What Liz Cheney’s lopsided loss says about the state of the GOP

What Liz Cheney’s lopsided loss says about the state of the GOP

The New York Times reports: Representative Liz Cheney’s martyr-like quest to stop Donald J. Trump has ensured her place in Republican Party history. But her lopsided defeat in Wyoming on Tuesday also exposed the remarkable degree to which the former president still controls the party’s present — and its near future. Ten House Republicans voted to impeach Mr. Trump in early 2021 for his role inciting the mob that stormed the Capitol. Only two have survived the 2022 Republican primaries,…

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Did the U.S. failure in Afghanistan lead to the war in Ukraine?

Did the U.S. failure in Afghanistan lead to the war in Ukraine?

Carl Bildt writes: Why did the West’s Afghanistan policy fail so spectacularly? Was it doomed from the very beginning, and have any lessons been learned? More to the point, did the end of one 20-year war pave the way for another? One year after the fall of Kabul and the Taliban’s return to power, these and other questions are hanging in the air. They remain unanswered, partly because Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and renewed Sino-American tensions have consumed much of…

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Ukraine war: Thousands of Jews quit Russia amid fears of persecution

Ukraine war: Thousands of Jews quit Russia amid fears of persecution

BBC News reports: Russia is facing the mass migration abroad of large numbers of its Jewish population, with at least one in eight leaving the country since its war with Ukraine began. The Jewish Agency helps Jews around the world move to Israel. It says an astonishing 20,500 of Russia’s estimated total of 165,000 Jews have gone since March. Thousands more have moved to other countries. Undoubtedly the spectre of historical Jewish persecution has loomed large in the minds of…

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Scientists warn of dire effects as Mediterranean heats up

Scientists warn of dire effects as Mediterranean heats up

The Associated Press reports: While vacationers might enjoy the Mediterranean Sea’s summer warmth, climate scientists are warning of dire consequences for its marine life as it burns up in a series of severe heat waves. From Barcelona to Tel Aviv, scientists say they are witnessing exceptional temperature hikes ranging from 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 Fahrenheit) to 5 degrees Celsius (9 Fahrenheit) above the norm for this time of year. Water temperatures have regularly exceeded 30 C (86 F) on some…

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The problems of seeing evolution as a ‘March of Progress’

The problems of seeing evolution as a ‘March of Progress’

Alexander Werth writes: Herschel Walker, the former football star–turned–U.S. Senate candidate from Georgia, made headlines when he recently asked at a church-based campaign stop, if evolution is true, “Why are there still apes?” This chestnut continues to be echoed by creationists, despite being definitively debunked. Anthropologists have repeatedly explained that modern humans did not evolve from apes; rather, both evolved from a shared ancestor that fossil and DNA evidence indicates lived 7 to 13 million years ago. But Walker’s question…

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Fani Willis’s experience using RICO to prosecute Atlanta teachers offers clues to how she may charge Trump

Fani Willis’s experience using RICO to prosecute Atlanta teachers offers clues to how she may charge Trump

Insider reports: The Georgia prosecutor pursuing one of the most high-stakes investigations in US history built her career by successfully using racketeering charges, typically employed against organized crime, to convict Atlanta public school teachers for conspiring to alter student test scores. Those RICO cases, and a key hire of a racketeering law expert to her staff, offer a window into how experts believe she is likely to build any criminal case against Donald Trump and his allies in connection with…

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Does it matter what (if anything) Trump declassified?

Does it matter what (if anything) Trump declassified?

Scott R. Anderson writes: No criminal charges have yet been filed against Trump or anyone else in relation to the Mar-a-Lago files. But if and when that happens, Trump’s declassification defense is unlikely to solve his or his associates’ legal problems. While Trump could have declassified whatever he liked while president, his apparent inability to produce any credible evidence that he actually did so is a genuine problem—particularly against the backdrop of an incumbent president who clearly sees the documents…

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Iranian regime’s continued incitement for killing Salman Rushdie is integral to its identity

Iranian regime’s continued incitement for killing Salman Rushdie is integral to its identity

Arash Azizi writes: In April 2001, Indian-born British author Salman Rushdie was among the guests of honor at the Prague Writers’ Festival. Having only recently come out of years of hiding, Rushdie was clearly frustrated with the massive security detail that followed him everywhere. “To be here and to find a large security operation around me has actually felt a little embarrassing,” he told the reporters. “I spent a great deal of time before I came here saying that I…

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More Saudi brutality shows that MBS’s promises to Biden were a farce

More Saudi brutality shows that MBS’s promises to Biden were a farce

In an editorial, the Washington Post says: Salma al-Shehab, the mother of two young children, was studying for a PhD at the University of Leeds and took time off to go home to Saudi Arabia for a vacation. Ms. Shehab is a Shiite Muslim, a persecuted minority in the kingdom, and a women’s rights activist who spoke out on social media for the right of women to drive. Her vacation ended in prison. Saudi authorities detained Ms. Shehab in January…

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Ponder the miracle of a U.S. climate law

Ponder the miracle of a U.S. climate law

Bud Ward writes: Miracles indeed can happen. And sometimes do. Such is the case with enactment of major climate legislation, part of the Inflation Reduction Act now, with President Joe Biden’s signature, enacted. Not just passed by the Senate and the House on strict party-line votes, but passed by each chamber as presented to them, without amendments, without differences requiring a time-consuming and inscrutable House/Senate conference committee. And, it must be emphasized, without a single vote by the Republican narrow…

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America is going to have a ‘Heat Belt’

America is going to have a ‘Heat Belt’

The Atlantic reports: When the heat index—the temperature multiplied by humidity—reaches 80 degrees, the National Weather Service advises Americans to take caution. When it reaches 90, that advisory gets bumped to possibly dangerous; at 100, it’s likely so. At a heat index of 125 or above, the National Weather Service warns of “extreme danger” and describes its effect on the body concisely: “heat stroke highly likely.” Until now, that kind of extreme heat has been limited to relatively small parts…

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An Oval Office incident from 2019 perfectly illustrates Trump’s approach to state secrets, say ex intel officials

An Oval Office incident from 2019 perfectly illustrates Trump’s approach to state secrets, say ex intel officials

NBC News reports: Senior intelligence officials realized early on that President Donald Trump wasn’t going to read even short written summaries of his regular intelligence briefings. So the CIA officers who prepared the briefings made sure they came to the Oval Office laden with striking images, pared-down charts and slick graphics designed to grab the president’s fleeting interest, several officials familiar with the briefings told NBC News. “To secure his attention, you had to use images and catchy headlines, even…

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Trump’s investigation miscalculation

Trump’s investigation miscalculation

Paul Rosenzweig writes: Donald Trump is making a serious mistake. The FBI’s execution of a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago is, he apparently thinks, of great political benefit to him. Perhaps so—I am not one to judge politics. But public reports also suggest that he may accelerate his re-election announcement in response to the search. Trump seems to think that running for president makes it less likely that he will be prosecuted by the Department of Justice. That’s wrong. The more…

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The Arizona Republican Party’s anti-democracy experiment

The Arizona Republican Party’s anti-democracy experiment

Robert Draper writes: R​​ose Sperry, a state committeewoman for Arizona’s G.O.P., answered immediately when I asked her to name the first Republican leader she admired. “I grew up during the time that Joe McCarthy was doing his talking,” Sperry, an energetic 81-year-old, said of the Wisconsin senator who in the 1950s infamously claimed Communists had infiltrated the federal government. “I was young, but I was listening. If he were here today, I would say, ‘Get him in there as president!’”…

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