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Category: Politics

China’s expanding global diplomatic presence and influence

China’s expanding global diplomatic presence and influence

Politico reports: On the Pacific side of the Panama Canal, a massive gray convention center built largely by Chinese contractors gleams in the sun, eagerly hosting visitors from a world emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic. A few miles north, colorful shipping containers lay stacked under the stern gaze of quay cranes at the Port of Balboa, a facility run by a Chinese-linked firm. A new bridge is supposed to rise in the same area. Various plans have called for it…

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Forced transfer of children from Ukraine to Russia may be a war crime and an act of genocide

Forced transfer of children from Ukraine to Russia may be a war crime and an act of genocide

The New York Times reports: As Russian forces laid siege to the Ukrainian city of Mariupol this spring, children fled bombed-out group homes and boarding schools. Separated from their families, they followed neighbors or strangers heading west, seeking the relative safety of central Ukraine. Instead, at checkpoints around the city, pro-Russia forces intercepted them, according to interviews with the children, witnesses and family members. The authorities put them on buses headed deeper into Russian-held territory. “I didn’t want to go,”…

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Russian mercenaries fight for Bakhmut in operationally ‘irrelevant’ battle

Russian mercenaries fight for Bakhmut in operationally ‘irrelevant’ battle

The Washington Post reports: In a recent analysis, the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, described [Wagner Group founder, Yevgeniy] Prigozhin’s Bakhmut effort as “irrelevant operationally” after Russia’s loss of Izyum, 60 miles north. “The Russian seizure of Bakhmut, which is unlikely to occur considering Russian forces have impaled themselves on tiny surrounding settlements for weeks, would no longer support any larger effort to accomplish the original objectives of this phase of the campaign,” the report…

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Russia poised to largely skirt new G7 oil price cap

Russia poised to largely skirt new G7 oil price cap

Reuters reports: Russia can access enough tankers to ship most of its oil beyond the reach of a new G7 price cap, industry players and a U.S. official told Reuters, underscoring the limits of the most ambitious plan yet to curb Moscow’s wartime revenue. The Group of Seven countries agreed last month to cap Russian oil sales at an enforced low price by Dec. 5 but faced consternation from main players in the global oil industry who feared the move…

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In the shadow of war, Kremlin continues terrorizing Crimean Tatars

In the shadow of war, Kremlin continues terrorizing Crimean Tatars

The Kyiv Independent reports: They usually come at four or five in the morning. Men in uniform and with guns pull up in large vehicles. The dogs start barking. The family wakes up, knowing exactly what is about to happen. The house is searched. Phones and computers are taken away. And so is the father, or a brother, or another male relative, who is almost always suspected of terrorism – a charge they deny. This is a typical scene in…

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Xi Jinping’s predecessor, Hu Jintao, was forcibly led away from the Chinese Communist Party Congress

Xi Jinping’s predecessor, Hu Jintao, was forcibly led away from the Chinese Communist Party Congress

James Palmer writes: Hu has been visibly frail during the Party Congress. His hair has also gone fully gray—which in a past era would itself have been a sign that he was eschewing power entirely, since China’s leaders universally dyed their hair, but under Xi signs of gray have been allowed to creep in. But it’s hard to see what condition could cause both an urgent need to remove him with cameras rolling and his deep reluctance to go. And…

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In Nevada, election deniers prepare to sabotage the midterms

In Nevada, election deniers prepare to sabotage the midterms

Dana Milbank writes: If the midterm elections degenerate into chaos in a couple of weeks — a very real possibility — then Nevada is poised to lead the way. Indeed, the chaos here has already begun. The election supervisors in 10 of the state’s 17 counties have already quit, been forced out or announced their departures. Lower-level election workers have quit in the face of consistent abuse. The state’s elections staff has lost eight of its 12 employees. The (Republican)…

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Mar-a-Lago classified papers held U.S. secrets about Iran and China

Mar-a-Lago classified papers held U.S. secrets about Iran and China

The Washington Post reports: Some of the classified documents recovered by the FBI from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home and private club included highly sensitive intelligence regarding Iran and China, according to people familiar with the matter. If shared with others, the people said, such information could expose intelligence-gathering methods that the United States wants to keep hidden from the world. At least one of the documents seized by the FBI describes Iran’s missile program, according to these people, who spoke…

