SZ:
Das Stockholmer Friedensforschungsinstitut Sipri geht davon aus, dass die Atomwaffenarsenale in der Welt als Folge derzeitiger Spannungen schon bald wieder größer werden.
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„Das Risiko eines Einsatzes atomarer Waffen scheint heute höher als je zuvor seit dem Höhepunkt des Kalten Krieges“, sagte Institutsdirektor Dan Smith.
Radical-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s new coalition threatens Macron’s power. (AFP via Getty Images)
The philosopher Jacques Rancière summed up the situation as ‘the regulated comedy of a presidential second round where the ‘lucid’ left closed in around the candidate of the financial oligarchy as the only bulwark of ‘reasonable’ democracy against the candidate of ‘illiberal democracy’’, in this case the far-right Marine Le Pen.
SZ:
Bedacht auf sein Bild in der Öffentlichkeit: Russlands Machthaber Putin, ein typischer Vertreter eines „Spin-Diktators„. (Foto: Mikhail Klimentyev/AP)
Putin steht für den russischen Ökonomen Sergei Guriev beispielhaft für eine neue Art von Despoten: Sie unterdrücken nicht offen, sondern simulieren Demokratie – und regieren über die Medien. Aber die „Spin-Diktatoren“ stoßen an Grenzen.
Diktatoren sind nicht mehr das, was sie einmal waren.
This article provides a nice complement to the Guardian’s piece on troubles of the US Democratic Party. The title is one of Timothy Frye’s main precepts. What’s most notable to me is that the topic is news here at all.
Left-wing congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Sunday refused to endorse Joe Biden for another run at the White House, adding to growing anxiety in Democratic circles over the president’s ability to run in and win the 2024 election.
The powerful progressive New Yorker said she could not commit to supporting Biden during an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union, saying she was more focused on trying to preserve Democrats’ congressional majority in November’s midterms.
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“[Biden] should announce his intent not to seek re-election right after the midterms,” Steve Simeonidis, a Miami-based member of the Democratic national committee (DNC) told the Times.
“To say our country was on the right track would flagrantly depart from reality.”
Many of the Democrats interviewed by the newspaper, including elected officials, indicated the situation was not helped by a lack of clarity over a natural successor.
At a Detroit rally during his 2020 campaign, Biden said he viewed himself “as a bridge” to a younger generation of Democratic leaders, an indication that his objective was to run to get Donald Trump out of office, then prepare to hand over the baton.
But vice-president Kamala Harris, once seen as Biden’s heir apparent, has struggled to make a mark, despite attempting to seize the lead on Democrats’ opposition to the supreme court’s expected imminent ruling ending almost half a century of abortion rights.
Biden has indicated he intends to run again, telling his old boss Obama in April that he was preparing for 2024 with Harris on the ticket. Sources said he sees himself as the only candidate capable of keeping Trump out of the White House if the former president launches another campaign.
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Jasmine Crockett, a Democratic Texas state representative, told the New York Times that many of her party’s problems at a national level, and by extension Biden’s problems too, come down to one thing: failing to stimulate voters by using their power.
“Democrats are like, ‘What the hell is going on?’” Crockett said.
“Our country is completely falling apart. And so I think we’re lacking in the excitement.”
Russia’s oil and gas revenues hit another record high in April. 1.8 trillion rubles in a single month, after 1.2 trillion in March. After only 4 months, Russia’s federal budget has now already received 50% of the planned oil and gas revenue for 2022 (9.5 trillion).
US gas prices rise to a record $5 a gallon but Biden hedges on Saudi Arabia visit
Ukraine war and oil company price gouging among factors contributing to surge as president mulls Riyadh rapprochement
“Defending freedom is going to cost,” Biden declared.
