Music: Out Of/Into — ‘Ofafrii’
Trump’s oligarchy
Axios reports: President-elect Trump has assembled an administration of unprecedented, mind-boggling wealth — smashing his own first-term record by billions of dollars. That’s even without counting the ballooning fortunes of his prized outside adviser and the world’s richest man: Elon Musk. Why it matters: It’s not hyperbole to call this a government of billionaires. Whether it acts as a government for billionaires — as Democrats argue is inevitable — could test and potentially tarnish Trump’s populist legacy. The big picture: Besides Trump, Musk and his fellow Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)…
Will Trump have the legal power to impose martial law?
David French writes: [T]here is a statutory basis for military intervention in domestic affairs, and the statute — called the Insurrection Act — is so poorly drafted that I have come to call it America’s most dangerous law. The Insurrection Act is almost as old as the United States itself. The law dates to 1792, and it permits the president to deploy American troops on American streets to impose order and maintain government control. There is nothing inherently wrong with…
No, Trump can’t just ‘dismiss’ the Senate
Akhil Reed Amar, Josh Chafetz, and Thomas P. Schmidt write: Donald Trump has not even returned to office, and already a constitutional crisis may be in the making. Trump has started announcing the people he intends to nominate for positions in his new administration. That is his prerogative. Several senators have criticized some of Trump’s choices. That is their prerogative (and two Trump nominees have already withdrawn under pressure). But rumors have been circulating of a plan to have Trump…
Incoming Trump administration plans to deport some migrants to countries other than their own
NBC News reports: The incoming Trump administration is preparing a list of countries to which it may deport migrants when their home countries refuse to accept them, according to three sources familiar with the plans. The countries on the list have included but may not be limited to Turks and Caicos, the Bahamas, Panama and Grenada, the sources said. The plans could mean that thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of migrants would be permanently displaced in countries where they…
Syria’s rebel coalition has shaped itself into a nationalist force that aims to overthrow Assad regime
Hassan Hassan writes: The stunningly successful offensive by Syrian rebels last week accomplished what years of bloodshed by larger factions could not. Within four days, the rebel group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, captured much of Aleppo, one of Syria’s largest cities, and now controls most of Aleppo Province and all of Idlib Province. Long-entrenched front lines held by government forces and fortified by Russian firepower crumbled. Underlying the success of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham is a crucial development: It has evolved from…
Inside the Iraqi factions’ decision to stay out of Syria
Middle East Eye reports: Iraq’s Shia forces, including major Iranian-affiliated armed factions, have unanimously decided not to send fighters to Syria to defend Bashar al-Assad from the rebel advance, officials and commanders told Middle East Eye. Last week, Syrian rebels led by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham launched an offensive on Assad’s forces, seizing the major cities of Aleppo and Hama in a matter of days. The advance, which is now bearing down on Homs, has greatly concerned Iraqi leaders, who consider…
Sick animals suggest COVID pandemic started in Wuhan market
Nature reports: The quest to understand where the COVID-19 pandemic started has revealed fresh clues. Researchers have re-analysed data collected from a market in Wuhan, China, during the early days of the pandemic and found that animals there were infected with a virus – although they could not confirm what exactly caused the infection. “The conclusion is convincing that there was infection in the animals,” says Spyros Lytras, an evolutionary virologist at the University of Tokyo. The results, which have…
Music: Leslie Pintchik — ‘Later Than We Thought’
Russia is increasingly open about its national eugenics project
Alexey Kovalev writes: “Spare people” with low “social value” is how Russian parliamentarian Aleksandr Borodai described his compatriots sent as cannon fodder to Ukraine in a leaked tape, the authenticity of which he later confirmed. Expendable manpower, he explained, can be thrown at Ukraine’s “bravest [and] boldest,” and “exhaust the enemy to the maximum.” Borodai isn’t just anybody: He’s a political consultant from Moscow who declared himself prime minister of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic in Ukraine in 2014, and…
Tulsi Gabbard — Russian asset or just a politically opportunistic sycophant who wants to please Trump?
ABC News reports: Since becoming President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard’s rosy posture toward Moscow has prompted some Democratic critics to suggest that she could be “compromised,” or perhaps even a “Russian asset” — claims the ex-Hawaii representative and Army officer has forcefully denied. But former advisers to Gabbard suggest that her views on Russia and its polarizing leader, Vladimir Putin, have been shaped not by some covert intelligence recruitment as far as they know…
Islamist rebels seize strategic city of Hama from Syrian regime forces
The Guardian reports: Islamist insurgents have captured the Syrian city of Hama in a battle to seize a vital location on the road to Damascus, marking the latest challenge to Bashar al-Assad’s control of the country. Militants led by the group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) entered the city from the east on Thursday after surrounding it during five days of fighting with forces loyal to Assad. Video circulating online suggested that the insurgents had captured a military airport outside Hama,…
Trump’s ugliest threats are stirring surprising GOP resistance
Greg Sargent writes: There are still nearly two months to go before Donald Trump assumes the presidency again, but Republicans or GOP-adjacent industries have already begun to admit out loud that some of his most important policy promises could prove disastrous in their parts of the country. These folks don’t say this too directly, out of fear of offending the MAGA God King. Instead, they suggest gingerly that a slight rethink might be in order. But unpack what they’re saying,…
An architect of Project 2025 is pressuring Republican senators to confirm Pete Hegseth
The Associated Press reports: The think tank behind Project 2025, the conservative blueprint linked to President-elect Donald Trump, is launching an effort to back Trump’s imperiled selection for secretary of defense in its latest attempt to wield influence in the incoming Republican administration. Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts said Thursday that his group will spend $1 million to pressure senators unwilling to back Pete Hegseth, whose nomination to lead the Pentagon has come into question due to his views on…
Joe Biden should pardon Reality Winner for her actions as a whistleblower
Margaret Sullivan writes: In late November, Reality Winner – who turned 33 this week – finished her lengthy punishment for sending a government document to a news organization. It’s past time for her to be pardoned so that she can move on with her life and, particularly, her education. She wants to be a veterinary technician, get a good-paying job and move out of her mother’s Texas house, but having a felony in one’s background doesn’t help with any of…
New study reveals hunter-gatherers, regardless of gender, are the ultimate athletes
ZME Science reports: Across the dense forests of the Congo, the sunlit islands of the Pacific, and the icy reaches of the Arctic, the few remaining hunter-gatherers have thrived thanks to their astonishing athleticism. A new study led by George Brill and colleagues from the University of Cambridge reveals that hunter-gatherer societies worldwide practiced an extraordinary range of locomotory behaviors. These include walking, running, swimming, diving, and climbing. One of the most intriguing findings was that men and women across…