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Category: Politics

As Russian men flee, some find draft notices waiting at the border

As Russian men flee, some find draft notices waiting at the border

The New York Times reports: The Kremlin has dispatched still more forces to shore up its faltering war effort, but the units are headed not to Ukraine but to Russia’s borders with other countries, where on Tuesday they were confronting young Russian men trying to join an exodus out of the country. As the avenues for Russians to escape a draft order issued last week narrowed, the Federal Security Service sent armored vehicles to the frontiers, where some men waiting…

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Giorgia Meloni’s win will make her a new Republican favorite

Giorgia Meloni’s win will make her a new Republican favorite

Ruth Ben-Ghiat writes: “Of course I do not want women to be slaves, but if I proposed to give our women the vote, I would be laughed at,” Italian dictator Benito Mussolini told the German journalist Emil Ludwig in 1932. “She must not count in political life.” Ninety years later, the top figure in Italian politics will finally be female: Giorgia Meloni, head of the neo-fascist Brothers of Italy party, is set become prime minister after her party received 26%…

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Giorgia Meloni is neither as popular nor as powerful as her electoral victory may suggest

Giorgia Meloni is neither as popular nor as powerful as her electoral victory may suggest

Yascha Mounk writes: The prospect that a far-right party with fascist roots may soon lead Italy has understandably spooked international observers. “Giorgia Meloni May Lead Italy, and Europe Is Worried,” read a recent New York Times headline. “Is Italy on the Verge of Returning to Fascism?” a Foreign Policy podcast asked. But things aren’t always what they seem in Italy. Although there are strong grounds for dismay at the prospect of Prime Minister Meloni, the actual likelihood that Italy will…

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Rebuke from IMF is a global embarrassment for British government

Rebuke from IMF is a global embarrassment for British government

Larry Elliot writes: Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng have taken on the economic orthodoxy. They have announced extra borrowing to pay for tax cuts. They have sacked the Treasury’s top mandarin. They have insisted they will press on with their dash for growth despite a hostile reaction in the markets. Now the economic orthodoxy has struck back – and in the most high-profile way possible: a public and stinging rebuke from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It is hard to…

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Women take center stage in protests against Iran’s repressive regime

Women take center stage in protests against Iran’s repressive regime

The New York Times reports: For Yasi, the news felt too close to ignore: A young woman, Mahsa Amini, had died in the custody of Iran’s morality police, days after being arrested for failing to cover her hair modestly enough. When protests broke out after Ms. Amini’s death, 20-year-old Yasi — the first woman in her immediate family to reject the hijab — ran into the streets, waving the thin shawl she usually wears over her blond hair in public,…

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Judge decries GOP leaders who back Trump election claims because they are ‘afraid of losing their power’

Judge decries GOP leaders who back Trump election claims because they are ‘afraid of losing their power’

Politico reports: A federal judge delivered a blistering rebuke of Republican Party leaders Tuesday for what she said was a cynical attempt to stoke false claims of election fraud of the kind that fueled the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson said former President Donald Trump had turned his lies about the election into a litmus test for Republican candidates and that “high-ranking members of Congress and state officials” are “so afraid of…

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Christo-fascist salutes at recent Mastriano and Trump rallies signal drive for world domination

Christo-fascist salutes at recent Mastriano and Trump rallies signal drive for world domination

Jennifer Cohn reports: “I’d like to reactivate what Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain [who fought for the Union in the Civil war] is now handing off to Colonel Doug Mastriano – which is the importance of rallying a remnant, for the sake of an indispensable victory, in the intense heat of battle,” bellowed a middle aged man from the stage of a Sept. 16 rally for Mastriano, the Pennsylvania GOP’s gubernatorial candidate. “And we’ll do that by putting our right hand…

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McConnell, Schumer back bill to prevent efforts to subvert presidential election results

McConnell, Schumer back bill to prevent efforts to subvert presidential election results

The Washington Post reports: Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) have endorsed a bipartisan electoral count reform bill in the Senate, all but cementing its passage and giving the legislation a boost as Congress seeks to prevent future efforts to subvert presidential election results. The endorsements followed House passage of a similar bill last week. Both measures aim to stop future presidents from trying to overturn election results through Congress and were driven by…

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Russia admits to draft problems as anger flares into violence

