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Category: Politics

Will Biden restore Trump-era policy and trigger a historic famine in Yemen?

Will Biden restore Trump-era policy and trigger a historic famine in Yemen?

HuffPost reports: President Joe Biden’s national security team is in a complex tug of war over a decision that could push millions of people into starvation — weighing the advice of humanitarian experts, most government officials and top Democrats against arguments from hawks who want Biden to restore one of former President Donald Trump’s most controversial policies. Biden is considering slapping the U.S. government’s “foreign terrorist organization” label on the Houthis, an Iran-backed militia that has been fighting American-backed forces…

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Pro-Israel groups are still able to intimidate some progressive candidates

Pro-Israel groups are still able to intimidate some progressive candidates

HuffPost reports: The Austin, Texas, chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America announced on Sunday that it was effectively withdrawing its endorsement of Democratic congressional candidate Greg Casar after he made clear that he supports U.S. aid for Israel’s “self-defense” and opposes the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, or BDS, movement against Israel. “Austin DSA’s elected leadership finds that these statements are not reconcilable with DSA’s stance in solidarity with Palestine,” the group wrote. The break with Casar, a longstanding DSA…

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Former police and military officers may be helping Ottawa convoy protest dig in

Former police and military officers may be helping Ottawa convoy protest dig in

CBC reports: For nearly two weeks anti-vaccine mandate demonstrators and their big rigs have entrenched themselves in Ottawa’s parliamentary district and its neighbourhoods. Despite a strategic strike by police to cut off supplies to truckers encamped in the city’s downtown core, protesters appear to still have the upper hand on police. It’s a success that experts partly attribute to the deep knowledge of law enforcement and military tactics that exist in the convoy’s organizational structure. The group Police on Guard,…

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The time to end pandemic restrictions is now

The time to end pandemic restrictions is now

Yascha Mounk writes: In March 2020, I wrote that America should “cancel everything” in response to the acute threat posed by COVID-19: Mass events should be postponed, companies should send employees home from the office, and schools should move classes online. I remain convinced that this was the right thing to do. Before anyone was vaccinated, and before doctors had even a preliminary understanding of how to treat the disease, these measures were necessary to save lives and avert a…

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Can Ukraine and Russia be persuaded to abide by Minsk accords?

Can Ukraine and Russia be persuaded to abide by Minsk accords?

The Guardian reports: In the often acrimonious back-and-forth between Russia and Ukraine in recent years, “fulfilling Minsk” has become something of a meaningless mantra: all sides agree to abide by the 2015 Minsk accords in public, but neither has any real intention of implementing the provisions of the agreement. Yet in his intensive peacemaking efforts this week, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, appears to be pinning his hopes on a renewed attempt to breathe life into the seven-year-old agreement. “The…

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New report details the influence of Christian nationalism on the insurrection

New report details the influence of Christian nationalism on the insurrection

Religion News Service reports: A team of scholars, faith leaders and advocates unveiled an exhaustive new report Wednesday (Feb. 9) that documents in painstaking detail the role Christian nationalism played in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and calling it an unsettling preview of things to come. Christian nationalism was used to “bolster, justify and intensify the January 6 attack on the Capitol,” said Amanda Tyler, head of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, which sponsored the…

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After a half-century of federal oversight, segregated neighborhoods are still pervasive across America

After a half-century of federal oversight, segregated neighborhoods are still pervasive across America

ABC News reports: Milwaukee resident Exie Tatum III grew up in heart of the city and still lives there. The African American father owns a home in a predominantly Black neighborhood but has been house-hunting in pricey, majority-white suburbs, searching for an affordable home that he might someday pass along to his young son Charles through inheritance. “It would really change the game,” Tatum said of owning a suburban Milwaukee home. But statistics suggest he’s fighting an uphill battle. Despite…

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Putin says the West is goading Russia into war with Ukraine—and many Russians agree

Putin says the West is goading Russia into war with Ukraine—and many Russians agree

The Wall Street Journal reports: Like many Russians, graduate student Anastasia Bukhteyeva hopes the current standoff between Russia and the West over Ukraine doesn’t erupt into a full-scale war. But if fighting does break out, the 24-year-old is sure of one thing: It won’t be Russia’s fault. “I have a feeling that someone is trying to provoke Russia,” said Ms. Bukhteyeva, who is studying to be an elementary school teacher. “I don’t understand who this would be good for, but…

