against a suspected terrorist network with known ties to…

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The 30 percent goal: Is bigger always better for biodiversity?

The 30 percent goal: Is bigger always better for biodiversity?

Fred Pearce writes: In 2009, the U.S. government turned more than 190,000 square miles of pristine ocean centered on the Mariana Trench in the remote Pacific into one of the world’s largest protected areas. The same year, Mexico completed a management plan for the Cabo Pulmo coral reef in the Gulf of California, covering just 27 square miles. Which action achieved the most? As the biggest United Nations conference on biodiversity in a decade gathers in Montreal this week, it…

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