Russia admits to draft problems as anger flares into violence

The New York Times reports: In a rare admission of official mistakes, the Kremlin acknowledged on Monday that its new military draft to reinforce the Russian assault on Ukraine has been rife with problems. The admission occurred the same day that a man, apparently distraught over the mobilization, shot and seriously wounded a recruitment officer at a draft office in Siberia. Since President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia announced a “partial mobilization” last week to call up 300,000 people with…

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China reins in its Belt and Road program, $1 trillion later

China reins in its Belt and Road program, $1 trillion later

The Wall Street Journal reports: China has spent a trillion dollars to expand its influence across Asia, Africa and Latin America through its Belt and Road infrastructure program. Now, Beijing is working on an overhaul of the troubled initiative, according to people involved in policy-making. A slowing global economy, combined with rising interest rates and higher inflation, have left countries struggling to repay their debts to China. Tens of billions of dollars of loans have gone sour, and numerous development…

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Pushing east of Kupyansk, Ukrainian forces expand offensive

Pushing east of Kupyansk, Ukrainian forces expand offensive

The Wall Street Journal reports: The grain elevator towering over the eastern edge of Kupyansk, the former seat of Russian power in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, was supposed to be defended by soldiers from an elite Russian unit. But when troops from Ukraine’s International Legion moved to seize the compound on Thursday, part of the developing Ukrainian military offensive east of the Oskil River, the expected firefight never happened. “They just ran away. They know they are finished here,” said the…

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The nuclear threat might change the mood in Russia itself, stoking widespread fear

The nuclear threat might change the mood in Russia itself, stoking widespread fear

Peter Pomerantsev writes: “Do you want Total War?” Goebbels demanded of the Nazi faithful as the Second World War went south for Germany in 1943. He depicted a Reich surrounded by evil Jewish cosmopolitan conspirators bent on its destruction and he advocated for total mobilisation and to embrace a glory-in-death ideology. Vladimir Putin delivered his own (partial) version last week. As the Ukraine war goes south for Russia, he claimed the defeats are the result of cosmopolitan conspiracies bent on…

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U.S. warns Russia of ‘catastrophic consequences’ if it uses nuclear weapons

U.S. warns Russia of ‘catastrophic consequences’ if it uses nuclear weapons

The New York Times reports: President Biden’s national security adviser said on Sunday that the United States had warned Russia that there would be “catastrophic consequences” for the country if Moscow used nuclear weapons in its increasing desperation to hold on to territory in Ukraine, adding that in recent days the United States has “spelled out” how the world would react in private conversations with Russian officials. The adviser, Jake Sullivan, repeated the comments several times in three Sunday television…

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The Kremlin’s mobilization effort includes forcing Ukrainians to fight their own country

The Kremlin’s mobilization effort includes forcing Ukrainians to fight their own country

The New York Times reports: As military officers across Russia race to enlist hundreds of thousands of men to fight in Ukraine, the Kremlin is also looking to bolster its flagging recruitment efforts by dragooning Ukrainians in occupied territories to fight against their own nation. In two regions, Kherson and Zaporizka, the Russian occupiers are beginning to round up men to fight even as they are also forcing residents to vote in a sham referendum on joining Russia. All men…

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As more states create election integrity units, Arizona is a cautionary tale

As more states create election integrity units, Arizona is a cautionary tale

The Washington Post reports: Republicans across the country have embraced an aggressive tactic this year as they seek to tout baseless claims that voter fraud is a serious threat: arming state agencies with more power and resources to investigate election crimes. Virginia’s Republican attorney general earlier this month announced a new election integrity unit staffed with more than 20 attorneys and investigators “to increase transparency and strengthen confidence in our state elections.” Georgia legislators recently empowered the statewide police agency…

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The three types of election-denying Republicans running for secretary of state

The three types of election-denying Republicans running for secretary of state

Chris Geidner writes: Around a dozen election-denying Republican candidates secured their party’s nomination for secretary of state this fall. This is the reality, two years on, that Donald Trump’s election lies have created. There are three types of election-denying candidates, and each one poses distinct problems for civic integrity. There are the swing-state candidates getting lots of justified attention, running in places like Arizona and Michigan, because their elections could have pivotal, clear national implications in the 2024 presidential campaign….

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