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Category: Politics

For too long, the West has turned a blind eye to Russian atrocities

For too long, the West has turned a blind eye to Russian atrocities

Natalie Nougayrède writes: Putin is so good at exploiting our obsessions and weak spots: it’s a tactic he’s long perfected to deflect attention from his own record. Clear the fog a bit, and what is there, really? Russia’s sense of its impunity – I mean big time, murderous, war criminal-style impunity. Think about this: at the end of this year, Russia – whether in its Soviet or post-Soviet incarnations – will have been at war almost continuously for four decades….

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Europe: A wall worse than Trump’s

Europe: A wall worse than Trump’s

Der Spiegel reports: It was just before midnight when Fabian Heinz lost his faith in Europe. The Alan Kurdi, a ship belonging to Sea Eye, a German sea-rescue organization, was bobbing up and down between Lampedusa, in Italy, and Malta. Heinz, a 29-year-old photographer from Würzburg, remembers holding watch on deck that evening. He looked up from his post to the dozens of refugees that he and other rescuers had saved from the sea near the Libyan coast. They were…

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Human rights expert: Treatment of migrant children appears to meet definition of ‘mass atrocity’

Human rights expert: Treatment of migrant children appears to meet definition of ‘mass atrocity’

Kate Cronin-Furman writes: The debate over whether “concentration camps” is the right term for migrant detention centers on the southern border has drawn long-overdue attention to the American government’s dehumanizing treatment of defenseless children. A pediatrician who visited in June said the centers could be compared to “torture facilities.” Having studied mass atrocities for over a decade, I agree. At least seven migrant children have died in United States custody since last year. The details reported by lawyers who visited…

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Trump professes anger over Jamal Khashoggi’s murder while defending Saudi crown prince

Trump professes anger over Jamal Khashoggi’s murder while defending Saudi crown prince

The Washington Post reports: President Trump on Saturday professed to be “very angry” over the murder last year of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi at a Saudi consulate, but the president again declined to pin responsibility on Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whom he called “my friend.” Trump said nothing about Khashoggi at a photo op Salman before their meeting on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit here, ignoring shouted questions about the matter from reporters. In brief…

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How rogue Republicans killed Oregon’s climate-change bill

How rogue Republicans killed Oregon’s climate-change bill

Carolyn Kormann reports: Early Tuesday morning, in Oregon, Shilpa Joshi, the coalition director of Renew Oregon, a clean-energy advocacy organization, rented a minivan from a lot on the outskirts of Portland, picked up a group of high-school students, and headed for the state capitol building, in Salem, where they’d be staging a protest. She was anxious and deeply concerned. “This might be a really sad day for us,” she said, en route. A major climate-change bill, which she had worked…

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The looming information apocalypse

The looming information apocalypse

Charlie Warzel reports: In mid-2016, Aviv Ovadya realized there was something fundamentally wrong with the internet — so wrong that he abandoned his work and sounded an alarm. A few weeks before the 2016 election, he presented his concerns to technologists in San Francisco’s Bay Area and warned of an impending crisis of misinformation in a presentation he titled “Infocalypse.” The web and the information ecosystem that had developed around it was wildly unhealthy, Ovadya argued. The incentives that governed…

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Elizabeth Warren’s plan to revitalize diplomacy

Elizabeth Warren’s plan to revitalize diplomacy

Elizabeth Warren writes: American security and prosperity depend on robust diplomacy. Our diplomats are the front line of our engagement with the world. They serve in over 270 posts worldwide, many in difficult or dangerous locations. They communicate our goals in more than 70 languages. They manage conflict, help U.S. companies compete, and assist Americans abroad. Most importantly, they reflect our values on the world stage. But a diplomacy-first strategy to meet the challenges of the 21st century means that…

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No country for old white men: Kamala Harris leads changing of the guard

No country for old white men: Kamala Harris leads changing of the guard

David Smith writes: It was as if “Sleepy Joe” Biden had been jolted awake and found himself in a terrifying parallel universe. No longer was he the former senator and vice-president who once lunched weekly with Barack Obama at the White House. Instead he was the accused, standing in the dock under the hot lights on a debate stage in Miami, as a fierce and formidable prosecutor tore into his record on race. The inquisitor was Senator Kamala Harris, ablack…

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Jimmy Carter says Trump wouldn’t be president without help from Russia

