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Category: Politics

Inside Liz Cheney’s plan to take on former president Donald Trump

Inside Liz Cheney’s plan to take on former president Donald Trump

The Washington Post reports: Rep. Liz Cheney lost her House leadership position Wednesday, but she aims to become an even more influential political figure capable of weakening former president Trump’s hold on their party — and continuing to push for his purge. Rather than focusing on whipping votes to save her job as conference chair, the Wyoming Republican has drafted plans for increased travel and media appearances, such as an interview Wednesday on NBC’s “Today Show,” meant to drive home…

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The latest Israel-Palestine crisis isn’t a ‘real estate dispute.’ It’s ethnic cleansing

The latest Israel-Palestine crisis isn’t a ‘real estate dispute.’ It’s ethnic cleansing

Hayes Brown writes: As we’re watching what might well turn into a third intifada play out in Jerusalem, images of fires burning among the trees outside the Al-Aqsa mosque and reports of children being injured in a new volley of airstrikes in Gaza, I can’t get a line from the Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry out of my head. “Regrettably, the PA” — the Palestinian Authority — “and Palestinian terror groups are presenting a real-estate dispute between private parties, as a…

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‘Civil war’ breaks out in central Israeli city as mayor calls for military

‘Civil war’ breaks out in central Israeli city as mayor calls for military

Agencies report: The mayor of Israel’s Lod city pointed to a “civil war out of control,” Israeli media reported late Tuesday, calling upon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to send military forces to handle the situation. The central Israeli city witnessed fierce clashes with police after a funeral procession of an Arab Israeli killed by an Israeli settler. Israeli daily Yediot Ahronoth reported two Israeli police officers in the city of Lod were injured in the clashes, which also saw a…

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U.S. judge tosses NRA bankruptcy bid, letting New York seek dissolution

U.S. judge tosses NRA bankruptcy bid, letting New York seek dissolution

Reuters reports: A federal judge in Dallas ruled on Tuesday that the National Rifle Association cannot use bankruptcy to reorganize in gun-friendly Texas, dealing a serious blow to the influential gun rights group’s effort to avoid a lawsuit in New York seeking its dissolution. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Harlin Hale said the NRA did not file for Chapter 11 protection in good faith, but rather did so to avoid oversight by New York Attorney General Letitia James and gain an “unfair…

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CDC Covid messaging has persistently lagged behind scientific findings

CDC Covid messaging has persistently lagged behind scientific findings

STAT reports: Nearly a year ago, amid concerns about how to prevent transmission of the virus causing Covid-19, scientists were beginning to conclude that rigorous disinfection of surfaces — say, fogging them or deep-cleaning with bleach — was overkill. Academics were warning that the risk of so-called fomite transmission was wildly overblown. In the fall, research from Israel and Italy found that the virus couldn’t even be cultured from surfaces in hospital infectious disease units. By February of this year,…

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Biden administration approves nation’s first major offshore wind farm

Biden administration approves nation’s first major offshore wind farm

The New York Times reports: Construction on the nation’s first commercial-scale offshore wind farm is expected to begin this summer, after the Biden administration gave final approval Tuesday to a project it hopes will herald a new era of wind energy across the United States. The Vineyard Wind project calls for up to 84 turbines to be installed in the Atlantic Ocean about 12 nautical miles off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, Mass. Together, they could generate about 800 megawatts…

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Efforts to weed out extremists in law enforcement meet resistance

Efforts to weed out extremists in law enforcement meet resistance

The New York Times reports: In the battle to stamp out extremism from the ranks of the police, lawmakers from California to Minnesota have proposed solutions they thought were straightforward. Some laws would empower the police to do more robust background checks of recruits, letting them vet social media to make sure new officers were not members of hate groups. Other laws would make it easier for departments to fire officers with ties to extremists. But legislators working to get…

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Critics urge Biden to step up as violence spreads in Israel

Critics urge Biden to step up as violence spreads in Israel

Politico reports: President Joe Biden and his aides have signaled that they believe stepping back from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to focus on more direct threats to America is in the U.S. national interest. But, as an outcry in Congress and beyond over an escalating, bloody crisis in Jerusalem shows, walking away may not be in Biden’s political interest. Weeks of tensions between Israelis and Palestinians over access to holy sites and the potential eviction of several Palestinian families from east…

