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Category: Politics

After Cohen’s hearing, the BuzzFeed bombshell that Mueller disputed looks better — and worse

After Cohen’s hearing, the BuzzFeed bombshell that Mueller disputed looks better — and worse

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Margaret Sullivan writes: In mid-January, a BuzzFeed News report hit the news cycle like a mile-wide asteroid landing on Earth. Its assertion was stunning: that President Trump had directed his fixer, Michael Cohen, to lie to Congress in 2017 about negotiations the previous year to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. And that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III possessed documentation of this; and further, that Cohen had acknowledged those instructions in interviews with Mueller’s office. Suddenly, the word “suborning”…

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Anyone could have seen Trump’s failure in Hanoi coming. Except Trump

Anyone could have seen Trump’s failure in Hanoi coming. Except Trump

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Jeffrey Lewis writes: As President Trump flew to Hanoi this week, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders had a surprise announcement: Trump and Kim would meet earlier than expected, at a dinner on the first evening. The late announcement led skeptics to describe the dinner as an attempt to overshadow Michael Cohen’s embarrassing testimony about his work for Trump. But the last-minute dinner raised unexpected challenges. The two sides apparently struggled over the menu, with the White House pressing for…

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India and Pakistan are already at war on truth

India and Pakistan are already at war on truth

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Pankaj Mishra writes: In the predawn hours on Feb. 26, India launched an aerial attack — unprecedented in peacetime — on neighboring Pakistan, in retaliation for a suicide bombing 12 days earlier that killed more than 40 Indian paramilitary soldiers in the disputed valley of Kashmir. Pakistan predictably responded the next morning with its own air strike into Indian-controlled Kashmir. The confrontation could spiral out of control quickly. But fortunately, apart from a wounded Indian pilot and a Pakistani villager…

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Netanyahu to be indicted on corruption charges

Netanyahu to be indicted on corruption charges

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NBC News reports: Israel’s attorney general announced Thursday that his office plans to indict Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on corruption charges after a two-year investigation. The prime minister faces one count of bribery and three counts of breach of trust. “The Attorney General, Avihai Mandelblit, has informed the Prime Minister, Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu, through his attorney, that he is considering indicting him on several criminal charges,” according to a statement by Ministry of Justice spokesman Adi Livni. Prosecutors would have…

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As House Republicans attacked Cohen, none defended Trump

As House Republicans attacked Cohen, none defended Trump

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David Frum writes: Michael Cohen’s testimony to the House Oversight Committee was uncontradicted. The former personal attorney of the president of the United States today accused him of a litany of crimes, improprieties, immoralities, and betrayals of national security. And not one Republican member of the committee breathed one word in defense of the leader of their party. Those Republicans have learned the hard way never to trust President Donald Trump’s denials. Read: Eight striking moments from Michael Cohen’s testimony…

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The real North Korea summit is inside the Trump administration

The real North Korea summit is inside the Trump administration

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Jeffrey Lewis writes: The summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi this week is a sideshow to the titanic struggle underway for the Trump administration’s North Korea policy. On one side appears to be U.S. envoy Stephen Biegun and, perhaps, the president himself. They are willing to toss aside decades of U.S. policy to engage with North Korea along the lines of the so-called Sunshine Policy, the approach embraced by progressive South…

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Putin has restored the role its intelligence agencies had in the Soviet era — keep citizens in check and destabilize foreign adversaries

Putin has restored the role its intelligence agencies had in the Soviet era — keep citizens in check and destabilize foreign adversaries

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John Sipher writes: According to this year’s National Intelligence Worldwide Threat Assessment and Senate testimony by top-ranked intelligence officials, Americans can expect Vladimir Putin’s Russia to continue its efforts to aggravate social, political and racial tensions in the United States and among its allies. So, to best prepare for future Russian assaults, we should look to the past and study the mind-set of the Cold War K.G.B. — the intelligence service in which President Putin spent his formative years. The…

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Calls grow for Labor Secretary Acosta to resign as Epstein’s sex abuse victims demand justice

Calls grow for Labor Secretary Acosta to resign as Epstein’s sex abuse victims demand justice

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The Miami Herald reports: Lawyers for victims who were sexually abused as minors by multimillionaire Jeffrey Epstein have formally demanded that the government vacate Epstein’s plea deal, void his federal immunity and reopen his sex trafficking investigation, the Miami Herald has learned. Lawyers Brad Edwards and Paul Cassell, who represent two of Epstein’s victims, sent a letter to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida making the request in the wake of a federal judge’s ruling last…

