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Category: Politics

War and warming upend global energy supplies and amplify suffering

War and warming upend global energy supplies and amplify suffering

The New York Times reports: Deadly heat and Russia’s war in Ukraine are packing a brutal double punch, upending the global energy market and forcing some of the world’s largest economies into a desperate scramble to secure electricity for their citizens. This week, Europe found itself in a nasty feedback loop as record temperatures sent electricity demand soaring but also forced sharp cuts in power from nuclear plants in the region because the extreme heat made it difficult to cool…

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The deadly connections between climate change and migration

The deadly connections between climate change and migration

Yale Climate Connections spoke with UCLA anthropologist Jason De León: Yale Climate Connections: What are the main drivers of undocumented migration across the U.S.-Mexico border? Jason De León: The primary reasons that people attempt undocumented migrations include poverty, political instability, violence of different forms, famine, a devaluation of currency, and, increasingly, climate change. You’ve got people who are fleeing places like western Mexico because of droughts. They’re fleeing places like Honduras because of the intensity and frequency of hurricanes that…

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U.S. Himars help to hold off Russian advance, Ukraine says

U.S. Himars help to hold off Russian advance, Ukraine says

The Wall Street Journal reports: U.S.-supplied long-range artillery has helped stabilize the front line with Russia in the east of the country, the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces said, as his troops geared up for a counteroffensive to retake territory in the south. After weeks of grueling combat in eastern Ukraine that culminated in Russian forces claiming control over the Luhansk region, the arrival of U.S. mobile rocket launchers, known as Himars, last month has strengthened Kyiv’s hand. “It is…

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Biden announces modest steps to fight climate’s ‘clear and present danger’

Biden announces modest steps to fight climate’s ‘clear and present danger’

Politico reports: President Joe Biden sought to keep his faltering climate change agenda alive Wednesday after bruising defeats in Congress and at the Supreme Court, and he vowed to take matters into his own hands as heatwave records topple in the U.S. and Europe and his climate goals drift further out of reach. For now, those steps will be modest: Biden’s administration will clear the way for new offshore wind energy in the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean, he…

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Is the Justice Department meeting the moment?

Is the Justice Department meeting the moment?

Quinta Jurecic and Natalie K. Orpett write: As the Jan. 6 committee continues to build its case for Donald Trump’s criminal culpability regarding the Capitol insurrection, the Justice Department has come under increasing criticism for its failure to take public action against the former president. Rep. Adam Schiff, who sits on the Jan. 6 committee, commented on MSNBC that “it is unprecedented for Congress to be so far out ahead of the Justice Department in a complex investigation.” According to…

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Blake Masters is Peter Thiel’s dream candidate — and a total nightmare for democracy

Blake Masters is Peter Thiel’s dream candidate — and a total nightmare for democracy

Mother Jones reports: In the spring of 2012, Blake Masters, who was in his final year at Stanford Law, sat in on a computer science class taught by Peter Thiel, the billionaire co-founder of PayPal. During a lecture titled “Founder as Victim, Founder as God,” Thiel argued a kinglike leader was essential to innovation. “A startup is basically structured as a monarchy,” he explained. “We don’t call it that, of course. That would seem weirdly outdated, and anything that’s not…

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How ‘Stop the Steal’ movement now threatens the future of American elections

How ‘Stop the Steal’ movement now threatens the future of American elections

Charles Homans writes: The Pennsylvania State Capitol, in Harrisburg, is a Beaux-Arts landmark that on its eastern side echoes the west terrace of the U.S. Capitol, and the scene there on Nov. 7, 2020, four days after Election Day, strikingly prefigured the one in Washington two months later. On the plaza below, more than a thousand strong, were the Donald Trump faithful, in MAGA hats and every possible variation of red, white and blue clothing, waving the banners of the…

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‘Sprint through the finish’: Why the January 6 committee isn’t nearly done

‘Sprint through the finish’: Why the January 6 committee isn’t nearly done

Politico reports: The Jan. 6 select committee once envisioned a single month packed with hearings. Then a fire hose of evidence came its way — and now its members have no interest in shutting or even slowing the spigot. As its summer hearings show some signs of chipping at Donald Trump’s electoral appeal, select panel members describe Thursday’s hearing as only the last in a series. Committee members, aides and allies are emboldened by the public reaction to the information…

