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Category: Politics

George Soros: Open societies are in a struggle for survival

George Soros: Open societies are in a struggle for survival

George Soros writes: Since the last Davos meeting, the course of history has changed dramatically. Russia invaded Ukraine. This has shaken Europe to its core. The European Union was established to prevent such a thing from happening. Even when the fighting stops, as it eventually must, the situation will never revert to the status quo ante. Indeed, the Russian invasion may turn out to be the beginning of World War III, and our civilization may not survive it.1 The invasion…

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Russia benefits from the global food crisis it helped create

Russia benefits from the global food crisis it helped create

Bloomberg reports: Russia’s war against Ukraine, while deepening a global food crisis, has made the invader among the biggest winners of the mess it helped create. The war has blocked Ukraine’s grain exports by sea, cutting off vital supplies for countries from Somalia to Egypt. The disruption, topped by hot weather and droughts that are hurting wheat crops in other parts of the world, has sent prices of the grain to near-record highs and is threatening hunger in parts of…

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‘We have been invaded by fascists,’ says Viktor Marunyak, the ‘sheriff’ of Stara Zburievka

‘We have been invaded by fascists,’ says Viktor Marunyak, the ‘sheriff’ of Stara Zburievka

Olga Tokariuk reports: Viktor Marunyak, a village head of Stara Zburievka in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region, has been known not only as one of the longest-serving mayors, but also as a movie star. His international visibility helped save his life after he was abducted by Russian soldiers during the invasion of Ukraine. Marunyak was one of the protagonists of “Ukrainian Sheriffs,” a documentary directed by Roman Bondarchuk, winner of several international awards and Ukraine’s 2016 Oscars entry. The movie tells…

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High-profile Russian defectors are rejecting war

High-profile Russian defectors are rejecting war

The Guardian reports: Igor Volobuyev spent two decades working in the heart of the Russian business establishment, first for Gazprom and then for its affiliate Gazprombank, where until February this year he was vice-president. Then Vladimir Putin launched his war on Ukraine in late February, and Volobuyev decided he could no longer stand living in Russia. He packed a small rucksack of possessions and a stack of cash, and flew out of the country on 2 March, pretending he was…

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Opposition to gun control is rooted in racism

Opposition to gun control is rooted in racism

Jay Michaelson writes: As legal scholar Reva Siegel and others have demonstrated, (white) conservatives’ opposition to gun regulation began in the wake of the civil rights movement and the rise in the 1970s of the ‘New Right,’ made up of former segregationists, cultural conservatives (the ‘moral majority’), and white politicians demanding ‘law and order.’ While the 1972 Republican party platform had actually supported gun control, the Reagan Revolution transformed the party. (Ronald Reagan wrote an article praising individual gun ownership…

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America’s addiction to gun violence

America’s addiction to gun violence

Ross Barkan writes: The mass shooting in Texas that killed at least 19 schoolchildren and two adults on Thursday came on the heels of the horrific, racist slaughter in Buffalo, New York. “When in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby?” Joe Biden asked in a national address, sounding more like a beleaguered Democratic voter than the president of the United States. “Why are we willing to live with this carnage? Why do we keep…

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New evidence suggests Al Jazeera journalist was killed in targeted attack by Israeli forces

New evidence suggests Al Jazeera journalist was killed in targeted attack by Israeli forces

CNN reports: Several shots ring out in quick succession, cutting through a clear, blue spring morning in Jenin, in the West Bank. Crack, crack, crack, crack, crack, crack, crack. The cameraman filming the scene scrambles backwards to take cover behind a low concrete wall. Then a man cries out in Arabic: “Injured! Shireen, Shireen, oh man, Shireen! Ambulance!” When the camera operator pans around the corner, Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh can be seen lying motionless, face down on…

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The Kyiv Independent responds to appeasement promoted by the New York Times

The Kyiv Independent responds to appeasement promoted by the New York Times

In an editorial, The Kyiv Independent says: The New York Times editorial, “The War in Ukraine Is Getting Complicated, and America Isn’t Ready,” published on May 19, immediately caused an uproar in Ukraine. A veiled manifesto of appeasement from a newspaper known for its stellar coverage of Russia’s horrific invasion has disappointed many. In the editorial, the New York Times editorial board argues that it’s too dangerous to assume that Ukraine can win the war. It says “Russia is too…

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Will American howitzers make a critical difference in a war that has mostly become an artillery battle?