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As Trump is subpoenaed, Bannon gets four months jail sentence for defying Jan. 6 committee subpoena

As Trump is subpoenaed, Bannon gets four months jail sentence for defying Jan. 6 committee subpoena

The Associated Press reports: The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol formally issued its extraordinary subpoena o Donald Trump on Friday, demanding testimony from the former president who lawmakers say “personally orchestrated” a multi-part effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The nine-member panel issued a letter to Trump’s lawyers saying he must testify, either at the Capitol or by videoconference, “beginning on or about” Nov. 14 and continuing for multiple days if…

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Trump claims he owns White House pardon and immigration policy records

Trump claims he owns White House pardon and immigration policy records

The New York Times reports: Former President Donald J. Trump is claiming that nine documents seized by the F.B.I. from his Florida residence are his personal property — but the Justice Department says they are official records that should be deposited with the National Archives, according to a new letter to the special master who is overseeing a review of the materials. The letter, filed on Thursday by the Justice Department, describes disputes over ownership and executive privilege claims involving…

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Putin’s last hope to win in Ukraine is a GOP victory in November

Putin’s last hope to win in Ukraine is a GOP victory in November

David Rothkopf writes: Vladimir Putin is fighting a two-front war. Sure, he’s losing badly in Eastern Ukraine, but things are looking up for the Russian dictator in the West—at least on the political front that runs through every ballot box in America. Although the resilience, courage, and skill of the Ukrainian military has driven Putin to increasingly desperate and depraved measures to avoid further battlefield humiliation, he can see a glimmer of hope on the horizon. And it’s being provided…

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After Ukraine, Biden administration turns to Musk’s satellite internet for Iran

After Ukraine, Biden administration turns to Musk’s satellite internet for Iran

CNN reports: The White House has engaged in talks with Elon Musk about the possibility of setting up SpaceX’s satellite internet service Starlink inside Iran, multiple officials familiar with the discussions told CNN. The conversations, which have not been previously reported, come as the Biden administration searches for ways to support the Iranian protest movement that exploded just over a month ago after 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died under suspicious circumstances after being detained by the country’s morality police. The White…

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A diplomat defects from the Kremlin

A diplomat defects from the Kremlin

Boris Bondarev writes: For three years, my workdays began the same way. At 7:30 a.m., I woke up, checked the news, and drove to work at the Russian mission to the United Nations Office in Geneva. The routine was easy and predictable, two of the hallmarks of life as a Russian diplomat. February 24 was different. When I checked my phone, I saw startling and mortifying news: the Russian air force was bombing Ukraine. Kharkiv, Kyiv, and Odessa were under…

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Daniel Smith, one of the last children of enslaved Americans, dies at 90

Daniel Smith, one of the last children of enslaved Americans, dies at 90

The Washington Post reports: Growing up in the 1930s, Daniel R. Smith would listen to stories from his father, as young boys often do. He was not supposed to hear these stories — they were meant for his older siblings, not for a child as young as 5 or 6 — but after dinner on Saturday evenings he would sneak out of bed and listen to accounts of the “whipping and crying post,” of the lynching tree and the wagon…

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Michael Luttig, long seen as most conservative Republican judge in U.S., challenges far-right threat to democracy

Michael Luttig, long seen as most conservative Republican judge in U.S., challenges far-right threat to democracy

Jane Mayer writes: A powerful new litigant has joined one of the most momentous cases slated to be heard by the Supreme Court this term. The respondents in the case of Moore v. Harper filed a brief today that included a surprising new signatory: J. Michael Luttig, who has been known for years as perhaps the most conservative Republican judge in the country. Now, though, he has joined a coalition of veteran lawyers and nonpartisan government-watchdog groups who are fighting…

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Education is at the heart of America’s many divisions

Education is at the heart of America’s many divisions

Eric Levitz writes: Blue America is an increasingly wealthy and well-educated place. Throughout the second half of the 20th century, Americans without college degrees were more likely than university graduates to vote Democratic. But that gap began narrowing in the late 1960s before finally flipping in 2004. John F. Kennedy lost college-educated voters by a two-to-one margin yet won the presidency thanks to overwhelming support among white voters without a degree. Sixty years later, our second Catholic president charted a…

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