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Category: Politics

How the resurgence of white supremacy in the U.S. sparked a war over free speech

How the resurgence of white supremacy in the U.S. sparked a war over free speech

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Alex Blasdel writes: Late last summer, the American Civil Liberties Union faced a mounting crisis over its most celebrated cause, which many consider the lifeblood of democracy: freedom of speech. For nearly a century, the ACLU has been the standard-bearer of civil liberties in the US, second only to the government in shaping Americans’ basic rights. Although the organisation has been at the vanguard of many of the country’s most hard-fought legal battles – desegregation, reproductive rights, gay marriage –…

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Putin’s opponents are being assassinated one by one … minus one

Putin’s opponents are being assassinated one by one … minus one

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In February, 2017, Arkady Babchenko wrote: I can tell you what political harassment feels like in Putin’s Russia. Like many dissidents I am used to abuse, but a recent campaign against me was so personal, so scary, that I was forced to flee. Two months ago, a Russian plane transporting the world-famous military choir Alexandrov Ensemble crashed into the Black Sea en route to Syria. They were travelling to perform for pilots involved in Russia’s air campaign on Aleppo. I…

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More evidence of Trump’s efforts to obstruct the Mueller investigation

More evidence of Trump’s efforts to obstruct the Mueller investigation

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The New York Times reports: By the time Attorney General Jeff Sessions arrived at President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort for dinner one Saturday evening in March 2017, he had been receiving the presidential silent treatment for two days. Mr. Sessions had flown to Florida because Mr. Trump was refusing to take his calls about a pressing decision on his travel ban. When they met, Mr. Trump was ready to talk — but not about the travel ban. His grievance was with…

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‘We can’t see a future’: Group takes EU to court over climate change

‘We can’t see a future’: Group takes EU to court over climate change

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The Guardian reports: Lawyers acting for a group including a French lavender farmer and members of the indigenous Sami community in Sweden have launched legal action against the EU’s institutions for failing to adequately protect them against climate change. A case is being pursued in the Luxembourg-based general court, Europe’s second highest, against the European parliament and the council of the European Union for allowing overly high greenhouse gas emissions to continue until 2030. The families, including young children, claim…

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The role of liberals in the rise of authoritarianism

The role of liberals in the rise of authoritarianism

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John Gray writes: The denial by liberals of any responsibility for the conditions that have fuelled rising anti-liberal movements is the cardinal fact of contemporary politics. What this denial presages is not any higher phase of history – a revamped liberal order, or some purer version of socialism – but a new authoritarian era. The world has reverted to a condition not dissimilar to that which prevailed towards the end of the 19th century. Harnessing unchanging human needs for security…

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Britain has replaced welfare with destitution

Britain has replaced welfare with destitution

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The New York Times reports: A walk through this modest town [Prescot, near Liverpool] in the northwest of England amounts to a tour of the casualties of Britain’s age of austerity. The old library building has been sold and refashioned into a glass-fronted luxury home. The leisure center has been razed, eliminating the public swimming pool. The local museum has receded into town history. The police station has been shuttered. Now, as the local government desperately seeks to turn assets…

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A correlation between Republicanism and racism apparent among the judiciary

A correlation between Republicanism and racism apparent among the judiciary

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The New York Times reports: Judges appointed by Republican presidents gave longer sentences to black defendants and shorter ones to women than judges appointed by Democrats, according to a new study that analyzed data on more than half a million defendants. “Republican-appointed judges sentence black defendants to three more months than similar nonblacks and female defendants to two fewer months than similar males compared to Democratic-appointed judges,” the study found, adding, “These differences cannot be explained by other judge characteristics…

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Syria’s army is on a path to victory after ousting rebels from Damascus

Syria’s army is on a path to victory after ousting rebels from Damascus

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The Washington Post reports: After seven years of war, Syrian government forces have taken full control of the area around their capital, Damascus, freeing up an overstretched military to move against the country’s few remaining rebel pockets. The battle for Damascus ended this week with an offensive against the Islamic State group among the ruins of a former Palestinian refugee camp in the southern suburbs after other rebel forces were defeated in a nearby enclave. More than 1,000 civilians were…

