Browsed by
Category: Politics

The energy behind Farage and his Brexit party leaves his rivals in the shadows

The energy behind Farage and his Brexit party leaves his rivals in the shadows

Comments 0 Comment

Paul Harris writes: Last Sunday, I went to a Brexit party rally in Frimley, Surrey. The venue was the Lakeside Hotel and Country Club complex, well known as the setting for international darts contests. Inside, 1,200 or so people had gathered to hear Nigel Farage and most of the party’s other would-be MEPs for the south-east region. The atmosphere was roughly as I had expected: highly charged, defiant, often strangely celebratory. But what was most striking was the slickness of…

Read More Read More

It’s not entirely up to school students to save the world

It’s not entirely up to school students to save the world

Comments 0 Comment

Bill McKibben writes: In the past several months, people around the world have watched in awe as school students, led by the Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg, have taken their concerns about the climate crisis to a new level, with a series of one-day strikes. The latest took place on Friday, and drew what is estimated as more than a million participants in a hundred and twenty-five countries. The strikes have been the biggest boost yet for the global climate movement,…

Read More Read More

The seeds of Trump, Brexit and Modi’s success were sown by endemic racism and unfairness

The seeds of Trump, Brexit and Modi’s success were sown by endemic racism and unfairness

Comments 0 Comment

Gary Younge writes: The morning after both Donald Trump’s victory and the Brexit referendum, when a mood of paralysing shock and grief overcame progressives and liberals on both sides of the Atlantic, the two most common refrains I heard were: “I don’t recognise my country any more,” and “I feel like I’ve woken up in a different country.” This period of collective disorientation was promptly joined by oppositional activity, if not activism. People who had never marched before took to…

Read More Read More

Latest charges against Assange are an assault on press freedom

Latest charges against Assange are an assault on press freedom

Comments 0 Comment

Brian Barrett writes: On Thursday, the Department of Justice unsealed new charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Unlike the previous indictment—which focused narrowly on an apparent offer to help crack a password—the 17 superseding counts focus instead on alleged violations of the Espionage Act. In doing so, the DOJ has aimed a battering ram at the freedom of the press, whether you think Assange is a journalist or not. The indictment, which you can read in full below, alleges that…

Read More Read More

Amend the Espionage Act: Public interest defenses must be allowed

Amend the Espionage Act: Public interest defenses must be allowed

Comments 0 Comment

In an editorial, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says: It has been almost 102 years since the Espionage Act was signed into law by Woodrow Wilson. Initially conceived as a means by which to “punish acts of interference with the foreign relations,” the act has since become a tool of suppression, used to punish whistleblowers who expose governmental wrongdoing and criminality. It is time that the law be amended to accommodate those who share information vital to the public interest. Daniel Everette…

Read More Read More

Trump’s witch hunt against his investigators raises national security concerns

Trump’s witch hunt against his investigators raises national security concerns

Comments 0 Comment

The New York Times reports: President Trump’s order allowing Attorney General William P. Barr to declassify any intelligence that sparked the opening of the Russia investigation sets up a potential confrontation with the C.I.A., including over the possible implications for a person close to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia who provided information to the C.I.A. about his involvement in Moscow’s 2016 election interference. The concern about the source, who is believed to be still alive, is one of several…

Read More Read More

Could a lack of humility be at the root of what ails America?

Could a lack of humility be at the root of what ails America?

Comments 0 Comment

What happens when everyone thinks they’re smarter than everyone else? Ljupco Smokovski/Shutterstock.com By Frank T. McAndrew, Knox College There are a lot of reasons behind the political polarization of the country and the deterioration of civic discourse. I wonder if a lack of humility is one of them. In his recent book, “The Death of Expertise,” national security expert Tom Nichols described a type of person each of us probably knows: “They are young and old, rich and poor, some…

Read More Read More

Young people have led the climate strikes. Now we need adults to join us too

Young people have led the climate strikes. Now we need adults to join us too

Comments 0 Comment

Greta Thunberg and 46 youth activists write: Tomorrow, schoolchildren and students will be out on the streets again, in huge numbers, in 150 countries, at over 4,000 events, demanding that governments immediately provide a safe pathway to stay within 1.5C of global heating. We spent weeks and months preparing for this day. We spent uncountable hours organising and mobilising when we could have just hung out with our friends or studied for school. We don’t feel like we have a…

