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Category: Politics

Is Israel’s genocide economy on the brink?

Is Israel’s genocide economy on the brink?

+972 Magazine reports: Since October 2023, Israel has faced a convergence of economic shocks. Tens of thousands of residents have been displaced from border regions in the south and north as a result of hostilities with Hamas and Hezbollah, while hundreds of thousands of reservists were pulled out of the workforce for extended periods, leaving key sectors short-staffed and productivity depleted. Public services, education, and healthcare have deteriorated as state spending was diverted to the war, and almost 50,000 businesses…

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After ruining a treasured and ancient water resource, Iran is drying up

After ruining a treasured and ancient water resource, Iran is drying up

Yale Environment 360 reports: More than international sanctions, more than its stifling theocracy, more than recent bombardment by Israel and the U.S. — Iran’s greatest current existential crisis is what hydrologists are calling its rapidly approaching “water bankruptcy.” It is a crisis that has a sad origin, they say: the destruction and abandonment of tens of thousands of ancient tunnels for sustainably tapping underground water, known as qanats, that were once the envy of the arid world. But calls for…

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‘Don’s best friend’: How Epstein and Trump bonded over chasing and dominating women

‘Don’s best friend’: How Epstein and Trump bonded over chasing and dominating women

The New York Times reports: Jeffrey Epstein was a “terrific guy” and “a lot of fun to be with.” He and Donald J. Trump also had “no formal relationship.” They went to a lot of the same parties. But they “did not socialize together.” They were never really friends, just business acquaintances. Or “there was no relationship” at all. “I was not a fan of his, that I can tell you.” For nearly a quarter-century, Mr. Trump and his representatives…

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Trump regime prepares sweeping crackdown on political dissent

Trump regime prepares sweeping crackdown on political dissent

The Washington Post reports: The Trump administration is embarking on an expansive effort to root out what it sees as rampant left-wing domestic terrorism, raising concerns among some security experts and lawmakers that broad categories of Americans’ political speech could come under surveillance. Thursday marks a first deadline, set this month in a memo from Attorney General Pam Bondi, for all federal law enforcement agencies to “coordinate delivery” of their intelligence files on “Antifa” and “Antifa-related” activities to the FBI….

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Cover-up: Hegseth showcased every deadly boat strike — except for one

Cover-up: Hegseth showcased every deadly boat strike — except for one

David E. Sanger writes: One of the many oddities of the huge buildup of American forces off Venezuela is the speed at which the Pentagon has released short clips of what it has identified as drug boats being struck and destroyed by American missiles — part deterrence, part bravado, and, to the many legal scholars questioning the legality of the operation, part evidence of extrajudicial killings. So it was striking that on Tuesday, just as the Pentagon released three more…

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Threats to judges could lead to a judicial system crisis

Threats to judges could lead to a judicial system crisis

  “The Domino’s pizzas arrived at the homes of federal judges without explanation,” the Times editorial board wrote earlier this year. “The message was clear: We know where you live.” In the Opinion Video above, Esther Salas, a federal district judge in New Jersey, describes the stakes of increasingly frequent threats against members of the judiciary, which, in Judge Salas’s view, are fueled by today’s sharply divisive political rhetoric. If a judge is forced “to think about a safer choice”…

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The people — once dismissed as alarmists — who smelled the fascism all over Trump right from the start

The people — once dismissed as alarmists — who smelled the fascism all over Trump right from the start

Toby Buckle writes: Imagine I sent you back in time to July 2015 with the goal of saving liberal democracy in America. Donald Trump announced his candidacy a month ago, the polls are showing him with a narrow lead, and the media—while noting his extreme rhetoric—are mostly treating this as a fun diversion. You can’t prove you’re from the future, and you’re limited to broadly legal means. Can you persuade enough people to take it more seriously? After all, you…

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Trump regime plans to break up ‘global mothership’ of climate science

Trump regime plans to break up ‘global mothership’ of climate science

Nature reports: The administration of US President Donald Trump intends to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), a world-leading Earth-science centre in Boulder, Colorado. The centre’s modelling and Earth observations underpin a wide range of US and global research, especially on climate. “This facility is one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country,” wrote Russell Vought, Trump’s budget director, announcing the planned closure in a post yesterday on the social-media platform X. In a statement,…

