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Category: Politics

Biden EPA to tackle coal industry carbon with rules on other pollutants

Biden EPA to tackle coal industry carbon with rules on other pollutants

Reuters reports: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plans to use new limits on traditional pollutants like ozone and coal ash to help encourage the retirement of the nation’s remaining coal-fired power plants, after the Supreme Court limited the agency’s ability to impose sweeping climate regulations, according to EPA chief Michael Regan. The approach reflects how the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden intends to forge ahead with goals to decarbonize the power sector despite the recent ruling from the court….

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Climate deniers attack weather forecasters during UK heatwave

Climate deniers attack weather forecasters during UK heatwave

BBC News reports: Weather forecasters faced unprecedented levels of trolling during this month’s extreme heat in the UK, according to leading figures in the industry. The BBC’s team received hundreds of abusive tweets or emails questioning their reports and telling them to “get a grip”, as temperatures hit 40C. BBC meteorologist Matt Taylor said he had never experienced anything like it in nearly 25 years working in weather. The Royal Meteorological Society condemned the trolling. Most of the abuse seems…

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The day Tunisia’s democracy died

The day Tunisia’s democracy died

Shadi Hamid writes: A year has passed since the start of President Kais Saied’s slow-motion coup in Tunisia. That it was as slow as this was perhaps key to its success. I would rather not write this as a sort of political eulogy. But it seems appropriate to write in the past tense, at least for now. This isn’t to say that Tunisians won’t be able to wrest their country back from their would-be strongman. I hope and pray that…

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How six states could overturn the 2024 election

How six states could overturn the 2024 election

Barton Gellman writes: Late last month, in one of its final acts of the term, the Supreme Court queued up another potentially precedent-wrecking decision for next year. The Court’s agreement to hear Moore v. Harper, a North Carolina redistricting case, isn’t just bad news for efforts to control gerrymandering. The Court’s right-wing supermajority is poised to let state lawmakers overturn voters’ choice in presidential elections. To understand the stakes, and the motives of Republicans who brought the case, you need…

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‘Constitutional sheriffs’: Inside one far-right sheriff’s crusade to prove Trump’s bogus voter-fraud claims

‘Constitutional sheriffs’: Inside one far-right sheriff’s crusade to prove Trump’s bogus voter-fraud claims

Reuters reports: Donald Trump’s claim that the 2020 election was rigged has been decisively debunked by local election officials, state and federal courts, and the former president’s own attorney general. All deemed his case bogus. Here in Michigan’s rural Barry County, Sheriff Dar Leaf rejects all that. Since late 2020, Leaf has been investigating one of Trump’s most fantastical false assertions – that vote-counting machines somehow flipped votes from Trump to Democrat Joe Biden. Working with key figures in the…

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Do American ‘national conservatives’ condone Viktor Orbán’s white nationalism?

Do American ‘national conservatives’ condone Viktor Orbán’s white nationalism?

Cathy Young writes: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s career as a champion of “illiberal democracy” and a poster boy for “national conservatism” took a startling turn last Saturday when his speech at a summer event in Romania veered into explicit “Great Replacement” rhetoric, complete with a denunciation of the “mixed-race world” of liberal Western countries. The controversy escalated on Tuesday when sociologist Zsuzsa Hegedüs, a longtime Orbán adviser and ally, submitted a scathing resignation letter that slammed her now-former boss…

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Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan is too dangerous

Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan is too dangerous

Bonnie S. Glaser and Zack Cooper write: The United States and China are on a collision course in the Taiwan Strait. China’s ambitions have risen along with its military power and it may soon be capable of seizing democratically ruled Taiwan — even in a fight with the United States. President Xi Jinping is hoping to get an unprecedented third term later this fall and cannot afford to appear weak. He has been increasing pressure on Taiwan and apparently believes…

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Pelosi and China: The making of a progressive hawk

Pelosi and China: The making of a progressive hawk

Politico reports: When Chinese officials chased Nancy Pelosi out of Tiananmen Square 31 years ago, the incident launched a surprising foreign policy approach that has pitted her against presidents of both parties and at times aligned her with conservatives. Now, she wants to bookend her career on the world stage with a trip to Taiwan — whether the White House likes it or not. The speaker’s strong progressive stance on global affairs dates back to her tenure atop the House…

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There is a way to stop Russia making massive profits from oil

There is a way to stop Russia making massive profits from oil

In an editorial, the New York Times says: The United States and its allies are leaning heavily on economic sanctions to punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. But a key element in that strategy, restrictions on Russian oil exports, mostly appears to be causing pain for ordinary people in other countries. European nations, in particular, are causing considerable damage to their own economies without reducing Russia’s oil revenue. Nations seeking to help Ukraine are aiming at the wrong target….

