How Russia went from ally to adversary

How Russia went from ally to adversary

Keith Gessen writes: In early December of 1989, a few weeks after the Berlin Wall fell, Mikhail Gorbachev attended his first summit with President George H. W. Bush. They met off the coast of Malta, aboard the Soviet cruise ship Maxim Gorky. Gorbachev was very much looking forward to the summit, as he looked forward to all his summits; things at home were spiralling out of control, but his international standing was undimmed. He was in the process of ending…

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Former AG Bill Barr on Fox News: The idea that Trump is a ‘victim’ in the documents case is ‘ridiculous’

Former AG Bill Barr on Fox News: The idea that Trump is a ‘victim’ in the documents case is ‘ridiculous’

  The Hill reports: Former Attorney General Bill Barr called arguments being made by Republicans attempting to compare former President Trump’s handling of classified documents to previous presidents “big lies.” Barr was asked by “Fox News Sunday” host Shannon Bream to respond to comparisons of Trump leaving the White House with classified documents to former Presidents Clinton and Obama, and President Biden when he was vice president. Barr said that the difference is that other presidents worked with the National…

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Trump’s allies and supporters threaten violence

Trump’s allies and supporters threaten violence

The New York Times reports: The federal indictment of former President Donald J. Trump has unleashed a wave of calls by his supporters for violence and an uprising to defend him, disturbing observers and raising concerns of a dangerous atmosphere ahead of his court appearance in Miami on Tuesday. In social media posts and public remarks, close allies of Mr. Trump — including a member of Congress — have portrayed the indictment as an act of war, called for retribution…

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Trump charged under Espionage Act – which covers a lot more crimes than just spying

Trump charged under Espionage Act – which covers a lot more crimes than just spying

Former President Donald Trump was on the campaign trail in early June 2023, as an investigation continued that led to his indictment on federal charges. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images By Joseph Ferguson, Loyola University Chicago and Thomas A. Durkin, Loyola University Chicago Former President Donald Trump’s indictment by a federal grand jury in Miami includes 31 counts of violating a part of the Espionage Act of 1917. The Espionage Act has historically been employed most often by law-and-order conservatives….

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Historians are learning more about how the Nazis targeted trans people

Historians are learning more about how the Nazis targeted trans people

Patrons at the Eldorado, a popular LGBTQ cabaret in Berlin during the Weimar years. Herbert Hoffmann/ullstein bild via Getty Images By Laurie Marhoefer, University of Washington In the fall of 2022, a German court heard an unusual case. It was a civil lawsuit that grew out of a feud on Twitter about whether transgender people were victims of the Holocaust. Though there is no longer much debate about whether gay men and lesbians were persecuted, there’s been very little scholarship…

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How the U.S. Patriot missile became a hero of Ukraine war

How the U.S. Patriot missile became a hero of Ukraine war

The Wall Street Journal reports: Around 3:30 a.m. one recent morning, more than a dozen Russian missiles flashed on the radar screens of the Ukrainian air-defense crew defending this capital city. The missiles were coursing toward Kyiv, some as fast as six times the speed of sound and many heading directly for the crew’s missile battery. The Ukrainians didn’t panic, their commander said in an interview. They didn’t have time. But they did have a U.S.-made Patriot surface-to-air missile system,…

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George Soros hands control of his foundation to his 37-year-old son, Alex: ‘I’m more political’

George Soros hands control of his foundation to his 37-year-old son, Alex: ‘I’m more political’

The Wall Street Journal reports: George Soros, the legendary investor, philanthropist and right-wing target, is handing control of his $25 billion empire to a younger son—Alexander Soros, a self-described center-left thinker who grew up self-conscious of the family’s wealth and wasn’t thought to be a potential successor. The 37-year-old, who goes by Alex, said in the first interview since his selection that he was broadening his father’s liberal aims—“We think alike,” the elder Soros said—while embracing some different causes. Those include voting and abortion rights,…

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Humanity has entered a fire age

Humanity has entered a fire age

The Washington Post reports: When the sky over New York City turned a thick, silty orange on Wednesday, 8 million residents woke up in a new era. Until this week, the East Coast had remained cocooned, thousands of miles away from the walls of choking smoke that have become commonplace in Washington state, California, Oregon and British Columbia. Not anymore. The East Coast, along with the rest of the planet, has entered a new fire era, or — as Stephen…

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National security implications of Trump’s indictment: A damage assessment

National security implications of Trump’s indictment: A damage assessment

Tess Bridgeman and Brianna Rosen write: Military plans and capabilities, for example, are some of the most zealously guarded secrets a government can hold, because the compromise of that information can put at serious risk any military operations – and the lives of members of the armed forces – related to those plans or capabilities. It is also important to pay attention to the classification markings on the documents at issue in the 31 Espionage Act counts. These markings reflect…

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Fox News legal analyst, Jonathan Turley, warns that Trump may spend the rest of his life in prison

Fox News legal analyst, Jonathan Turley, warns that Trump may spend the rest of his life in prison

Turley later: "It's really breathtaking. Obviously, this is mishandling, you know, putting classified documents into ballrooms and bathrooms is — it borders on the bizarre. … the visual and audio tape evidence is really daunting" pic.twitter.com/7ElFhW5H7l — Lis Power (@LisPower1) June 9, 2023

Judge Aileen Cannon will continue to handle the Trump document case unless she recuses herself

Judge Aileen Cannon will continue to handle the Trump document case unless she recuses herself

The New York Times reports: The criminal case against President Donald J. Trump over his hoarding of classified documents was randomly assigned to Judge Aileen M. Cannon, a court official for the Southern District of Florida said on Saturday. The chief clerk of the federal court system there, Angela E. Noble, also confirmed that Judge Cannon would continue to oversee the case unless she recused herself. The news of Judge Cannon’s assignment raised eyebrows because of her role in an…

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An estimated 12 million Americans believe violence is justified to restore Trump to power

An estimated 12 million Americans believe violence is justified to restore Trump to power

The Guardian reports: Two and a half years after the January 6 attack on the Capitol, an estimated 12 million American adults, or 4.4% of the adult population, believe violence is justified to restore Donald Trump to the White House. Though the number of adults who believe this has declined since the insurrection, recent survey data from the University of Chicago reveal alarming and dangerous levels of support for political violence and conspiracy theories across the United States. The university’s…

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Oil lobby pushed pollution loophole for wildfire smoke

Oil lobby pushed pollution loophole for wildfire smoke

The Lever reports: Seventy-five million people nationwide have been under air quality alerts, as days of smoke-filled skies sent soot levels soaring more than 10 times beyond what federal regulators consider safe for breathing. But in federal air quality data, it will be as if those days never happened. That’s because a Big Oil-backed exemption in federal environmental law allows states to discount pollution from “exceptional events” beyond their control, including wildfires. And while environmental regulators are considering cracking down…

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Exiled Russians dare to dream of Putin’s fall

Exiled Russians dare to dream of Putin’s fall

The Guardian reports: Is Russia about to experience a period of dramatic political change? If so, can exiled democratic forces unite into a coherent bloc, and is there any way for them to force themselves on to the political scene? Nearly 300 exiled Russian opposition politicians and activists gathered to discuss these questions in the European parliament earlier this week, the congress coming as news broke of the Nova Kakhovka dam destruction, the latest grim episode in Vladimir Putin’s war…

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