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What’s mine is mine, and what’s yours is mine too

What’s mine is mine, and what’s yours is mine too

B. Michael writes: It’s happening once again, this time in Sheikh Jarrah. Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes in West Jerusalem are slated to be evicted from their homes in East Jerusalem too. Why? Because the homes in which they’ve legally resided for 160 years or more were built on land that was once owned by Jews. On the face of it, it is merely a real estate dispute. But in actuality, it is an event that…

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Why Confederate lies live on

Why Confederate lies live on

Clint Smith writes: Most of the people who come to Blandford Cemetery, in Petersburg, Virginia, come for the windows—masterpieces of Tiffany glass in the cemetery’s deconsecrated church. One morning before the pandemic, I took a tour of the church along with two other visitors and our tour guide, Ken. When my eyes adjusted to the hazy darkness inside, I could see that in each window stood a saint, surrounded by dazzling bursts of blues and greens and violets. Below these…

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Russian spy unit suspected of directed-energy attacks on U.S. personnel

Russian spy unit suspected of directed-energy attacks on U.S. personnel

Politico reports: U.S. officials suspect that a notorious Russian spy agency may be behind alleged attacks that are causing mysterious health issues among U.S. government personnel across the world, according to three current and former officials with direct knowledge of the discussions. Officials do not have a smoking gun linking Russia’s military intelligence unit, the GRU, to the suspected directed-energy incidents, said the people, who were not authorized to speak publicly. The intelligence community has not reached a consensus or…

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DarkSide hackers say the Colonial Pipeline cyber attack was only about the money — not politics

DarkSide hackers say the Colonial Pipeline cyber attack was only about the money — not politics

Reuters reports: The ransomware gang accused of crippling the leading US fuel pipeline operator has said it never meant to create havoc, an unusual statement that experts said was a sign the cyber criminals’ scheme had gone awry. Colonial says services will be “substantially” restored by the end of the week The FBI accused the group calling itself DarkSide of a digital extortion attempt that prompted Colonial Pipeline to shut down its network, potentially causing extraordinary disruption as gasoline deliveries…

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Covid lays bare the price of populism

Covid lays bare the price of populism

Uri Friedman writes: As populism has experienced a resurgence in recent years, many have focused on the hazards the ideology poses to democratic systems. But today’s complex and highly technical global threats—pandemics, climate change, cyberattacks, financial crises—that demand technocratic solutions have driven home a grim reality: Populism can place us all at risk. In 2018, a burst of anger over government corruption propelled a populist politician named Jair Bolsonaro to Brazil’s presidency. Brazil, which is currently suffering from one of…

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Push to electrify mail trucks gains wide support, an unlikely win for both DeJoy and Biden

Push to electrify mail trucks gains wide support, an unlikely win for both DeJoy and Biden

The Washington Post reports: House Democratic leaders are lining up behind a White House push to allocate $8 billion in taxpayer funding for the latest iteration of mail truck, paving the way for a fully electric fleet instead of the piecemeal strategy U.S. Postal Service leaders have been pursuing. The agency, which is generally self-sustaining and does not draw public money, has drawn up a bootstrap plan for new vehicles — the vast majority of which would run on gas…

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The ringmaster is gone but the circus remains

The ringmaster is gone but the circus remains

Quinta Jurecic writes: The internet has been a bit quiet lately. Or, more specifically, it’s been quiet since the days after the Capitol riot, when Twitter, Facebook, and a string of other social-media companies banned Donald Trump from their platforms for his role in egging on the violence in Washington, D.C. And now the Facebook oversight board has ensured that social media will remain peaceful for at least a little while longer: The panel, asked by Facebook to review the…

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Stopping drug patents has stopped pandemics before

Stopping drug patents has stopped pandemics before

Laurie Garrett writes: U.S. President Joe Biden’s waiver of patent protections for U.S.-made COVID-19 drugs and vaccines is a historic milestone and a moral imperative. It is also an overdue acknowledgement of recent experiences. Contrary to prognostications from the pharmaceutical sector that side-stepping the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) component of the World Trade Organization (WTO) will mark the death knell of the drug industry, the world’s response to HIV/AIDS long ago demonstrated that patents stymie accessible treatment,…

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