GOP pushes for an ‘earthquake in American electoral power’

GOP pushes for an ‘earthquake in American electoral power’

Politico reports: A legal argument lurking in two Supreme Court cases could give Republican legislators in battleground states sweeping control over election procedures, with ramifications that could include power over how states select presidential electors. Republicans from Pennsylvania and North Carolina challenged court-ordered redistricting plans in their states based on the “independent legislature” theory. It’s a reading of the Constitution, stemming from the 2000 election recount in Florida, that argues legislators have ultimate power over elections in their states and…

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Peptides on stardust may have provided a shortcut to life

Peptides on stardust may have provided a shortcut to life

Yasemin Saplakoglu writes: Billions of years ago, some unknown location on the sterile, primordial Earth became a cauldron of complex organic molecules from which the first cells emerged. Origin-of-life researchers have proposed countless imaginative ideas about how that occurred and where the necessary raw ingredients came from. Some of the most difficult to account for are proteins, the critical backbones of cellular chemistry, because in nature today they are made exclusively by living cells. How did the first protein form…

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Two million refugees, including one million children, have now fled Ukraine

Two million refugees, including one million children, have now fled Ukraine

The Associated Press reports: It’s a global day to celebrate women, but many fleeing Ukraine feel only the stress of finding a new life for their children as husbands, brothers and fathers stay behind to defend their country from Russia’s invasion. The number of refugees reached 2 million on Tuesday, according to the United Nations, the fastest exodus Europe has seen since World War II. One million of them are children, UNICEF spokesman James Elder tweeted, calling it “a dark…

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The first big crack in Western unity against Putin: Oil sanctions

The first big crack in Western unity against Putin: Oil sanctions

Politico reports: The West’s united response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is splintering over whether European countries are willing to take a severe economic hit and stop buying the oil that fuels the Kremlin’s war effort. While the U.S. is set to impose a crude oil ban, it looks increasingly unlikely that its European allies will agree to sanction President Vladimir Putin’s energy exports because of fears about runaway inflation and retaliation from the Russians. Sensing a danger to this…

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How does this end?

How does this end?

Christopher S. Chivvis writes: Wars sometimes start easily, but it is a tenet of strategy that they are always unpredictable and extremely hard to end. Putin’s war of choice in Ukraine is already escalating faster than most experts would have imagined just a week ago. He has now encircled major Ukrainian cities with his army and threatens to flatten them with thermobaric weapons, cluster munitions, and guided missiles. This will terrorize the civilian population and could demoralize the budding Ukrainian…

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Trump and the other Americans who agree with Putin

Trump and the other Americans who agree with Putin

Jonathan Chait writes: On February 25, the day after Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine, Lee Smith published an essay in Tablet arguing that Ukraine had brought on its problems. Smith, a house stenographer for Representative Devin Nunes and the author of two pro-Trump books, unburdened himself of a long list of Ukrainian provocations. In 2014, Ukraine’s people rejected Vladimir Putin’s generous offer to remain a Russian dependency and voted out his handpicked presidential candidate. A few years later, Ukrainian Americans…

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Journalists are pulled out of Russia after Putin makes it illegal to call the war a ‘war’

Journalists are pulled out of Russia after Putin makes it illegal to call the war a ‘war’

The New York Times reports: The New York Times said on Tuesday that it was temporarily removing its journalists from Russia in the wake of harsh new legislation that effectively outlaws independent reporting on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “Russia’s new legislation seeks to criminalize independent, accurate news reporting about the war against Ukraine. For the safety and security of our editorial staff working in the region, we are moving them out of the country for now,” a spokeswoman for…

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Major U.S. companies not boycotting Russia including McDonald’s, Starbucks and Coca-Cola

Major U.S. companies not boycotting Russia including McDonald’s, Starbucks and Coca-Cola

The Washington Post reports: Among executives, board members, analysts and others in the business world in recent days, a “who’s who” list has been floating around, showing which companies have pulled out of Russia amid its attack on Ukraine — and which ones have stayed put. The spreadsheet, compiled by Yale University professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and his research team, has become a naughty-or-nice list of sorts, with CEOs trying their best to avoid being placed on the roster of “Companies…

