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Category: Politics

This wave of global protest is being led by the children of the financial crash

This wave of global protest is being led by the children of the financial crash

Jack Shenker writes: “I’m 22 years old, and this is my last letter,” the young man begins. Most of his face is masked with black fabric; only his eyes, tired and steely, are visible below a messy fringe. “I’m worried that I will die and won’t see you any more,” he continues, his hands trembling. “But I can’t not take to the streets.” The nameless demonstrator – one of many in Hong Kong who have been writing to their loved…

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‘Quid pro quo’ bombshell from Trump ally

‘Quid pro quo’ bombshell from Trump ally

  Politico reports: Though Democrats are more confident than ever in their growing impeachment case against President Donald Trump, they’re also setting their sights on a top Trump ally: Ambassador Gordon Sondland. Some Democrats have begun to raise the specter that Sondland, a Republican donor who is Trump’s representative to the European Union, perjured himself during his closed-door testimony to impeachment investigators earlier this month. Testimony from other witnesses has put the credibility of Trump’s most favorable witness into serious…

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Republican leaders defend key impeachment witness from attacks by Trump allies

Republican leaders defend key impeachment witness from attacks by Trump allies

Politico reports: Republican leaders are stepping up to defend Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman against vicious attacks from President Donald Trump’s allies. Republicans may quibble with the substance of Vindman’s testimony as they try to protect Trump from the fast-moving impeachment inquiry. But congressional GOP leaders say it’s out of bounds to question Vindman’s patriotism and allegiance to the United States, as some conservative pundits did on Monday night. Several top Republicans on Tuesday made emphatic statements in support of Vindman,…

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Even Tories think an election is risky — because of Boris Johnson

Even Tories think an election is risky — because of Boris Johnson

Rafael Behr writes: MPs on all sides are trepidatious about a December ballot. Christmas is not traditional election season and it isn’t clear how kindly the electorate will take to the idea. Brexit has already corroded traditional party allegiances and incentivised tactical voting. There is no one pendulum swinging between blue and red. In 2017, polls at the start of the contest proved a hopeless guide to the final outcome. Johnson has no intention of repelling voters as efficiently as…

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‘It feels like a horror movie’: Republicans feel anxious and adrift defending Trump

‘It feels like a horror movie’: Republicans feel anxious and adrift defending Trump

The Washington Post reports: Republican senators are lost and adrift as the impeachment inquiry enters its second month, navigating the grave threat to President Trump largely in the dark, frustrated by the absence of a credible case to defend his conduct and anxious about the historic reckoning that likely awaits them. Recent days have delivered the most damaging testimony yet about Trump and his advisers commandeering Ukraine policy for the president’s personal political goals, which his allies on Capitol Hill…

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Baghdadi’s death is a reminder of the catastrophic failure of the war on terror

Baghdadi’s death is a reminder of the catastrophic failure of the war on terror

Spencer Ackerman writes: After U.S. special operations forces dealt a violent end to the leader of the premier jihadist group in Iraq, the president hailed the importance of the moment. The man was a monster, the president declared, responsible for a regional campaign of devastation, even the beheadings of American hostages. True, the killing would not mean the end of the broader war, the president noted, but the U.S. had dealt “a severe blow” to the jihadists. George W. Bush…

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Russia challenges Trump’s claims about Russian involvement during Baghdadi raid

Russia challenges Trump’s claims about Russian involvement during Baghdadi raid

Julia Davis reports: At the White House Sunday morning, President Trump profusely thanked Russia for its alleged involvement in the killing of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Trump said: “[The Russians] were very cooperative, they really were good… Russia treated us great. They opened up, we had to fly over certain Russia areas, Russia-held areas. Russia was great.” Russia didn’t seem to see it the same way. The Russian Defense Ministry’s spokesman, Major General Igor Konashenkov, refuted President Trump’s…

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‘Blood for oil’ is official U.S. policy under Trump

‘Blood for oil’ is official U.S. policy under Trump

Adam Weinstein writes: In between playing five hours of golf on Saturday and getting booed at a baseball game on Sunday, President Donald Trump caught up on his other favorite sport: playing military. American service members in Syria cornered and killed Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the titular leader of ISIS, as Trump spectated; the following morning, in advance of the Sunday talk shows, he gave a triumphant press conference about the operation. Skeptical reporters came away from Trump’s endzone dance with…