Read More Read More

Why some Palestinians are backing Trump’s peace push

Why some Palestinians are backing Trump’s peace push

Comments 0 Comment

Politico reports: Some prominent Palestinian activists and politicians are quietly rooting for Jared Kushner as he prepares to unveil the first part of his Middle East peace plan next month. That’s not because they think the plan will resolve their decadeslong conflict with Israel. It’s because they hope it will hasten the onset of a “one-state” solution they are coming to support. The push for one state with equal rights for Palestinians and Israelis has gained steam in recent years…

Read More Read More

How China uses high-tech surveillance to subdue minorities

How China uses high-tech surveillance to subdue minorities

Comments 0 Comment

The New York Times reports: A God’s-eye view of Kashgar, an ancient city in western China, flashed onto a wall-size screen, with colorful icons marking police stations, checkpoints and the locations of recent security incidents. At the click of a mouse, a technician explained, the police can pull up live video from any surveillance camera or take a closer look at anyone passing through one of the thousands of checkpoints in the city. To demonstrate, she showed how the system…

Read More Read More

Nevada poised to become 15th state to ditch Electoral College

Nevada poised to become 15th state to ditch Electoral College

Comments 0 Comment

NPR reports: President Hillary Clinton? That would have been the result of the 2016 presidential election — if the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact were in effect. With a state Senate vote Tuesday, Nevada is close to becoming the latest state to sidestep the Electoral College when it comes to electing presidents. According to the National Popular Vote organization, which oversees efforts to persuade states to join the compact, 14 states and the District of Columbia have agreed to pledge…

Read More Read More

Federal judge says Deutsche Bank, Capital One can give Trump financial records to Congress

Federal judge says Deutsche Bank, Capital One can give Trump financial records to Congress

Comments 0 Comment

CNBC reports: A federal judge in New York City on Wednesday said Deutsche Bank and Capitol One can turn over financial documents related to President Donald Trump and his businesses in response to subpoenas from House Democrats. Judge Edgardo Ramos’s ruling came after a hearing at which lawyers for Trump, his three older children, Donald Jr. Eric and Ivanka, and the Trump Organization argued that the subpoenas to the two banks should be quashed. Ramos, an appointee of President Barack…

Read More Read More

New York passes bill giving Congress a way to get Trump’s state tax returns

New York passes bill giving Congress a way to get Trump’s state tax returns

Comments 0 Comment

The New York Times reports: Even before he was elected president, Donald J. Trump had steadfastly refused to release his federal tax returns, bucking years of tradition among presidential candidates. His intransigence deepened once he entered the White House, defying a congressional subpoena for the tax records. Now, however, a nine-page workaround by the New York State Legislature may serve as a way for Congress to get its hands on a trove of Mr. Trump’s tax information. On Wednesday, the…

Read More Read More

Senators slam Trump plan to pardon vets accused or convicted of war crimes

Senators slam Trump plan to pardon vets accused or convicted of war crimes

Comments 0 Comment

HuffPost reports: President Donald Trump’s reported plans to pardon several U.S. servicemen accused or convicted of war crimes elicited bipartisan criticism in the Senate on Tuesday. “I think it’s a terrible idea to pardon someone who is legitimately convicted of committing war crimes. It’s unthinkable,” Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) told HuffPost when asked about the New York Times report. According to the Times, the White House over the weekend requested the necessary paperwork to issue a pardon for a Navy…

Read More Read More

Trump’s unofficial judicial adviser runs ‘dark money’ operation using nonprofit system to influence judicial appointments

Trump’s unofficial judicial adviser runs ‘dark money’ operation using nonprofit system to influence judicial appointments

Comments 0 Comment

The Washington Post reports: Leonard Leo stepped onto the stage in a darkened Florida ballroom, looked out at a gathering of some of the nation’s most powerful conservative activists and told them they were on the cusp of fulfilling a long-sought dream. For two decades, Leo has been on a mission to turn back the clock to a time before the U.S. Supreme Court routinely expanded the government’s authority and endorsed new rights such as abortion and same-sex marriage. Now,…

Read More Read More

Federal judge upholds congressional subpoena for Trump financial records

Federal judge upholds congressional subpoena for Trump financial records

Comments 0 Comment

Politico reports: A federal judge on Monday upheld a congressional subpoena seeking President Donald Trump’s financial records from an accounting firm, arguing that Congress is well within its rights to investigate potential illegal behavior by a president — even without launching a formal impeachment inquiry. U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta’s ruling delivers a striking blow to the president’s efforts to resist Democratic investigations, and is certain to give Democrats further legal basis to investigate Trump, his finances, and his…

Read More Read More