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Democratic Socialists of America demand ‘immediate diplomacy’ with Putin and for the U.S. to ditch NATO

Democratic Socialists of America demand ‘immediate diplomacy’ with Putin and for the U.S. to ditch NATO

The New York Times reports: Not long after Russia invaded Ukraine, the Democratic Socialists of America released a statement that drew instant reproof. The group condemned the invasion, but also urged the United States “to withdraw from NATO and to end the imperialist expansionism that set the stage for this conflict.” The position — a watered-down version of a prior, even more pointed statement from the group’s international committee — drew rebukes from a White House spokesman and from a…

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Poland offers MiG fighters to the U.S. as Ukraine asks for help

Poland offers MiG fighters to the U.S. as Ukraine asks for help

Politico reports: Poland is offering to transfer all of its Russian-made MiG-29 fighter jets “immediately and free of charge” to a U.S. air base in Germany, a likely precursor to the jets being delivered to Ukraine. The announcement Tuesday came after a week of back-and-forth negotiations between the U.S. and Warsaw about the transfer, and amid Russian warnings that delivering the jets to Ukraine would be seen as a provocation. In a statement, the Polish Foreign Ministry said Warsaw “requests…

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Putin’s invasion of Ukraine offers a preview of a much more dangerous world

Putin’s invasion of Ukraine offers a preview of a much more dangerous world

Shadi Hamid writes: If there was any doubt before, the answer is now clear. Vladimir Putin is showing that a world without American power—or, for that matter, Western power—is not a better world. For the generation of Americans who came of age in the shadow of the September 11 attacks, the world America had made came with a question mark. Their formative experiences were the ones in which American power had been used for ill, in Iraq and Afghanistan. In…

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Russia’s military chief promised quick victory in Ukraine, but now faces a potential quagmire

Russia’s military chief promised quick victory in Ukraine, but now faces a potential quagmire

The Wall Street Journal reports: When Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the country’s nuclear forces to go on high alert last week, he looked down a long table at his defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, who nodded in assent. In his decade at the head of the Russian military, Mr. Shoigu, who has never been a professional soldier but holds the rank of general of the army, has worked to modernize and professionalize the armed forces, and build their image as…

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Meet Russia’s oligarchs, a group of men who won’t be toppling Putin anytime soon

Meet Russia’s oligarchs, a group of men who won’t be toppling Putin anytime soon

Putin has kept most oligarchs at a distance – literally and figuratively. Alexey Nikolsky/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images By Stanislav Markus, University of South Carolina U.S. President Joe Biden and other world leaders are setting their sights on Russia’s oligarchs as they seek new ways to punish Vladimir Putin – and those who have enabled him and profited from his reign – for waging war in Ukraine. Biden singled out wealthy oligarchs in his State of the Union address, promising to…

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Russian troops fought for control of a nuclear power plant in Ukraine – a safety expert explains how warfare and nuclear power are a volatile combination

Russian troops fought for control of a nuclear power plant in Ukraine – a safety expert explains how warfare and nuclear power are a volatile combination

Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, points to the training facility hit by Russian artillery at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. AP Photo/Lisa Leutner By Najmedin Meshkati, University of Southern California Russian forces have taken control of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant after shelling the Zaporizhzhia facility in the Ukrainian city of Enerhodar. The overnight assault caused a blaze at the facility, prompting fears over the safety of the plant and evoking painful memories in…

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Economic sanctions may deal fatal blow to Russia’s already-weak domestic opposition

Economic sanctions may deal fatal blow to Russia’s already-weak domestic opposition

Russian police have detained thousands of Russians who have taken to the streets to protest the invasion of Ukraine. AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky By Brian Grodsky, University of Maryland, Baltimore County The West has responded to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by imposing harsh economic sanctions. Most consequentially, key Russian banks have been cut out of the SWIFT payments messaging system, making financial transactions much more difficult. The United States, European Union and others also moved to freeze Russian Central Bank reserves….

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