Browsed by
Category: Politics

Voters reject candidates who undermine the value of voting

Voters reject candidates who undermine the value of voting

The Washington Post reports: Voters in the six major battlegrounds where Donald Trump tried to reverse his defeat in 2020 rejected election-denying candidates seeking to control their states’ election systems this year, a resounding signal that Americans have grown weary of the former president’s unfounded claims of widespread fraud. Candidates for secretary of state in Michigan, Arizona and Nevada who had echoed Trump’s false accusations lost their contests on Tuesday, with the latter race called Saturday night. A fourth candidate…

Read More Read More

Exiled Russian activist challenges pacifist approach to ending war on Ukraine

Exiled Russian activist challenges pacifist approach to ending war on Ukraine

Ashley Smith writes: Russia’s war in Ukraine is intensifying. In response to victories on the battlefield won by Ukrainians this fall, Russia has responded by launching a wave of missile and drone attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure throughout the country. As a result, over 15,000 Ukrainian civilians had been killed or injured by early October, and another 1,043 by early November. Despite this state terrorism, Ukraine has continued to put up a valiant resistance to invasion and occupation. Faced…

Read More Read More

Former Dutch senator who opposed Russian sanctions kept contact with Russian spies for a decade

Former Dutch senator who opposed Russian sanctions kept contact with Russian spies for a decade

NL Times reports: A senior politician from the Dutch political party CDA was monitored by the civilian intelligence service, AIVD, because of questionable contacts the politician had with a Russian spy and others with close ties to President Vladimir Putin, the Volkskrant reported on Sunday. René van der Linden sat in the Tweede Kamer for nearly 20 years, served as the State Secretary of Foreign Affairs, and was a senator for 16 years, including from 2009-2011 when he was the…

Read More Read More

Iran and China use private detectives to spy on dissidents in America

Iran and China use private detectives to spy on dissidents in America

The New York Times reports: The job that came in through Michael McKeever’s website was unremarkable, the kind of request he often received in his decades working as a private investigator in New York. An international client wanted his help tracking down a debtor who had fled from Dubai and was believed to be in Brooklyn. Mr. McKeever was to surveil a house and photograph the people coming and going. “Kindly be discreet as they are on the lookout,” he…

Read More Read More

The governors ready to step up if Biden or Trump step aside

The governors ready to step up if Biden or Trump step aside

NBC News reports: President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are at the moment their parties’ leading candidates for 2024. Should that change, count on a governor to be waiting in the wings. There’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose decisive victory in Florida Tuesday night only added fuel to speculation about his national plans. Similarly, high-profile Democratic governors like Gavin Newsom of California and J.B. Pritzker of Illinois also had big wins. But more competitive midterm contests appear poised…

Read More Read More

A red wave of criticism crashes into Donald Trump after midterm losses

A red wave of criticism crashes into Donald Trump after midterm losses

The Washington Post reports: As Republicans grapple with their lackluster performance in Tuesday’s midterm elections, one man has begun to take on an unusual amount of criticism from his fellow partisans: Donald Trump. The former president, who boosted some inexperienced Senate candidates in their primaries who underperformed on Tuesday, declared before the midterms that he wanted “all the credit” if Republicans won. “If they lose, I should not be blamed at all,” he told NewsNation. But now that Republicans are…

Read More Read More

Why independent voters broke for Democrats in the midterms

Why independent voters broke for Democrats in the midterms

The Wall Street Journal reports: Lisa Ghelfi, a 58-year-old registered Republican in Arizona, voted for Donald Trump for president two years ago but has grown tired of his election-fraud claims. It is the main reason she voted for Democrats for governor, senator, secretary of state and attorney general this fall and plans to change her registration to independent. “Not allowing the election to be settled, it’s very divisive,” Ms. Ghelfi, a semiretired attorney from Paradise Valley, said of the 2020…

Read More Read More

U.S. intelligence report says key gulf ally meddled in American politics

U.S. intelligence report says key gulf ally meddled in American politics

The Washington Post reports: U.S. intelligence officials have compiled a classified report detailing extensive efforts to manipulate the American political system by the United Arab Emirates, an influential, oil-rich nation in the Persian Gulf long considered a close and trusted partner. Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for the latest updates on Russia’s war in Ukraine. The activities covered in the report, described to The Washington Post by three people who have read it, include illegal and legal…

