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Category: Politics

South Dakota is a make-believe state devoted to the preservation of wealth dynasties

South Dakota is a make-believe state devoted to the preservation of wealth dynasties

Timothy Noah writes: South Dakota is in the news because a consortium of journalists exposed shady doings there that take advantage of the state’s status as a notorious tax haven, and because the state’s governor, Kristi Noem, is caught up in an outrageous nepotism scandal and in general has been working overtime to wrestle the mantle of nation’s worst governor away from Ron DeSantis. Say what you will about DeSantis, though, you won’t hear many people argue that Florida shouldn’t…

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Silicon’s 300% surge throws another price shock at the world

Silicon’s 300% surge throws another price shock at the world

Bloomberg reports: A metal made from the second-most abundant element on Earth has become scarce, threatening everything from car parts to computer chips and throwing up another hurdle for the world economy. The shortage in silicon metal, sparked by a production cut in China, has sent prices up 300% in less than two months. It’s the latest in a litany of disruptions, from snarled supply chains to a power crunch, that are creating a destructive mix for companies and consumers….

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An ‘historic event’: First malaria vaccine approved by WHO

An ‘historic event’: First malaria vaccine approved by WHO

The New York Times reports: The world has gained a new weapon in the war on malaria, among the oldest known and deadliest of infectious diseases: the first vaccine shown to help prevent the disease. By one estimate, it will save tens of thousands of children each year. Malaria kills about half a million people each year, nearly all of them in sub-Saharan Africa — including 260,000 children under 5. The new vaccine, made by GlaxoSmithKline, rouses a child’s immune…

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As the U.S. hurtles toward a debt crisis, what does McConnell want?

As the U.S. hurtles toward a debt crisis, what does McConnell want?

The New York Times reports: In March 2006, as the government veered dangerously close to a default, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the No. 2 Republican, let the Bush White House know he was two votes short of what he needed to raise the legal limit on federal borrowing. Andrew H. Card Jr., then the White House chief of staff, began working the phones. He soon found two Democrats willing to break ranks and vote to put the legislation over…

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‘Everyone here hated the Americans’: Rural Afghans live with the Taliban and a painful U.S. legacy

‘Everyone here hated the Americans’: Rural Afghans live with the Taliban and a painful U.S. legacy

The Washington Post reports: The white flags flutter in the apple orchards of this serene hamlet ringed by oatmeal-colored mountains. They mark the precise spots where U.S. airstrikes killed Afghans. In the village center lies the destroyed shell of a building that once housed shops; down the road is a mangled, rusted car. There are white flags there, too. Together, they’re reminders of the legacy the United States has left in many rural areas across Afghanistan. “Everyone here hated the…

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Facebook’s outage shows we need antitrust action now

Facebook’s outage shows we need antitrust action now

Edward Ongweso Jr writes: On Monday, a global service outage hit Facebook and took down the world’s ubiquitous social network , along with Instagram and WhatsApp. The outage, which affects billions of people, occurred just as Facebook filed a motion to dismiss the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s amended antitrust complaint against the company accusing it of acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp to consolidate anti-competitive market power. The day before the outage, on Sunday, the Facebook whistleblower behind devastating leaks that have…

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The Supreme Court has gone off the rails

The Supreme Court has gone off the rails

Donald Ayer writes: The Supreme Court has final authority to make difficult judgment calls articulating the powers of government and the limits and constraints upon them. To merit the public trust, these judgments must not appear simply as assertions of individual value choices by the justices or willy-nilly discard long-established court precedents that profoundly affect people’s lives. Nor should they actively undermine the ability of governments to advance public purposes as established by a fair democratic process. As the court…

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Top State Dept. adviser leaves post, rips Biden’s use of Trump-era Title 42

Top State Dept. adviser leaves post, rips Biden’s use of Trump-era Title 42

Politico reports: A senior State Department official is leaving his role in the Biden administration. And on his way out, he has sent a scathing internal memo criticizing the president’s use of a Trump-era policy to expel migrants from the southern border. In a detailed legal memo dated October 2 and obtained by POLITICO, Harold Koh, a senior adviser and the sole political appointee on the State Department’s legal team, called the use of the public health authority known as…