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How Jeffrey Epstein got rich — as a prodigious manipulator and liar

How Jeffrey Epstein got rich — as a prodigious manipulator and liar

  The New York Times reports: One evening in early 1976, a bushy-haired Jeffrey Epstein showed up for an event at an art gallery in Midtown Manhattan. Epstein was a math and physics teacher at the city’s prestigious Dalton School, and the father of one of his students had invited him. Epstein initially demurred, saying he didn’t go out much, but eventually relented. It would turn out to be one of the best decisions he ever made. At the gallery,…

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The most powerful politics influencers don’t typically speak about politics

The most powerful politics influencers don’t typically speak about politics

Wired reports: Donald Trump’s appearances on the podcasts of Joe Rogan and Theo Von, among others, were seen by many as a key part of securing his second term in office. But while Trump was speculating about alien life on Mars with Rogan, he had a team of acolytes appearing on dozens, if not hundreds, of much smaller niche podcasts hosted by right-wing content creators who typically don’t talk about politics. This is how, just six days before the election,…

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Jack Smith tells Congress he found ‘proof’ Trump engaged in ‘criminal scheme’ to overturn election

Jack Smith tells Congress he found ‘proof’ Trump engaged in ‘criminal scheme’ to overturn election

NBC News reports: Former special counsel Jack Smith told a congressional committee Wednesday that his team found “proof beyond a reasonable doubt” that President Donald Trump engaged in a “criminal scheme” to overturn the results of the 2020 election, according to parts of his opening statement obtained by NBC News. Trump also “repeatedly tried to obstruct justice” to keep secret his retention of classified documents found during an FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, Smith told members of…

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Trump regime aims to strip more foreign-born Americans of citizenship

Trump regime aims to strip more foreign-born Americans of citizenship

The New York Times reports: The Trump administration plans to ramp up efforts to strip some naturalized Americans of their citizenship, according to internal guidance obtained by The New York Times, marking an aggressive new phase in the president’s campaign to make the country less friendly to immigrants. The guidance, issued on Tuesday to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services field offices, asks that they “supply Office of Immigration Litigation with 100-200 denaturalization cases per month” in the 2026 fiscal year….

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Europe could burst Trump’s AI bubble

Europe could burst Trump’s AI bubble

Johnny Ryan writes: Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, has two cards to play that might pop the AI bubble. If she does so, Trump’s presidency will be thrown into crisis. First, Dutch company ASML commands a global monopoly on the microchip-etching machines that use light to carve patterns on silicon. These machines are essential for Nvidia, the AI microchip giant that is now the world’s most valuable company. ASML is one of Europe’s most valuable…

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Susie Wiles confirms Trump’s ‘war on drugs’ is really about regime change in Venezuela

Susie Wiles confirms Trump’s ‘war on drugs’ is really about regime change in Venezuela

Chris Whipple writes: During my first visit with Wiles at the White House in November, Trump’s revenge tour against his domestic enemies was in full swing. So was his lethal campaign against Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, who, Trump was convinced, headed a powerful drug cartel. Over lunch, Wiles told me about Trump’s Venezuela strategy: “He wants to keep on blowing boats up until Maduro cries uncle. And people way smarter than me on that say that he will.” (Wiles’s statement…

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Trump orders oil tankers blockade in Venezuela, labels it a ‘terrorist’ regime

Trump orders oil tankers blockade in Venezuela, labels it a ‘terrorist’ regime

Axios reports: President Trump designated Venezuela a “foreign terrorist organization” Tuesday and formally ordered a blockade of all U.S. sanctioned oil tankers servicing the country. Why it matters: Trump’s newest escalation, backed by a giant U.S. armada, exerts unprecedented pressure on Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro’s regime, threatening to bankrupt the country’s already struggling economy. “Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America. It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like…

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Trump’s new National Security Strategy targets liberal democracy itself

Trump’s new National Security Strategy targets liberal democracy itself

Anne Applebaum writes: Last year, a team of American diplomats from the State Department’s Global Engagement Center traveled to two dozen countries and signed a series of memoranda. Along with their counterparts in places as varied as Italy, Australia, and Ivory Coast, they agreed to jointly expose malicious and deceptive online campaigns originating in Russia, China, or Iran. This past September, the Trump administration terminated these agreements. The center’s former head, James Rubin, called this decision “a unilateral act of…

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