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Employee dissent erupts at Facebook over Zuckerberg’s hands-off stance on political ads

Employee dissent erupts at Facebook over Zuckerberg’s hands-off stance on political ads

The New York Times reports: The letter was aimed at Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, and his top lieutenants. It decried the social network’s recent decision to let politicians post any claims they wanted — even false ones — in ads on the site. It asked Facebook’s leaders to rethink the stance. The message was written by Facebook’s own employees. Facebook’s position on political advertising is “a threat to what FB stands for,” the employees wrote in the letter, which…

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Trump’s abrupt decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria disrupted carefully planned Baghdadi raid

Trump’s abrupt decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria disrupted carefully planned Baghdadi raid

The New York Times reports: The surprising information about the Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s general location — in a village deep inside a part of northwestern Syria controlled by rival Qaeda groups — came following the arrest and interrogation of one of Mr. al-Baghdadi’s wives and a courier this past summer, two American officials said. Armed with that initial tip, the C.I.A. worked closely with Iraqi and Kurdish intelligence officials in Iraq and Syria to identify Mr. al-Baghdadi’s…

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Trump notified Russians of Baghdadi raid before telling congressional leaders

Trump notified Russians of Baghdadi raid before telling congressional leaders

The Washington Post reports: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday called on the White House to brief lawmakers on the raid that targeted Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, noting that President Trump had informed the Russians of the military operation before telling congressional leadership. The statement from Pelosi (D-Calif.) came after Trump told reporters at a lengthy news conference that he did not inform the House speaker of the raid because he “wanted to make sure this kept secret.” U.S. presidents typically…

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Trust is becoming the principal casualty of Britain’s raging political war

Trust is becoming the principal casualty of Britain’s raging political war

Nick Cohen writes: Britain is in a revolutionary crisis. Its economy, constitution, place in the international order and sense of who it is and what it can become will be battlefields at the next election. The high stakes alone will ensure that a red mist descends. To heighten the rage, the wilful failure of the Conservative government to prevent the corruptions of the electoral process brought by the age of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin will sharpen every grievance. Put…

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How Elizabeth Warren went from wonky blogger to Democratic frontrunner

How Elizabeth Warren went from wonky blogger to Democratic frontrunner

Sam Stein writes: A 70-year-old, twice-elected Senator from Massachusetts might not sound like the biography of a transformative presidential candidate. But Elizabeth Warren is not your traditional White House aspirant, and her ascension in the Democratic primary represents, for better or worse, a tectonic shift within the Democratic Party. Those who have run for the party’s nomination in the past have largely hailed from one of two perches: insurgents or establishment types. Warren’s candidacy is a synthesis of the two….

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Pope Francis, the revolutionary, takes on the traditionalists

Pope Francis, the revolutionary, takes on the traditionalists

Rachel Donadio writes: Pope Francis has helped open the door to allowing married men to become priests, albeit in just one region of the Amazon for now. He has made environmentalism a major focus of his papacy. Yesterday he gave a shout-out to Greta Thunberg and thanked journalists for doing their jobs, rather than calling them enemies of the people. He’s decried income inequality and nationalism and spoken out on behalf of gay people, Muslims, immigrants, and the poor. This…

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About 41% of the global population are under 24 — and they’re angry

About 41% of the global population are under 24 — and they’re angry

Simon Tisdall writes: A spate of large-scale street protests around the world, from Chile and Hong Kong to Lebanon and Barcelona, is fuelling a search for common denominators and collective causes. Are we entering a new age of global revolution? Or is it foolish to try to link anger in India over the price of onions to pro-democracy demonstrations in Russia? Each country’s protests differ in detail. But recent upheavals do appear to share one key factor: youth. In most…

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A new era of global unrest

A new era of global unrest

Max Fisher and Amanda Taub write: It’s not your imagination, and the last few months are not an outlier: Mass protests are on the rise globally. They’ve been growing more common, year over year, since the end of World War II, now reaching an unprecedented level of frequency. And if it might seem difficult to find a common thread — anti-corruption rallies in Lebanon, separatist demonstrations in Spain, pro-democracy marches in Hong Kong, protests against inequality in Chile and over…

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