Will American howitzers make a critical difference in a war that has mostly become an artillery battle?

The New York Times reports: Camouflaged in a heap of branches cut from nearby trees, the weapon that Ukraine hopes will make a critical difference in its war with Russia is all but invisible from more than a few feet away. Soon, a single round shoots out with a boom and a howling, metallic shriek as it sails toward Russian positions. It is the American-made M777 howitzer. It shoots farther, moves faster and is hidden more easily, and it’s what…

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The pro-Russian attempt to link the Buffalo shooting to Ukraine

The pro-Russian attempt to link the Buffalo shooting to Ukraine

Chris York reports: Ten people lay dead and a teenager armed with an assault rifle and a written tirade promoting white supremacy had been arrested. Yet just hours after the horrific mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, a small corner of the internet was trying to pin the blame nearly 5,000 miles away, in Ukraine. The link was tenuous at best: A photo of the shooter, 18-year-old Payton Gendron, shows him wearing clothing emblazoned with a “sonnenrad,” a neo–Nazi symbol…

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Why is Glenn Greenwald defending Tucker Carlson and the ‘great replacement’?

Why is Glenn Greenwald defending Tucker Carlson and the ‘great replacement’?

Eoin Higgins writes: Greenwald has been a Fox News partisan for some time, in near-perfect correlation to how often he’s invited on the network. Carlson has hosted Greenwald numerous times, while gaining his unswerving loyalty. What this loyalty has meant in real terms is relentless pro-Carlson arguments from Greenwald. He has seldom criticized Carlson or Fox News — as I detailed last year — and his deference has paid off with a near-weekly slot appearing on Carlson’s primetime show. (Greenwald…

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Majority of Trump supporters agree with white supremacist ‘great replacement’ conspiracy theory

Majority of Trump supporters agree with white supremacist ‘great replacement’ conspiracy theory

Yahoo News reports: A new Yahoo News/YouGov poll shows that more than 6 in 10 Donald Trump voters (61%) agree that “a group of people in this country are trying to replace native-born Americans with immigrants and people of color who share their political views” — a core tenet of the false conspiracy theory known as the “great replacement.” Less than a quarter of Trump voters (22%) disagree with that statement. So-called replacement theory has been covered extensively in the…

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There has to be a backup plan. There’s a backup plan, right?

There has to be a backup plan. There’s a backup plan, right?

Gabriel Debenedetti writes: Only three in ten Americans think Biden will seek a second term, according to a recent Wall Street Journal poll. That survey also revealed that even among Democrats, a group that likes and approves of Biden in general, fewer than half are sure the president is planning on round two and a third outright think he isn’t. Biden can’t discredit the findings; the data was gathered in part by the research firm led by his own pollster,…

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The war in Ukraine won’t end until Putin loses

The war in Ukraine won’t end until Putin loses

Anne Applebaum writes: The expression off-ramp has a pleasing physicality, evoking a thing that can be constructed out of concrete and steel. But at the moment, anyone talking about an off-ramp in Ukraine—and many people are doing so, in governments, on radio stations, in a million private arguments—is using the term metaphorically, referring to a deal that could persuade Vladimir Putin to halt his invasion. Some believe that such an off-ramp could easily be built if only diplomats were willing…

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Biden vows to defend Taiwan with U.S. military if China invades — but doesn’t expect that to happen

Biden vows to defend Taiwan with U.S. military if China invades — but doesn’t expect that to happen

Politico reports: U.S. President Joe Biden said Monday that the U.S. would intervene militarily to defend Taiwan if the island was invaded by China. Speaking at a press conference in Tokyo with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during his first trip to Asia since taking office, Biden again voiced concern over China’s growing assertiveness across the region. Biden suggested that the U.S. would go further on behalf of Taiwan than what it has done for Ukraine, where Washington has provided…

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Understanding what totalitarianism is and what it is not

Understanding what totalitarianism is and what it is not

Gabriel Schoenfeld writes: In the three months since Russia began its war of aggression, the character of the country has been changing before our eyes. Its much-vaunted military has been exposed as not only weak, disorganized, and corrupt, but also criminal, engaging in pillaging and the torture and mass slaughter of unarmed Ukrainian civilians and prisoners of war. Resorting to a practice not seen since the Stalin era, Vladimir Putin’s government has also been deporting captured Ukrainians, apparently by the…

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