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Category: Politics

Lawyer went out on a limb for Trump. Now she’s under Justice Dept. scrutiny

Lawyer went out on a limb for Trump. Now she’s under Justice Dept. scrutiny

The New York Times reports: This spring, one of the lawyers representing former President Donald J. Trump made an urgent, high-stakes request to Christina G. Bobb, who had just jumped from a Trump-allied cable network to a job in his political organization. The former president was in the midst of an escalating clash with the Justice Department about documents he had taken with him from the White House at the end of his term. The lawyer, M. Evan Corcoran, met…

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Biden proposal could lead to employee status for gig workers

Biden proposal could lead to employee status for gig workers

The New York Times reports: The Labor Department on Tuesday unveiled a proposal that would make it more likely for millions of janitors, home-care and construction workers and gig drivers to be classified as employees rather than independent contractors. Companies are required to provide certain benefits and protections to employees but not to contractors, such as paying a minimum wage, overtime, a portion of a worker’s Social Security taxes and contributions to unemployment insurance. The proposed rule is essentially a…

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Russia launches missile strikes across Ukraine, hitting mostly civilian targets

Russia launches missile strikes across Ukraine, hitting mostly civilian targets

Michael Weiss and James Rushton report: Ukrainians across the country awoke Monday morning to a barrage of Russian missile and kamikaze drone attacks on civilian infrastructure in cities stretching from Kharkiv in the east to Lviv in the west. Kyiv, for the first time since the Russian invasion began in late February, took the brunt of the assault, with almost all confirmed impact targets being civilian, not military, in nature. According to Valerii Zaluzhnyi, commander in chief of Ukraine’s armed…

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Russia loses 60% of its seaborne crude oil market in Europe

Russia loses 60% of its seaborne crude oil market in Europe

Bloomberg reports: Russia has lost three-fifths of its seaborne crude sales in Europe since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine in February. That market is going to vanish almost completely eight weeks from now and the latest sanctions will make it very difficult to divert flows elsewhere. Crude shipments to Europe averaged 630,000 barrels a day in the four weeks to Oct. 7, down from 1.62 million before the invasion. Tankers carrying Russia’s oil are now forced to spend four times…

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The #WomanLifeFreedom uprising has brought Iran to a turning point

The #WomanLifeFreedom uprising has brought Iran to a turning point

Robin Wright writes: The girls and women of Iran are just bitchin’ brave, flipping the bird at its Supreme Leader in a challenge to one of the most significant revolutions in modern history. Day after dangerous day, on open streets and in gated schools, in a flood of tweets and brazen videos, they have ridiculed a theocracy that deems itself the government of God. The average age of the protesters who have been arrested is just fifteen, the Revolutionary Guard’s…

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Why little-noticed state legislative races could be hugely consequential for American democracy

Why little-noticed state legislative races could be hugely consequential for American democracy

The New York Times reports: The conversation started with potholes. Veronica Klinefelt, a Democratic candidate for State Senate in suburban Detroit, was out knocking on doors as she tries to win a seat her party sees as critical for taking back the chamber. “I am tired of seeing cuts in aging communities like ours,” she told one voter, gesturing to a cul-de-sac pocked with cracks and crevasses. “We need to reinvest here.” What went largely unspoken, however, was how this…

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In Trump case, Texas court creates a headache for Georgia prosecutors

In Trump case, Texas court creates a headache for Georgia prosecutors

The New York Times reports: Witnesses called to testify in a Georgia criminal investigation into former President Donald J. Trump and his allies have not always come willingly. A number of them have fought their subpoenas in their home-state courts, only to have local judges order them to cooperate. That was the case with Trump-aligned lawyers John Eastman in New Mexico, Jenna Ellis in Colorado and Rudolph W. Giuliani in New York; Mr. Giuliani was also told by an Atlanta…

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Team Putin wakes up: We never should have laughed at Ukraine

Team Putin wakes up: We never should have laughed at Ukraine

Julia Davis reports: Russia experienced a number of embarrassing setbacks on the battlefield in Ukraine, but none of them were as humiliating as an explosion that rocked the Crimean Bridge, also known as Kerch Strait Bridge or Kerch Bridge, early Saturday morning. During his Saturday broadcast on Solovyov Live, Russian state TV host Sergey Mardan opened his show with heavy sighs. He noted, “All day long we’ll be talking about how this happened and what will come of it. I…