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The Pandora Papers: Massive leak exposes the hidden fortunes of world’s elite and crooks

The Pandora Papers: Massive leak exposes the hidden fortunes of world’s elite and crooks

Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project reports: On April 29, 2009, the tenants of a strip of shops and offices on Maddox Street in London’s exclusive Mayfair neighborhood woke up with a new landlord: an 11-year-old boy. This news should have been surprising. Not only was Heydar Aliyev not yet in his teens, but he also happened to be the son of Azerbaijan’s authoritarian president, Ilham Aliyev. And yet, he had managed to become the owner of 33.5 million pounds…

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Pandora Papers reveal hidden riches of Putin’s inner circle

Pandora Papers reveal hidden riches of Putin’s inner circle

The Guardian reports: In September 2003, a secret transaction took place. The location was Monaco, a tax haven associated with the international rich. Specifically, an exclusive block just beneath its lavish casino. An apartment changed hands. A local notary signed the deal. Purchase price: €3.6m (£3.1m). For this, the buyer got a luxury fourth-floor flat, two parking spaces, a storeroom, and the use of a pool in the Monte Carlo Star complex. From the balcony the new owner could gaze…

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As foreign aid poured in, Jordan’s King Abdullah secretly spent $100m to buy luxury homes

As foreign aid poured in, Jordan’s King Abdullah secretly spent $100m to buy luxury homes

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists reports: While foreign aid poured in, Jordan’s King Abdullah funnelled $100m through secret companies to buy luxury homes Wealth advisers in Switzerland and the Caribbean sought to protect the identity of a client they referred to as “you know who,” leaked files show. Jordanian protesters took to the streets – again – demanding an end to corruption and poverty in the aid-dependent Middle Eastern monarchy. Masked police broke up the demonstrations and jailed critics…

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Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Disney are among companies backing groups against U.S. climate bill

Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Disney are among companies backing groups against U.S. climate bill

The Guardian reports: Some of America’s most prominent companies, including Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Disney, are backing business groups that are fighting landmark climate legislation, despite their own promises to combat the climate crisis, a new analysis has found. A clutch of corporate lobby groups and organizations have mobilized to oppose the proposed $3.5tn budget bill put forward by Democrats, which contains unprecedented measures to drive down planet-heating gases. The reconciliation bill has been called the “the most significant climate…

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In Alaska’s Covid crisis, doctors must decide who lives and who dies

In Alaska’s Covid crisis, doctors must decide who lives and who dies

The New York Times reports: There was one bed coming available in the intensive care unit in Alaska’s largest hospital. It was the middle of the night, and the hospital, Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage, had been hit with a deluge of coronavirus patients. Doctors now had a choice to make: Several more patients at the hospital, most of them with Covid-19, were in line to take that last I.C.U. spot. But there was also someone from one of…

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Why Kyrsten Sinema’s tactics may backfire

Why Kyrsten Sinema’s tactics may backfire

Harry Enten writes: Democratic hopes for passing big legislation through the Senate rely on Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. Both have made things difficult for Senate Democrats because they are moderates who have been hesitant to pass big spending packages. But while Democrats are lucky to have a Democrat of any ideological persuasion representing West Virginia, they may not be getting the best bang for their buck from Sinema. Sinema has, for the last few…

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How John Eastman counseled Donald Trump to retain power by overturning the election

How John Eastman counseled Donald Trump to retain power by overturning the election

In an editorial, the New York Times says: However horrifying the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol appeared in the moment, we know now that it was far worse. The country was hours away from a full-blown constitutional crisis — not primarily because of the violence and mayhem inflicted by hundreds of President Donald Trump’s supporters but because of the actions of Mr. Trump himself. In the days before the mob descended on the Capitol, a corollary attack —…

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Rudy Giuliani is in an excruciating legal predicament — and could very well flip

Rudy Giuliani is in an excruciating legal predicament — and could very well flip

Peter Stone writes: Giuliani is being treated, by all appearances, as a dead man walking. America’s Mayor, as he was once known, has been abandoned by his most powerful friend [Donald Trump]. He has lost his megaphone at Fox News and is now going around with a begging bowl for money. And at the center of Giuliani’s legal troubles is a web of overlapping federal investigations, including a criminal probe focusing on him personally, which some experts say could force…

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