www.crisisgroup.org/middle-east-...
13.05.2025 04:51
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White House threatens to VETO the new Grassley/Cantwell bill to require Congress’s approval to impose tariffs. This affirms that it will effectively require two-thirds of the House and Senate to limit (or undo) President Trump’s moves on tariffs.
BREAKING - U.S. team in quake zone told they are fired, per source.
The 3-person disaster assessment team sent to Myanmar for the U.S. received termination notices while staying/sleeping outside — US AID workers were told on an all hands call today, per a source familiar.
The new tariffs do not mirror tariffs developing countries impose on the US, nor account for different economic conditions & fiscal realities shaping tariff regimes in poorer countries—& ignore basic realities of institutional capacity, resource endowment, & geography. By @cullenhendrix.bsky.social:
Shameful.
Harvard Suspends Research Partnership With Birzeit University in the West Bank
www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
"There’s nothing surprising about Trump’s attack on the universities, or on liberal law firms... What is shocking is the ease with which his attack has so far succeeded... This is a tale not so much of capitulation to an authoritarian leader as of collusion with him." www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/ma...
Excellent point. Damn.
There's a tendency to conflate the "America First" and realist foreign policy outlooks, which are distinct — actually incompatible in key ways. This has led to a lot of confusion about what Trump and Vance are up to.
Here's my attempt to pierce the ideological fog.
newlinesmag.com/argument/the...
I received a heartbreaking email today: A paper in a special issue I’m editing is being retracted because one of its authors is afraid of losing their job and their legal status in the U.S. if they publish a scientific study on evolution. Yes, on evolution, nature's engine of diversity.
Our latest work on Gaza was produced in collaboration with multiple organisations, including ARIJ, Forbidden Stories, ZDF, and Zeit. Here's a thread of their articles based on the investigation.
Together with our publishing partners, Bellingcat continues the work of drone journalists who had been killed while documenting the war in Gaza, visualising the unprecedented scale of destruction through detailed 3D aerial maps. www.bellingcat.com/news/2025/03...
Watch our 24-minute documentary on the investigation here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLbv...
And lets not forget that shifty foreigners with funny accents are shifty. But mostly its a recent product of algorithm-generated echo chambers. Europe is "dying", "a disaster", "pathetic" etc.
Its partly a feel-good American trope that dates back decades, even centuries: "Poor, failing Europe, always getting bogged down in wars, and then flooding us with grubby refugees". And it is part of misty MAGA nostalgia for an age when everyone wanted blue jeans, rock n roll and burgers.
For the first time in history we can no longer trust our eyes. Our eyes! Imagine the conspiracy theories you can now 'back up' with images. It is becoming increasingly hard to see how democracy and the Rechtsstaat can survive this, in the long term.
The 1952 law under which the Trump administration seeks to deport Mahmoud Khalil, a lawful permanent resident who helped organize protests at Columbia University, was ruled unconstitutional in 1996 — by Judge Maryanne Trump Barry, President Trump’s sister.
Ten to one that the reason Bhutan is on the list is because he wants a Trump property there and the current tourism laws wouldn't allow his type of exploitation.
My latest, in which I argue that foreign aid is overvalued as an instrument of soft power… how the Trump administration treats Americans will do more to undermine U.S. influence in the world than the gutting of USAID.
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
Trump admin breaks longstanding Western consensus on Middle East www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Some interesting Big Thoughts on the Trumpolution: www.noahpinion.blog/p/this-thing...
