I’d like to believe that the horrific darkness of this past year is a necessary prelude to a brighter and saner futureAbout a year ago, at the start of the Trump 2.0 regime, a woman was about to pass me on the sidewalk and then stopped, turned toward me and almost shouted: “It’s a fucking nightmare!”It has been a “fucking nightmare”. Continue reading… More
The president has increased the amount of invective he’s spewed against women and people of color Continue reading… More
In today’s newsletter: As Trump’s business and diplomacy fuse, critics warn that his approach risks trading stability – and US democracy – for leverageGood morning. There are two Donald Trumps: the candidate, and the president.Donald Trump the candidate spent much of his campaign presenting himself as a champion of peace, arguing that his opponents had delivered a world of “death and destruction”. He vowed to restore order, promising to end the wars in Gaza and Ukraine on his very first day in office. Continue reading… More
Donald Trump says ‘one or two tough’ issues could lead to negotiations breaking down – key US politics stories from 28 December at a glancePresident Donald Trump says Ukraine and Russia are “closer than ever before” to a peace deal, but he acknowledged negotiations could still break down and leave the war dragging on for years.After a two-hour meeting in Florida with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Trump conceded “one or two tough” issues – over territory and how the war might end – still needed to be resolved, an indication of progress made but no breakthrough. Continue reading… More
Kash Patel claims $250m scheme that stole Covid aid is ‘tip of iceberg’ and alleges state’s Somalia population is to blameThe FBI has deployed additional personnel and investigative resources to Minnesota to “dismantle large-scale fraud schemes exploiting federal programs”, director Kash Patel said on social media on Sunday.The FBI director said the agency had already dismantled a $250m fraud scheme that stole federal food aid meant for vulnerable children during the Covid pandemic in a case that led to 78 indictments and 57 convictions. Continue reading… More
Republican senator Katie Britt also proposes AI companies be criminally liable if they expose minors to harmful ideasUS senator Bernie Sanders amplified his recent criticism of artificial intelligence on Sunday, explicitly linking the financial ambition of “the richest people in the world” to economic insecurity for millions of Americans – and calling for a potential moratorium on new datacenters.Sanders, a Vermont independent who caucuses with the Democratic party, said on CNN’s State of the Union that he was “fearful of a lot” when it came to AI. And the senator called it “the most consequential technology in the history of humanity” that will “transform” the US and the world in ways that had not been fully discussed. Continue reading… More
House armed services committee’s Mike Turner denied that military strikes showed new Trump approach to US forcesUS warns of more Nigeria strikes as Abuja talks of ‘joint ongoing operations’A senior Republican on the US House armed services committee has said that the country’s recent military strikes in Nigeria and Syria are consistent with American foreign policy to combat Islamic extremism that have existed across Donald Trump’s two presidential terms.Mike Turner, an Ohio congressman, said on Sunday that the strikes are a “continuation of our conflict with [the Islamic State]”. Continue reading… More
The public is looking for relief from terrorism and violence. But Donald Trump’s words bolster narratives of foreign ‘crusader’ aggressionThe response of Nigerians to the airstrikes against Islamic State (IS) targets in Sokoto state, north-western Nigeria are complicated. The rationale behind them has been widely opposed, but the strikes themselves have been welcomed.The airstrikes were framed as a response to what have been described as genocidal attacks on Christians in the country. But the Nigerian authorities have consistently rejected this narrative, arguing that armed groups in the country do not discriminate based on religion, and that Christians and Muslims largely coexist peacefully. Ironically, it was Trump’s redesignation of Nigeria as a “country of particular concern” in November that deepened Muslim-Christian tensions. Many northerners, who are predominantly Muslim, blamed southern Nigerians for championing a narrative that ultimately resulted in US sanctions and international stigma.Onyedikachi Madueke is a security analyst at the University of Aberdeen Continue reading… More