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U.S. Cyber Command operation disrupted Internet access of Russian troll factory on day of 2018 midterms

U.S. Cyber Command operation disrupted Internet access of Russian troll factory on day of 2018 midterms

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The Washington Post reports: The U.S. military blocked Internet access to an infamous Russian entity seeking to sow discord among Americans during the 2018 midterms, several U.S. officials said, a warning that the Kremlin’s operations against the United States are not cost-free. The strike on the Internet Research Agency in St. Petersburg, a company underwritten by an oligarch close to President Vladi­mir Putin, was part of the first offensive cyber campaign against Russia designed to thwart attempts to interfere with…

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Labour will back a second referendum to stop Tory no-deal Brexit

Labour will back a second referendum to stop Tory no-deal Brexit

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  The Guardian reports: Jeremy Corbyn has finally thrown his party’s weight behind a second EU referendum, backing moves for a fresh poll with remain on the ballot paper if Labour should fail to get its own version of a Brexit deal passed this week. The decision to give the party’s backing to a second referendum comes after a concerted push by shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer and deputy leader Tom Watson, who fear any further delay could have led…

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Grassroots antisemitism in Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party

Grassroots antisemitism in Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party

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Jeremy Corbyn’s stated preference is that the media should pay more attention to those Jews who claim that there isn’t a serious problem of antisemitism in the Labour Party than to those who say the opposite: If I were in CCHQ, my next PPB (and every other PPB) would just be this video pic.twitter.com/y2RN90BmGo — Robert Colvile (@rcolvile) February 23, 2019 The letter signed by 200 Jewish Labour Party members to which Corbyn referred in this Sky News interview, states:…

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A dividing line between anti-Zionism and antisemitism, once clear becomes increasingly blurred

A dividing line between anti-Zionism and antisemitism, once clear becomes increasingly blurred

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Kenan Malik writes: For anti-Zionists like [the late historian Tony] Judt, “self-determination” in that piece of contested land that is Israel/Palestine should adhere to principles of civic, not ethnic, nationalism; that is, be the self-determination of the people, and only the people, who live there, whether Jews or Palestinians. This kind of anti-Zionism is very different from that which calls for the “destruction of the state of Israel”, usually (a not very veiled) code for the destruction of Jews. The…

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This is how AIPAC really works

This is how AIPAC really works

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M.J. Rosenberg writes: One thing that should be said about Representative Ilhan Omar’s tweet about the power of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (more commonly known as AIPAC, or the “Israel lobby”) is that the hysterical reaction to it proved her main point: The power of AIPAC over members of Congress is literally awesome, although not in a good way. Has anyone ever seen so many members of Congress, of both parties, running to the microphones and sending out…

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White House plans to set up panel whose mission is to disrupt climate science and promote fossil fuel use

White House plans to set up panel whose mission is to disrupt climate science and promote fossil fuel use

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The Washington Post reports: The White House plans to create an ad hoc group of select federal scientists to reassess the government’s analysis of climate science and counter conclusions that the continued burning of fossil fuels is harming the planet, according to three administration officials. The National Security Council initiative would include scientists who question the severity of climate impacts and the extent to which humans contribute to the problem, according to these individuals, who asked for anonymity to discuss…

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The grave threats of white supremacy and far-right extremism

The grave threats of white supremacy and far-right extremism

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Thomas T. Cullen writes: Last week, federal agents in Maryland arrested a United States Coast Guard officer and said he was plotting to assassinate Democratic members of Congress, prominent television journalists and others. The officer, Lt. Christopher Hasson, apparently was inspired by a right-wing Norwegian terrorist who slaughtered 77 people in 2011, stockpiled firearms and ammunition and researched locations around Washington to launch his attacks, according to investigators. Fortunately, the F.B.I. arrested him before he could act. This frightening case…

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Court records reveal a Mueller report right in plain view

Court records reveal a Mueller report right in plain view

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The Associated Press reports: Donald Trump was in full deflection mode. The Democrats had blamed Russia for the hacking and release of damaging material on his presidential opponent, Hillary Clinton. Trump wasn’t buying it. But on July 27, 2016, midway through a news conference in Florida, Trump decided to entertain the thought for a moment. “Russia, if you’re listening,” said Trump, looking directly into a television camera, “I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing” —…

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