Read More Read More

Ukraine retakes Kherson as advances over Russian forces continue

Ukraine retakes Kherson as advances over Russian forces continue

Michael Weiss and James Rushton report: In the end, the Russian occupation of the east bank of Kherson simply evaporated. A little over two days after Sergei Surovikin, commander of Russian forces in Ukraine, and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced the withdrawal of Russian forces east of the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine, the Ukrainian army swept through Kherson province and its capital, where they were greeted by crowds of jubilant civilians. The first indication that Ukrainian forces were…

Read More Read More

What the tiny remaining 1.5C carbon budget means for climate policy

What the tiny remaining 1.5C carbon budget means for climate policy

Prof Piers Forster, Dr Debbie Rosen, Dr Robin Lamboll,and Prof Joeri Rogelj, write: The latest estimates from the Global Carbon Project (GCP) show that total worldwide CO2 emissions in 2022 have reached near-record levels. The GCP’s estimates put the remaining carbon budget for 1.5C – specifically, the amount of CO2 that can still be emitted for a 50% chance of staying below 1.5C of warming – at 380bn tonnes of CO2 (GtCO2). At the current rate of emissions, this budget would be blown in just nine…

Read More Read More

The GOP revolt against Trump is serious this time

The GOP revolt against Trump is serious this time

Jonathan Chait writes: I’ve been telling people for most of the year that I consider Ron DeSantis to be the odds-on favorite — not a guarantee, not a prohibitive favorite, but the favorite — to win the Republican presidential nomination. Usually they nod and then add something like, “But not if Trump runs, right?” “Yes,” I reply, “even if Trump runs.” Then they look at me like I’m crazy. Tuesday night, my view began to look a little less crazy….

Read More Read More

How the GOP lost its grip on the Senate majority

How the GOP lost its grip on the Senate majority

Politico reports: Rick Scott has no regrets about his Senate Republican campaign arm’s hands-off approach to primaries this year — a move that anointed a motley crew of nominees, some of whom cost the GOP dearly. Looking at this year’s strategy by the National Republican Senatorial Committee that he once directed, Steven Law takes a different view. “It seemed to us that the posture of the committee was that all candidates are equally great,” said Law, who now runs the…

Read More Read More

Manchin won’t hold renomination hearing for FERC’s Glick

Manchin won’t hold renomination hearing for FERC’s Glick

Bloomberg reports: Sen. Joe Manchin has decided against scheduling a confirmation hearing for Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chair Richard Glick with only weeks left before the end of the current Congress. “The chairman was not comfortable holding a hearing,” Sam Runyon, spokeswoman for Manchin’s office, said Thursday. Runyon declined to elaborate beyond the statement. The decision comes days after Manchin criticized President Joe Biden’s remarks on shutting down coal plants and replacing them with renewable energy, saying “his words matter…

Read More Read More

Voters are getting sick of Trump

Voters are getting sick of Trump

In an editorial, the Wall Street Journal says: Since his unlikely victory in 2016 against the widely disliked Hillary Clinton, Mr. Trump has a perfect record of electoral defeat. The GOP was pounded in the 2018 midterms owing to his low approval rating. Mr. Trump himself lost in 2020. He then sabotaged Georgia’s 2021 runoffs by blaming party leaders for not somehow overturning his defeat. That gave Democrats control of the Senate, letting President Biden pump up inflation with a…

Read More Read More

How the Supreme Court likely gave Republicans control of the House

How the Supreme Court likely gave Republicans control of the House

Mark Joseph Stern writes: Democrats had a surprisingly good election night on Tuesday. They held on to a number of critical Senate seats, won key gubernatorial races, and, shockingly still, had a slight avenue to hold on to control of the House of Representatives, despite historic headwinds and virtually no margin for error. Still, Republicans are currently forecast to win control of the House by a small margin, carrying the chamber by one to 10 seats. If that projection holds,…

Read More Read More

Kremlin cronies sent reeling on live Russian TV over U.S. midterm elections and ‘comrade Donald’

Kremlin cronies sent reeling on live Russian TV over U.S. midterm elections and ‘comrade Donald’

Julia Davis reports: The midterm elections in the United States were a hot topic in Moscow. Convinced that the “red wave” was coming, Russian propagandists rushed to take credit for the anticipated landslide victory that would ensure Republican majority in Congress and Senate. On Tuesday, Russia’s Tucker Carlson, top propagandist Vladimir Solovyov, greeted his audience by wishing them a “Happy Interference in the U.S. Election Day.” Yevgeny Prigozhin, known as “Putin’s chef,” who was indicted as part of special counsel…

Read More Read More