Putin’s Russia feels increasingly like a fortress under siege

Putin’s Russia feels increasingly like a fortress under siege

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Vladimir Kara-Murza writes: In October 1998, a court in St. Petersburg began hearings in a case against Alexander Nikitin, a retired Russian naval officer who alerted the world to the environmental dangers of a decaying nuclear submarine fleet in Russia’s far north. For partnering with a Norwegian environmental group on a report on nuclear safety, Nikitin was charged with “revealing state secrets.” He became the first person in post-Soviet Russia to be designated by Amnesty International as a prisoner of…

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The Brexiteers who object to being called ‘white’ prefer to be called ‘the people’

The Brexiteers who object to being called ‘white’ prefer to be called ‘the people’

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On Channel 4 News on March 29, veteran news broadcaster, Jon Snow, candidly observed he had “never seen so many white people in one place,” in reference to the crowd of pro-Brexit protesters gathered in Westminster on the day the UK was meant to leave the EU. What was surely an honest statement, stung some sensitive skin. His remark drew 2,644 complaints sent to the British regulatory body, Ofcom, which prohibits the use of offensive language on television. Sputnik columnist,…

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Trump instructs border agents to break law; also wants more widespread family separations

Trump instructs border agents to break law; also wants more widespread family separations

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CNN reports: Last Friday, the President visited Calexico, California, where he said, “We’re full, our system’s full, our country’s full — can’t come in! Our country is full, what can you do? We can’t handle any more, our country is full. Can’t come in, I’m sorry. It’s very simple.” Behind the scenes, two sources told CNN, the President told border agents to not let migrants in. Tell them we don’t have the capacity, he said. If judges give you trouble,…

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Stephen Miller using ‘intimidation’ to further hardline immigration agenda at DHS during Trump purge

Stephen Miller using ‘intimidation’ to further hardline immigration agenda at DHS during Trump purge

Politico reports: As President Donald Trump roils the capital over illegal immigration, his influential aide Stephen Miller is playing a more aggressive behind-the-scenes role in a wider administration shakeup. Frustrated by the lack of headway on a signature Trump campaign issue, the senior White House adviser has been arguing for personnel changes to bring in more like-minded hardliners, according to three people familiar with the situation — including the ouster of a key immigration official at the Department of Homeland…

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Trump is helping Egypt’s dictator entrench his power

Trump is helping Egypt’s dictator entrench his power

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Michele Dunne writes: As someone who has watched the Egyptian people struggle against dictators for years, it is hard to fathom the fact that President Donald Trump will welcome Egypt’s brutal military leader, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, for a White House visit this week. Eight years after Egyptians went to the streets to remove 30-year ruler Hosni Mubarak and only weeks after Algerians did the same to remove 20-year autocrat Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the White House is betting on Sisi. It’s an…

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Trump’s devoted supporters have turned him into a folk hero

Trump’s devoted supporters have turned him into a folk hero

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Charles M Blow writes: My mother is a devout Democrat, but also one of the most socially conservative people I know. This is typical of our home state of Louisiana among black citizens — they can be as conservative as any Republican, but are also completely convinced, by dint of history and experience, that the Republican Party not only abides racists, it courts them, and therefore they would die rather than vote red. My mother is so austere that she…

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Bulldozing mosques: The latest tactic in China’s war against Uighur culture

Bulldozing mosques: The latest tactic in China’s war against Uighur culture

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Rachel Harris writes: Ten years ago, I started researching Islam among the Uighurs. I spent my summers travelling around the Xinjiang region in western China. I took long bus journeys through the desert to Kashgar, Yarkand and Kucha, slept on brick beds in family homes in remote villages, stopped off at Sufi shrines, and visited many, many mosques. My husband was working with me, and we dragged our kids along for the ride. The kids were quite small and not…

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To improve memory, tune it like an orchestra

To improve memory, tune it like an orchestra

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Benedict Carey writes: Anyone above a certain age who has drawn a blank on the name of a favorite uncle, a friend’s phone number or the location of a house key understands how fragile memory is. Its speed and accuracy begin to slip in one’s 20s and keep slipping. This is particularly true for working memory, the mental sketch pad that holds numbers, names and other facts temporarily in mind, allowing decisions to be made throughout the day. On Monday,…

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When did Donald Trump become an environmentalist?

When did Donald Trump become an environmentalist?

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Well before he became a presidential candidate, Donald Trump professed a deep concern about the welfare of birds endangered by wind turbines: “[Wind power] kills all the birds,” Trump told 2012 Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain on the latter’s radio show Tuesday. “Thousands of birds are lying on the ground. And the eagle. You know, certain parts of California — they’ve killed so many eagles. You know, they put you in jail if you kill an eagle. And yet these windmills [kill]…

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The forces driving migration from Guatemala: climate change

The forces driving migration from Guatemala: climate change

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Jonathan Blitzer writes: In the center of Climentoro, in the western highlands of Guatemala, a dozen large white houses rise above the village’s traditional wooden huts like giant monuments. The structures are made of concrete and fashioned with archways, colonnaded porches, and elaborate moldings. “Most of them are empty,” Feliciano Pérez, a local farmer, told me. Their owners, who live in the U.S., had sent money home to build American-inspired houses for when they returned, but they never did. Pérez…

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The forces driving migration from Guatemala: debt

The forces driving migration from Guatemala: debt

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Jonathan Blitzer writes: When Elias López decided to leave his home in the western highlands of Guatemala for the United States, in 2014, the going rate to hire a smuggler was ninety thousand quetzales, or about twelve thousand dollars. López, who was eighteen, worked two jobs at the time, one in construction and the other as a day laborer harvesting vegetables, and the combined pay was barely enough to cover his living expenses. A lending coöperative, essentially a small local…

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The forces driving migration from Guatemala: poverty and dreams

The forces driving migration from Guatemala: poverty and dreams

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Jonathan Blitzer writes: [N]early every aspect of life in Guatemala depends on money coming from the United States. Last year, nine billion dollars were sent back to the country in the form of remittances [from relatives working in the U.S.]—an amount that is roughly double the total from a decade ago and accounted for more than eleven per cent of Guatemala’s gross domestic product. Donald Trump has announced that he will be cutting all aid to Central America, complaining that…

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It may take 2 years to identify thousands of separated families, government says

It may take 2 years to identify thousands of separated families, government says

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CNN reports: It could take up to two years for the government to identify potentially thousands of additional immigrant families US authorities separated at the southern border, officials said in a court filing. The government’s proposed plan, detailed for the first time in documents filed late Friday night, outlines a strategy for piecing together exactly who might have been separated by combing through thousands of records using a mix of data analysis and manual review. The court filing comes a…

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Yemen cannot afford to wait

Yemen cannot afford to wait

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Robert Malley and Stephen Pomper write: For an American who had a hand in shaping U.S. Mideast policy during the Barack Obama years, coming to Yemen has the unpleasant feel of visiting the scene of a tragedy one helped co-write. It is a scene whose most heartrending aspects are not easily accessible to a visitor. It is still possible to travel north, to the war-battered capital, Sanaa, now controlled by the Houthi insurgent group, or up the Red Sea coast,…

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