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Category: Politics

Morocco counters Russia’s weaponization of the food-energy nexus

Morocco counters Russia’s weaponization of the food-energy nexus

Michaël Tanchum writes: After 100 days of war in Ukraine on Europe’s eastern flank, a critical new front has opened on Europe’s southern flank with the food crisis in Africa. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has accused Moscow of weaponizing famine and using it against Africa. Already on a near-war footing to counter Moscow’s westward advances in Ukraine, Europe is now pressed to prevent a famine-driven mass migration crisis coming to its southern shores from North Africa. As…

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How Bolsonaro is using the military to challenge Brazil’s election process

How Bolsonaro is using the military to challenge Brazil’s election process

The New York Times reports: President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil has for months consistently trailed in the polls ahead of the country’s crucial presidential race. And for months, he has consistently questioned its voting systems, warning that if he loses October’s election, it will most likely be thanks to a stolen vote. Those claims were largely regarded as talk. But now, Mr. Bolsonaro has enlisted a new ally in his fight against the electoral process: the nation’s military. The leaders…

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How did guns grow so powerful, both as weapons and symbols?

How did guns grow so powerful, both as weapons and symbols?

Phil Klay writes: Samuel Walker and fifteen other Texas Rangers rode into the countryside to hunt for Comanches in June of 1844. The Lords of the South Plains, as the Comanches were known, had ruled the American Southwest for a century; by displacing other Native American nations, raiding colonial outposts, enslaving people, and extracting tribute, they enacted what the historian Pekka Hämäläinen, in his book “The Comanche Empire,” called a story of role reversal, “in which Indians expand, dictate, and…

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Which kinds of conflict are good for democracy?

Which kinds of conflict are good for democracy?

Rochelle DuFord writes: A cursory online search will provide you with nearly 100 million web pages concerning ‘the Left’s circular firing squad’. The idea of a circular firing squad is meant to evoke people so torn by their minor differences that they eliminate any possibility for solidarity or collective work. Rather than aiming our weapons at our enemies, we somehow get mixed up and begin to aim them at our friends. The supposed results of all this fighting: cancel culture,…

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Ukraine fears Western support will fade as media attention dwindles

Ukraine fears Western support will fade as media attention dwindles

The Observer reports: Ukraine’s war with Russia is heading towards its fifth month amid increasing local concern that dwindling media attention could lead to a gradual loss of western support just as Moscow is making slow but steady gains on the frontline. The anxiety reflects a growing normalisation of the conflict in which large parts of the country feel distant from the war in eastern Donbas – as it becomes clear that casualties are mounting and economic costs soaring. “It’s…

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The role of history in the war in Ukraine

The role of history in the war in Ukraine

Lawrence Freedman writes: Putin’s rhetoric is littered with historical references, recently, in his Peter the Great mode, to the start of the eighteenth century and Russia’s war with Sweden, to Catherine the Great’s acquisition of Novorussia, which includes much of the land that is now at the heart of the fighting, and then to the construction of the USSR and its eventual collapse, with the Great Patriotic War always the highlight. For Putin history describes a struggle for Russia to…

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In Kherson, misery under Russian occupation but hope over Ukrainian gains

In Kherson, misery under Russian occupation but hope over Ukrainian gains

The Washington Post reports: More than three months of occupation by Russian soldiers has left much of Ukraine’s southern Kherson region isolated, without access to basic medicines and cut off from Ukrainian cellphone and internet service. The Russian tricolor flag is displayed at most of the main government buildings. There are whispers of a coming referendum that would formally make Kherson part of Russia, at least in the Kremlin’s eyes. The armed occupying forces patrol the streets, while the blasts…

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Poland shows the risks for women’s lives when abortion is banned

Poland shows the risks for women’s lives when abortion is banned

The New York Times reports: It was shortly before 11 p.m. when Izabela Sajbor realized the doctors were prepared to let her die. Her doctor had already told her that her fetus had severe abnormalities and would almost certainly die in the womb. If it made it to term, life expectancy was a year, at most. At 22 weeks pregnant, Ms. Sajbor had been admitted to a hospital after her water broke prematurely. She knew that there was a short…