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Prosecutors’ witness list offers glimpse into January 6 trial strategy

Prosecutors’ witness list offers glimpse into January 6 trial strategy

Politico reports: Prosecutors late Monday began laying out their trial strategy for Jan. 6 cases in the clearest detail yet, indicating they intend to call multiple Capitol Police officers, a former Senate aide, a member of the Three Percenters militia who was granted immunity and the Secret Service agent who helped supervise then-Vice President Mike Pence’s visit to the Capitol that day. Prosecutors revealed their proposed witness list in the case of Guy Reffitt, a Texas man who was charged…

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Call it ‘codger power.’ We’re older and fighting for a better America

Call it ‘codger power.’ We’re older and fighting for a better America

Bill McKibben and Akaya Windwood write: Neil Young and Joni Mitchell did more than go after Spotify for spreading Covid disinformation last week. They also, inadvertently, signaled what could turn out to be an extraordinarily important revival: of an older generation fully rejoining the fight for a working future. You could call it (with a wink!) codger power. We’ve seen this close up: Over the past few months, we’ve worked with others of our generation to start the group Third…

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Rightwing lobby group ALEC driving laws to blacklist companies that boycott the oil industry

Rightwing lobby group ALEC driving laws to blacklist companies that boycott the oil industry

The Guardian reports: The influential rightwing lobby group the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec) is driving a surge in new state laws to block boycotts of the oil industry. The group’s strategy, which aims to protect large oil firms and other conservative-friendly industries, is modelled on legislation to punish divestment from Israel. Since the beginning of the year, state legislatures in West Virginia, Oklahoma and Indiana have introduced a version of a law drafted by Alec, called the Energy Discrimination…

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Why Biden’s judges are different — and what that means for the Supreme Court

Why Biden’s judges are different — and what that means for the Supreme Court

Chris Geidner writes: President Joe Biden’s judges are different. Not only are they different from those of President Donald Trump, but Biden’s judicial nominees are different from those of any president before him. In three ways, the first year of Biden’s judicial selections tells an important story about the effect the president is looking to have on the judiciary — a story that provides the clearest available information about how Biden will likely choose his first Supreme Court nominee. First,…

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What’s behind the right-wing book-ban frenzy? Big money, and a long-term plan

What’s behind the right-wing book-ban frenzy? Big money, and a long-term plan

Jon Skolnik writes: Until very recently, “book bans” seemed like a term out of the past, or a phenomenon that erupted sporadically in a small school or library district in the most conservative areas of the country. But over the last several years, parents’ groups aggrieved by the left’s alleged influence K-12 education have been working tirelessly to bring them back. All kinds of books have been exiled from library shelves or school curricula in the latest book-ban frenzy, although…

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Macron hopes for ‘historic solution’ to Ukraine crisis ahead of Putin meeting

Macron hopes for ‘historic solution’ to Ukraine crisis ahead of Putin meeting

The Guardian reports: French president Emmanuel Macron believes he can deliver “a historic solution” to the Ukraine crisis ahead of his arrival in Moscow for talks with Russian president Vladimir Putin. After a flurry of diplomatic activity that included talks with US president Joe Biden this weekend and three phone calls with Putin, Macron will land in Moscow on Monday seeking a “de-escalation” of the tense standoff on Ukraine’s eastern borders. Russia has denied planning to invade Ukraine but has…

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Lies are the building blocks of Trumpian authoritarianism

Lies are the building blocks of Trumpian authoritarianism

William Saletan writes: Americans like to think our country is immune to authoritarianism. We have a culture of freedom, a tradition of elected government, and a Bill of Rights. We’re not like those European countries that fell into fascism. We’d never willingly abandon democracy, liberty, or the rule of law. But that’s not how authoritarianism would come to America. In fact, it’s not how authoritarianism has come to America. The movement to dismantle our democracy is thriving and growing, even…

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Senate GOP backlash smacks RNC after Cheney-Kinzinger censure

Senate GOP backlash smacks RNC after Cheney-Kinzinger censure

Politico reports: Senate Republicans are not happy with the Republican National Committee. In interviews on Monday evening, GOP senators lashed out at their own national party’s overwhelming vote to censure Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) for working on the House’s investigation into the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. They warned that alienating a portion of the party for being overly anti-Trump is not a political winner heading into the midterms, a sharp message from sitting members that goes…

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