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Category: Politics

Monkeypox is about to become the next public health failure

Monkeypox is about to become the next public health failure

Scott Gottlieb writes: When about 100 cases of ‌‌monkeypox had been confirmed or suspected in Europe‌ in May, it was clear the virus was spreading outside the areas where it was previously seen‌‌. Some on social media ‌‌suggested it might already be ‌spreading rapidly in communities in Europe and the ‌United States. These reports should have been a code red for federal infectious disease response. But it wasn’t until late June that the C‌enters for Disease Control and Prevention expanded…

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Why I’m leading a congressional delegation to Taiwan

Why I’m leading a congressional delegation to Taiwan

Nancy Pelosi writes: Some 43 years ago, the United States Congress overwhelmingly passed — and President Jimmy Carter signed into law — the Taiwan Relations Act, one of the most important pillars of U.S. foreign policy in the Asia Pacific. The Taiwan Relations Act set out America’s commitment to a democratic Taiwan, providing the framework for an economic and diplomatic relationship that would quickly flourish into a key partnership. It fostered a deep friendship rooted in shared interests and values:…

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Nancy Pelosi just lit a match at the dynamite factory

Nancy Pelosi just lit a match at the dynamite factory

Fred Kaplan writes: As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s plane approached the airport in Taipei on Tuesday, Chinese warships and fighter planes squeezed the meridian line—the air-and-sea border dividing the People’s Republic of China from Taiwan—while American aircraft carriers steamed nearby to ward off or meet any threats. It’s impossible to deny that this trip was, at the very least, poorly timed. Several U.S. officials—in the White House, the State Department, the Pentagon, and the intelligence community—had tried, perhaps too delicately,…

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Arizona officials warned that fake electors plan could ‘appear treasonous’

Arizona officials warned that fake electors plan could ‘appear treasonous’

The New York Times reports: Two Arizona Republicans recruited by allies of former President Donald J. Trump to join an effort to keep him in office after he lost the 2020 election grew so concerned about the plan that they told lawyers working on it that they feared their actions could be seen as treason, according to emails reviewed by The New York Times. Kelli Ward, the chairwoman of the Arizona Republican Party, and Kelly Townsend, a state senator, were…

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First impressions on the execution of Ayman al-Zawahiri

First impressions on the execution of Ayman al-Zawahiri

Spencer Ackerman writes: It is true that Zawahiri, like bin Laden, like his other colleagues in al-Qaeda’s 9/11 era leadership, chose violence and bear inescapable moral responsibility for murdering nearly 3000 of my neighbors here in New York. He used religion as a mechanism to justify violence and beatify the violent—you can find this all through his 2001 book Knights Under The Prophet’s Banner. It’s also worth noting that Biden’s recent abject performance before Mohammed bin Salman, his declaration in…

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Ayman al Zawahiri was observed more keenly by terrorism analysts than by jihadists

Ayman al Zawahiri was observed more keenly by terrorism analysts than by jihadists

Hassan Hassan writes: It says something about the state of jihadism today that more counterterrorism analysts hung on every word uttered by Ayman al Zawahiri than did the terrorists he ostensibly commanded. The killing of the former leader of al Qaeda by a CIA drone attack in a house in Kabul, Afghanistan, is a symbolic victory for President Joe Biden. Zawahiri is said to have played a central role in the planning of the 9/11 attacks and generally to have…

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How the Kremlin is forcing Ukrainians to submit to Russian rule

How the Kremlin is forcing Ukrainians to submit to Russian rule

The New York Times reports: They have handed out Russian passports, cellphone numbers and set-top boxes for watching Russian television. They have replaced Ukrainian currency with the ruble, rerouted the internet through Russian servers and arrested hundreds who have resisted assimilation. In ways big and small, the occupying authorities on territory seized by Moscow’s forces are using fear and indoctrination to compel Ukrainians to adopt a Russian way of life. “We are one people,” blue-white-and-red billboards say. “We are with…