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The Trump effect: New study connects white American intolerance and support for authoritarianism

The Trump effect: New study connects white American intolerance and support for authoritarianism

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Noah Berlatsky writes: Since the founding of the United States, politicians and pundits have warned that partisanship is a danger to democracy. George Washington, in his Farewell Address, worried that political parties, or factions, could “allow cunning, ambitious and unprincipled men” to rise to power and subvert democracy. More recently, many political observers are concerned that increasing political polarization on left and right makes compromise impossible, and leads to the destruction of democratic norms and institutions. A new study, however,…

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A triumph for women and for Ireland

A triumph for women and for Ireland

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Barbara Wesel writes: It is such a resounding victory that campaigners in Ireland are weeping with joy. After a tense last few days when the referendum seemed too close to call, it turned out to be a landslide result. Irish people voted overwhelmingly in favor of abolishing the total abortion ban in the constitution. And with this amendment, the last part of an oppressive system that subjugated women in Ireland for centuries has gone. They have achieved what has long…

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Ending the dead end in North Korea

Ending the dead end in North Korea

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James Clapper writes: As control of the regime passed from Kim Il-sung to Kim Jong-il to Kim Jong-un, my assessment of the threat posed by the Hermit Kingdom never changed. The “Dear Leaders” didn’t want a fight but kept the mechanics of war set on a hair trigger, and any sane policy on North Korea needed to respect that dynamic. There is a sacred writ of intelligence officers never to get involved in creating policy. Our job is to present…

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North Korea wants to end up like Pakistan, not Libya

North Korea wants to end up like Pakistan, not Libya

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Dominic Tierney writes: When Donald Trump canceled his planned summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un—before hinting that it might happen anyway after all, as the South Koreans moved into damage-control mode on Saturday with an impromptu summit of their own—it followed days of discussion over a historical parallel: Libya. U.S. National-Security Adviser John Bolton said the basis for a deal with North Korea was the “Libya model” from 2003 to 2004, when Muammar Qaddafi essentially handed over his…

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How John Bolton scuppered the Kim Jong Un-Trump summit

How John Bolton scuppered the Kim Jong Un-Trump summit

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Ankit Panda writes: In a letter released on Thursday morning, President Trump declared that the scheduled 12 June summit meeting in Singapore between him and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un – a meeting that would have been the first of its kind – would no longer take place. Trump justified his decision based on the “tremendous anger and open hostility” shown in a statement released by North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency this week. Choe Son-hui, a vice minister…

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After summit pullout, South Korea and China have little appetite for Trump’s ‘maximum pressure’

After summit pullout, South Korea and China have little appetite for Trump’s ‘maximum pressure’

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The Washington Post reports: President Trump credited his “maximum pressure” campaign of sanctions and threats with bringing North Korea to the negotiating table to discuss its nuclear weapons program. Now, having abruptly decided to call off an unprecedented summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore next month, Trump looks poised to revert to a hard line approach. There’s just one problem: “The multilateral pressure coalition has fallen apart,” says Mira Rapp-Hooper, an East Asia expert at Yale…

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Trump is a better dealbreaker than dealmaker

Trump is a better dealbreaker than dealmaker

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Susan B Glasser writes: At 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, I was speaking with a senior Administration official involved in the preparations for President Trump’s summit with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un. The chances, the official told me, were still “seventy-thirty” that the summit would happen, in Singapore, on June 12th, despite increasingly jittery statements from both sides in recent days. By the time we talked again, after dinner, however, the prospects seemed to be dropping by the minute….

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The Deep State theory promoted by Trump and other wild-eyed conspiracy theorists

The Deep State theory promoted by Trump and other wild-eyed conspiracy theorists

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Will Rahn writes: It’s easy to get the basic gist of the Deep State conspiracy theory, which posits that the FBI and CIA ginned up a devious plot to help Hillary Clinton and hurt Donald Trump. But there’s an arch, coy, almost feline quality to the way these arguments are presented. The allegations are always cloaked for a later reveal. And this is probably because the allegations are bonkers, and would sound that way to anyone not already primed to…

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