Der Pastor aus Bremen schrieb Emma, er habe keine persönlichen Sachen von Dagobert gefunden. Dem Brief legte er aber das Foto meines Vaters bei, ein kleines schwarzweißes Porträt, das ihn mit kurzgeschorenen Haaren in Häftlingsklamotten zeigt. Emma rechnete es dem Pastor hoch an, dass er das »Verbrecherfoto«, so nannte sie es, aus der Häftlingsakte rausgerissen hatte. Sie war überzeugt davon, dass er es wagte, weil er jahrelang die innigen Liebesbriefe meiner Eltern durchgelesen hatte.
—Wolf Biermann, »Warte nicht auf bessre Zeiten!«, (Berlin: Propyläen, 2016), 33.
Etwas still geworden ist es auch um das (angebliche? tatsächliche?) Vorhaben der spanischen Regierung, 40 alte Leopard-2-Kampfpanzer aus deutscher Produktion an die Ukraine zu liefern. Diese Meldung einer spanischen Zeitung hatte am Pfingstwochenende für große Aufregung gesorgt, denn für diese Lieferung wäre eine Zustimmung Berlins nötig. Und würde Berlin zusagen, hätte zum ersten Mal ein Nato-Mitglied Kampfpanzer an die Ukraine geliefert.
Doch wie es aus Berliner Regierungskreisen heißt, seien die Spanier seither heftig zurückgerudert: Der Plan sei politisch noch nicht final abgestimmt gewesen, soll Madrid gestanden haben. War es bloß eine Idee von irgendwem unten in der Fachebene? Außerdem hätte die Bundesregierung die Spanier in Telefonaten gewarnt, dass dieser Schritt eine Abkehr von der (wenn auch völlig informellen und inoffiziellen) Beschlusslage sämtlicher westlichen Bündnispartner wäre, Kiew keine Panzer zu liefern. Offensichtlich sei das Vorhaben in Madrid durchgesickert, ehe jemand in der spanischen Regierung damit befasst gewesen sei, der sich mit dem Thema auskenne, heißt es etwas spöttisch aus der Bundesregierung.
SZ:
Aufgrund von Preissprüngen und hoher Nachfrage dürften die russischen Energie-Einnahmen trotz der Sanktionen derzeit höher sein als kurz vor dem Krieg, so die Einschätzung des US-Sondergesandten für Energiesicherheit.
Hobsbawm’s attachment to “Communism” seems to have had two main sources.
One was his admiration for the role played by the USSR, first in defeating fascism and then in acting as a counterweight to US imperialism. This did not mean that he regarded the USSR as a model for socialism, although perhaps he only felt able to voice the extent of his objections once the regime had collapsed.
Evans refers to an interview with Hobsbawm conducted by Paul Barker for the Independent on Sunday soon after of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Here, he said of the Soviet Union (in a passage not quoted by Evans) that it “obviously wasn’t a workers’ state . . . nobody in the Soviet Union ever believed it was a workers’ state, and the workers knew it wasn’t a workers’ state.” Hobsbawm never explained his position on the nature of the USSR in positive terms, but it is clear that his residual support for it was based on what it did, rather than on what it was.
Three years after San Francisco elected Chesa Boudin to be district attorney, the city’s voters removed him from office in the middle of his first term, in an extraordinary recall of a sitting prosecutor.
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Backed by ultra-wealthy funders, including a billionaire GOP mega donor, the recall supporters raised $7.2m and ran a campaign that blamed Boudin’s policies for the complex problems of crime, violence, homelessness, drug addiction and other challenges in the city.
The recall message won out in a low-turnout election on Tuesday, with initial results showing 60% of voters supporting his removal, despite a lack of evidence that Boudin’s reforms were causing an uptick in crime rates.
San Francisco, like cities across the US, saw an increase in homicides, but overall violent crime has decreased during his tenure.
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“People have been just completely bombarded by ads and years of fear mongering and sensationalism in the media about ‘rising crime’ and ‘San Francisco being unlivable’,” said Emily Lee, co-director of San Francisco Rising, a racial justice group. “Even though violent crime is down in San Francisco, facts didn’t matter.
