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Category: Politics

Climate change is driving millions to the precipice of a ‘raging food catastrophe’

Climate change is driving millions to the precipice of a ‘raging food catastrophe’

Georgina Gustin writes: If there’s a ring around the sun, it will rain. If the gude bird sings in descending notes, the skies will open. If vultures gather, the showers will begin. Everyone reads the signs, but they don’t mean what they used to. It’s still not raining. Jala Barako is 85, a grandfather of eight and a member of an ancient nomadic tribe. Today, wearing a pinstriped jacket, dark glasses and turban-like hat, he looks like the proprietor of…

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Peru’s ex-president faced bigotry for impoverished past

Peru’s ex-president faced bigotry for impoverished past

The Associated Press reports: When Pedro Castillo won Peru’s presidency last year, it was celebrated as a victory by the country’s poor — the peasants and Indigenous people who live deep in the Andes and whose struggles had long been ignored. His supporters hoped Castillo, a populist outsider of humble roots, would redress their plight — or at least end their invisibility. But during 17 months in office before being ousted and detained Wednesday, supporters instead saw Castillo face the…

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Preventing the collapse of biodiversity, demands the development of a new planetary politics

Preventing the collapse of biodiversity, demands the development of a new planetary politics

Stewart Patrick writes: The planet is in the midst of an environmental emergency, and the world is only tinkering at the margins. Humanity’s addiction to fossil fuels and voracious appetite for natural resources are accelerating climate change and degrading ecosystems on land and sea, threatening the integrity of the biosphere and thus the survival of our own species. Given these risks, it is shocking that the multilateral system has failed to respond more forcefully. Belatedly, the United States, the EU,…

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Grant Wahl just died in a region whose rulers routinely murder those who dare speak truth to power

Grant Wahl just died in a region whose rulers routinely murder those who dare speak truth to power

The reason why ppl are suspecting Qatar of foul play in Grant Wahl’s death is because Sharia countries have a track record of chopping up journalists in embassies, beating girls to death over hijab, executing gay ppl and atheists, etc etc. You made this bed. #SorryNotSorry. — Yasmine Mohammed 🦋 ياسمين محمد (@YasMohammedxx) December 10, 2022 NPR reports: Wahl had been critical of FIFA and Qatar during the tournament. In an interview with NPR, Eric Wahl said his brother didn’t…

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Zero Covid’s failure is Xi’s failure

Zero Covid’s failure is Xi’s failure

Michael Schuman writes: For three years, China’s leader, Xi Jinping, fought a remorseless battle against COVID-19. He called it a “people’s war”—a national struggle to defeat an unseen foe and save lives. The contest locked families in their homes for weeks, strangled the economy, and closed the country to the world. Other governments that failed to contain the pandemic may be indifferent to death and suffering, the message was, but not the Chinese Communist Party, which cares about life above…

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Russia launches new drone attacks as partnership with Iran deepens

Russia launches new drone attacks as partnership with Iran deepens

The Wall Street Journal reports: Russia launched fresh attacks with Iranian-made drones early Saturday over Ukraine, where the country’s southern command said it shot down 10 of the unmanned aerial systems, an indication that Moscow has replenished its supply of the drones as the two countries move toward what the U.S. has called a full defense partnership. Ukraine’s southern command said it shot down four Shahed-136 drones in the Kherson region, four more in the Mykolaiv region and two in…

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How serious was the Reichsbürger plot?

How serious was the Reichsbürger plot?

The Observer reports: The time to forgive and forget had passed, the grey-bearded man said in a heavy Bavarian growl, his back facing the turquoise Adriatic sea as he calmly gesticulated towards the camera. “Those people who bullied us, who locked us up”, he said, were about to face a reckoning in an “epochal upheaval” that would usher in a new judicial and political order. Change was imminent – a matter of weeks. “If everything goes to plan, we’ll do…

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Russia is providing ‘unprecedented’ military support to Iran in exchange for drones, officials say

Russia is providing ‘unprecedented’ military support to Iran in exchange for drones, officials say

NBC News reports: Russia is now providing an “unprecedented level” of military and technical support to Iran in exchange for Tehran supplying weapons for the war in Ukraine, senior Biden administration officials say. As part of the enhanced partnership, Russia may be providing Iran with advanced military equipment and components, including helicopters and air defense systems. In the spring, Iranian pilots trained in Russia to fly the Sukhoi Su-35, a Russian fighter jet, which the officials say indicates Iran “may…

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Iran hit with sanctions over first protester execution

Iran hit with sanctions over first protester execution

AFP reports: Iran was slapped with new sanctions Friday and activists called for fresh protests after the Islamic republic carried out its first execution over demonstrations that have shaken the regime for nearly three months. Mohsen Shekari, 23, was hanged Thursday after being convicted of “moharebeh” — or “enmity against God” — after what rights groups denounced as a show trial. The judiciary said Shekari was arrested after blocking a Tehran street and wounding a member of the Basij, a…

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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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