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U.S. power companies secretly spending millions to protect profits and fight clean energy

U.S. power companies secretly spending millions to protect profits and fight clean energy

The Guardian reports: The CEO of the biggest power company in the US had a problem. A Democratic state senator was proposing a law that could cut into Florida Power & Light’s (FPL) profits. Landlords would be able to sell cheap rooftop solar power directly to their tenants – bypassing FPL and its monopoly on electricity. “I want you to make his life a living hell … seriously,” FPL’s CEO Eric Silagy wrote in a 2019 email to two of…

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What’s in the ‘total game changer’ climate bill nobody saw coming

What’s in the ‘total game changer’ climate bill nobody saw coming

Vox reports: Democrats may be on the verge of passing historic climate legislation after all. The $369 billion of climate spending in the Inflation Reduction Act that Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) announced on Wednesday includes funding for clean energy and electric vehicle tax breaks, domestic manufacturing of batteries and solar panels, and pollution reduction. If the bill’s policies work as intended, it would push American consumers and industry away from reliance on fossil fuels, penalize fossil fuel companies for excess…

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The enemy within: How Russia spread a secret web of agents across Ukraine

The enemy within: How Russia spread a secret web of agents across Ukraine

Reuters reports: When the first armoured vehicles of Russia’s invading army reached the heart of Chornobyl nuclear plant on the afternoon of Feb. 24, they encountered a Ukrainian unit charged with defending the notorious facility. In less than two hours, and without a fight, the 169 members of the Ukrainian National Guard laid down their weapons. Russia had taken Chornobyl, a repository for tonnes of nuclear material and a key staging post on the approach to Kyiv. The fall of…

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Bracing for long conflict, Kyiv returns to near normality, with theaters and dance parties

Bracing for long conflict, Kyiv returns to near normality, with theaters and dance parties

The Wall Street Journal reports: Opera singer Oleksandr Melnychuk picked up a shotgun shortly after Russian tanks rolled to Kyiv’s outskirts in February, joining a territorial defense battalion to protect northern approaches to the Ukrainian capital. The city of some 3.5 million emptied, with antitank barriers blocking the streets and artillery cannonades keeping remaining residents awake at night. Kyiv’s opera and ballet theater was shut down, as were all restaurants, bars, museums, shopping malls and pretty much everything other than…

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States opposed to abortion are more willing to let mothers and children die

States opposed to abortion are more willing to let mothers and children die

The New York Times reports: In Mississippi, which brought the abortion case that ended Roe v. Wade before the Supreme Court, Gov. Tate Reeves vowed that the state would now “take every step necessary to support mothers and children.” Today, however, Mississippi fares poorly on just about any measure of that goal. Its infant and maternal mortality rates are among the worst in the nation. State leaders have rejected the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion, leaving an estimated 43,000 women…

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Under capitalism, the colonization of space means the destruction of Earth

Under capitalism, the colonization of space means the destruction of Earth

Srećko Horvat writes: In February 2022, the Adam Smith Institute published a report claiming that the Moon should be privatized to help wipe out poverty on Earth. According to the report, the Moon should be divided into parcels of land and assigned to various countries to rent out to businesses, which would boost space tourism, exploration, and discovery. For now, thankfully, there is a treaty that stands in the way of such plans. The Outer Space Treaty was drawn up…

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Trump’s gang of ‘malevolent nincompoops’ is on a collision course to face criminal charges

Trump’s gang of ‘malevolent nincompoops’ is on a collision course to face criminal charges

  The New York Times reports: Federal prosecutors have directly asked witnesses in recent days about former President Donald J. Trump’s involvement in efforts to reverse his election loss, a person familiar with the testimony said on Tuesday, suggesting that the Justice Department’s criminal investigation has moved into a more aggressive and politically fraught phase. Mr. Trump’s personal role in elements of the push to overturn his loss in 2020 to Joseph R. Biden Jr. has long been established, both…

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