Search Results for: BID

Republican’s political image of cowboy individualism continues to play out at the cost of lives

Data from the Commerce Department showed that the U.S. economy grew at an astonishing rate of 4.9% in the third quarter. We also learned that in Lewiston, Maine, a single shooter killed at least 18 people, more people than died by gun homicide in Maine in the whole of 2021, and injured at least 13 others. These two things are the results of two dramatically different worldviews. President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, and the administration’s other economic advisors have resurrected the idea that the government can promote economic growth by regulating businesses, protecting...

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Why many Israelis are furious at Netanyahu’s poor and chaotic recovery efforts after Hamas attack

More than two weeks after Hamas militants rampaged through a string of sleepy farming towns, many Israelis are furious at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, not just for failing to prevent the attack, but for failing to come to their aid afterward. While the military is launching unrelenting airstrikes in Gaza that have killed thousands of Palestinians, and hundreds of thousands of Israeli troops are massing for a possible ground offensive, government infighting and lack of help for those in need have left traumatized survivors to mourn on their own and volunteers — many of whom spent the past...

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MAGA Ascendant: Mike Johnson elected Speaker as reward for efforts to overturn 2020 election

The new leader of one of the chambers of Congress that will certify the winner of next year’s presidential election helped spearhead the attempt to overturn the last one, raising alarms that Republicans could try to subvert the will of the voters if they remain in power despite safeguards enacted after the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Mike Johnson, the Louisiana congressman who was elected speaker of the House of Representatives on October 25 after a three-week standoff among Republicans, took the lead in filing a brief in a lawsuit that sought to overturn President Joe Biden’s 2020...

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Who is Mike Johnson? Republicans pick little-known Trump advocate to be their new Speaker of the House

A low-key lawmaker in Congress for less than a decade, new House Speaker Mike Johnson is not recognizable to most Americans. But the social conservative and devoted ally of former President Donald Trump has been a quiet force within the Republican conference he now unexpectedly leads. Most importantly, he was able to get all of their 220 votes to become speaker on the House floor. That’s something none of his more well-known colleagues were able to do, as Republicans struggled for more than three weeks to pick a replacement for ousted Kevin McCarthy. Colleagues say the deeply religious Louisiana...

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Jewish and Muslim Americans report drastic increases in being harassed since October 7 attack by Hamas

Muslim and Jewish civil rights groups say they have seen large increases in reports of harassment, bias, and sometimes physical assaults against members of their communities since the October 7 Hamas attacks. The Anti-Defamation League and the Center on American-Islamic Relations saw increases in reported instances, many involving violence or threats against protesters at rallies in support of Israel or in support of Palestinians over the last two weeks as war broke out between Israel and Hamas. Other attacks and harassment reported by the groups were directed at random Muslim or Jewish people in public. A spokesperson for the...

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The invasion of Ukraine is a war crime and calling it a “tragedy” shelters Russia from its responsibility

By Mariana Budjeryn, Research Associate, Project on Managing the Atom, Harvard Kennedy School Russia’s war against Ukraine continues to cause unspeakable, unimaginable suffering. By now, the word “tragedy” is firmly installed in the lexicon of the war and has become almost a cliche. Journalists record tragedies in Ukraine in their many heartbreaking manifestations. Marking the first anniversary of the war in February 2023, U.S. President Joe Biden said, “This war was never a necessity; it’s a tragedy.” The label of “tragedy” is liberally applied to most every development in this war. Russia’s breach of the Kakhovka dam on June...

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