Jimmy Carter says Trump wouldn’t be president without help from Russia

The Washington Post reports: Former president Jimmy Carter said Friday that he believes a full investigation of the 2016 election would show that President Trump prevailed because of Russian interference on his behalf and otherwise would not be in office. “There’s no doubt that the Russians did interfere in the election, and I think the interference, although not yet quantified, if fully investigated would show that Trump didn’t actually win the election in 2016,” Carter said. “He lost the election,…

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Trump jokes with Putin about meddling in elections and getting rid of journalists

Trump jokes with Putin about meddling in elections and getting rid of journalists

The Guardian reports: Donald Trump joked with Vladimir Putin about getting rid of journalists and Russian meddling in US elections when the two leaders met at the G20 summit in Japan. As they sat for photographs at the start of their first formal meeting in nearly a year, the US president lightheartedly sought common ground with Putin at the expense of the journalists around them in Osaka. “Get rid of them. Fake news is a great term, isn’t it? You…

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Trump’s peace plan is immoral, impractical — and could blow up the Middle East

Trump’s peace plan is immoral, impractical — and could blow up the Middle East

Ami Ayalon, Gilead Sher, and Orni Petruschka, write: It sounds great on paper: The U.S. administration will hold a “peace to prosperity” economic workshop in Bahrain on June 25 and 26 to jumpstart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Yet scratch the shiny PR surface and you’ll find a dangerously simplistic approach to a complicated situation. Anybody who followed the last 30 years of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict understands that President Donald Trump’s announcement of this first step on the way to a deal…

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Tulsi Gabbard’s growing popularity — among Trump supporters

Tulsi Gabbard’s growing popularity — among Trump supporters

BuzzFeed News reports: Among some conservative pundits there was one clear winner of Wednesday night’s Democratic primary debate: Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, the long-shot, anti-war Hawaii member of Congress. More than any other Democratic candidate, Gabbard has developed a favorable presence in the right-wing media. She’s made appearances from time to time on Fox News shows like Tucker Carlson Tonight, and her unorthodox candidacy has attracted praise from those farther to the right as well. Gabbard has been controversial; she has…

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In his rambling screed against Megan Rapinoe, Trump revealed a lot about his worldview

In his rambling screed against Megan Rapinoe, Trump revealed a lot about his worldview

Jemele Hill writes: President Donald Trump doesn’t understand a basic principle that I learned from my mother in elementary school: If you treat people with respect, they’ll likely respect you in return. Trump took to Twitter on Wednesday to blast Megan Rapinoe, a co-captain of the U.S. women’s national soccer team, after the soccer magazine Eight by Eight posted a video of her saying that if the women win the World Cup, she’s not “going to the fucking White House.”…

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U.S. generates more power from renewables — decline of coal ‘unstoppable’ despite Trump’s rhetoric

U.S. generates more power from renewables — decline of coal ‘unstoppable’ despite Trump’s rhetoric

The Guardian reports: The US generated more electricity from renewable sources than coal for the first time ever in April, new federal government data has shown. Clean energy such as solar and wind provided 23% of US electricity generation during the month, compared with coal’s 20%, according to the Energy Information Administration. This represents the first time coal has been surpassed by energy sources that do not release pollution such as planet-heating gases. April was a favorable month for renewables,…

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Young climate protesters are rattling the DNC

Young climate protesters are rattling the DNC

BuzzFeed News reports: The young protesters who have increasingly become the face of an urgent new movement to combat the climate crisis rattled the Democratic Party’s central institution this week, camping out on the steps of its headquarters and sending jitters through its senior staff ranks. About a dozen protesters in black T-shirts stood vigil Tuesday and Wednesday night outside the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters, and more than a hundred watched the debate on a screen outside the locked Washington…

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E. Jean Carroll’s account of Trump rape corroborated by confidantes

E. Jean Carroll’s account of Trump rape corroborated by confidantes

The New York Times reports: E. Jean Carroll tore through the doors of the Fifth Avenue entrance of Bergdorf Goodman, her heart racing. Ms. Carroll, a journalist and the host of the “Ask E. Jean” television show at the time, had taped a segment that day in 1996 at a studio in Fort Lee, N.J. When it ended around 5 p.m., she decided to come into Manhattan to shop at her favorite store. From the sidewalk, she phoned Lisa Birnbach,…

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