Author: Reporter

As Donald Trump campaigns on promises of mass deportations and pardons for those convicted in the January 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol, his ideas are being met with little pushback and some enthusiasm by a new era of Republicans in Congress. It is a shift from the first time around when the presumptive Republican presidential nominee encountered early skepticism and, once in a while, the uproar of condemnation. Rather than being dismissed as campaign bluster or Trump speaking his mind to rouse his most devoted voters, his words are being adopted as party platforms, potentially able to move...

Since the start of his political career, Donald Trump has played on stereotypes about Jews and politics. He told the Republican Jewish Coalition in 2015 that “you want to control your politicians” and suggested the audience used money to exert control. In the White House, he said Jews who vote for Democrats are “very disloyal to Israel.” Two years ago, the former president hosted two dinner guests at his Florida residence who were known to make virulent antisemitic comments. Trump charged that Jewish Democrats were being disloyal to their faith and to Israel. That had many American Jews taking...

When Shawn Landis, an evangelical Christian from Pennsylvania, heard about the October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel, he knew he would come to Israel to volunteer as soon as it was safe. Five months later, he was chopping vegetables in a Tel Aviv kitchen, preparing meals for Israeli soldiers. Evangelicals have been among Israel’s fiercest foreign supporters for years, particularly in the United States, where their significant political influence has helped shape the Israel policy of recent Republican administrations. They believe Israel is key to an end-times prophecy that will bring about the return of the Christian Messiah....

The world’s largest democratic election could also be one of its most consequential. With a population of over 1.4 billion people and close to 970 million voters, India’s general election pits Prime Minister Narendra Modi, an avowed Hindu nationalist, against a broad alliance of opposition parties that are struggling to play catch up. The 73-year-old Modi first swept to power in 2014 on promises of economic development, presenting himself as an outsider cracking down on corruption. Since then, he has fused religion with politics in a formula that has attracted wide support from the country’s majority Hindu population. India...

Warnings about deepfakes and disinformation fueled by artificial intelligence. Concerns about campaigns and candidates using social media to spread lies about elections. Fears that tech companies will fail to address these issues as their platforms are used to undermine democracy ahead of pivotal elections. Those are the worries facing elections in the U.S., where most voters speak English. But for languages like Spanish, or in dozens of nations where English is not the dominant language, there are even fewer safeguards in place to protect voters and democracy against the corrosive effects of election misinformation. It is a problem getting...