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Secret Service says the dog ate their texts

Secret Service says the dog ate their texts

The Washington Post reports: The U.S. Secret Service has determined it has no new texts to provide Congress relevant to its Jan. 6 investigation, and that any other texts its agents exchanged around the time of the 2021 attack on the Capitol were purged, according to a senior official briefed on the matter. Also, the National Archives on Tuesday sought more information on “the potential unauthorized deletion” of agency text messages. The U.S. government’s chief record-keeper asked the Secret Service…

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Why are Democrats spending millions to boost the far-right fringe?

Why are Democrats spending millions to boost the far-right fringe?

Brian Beutler writes: Three simple facts will form the backdrop of the November midterms, and taken together, they are difficult to fully reconcile: First, Democrats are serious underdogs and may be defeated in a wave as devastating as the ones that wiped them out in 1994 and 2010. Second, Donald Trump, the undisputed leader of the Republican Party, has endorsed a slate of G.O.P. primary candidates who are unfit to hold public office in a democracy. Third, Democrats want to…

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Ukraine invites allies to check on their weapons donations

Ukraine invites allies to check on their weapons donations

Politico reports: Ukraine has created a temporary special commission to monitor the flow of billions of dollars in Western weapons into the country. It’s in response to what Kyiv says is a Russian smear campaign to whip up concern in the West about its ability to effectively handle and monitor the arms. “To date, more than a dozen international partners have provided Ukraine with various types of weapons that are already being used at the front. However, Russian propaganda, in…

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Workers in the West have indeed been repressed – but not by immigrants

Workers in the West have indeed been repressed – but not by immigrants

John Rapley writes: One summer evening in 2015, a deranged young man entered a Black church in Charleston, South Carolina. After spending nearly an hour with the assembled prayer group, he began screaming that they were ‘rapists’ who were ‘taking over our country’, and proceeded to spray them with bullets. When he left the church, nine innocents, some of whom had tragically prayed for him, lay dead. Within days, photos surfaced on the internet showing the killer wrapped in the…

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The U.S. plan to avoid extreme climate change is running out of time

The U.S. plan to avoid extreme climate change is running out of time

The Washington Post reports: In 101 months, the United States will have achieved President Biden’s most important climate promise — or it will have fallen short. Right now it is seriously falling short, and for each month that passes, it becomes harder to succeed until at some point — perhaps very soon — it will become virtually impossible. That’s true for the United States, and also true for the planet, as nearly 200 nations strive to tackle climate change with…

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The climate crisis cannot be tackled with incrementalism

The climate crisis cannot be tackled with incrementalism

George Monbiot writes: Can we talk about it now? I mean the subject most of the media and most of the political class has been avoiding for so long. You know, the only subject that ultimately counts – the survival of life on Earth. Everyone knows, however carefully they avoid the topic, that, beside it, all the topics filling the front pages and obsessing the pundits are dust. Even the Times editors still publishing columns denying climate science know it….

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Why Putin thinks he’s winning

Why Putin thinks he’s winning

Tatiana Stanovaya writes: We are used to thinking that Mr. Putin sees the West as a hostile force that aims to destroy Russia. But I believe that for Mr. Putin there are two Wests: a bad one and a good one. The “bad West” is represented by the traditional political elites that currently rule Western countries: Mr. Putin appears to see them as narrow-minded slaves of their electorates who overlook genuine national interests and are incapable of strategic thinking. The…

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Statues perpetuate the myths of the ‘Great Man’ school of history

Statues perpetuate the myths of the ‘Great Man’ school of history

  On Sunday 7th June 2020, sparked by the horrific murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, protestors marching to support the Black Lives Matter movement in Bristol tore down the statue of slave trader Edward Colston and threw it in the city’s harbour. This dramatic action thrust the city onto the global stage and put it at the forefront of an ongoing and bitter culture war. David Olusoga OBE is a historian, writer, broadcaster, presenter and film-maker from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, now…

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