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Category: Politics

Israeli military commander justifies killing journalists who are ‘armed with cameras’

Israeli military commander justifies killing journalists who are ‘armed with cameras’

The Washington Post reports: The death this week of Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh — who was shot dead during an Israeli raid in the West Bank city of Jenin — has highlighted the dangers reporters face while covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Abu Akleh, a veteran correspondent who worked for the Al Jazeera news network, was wearing protective gear and a vest marked “press” as she covered the morning raid Wednesday. Such gear is standard and meant to distinguish…

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Ukraine’s military intelligence chief ‘optimistic’ of Russian defeat ‘this year’

Ukraine’s military intelligence chief ‘optimistic’ of Russian defeat ‘this year’

  Michael Weiss reports: Is Vladimir Putin sick or even dying? The tabloid press, bolstered by a sudden efflorescence of Twitter diagnosticians, certainly seems to think so. Since his Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine got underway, the 69-year-old Russian president’s deteriorating health has been a subject of frenzied speculation — speculation that press secretary Dmitry Peskov has downplayed, citing Putin’s “excellent” health. Boris Karpichkov, a KGB defector to Britain (and formerly an officer of the Second Chief Directorate, specializing in…

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The new Russian exiles — and how they can defeat Putin

The new Russian exiles — and how they can defeat Putin

Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogana write: Russians are fleeing their country in droves. Armenia, Georgia, Uzbekistan; Estonia, Latvia, Montenegro. In the first two weeks of the war alone, Georgia took in 25,000 Russians, and Armenia was receiving some 6,000 Russians per day. By the end of March, 60,000 Russians had gone to Kazakhstan. And many more have sought refuge in a number of different countries in eastern Europe. Since Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine began, Russians who have…

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China’s position on the Ukraine war mirrors its global pursuits

China’s position on the Ukraine war mirrors its global pursuits

Sari Arho Havrén writes: Beijing blames the US-led NATO for being the ultimate reason why Russia launched its invasion against Ukraine. Consequently, sanctions are seen as the US forcing its hand on the Europeans. The Chinese leadership appears to be calculating that by holding the US responsible for the war, it can drive a wedge through the transatlantic alliance and portray Europeans as simple puppets of US hegemony. This thinking is in line with how Beijing sees the multipolar world…

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The imprisoned Egyptian activist who never stopped campaigning for his country’s future

The imprisoned Egyptian activist who never stopped campaigning for his country’s future

Yasmine El Rashidi writes: In the summer of 2011, several months after the protest-led ouster of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, I participated in a program on Al Jazeera’s English-language channel called The Café. The setup was intended to mirror the atmosphere of street-side cafés in Egypt at the time, animated with the political debates and newfound openness that the revolution had brought about. Eight of us took part, representing various walks of life and different points along the political spectrum,…

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How Israel killed an Palestinian-American journalist, then spun her death

How Israel killed an Palestinian-American journalist, then spun her death

  After Israeli forces killed Shireen Abu Akleh’s, Israel started a “PR blitz” to manipulate mainstream media coverage of the shooting. Headlines changed in a matter of hours, as Israel first blamed Palestinians and then tried walked back the claim. But that was exactly what Israel wanted. Dena Takruri explores how the Western news media covers Israel’s wrongdoings, as well as her personal relationship to her Al Jazeera colleague Shireen Abu Akleh.

A movement that’s quietly reshaping democracy for the better

A movement that’s quietly reshaping democracy for the better

Claudia Chwalisz writes: Imagine you receive an invitation one day from your mayor, inviting you to serve as a member of your city’s newly established permanent Citizens’ Assembly. You will be one of 100 others like you — people who are not politicians or even necessarily party members. All of you were drawn by lot through a fair and random process called a civic lottery. Together, you are broadly representative of the community — a mix of bakers, doctors, students,…

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How Putin drove Finland to seek NATO’s protection

How Putin drove Finland to seek NATO’s protection

The Wall Street Journal reports: When Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, he sought to divide and weaken NATO. Nowhere has that strategy backfired more than in Finland. If the Nordic country joins the North Atlantic Treaty Organization alongside Sweden in coming weeks, as expected, Mr. Putin will get a highly militarized NATO member next door. Russia’s border with NATO will more than double at the stroke of a pen, with an additional 830 miles. Finland’s president and prime minister…

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War in Ukraine forces Sweden to confront the reality of Russian aggression