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Putin’s imperial ambitions

Putin’s imperial ambitions

If it wasn’t obvious by the reign of terror, Putin now openly admits he’s a Tsar. The 21st century Hitler disgraces even Russian history by comparing his depraved kleptocracy to a 17th century emperor who “opened a window to Europe.” Putin’s lobbing missiles thru that window. https://t.co/zGCA9sF5Qr — 🇺🇦Paula Chertok🗽🇺🇦 (@PaulaChertok) June 11, 2022 When Putin says he will retake what is "historically his" – and restore the Russian "borders" – I present you a map of Russia 1914. @cepa…

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Ukraine’s ‘Nuremberg moment’ amid flood of alleged Russian war crimes

Ukraine’s ‘Nuremberg moment’ amid flood of alleged Russian war crimes

Robbie Gramer and Amy Mackinnon write: As Russia continues its assault on Ukraine, top Biden administration officials are working behind the scenes with the Ukrainian government and European allies to document a tsunami of war crimes allegedly committed by Russian forces. But the sheer volume of the documented war crime cases could be too overwhelming for Ukraine’s justice system as well as for the International Criminal Court (ICC), raising questions of how many cases will be brought to trial and…

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Gary Younge: ‘If guns made you safer, America would be the safest place in the world’

Gary Younge: ‘If guns made you safer, America would be the safest place in the world’

“To talk about it would lead to some conclusions about how we’re raising boys & about male violence & patriarchy… can we just concentrate on the fact that these are all guys & that their insecurity, their anxiety, their anger has led to this.” @garyyounge pic.twitter.com/qauBTHutG0 — The Daily Edge (@TheDailyEdge) June 11, 2022

Why it matters that the January 6 hearings put ‘a war scene’ on display

Why it matters that the January 6 hearings put ‘a war scene’ on display

Jamelle Bouie writes: We already know about — we already saw with our own eyes — the assault on the Capitol, the threats against the vice president and the heroism of the Capitol Police. And we know, or at least some of us know, that Jan. 6 was just the beginning and that Trump has continued to use all the power and influence at his disposal to put pro-coup Republicans on the ballot in as many states as possible. The…

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How the January 6 hearing played out on the pro-Trump web

How the January 6 hearing played out on the pro-Trump web

The Washington Post reports: Former president Donald Trump’s supporters scrambled to defend him online in the hours after the Jan. 6 committee’s hearings began, seeking to sow doubt about his involvement via the same social media channels that had captured clear evidence linking him to the Capitol assault. In so doing, they reinforced the unmistakable role social media played in the 2021 insurrection and made clear that his supporters are determined to remain a major internet force, despite Trump’s ban…

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Online disinformation uses culture wars to delay climate action, study says

Online disinformation uses culture wars to delay climate action, study says

Inside Climate News reports: A team of researchers and environmental advocates are urging governments and Big Tech companies to do far more to stop rampant online disinformation campaigns, which they say aim to delay action on the climate crisis by intentionally dragging the issue into the culture wars now dominating Western politics. Failing to stop such campaigns, the groups warned in a new report, could further splinter unity at November’s climate talks and jeopardize a global effort that has struggled…

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Group aiming to defund disinformation tries to drain Fox News of online advertising

Group aiming to defund disinformation tries to drain Fox News of online advertising

NPR reports: A nonprofit aiming to defund disinformation online that has taken money out of the pockets of several prominent far-right websites now has its sights set on its most formidable target yet: Fox News. The group, Check My Ads, is hoping the success it has had in stripping advertising dollars from right-wing provocateurs including Steve Bannon, Glenn Beck and Dan Bongino will give it momentum as it attempts to confront a powerful media empire. On Thursday, the outfit announced…

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We’re almost out of ammunition and relying on Western arms, says Ukraine

We’re almost out of ammunition and relying on Western arms, says Ukraine

The Guardian reports: Ukraine’s deputy head of military intelligence has said Ukraine is losing against Russia on the frontlines and is now reliant almost solely on weapons from the west to keep Russia at bay. “This is an artillery war now,” said Vadym Skibitsky, deputy head of Ukraine’s military intelligence. The frontlines were now where the future would be decided, he told the Guardian, “and we are losing in terms of artillery”. “Everything now depends on what [the west] gives…

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