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Putin’s rule is weakening

Putin’s rule is weakening

Timothy Snyder writes: It seems to me, from a distance, that Putin’s rule is weakening. We now regularly hear from people aside from Putin (for example former prime minister and president Dmitry Medvedev) about the meaning of the war, the catastrophic consequences that await Ukraine and the West, and so forth. This is interesting, because it seems like a sign that Putin is losing control. Usually the news coverage of such pronouncements focuses on their content. When Medvedev tells us…

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Scientists say it’s ‘fatally foolish’ to not study catastrophic climate outcomes

Scientists say it’s ‘fatally foolish’ to not study catastrophic climate outcomes

Inside Climate News reports: As global greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, some climate scientists say it’s time to start paying more attention to the most extreme, worst-case outcomes, including the potential for widespread extinctions, mass climate migration and the disintegration of social and political systems. “Facing a future of accelerating climate change while blind to worst-case scenarios is naive risk management at best and fatally foolish at worst,” an international team of researchers wrote this week in a Perspective…

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Fear, hate, and grievances animate Trump’s Republican Party

Fear, hate, and grievances animate Trump’s Republican Party

Peter Wehner writes: For all the defects Donald Trump has as a politician, he does possess certain skills, among them an almost preternatural ability to tap into the sensibilities—the id—of the American right. More than any other Republican candidate in 2016, Trump was in sync with the base of the party. He still is, as he prepares for what looks like another run for the presidency. Returning to Washington, D.C., for the first time since he left the White House…

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Inside conservatives’ next big dream: A constitutional convention

Inside conservatives’ next big dream: A constitutional convention

Insider reports: As former Republican senator Rick Santorum addressed Republican lawmakers gathered in San Diego at the American Legislative Exchange Council policy summit, he detailed a plan to fundamentally remake the United States. It would become a conservative nation. And the transformation, Santorum said, culminates with an unprecedented event: a first-of-its-kind convention to rewrite the Constitution. “You take this grenade and you pull the pin, you’ve got a live piece of ammo in your hands,” Santorum, a two-time GOP presidential…

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Vast new study shows a key to reducing poverty: More friendships between rich and poor

Vast new study shows a key to reducing poverty: More friendships between rich and poor

The New York Times reports: Over the last four decades, the financial circumstances into which children have been born have increasingly determined where they have ended up as adults. But an expansive new study, based on billions of social media connections, has uncovered a powerful exception to that pattern that helps explain why certain places offer a path out of poverty. For poor children, living in an area where people have more friendships that cut across class lines significantly increases…

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Russia is plundering gold in Sudan to boost Putin’s war effort in Ukraine

Russia is plundering gold in Sudan to boost Putin’s war effort in Ukraine

CNN reports: Days after Moscow launched its bloody war on Ukraine, a Russian cargo plane stood on a Khartoum runway, a strip of tarmac surrounded by red-orange sand. The aircraft’s manifest stated it was loaded with cookies. Sudan rarely, if ever, exports cookies. A heated debate transpired between officials in a back office of Khartoum International Airport. They feared that inspecting the plane would vex the country’s increasingly pro-Russian military leadership. Multiple previous attempts to intercept suspicious Russian carriers had…

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Why John Mearsheimer is dangerously wrong about Ukraine

Why John Mearsheimer is dangerously wrong about Ukraine

Joe Cirincione writes: International relations scholar John Mearsheimer is brilliant, provocative and deeply insightful. I have had the pleasure to know him and to have lectured to his class at the University of Chicago. On Ukraine, however, he is dangerously wrong. In numerous essays and articles, Mearsheimer focuses his fire on U.S. and NATO policies for causing the Ukraine war and for its continuation. His speech, “Why Is Ukraine the West’s Fault?” has been viewed more than 27 million times….

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Trump is increasingly being cold-shouldered by Fox News

Trump is increasingly being cold-shouldered by Fox News

The New York Times reports: It’s been more than 100 days since Donald J. Trump was interviewed on Fox News. The network, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch and boosted Mr. Trump’s ascension from real estate developer and reality television star to the White House, is now often bypassing him in favor of showcasing other Republicans. In the former president’s view, according to two people who have spoken to him recently, Fox’s ignoring him is an affront far worse than…

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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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