War in Ukraine forces Sweden to confront the reality of Russian aggression

The New York Times reports: The Gotland regiment of the Swedish Army was going through its paces, practicing how to use its Swedish-designed lightweight anti-tank missiles, the NLAWs, that are proving so effective in Ukraine. The regiment, which was resurrected in 2018 on this strategic island that helps control the air and naval space of the Baltic Sea, is in the process of rebuilding with the aim of expanding to 4,000 soldiers from the current 400 — still a far…

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An interview with Crimean Tatar leader and Soviet dissident Mustafa Dzhemilev

An interview with Crimean Tatar leader and Soviet dissident Mustafa Dzhemilev

Riada Asimovic Akyol writes: Crimean Tatars, the indigenous Muslims of Ukraine and the country’s largest ethnic minority, have joined the fight against Russia’s invasion. Tatars serve throughout Ukraine’s military ranks and as civilian volunteers offering humanitarian help. Tatars are Turkic-speaking Muslims who have lived in Crimea since the 13th century. Russian rulers have persecuted them for almost 300 years. One of the greatest tragedies in Tatar history was their genocidal expulsion from Crimea by Josef Stalin in 1944. About 200,000…

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I thought I was writing fiction in The Handmaid’s Tale

I thought I was writing fiction in The Handmaid’s Tale

Margaret Atwood writes: In the early years of the 1980s, I was fooling around with a novel that explored a future in which the United States had become disunited. Part of it had turned into a theocratic dictatorship based on 17th-century New England Puritan religious tenets and jurisprudence. I set this novel in and around Harvard University—an institution that in the 1980s was renowned for its liberalism, but that had begun three centuries earlier chiefly as a training college for…

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Kremlin threatens retaliation after Finland leaders say it must join NATO

Kremlin threatens retaliation after Finland leaders say it must join NATO

The Guardian reports: Finland must apply to join Nato “without delay” in the wake of Russia’s attack on Ukraine, its president and prime minister have said, signalling a historic shift in the country’s security policy that drew a blunt warning of retaliation from the Kremlin. With neighbouring Sweden expected to follow suit, Sauli Niinistö, Finland’s president, and Sanna Marin, the prime minister, made the call in a joint statement, adding: “We hope that the national steps still needed to make…

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Sen. Rand Paul is still working for Vladimir Putin

Sen. Rand Paul is still working for Vladimir Putin

Senator John McCain (R-AZ) on Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) following the Senator’s objection to a bill advancing Montenegro’s bid to join NATO, March, 2017. The Wall Street Journal reports: The Democratic and Republican leaders of the Senate tried to fast track a nearly $40 billion U.S. aid package to help Ukraine in its fight against Russia, only to be blocked by Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R.,…

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With Russia failing to achieve a strategic breakthrough, a long and bloody battle for eastern Ukraine looms

With Russia failing to achieve a strategic breakthrough, a long and bloody battle for eastern Ukraine looms

The Wall Street Journal reports: Western weapons, including NATO-standard 155-mm howitzers supplied by the U.S. and its allies, have begun arriving on the battlefield in Donbas. Ukrainian officials say that will allow them to switch from defense to offense and seek to regain lost ground. “Our first task was to stop and destroy the enemy, but after that we have to liberate everything that they have taken from us. This will take time, at least the whole summer. It won’t…

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Russian soldiers refusing to fight in conflict that Putin refuses to call a war

Russian soldiers refusing to fight in conflict that Putin refuses to call a war

The Guardian reports: When the soldiers of an elite Russian army brigade were told in early April to prepare for a second deployment to Ukraine, fear broke out among the ranks. The unit, stationed in Russia’s far east during peacetime, first entered Ukraine from Belarus when the war started at the end of February and saw bitter combat with Ukrainian forces. “It soon became clear that not everyone was onboard with it. Many of us simply did not want to…

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The ‘carbon bombs’ set to trigger catastrophic climate breakdown

The ‘carbon bombs’ set to trigger catastrophic climate breakdown

The Guardian reports: The world’s biggest fossil fuel firms are quietly planning scores of “carbon bomb” oil and gas projects that would drive the climate past internationally agreed temperature limits with catastrophic global impacts, a Guardian investigation shows. The exclusive data shows these firms are in effect placing multibillion-dollar bets against humanity halting global heating. Their huge investments in new fossil fuel production could pay off only if countries fail to rapidly slash carbon emissions, which scientists say is vital….

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