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‘Ukraine is going to win’: Estonia’s departing spy chief opens up on Putin’s war

‘Ukraine is going to win’: Estonia’s departing spy chief opens up on Putin’s war

Michael Weiss reports: “Early retirement” is a strange way to describe a 44-year-old’s acceptance of a new government role, but for Mikk Marran, Estonia’s spymaster, it feels a lot like that. As of next month he will no longer helm Välisluureamet, the Baltic state’s foreign intelligence service, which, long before Vladimir Putin’s faltering invasion of Ukraine, was at the forefront of assessing the threats and capabilities of a resurgent and revanchist Russia. “Seven years, it’s a long time,” Marran tells…

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In Russian-occupied Izyum, she was raped and tortured

In Russian-occupied Izyum, she was raped and tortured

The Washington Post reports: Soon after Russian forces took her prisoner, the 52-year-old woman picked up a nail and carved her name into a brick wall. A-L-L-A, she wrote. Below, she scratched how many days she had been held in the shed outside a medical clinic in her hometown. Above, she wrote in simple words what she had endured in captivity: ELECTRICAL SHOCK. UNDRESS. PAINFUL. She hoped the markings would one day serve as clues for her son about what…

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Trump says Spain’s far-right Vox party is doing a ‘great job’; blames U.S. for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, interview

Trump says Spain’s far-right Vox party is doing a ‘great job’; blames U.S. for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, interview

The Associated Press reports: Former U.S. President Donald Trump threw his weight behind Spain’s far-right Sunday in a video shown at a rally in Madrid that also featured messages by the leading stars of Europe’s populist right like Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and Hungary’s Viktor Orban. In a recording that lasted under 40 seconds made while Trump was on a plane, Trump thanked Spain’s far-right Vox party and its leader Santiago Abascal for what he called the “great job” they do….

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Judge narrows trial of analyst who reported salacious claims about Trump

Judge narrows trial of analyst who reported salacious claims about Trump

The New York Times reports: John H. Durham, the Trump-era special counsel, set off political reverberations last year when he unveiled a lengthy indictment of an analyst he accused of lying to the F.B.I. about sources for the so-called Steele dossier, a discredited compendium of political opposition research about purported ties between Donald J. Trump and Russia. But the trial of the analyst, Igor Danchenko, which opens on Tuesday with jury selection in federal court in Alexandria, Va., now appears…

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How the U.S. can block China from getting microchips made abroad

How the U.S. can block China from getting microchips made abroad

Henry Farrell writes: On Friday, the Biden administration issued aggressive new regulations, aimed at making it harder for China to access and build high-end semiconductors. Monday saw the publication of “Chip War,” a new book on global fights over semiconductors, written by Chris Miller, an associate professor of history at Tufts University’s Fletcher School and a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. I interviewed Chris by email over what the new developments mean and how they reflect a longer…

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Why some countries are leading the shift to green energy

Why some countries are leading the shift to green energy

Berkeley News reports: Oil and gas prices skyrocketed following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in spring 2022, creating a global energy crisis similar to the oil crisis of the 1970s. While some countries used the price shock to accelerate the transition to cleaner sources of energy, such as wind, solar and geothermal, others have responded by expanding the production of fossil fuels. A new study appearing today in the journal Science identifies the political factors that allow some countries to…

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Putin appoints notorious general to lead Ukraine offensive

Putin appoints notorious general to lead Ukraine offensive

The Guardian reports: Russia has appointed a notorious general who opened fire on pro-democracy protesters in the 1990s as its first overall commander for the war in Ukraine, as the Kremlin struggles to halt a Ukrainian counteroffensive that has left its forces in disarray. The appointment of Gen Sergei Surovikin came on the same day as Vladimir Putin was dealt a humiliating blow after an explosion on the Kerch bridge sank a section of the motorway into the Kerch Strait…

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Crimea bridge explosion disrupts crucial supply route for Russian forces

Crimea bridge explosion disrupts crucial supply route for Russian forces

The Wall Street Journal reports: A major explosion on Saturday severely damaged the bridge connecting Russia’s mainland to the occupied Crimean Peninsula, disrupting traffic on a crucial artery for the supply of fuel, military equipment and food to Russian troops fighting to hold ground in southern Ukraine. The bridge, opened by President Vladimir Putin to great fanfare in 2018, was meant to symbolize the might of the Russian state and the permanence of Russia’s annexation of the peninsula four years…

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