“We continue to overinvest in defense while underinvesting in public health and so much more.” That’s what US Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) said during a Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing for Kathleen Hicks, President Joe Biden’s nominee for deputy defense secretary.
Long-simmering fears of a military-led subversion of Myanmar’s recent steps toward democracy became reality this week as the nation’s armed forces arrested civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and announced a one-year state of emergency that transfers power to Min Aung Hlaing, the Southeast Asian country’s top general.
My family and I often patronized a Chinese restaurant a couple of minutes away from our apartment. It’s open late at night and serves great food at decent prices. It just went out of business.
“The moment regular folks beat [Wall Street] at their own rigged game, it’s SHUT IT DOWN.” US Representative Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota) expressed the views of many progressives as the country and the world absorbed the impact of the “short squeeze” on GameStop and other stocks.
Many Democrats in the US Congress and others hailed reports that the Biden administration is imposing a temporary freeze on arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, pending a review of billions of dollars worth of weapons deals with the repressive regimes approved during the presidency of Donald Trump.
Criminal justice reform advocates welcomed an executive order from US President Joe Biden phasing out US Department of Justice contracts with private prisons as a meaningful first step, even as the president faced criticism over the order’s limited scope and impact.
The Biden administration surprised over the weekend, issuing a statement on Taiwan through the US State Department on Sunday in response to an incursion of Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone by thirteen Chinese warplanes the previous day.
Muslim, African, Arab Americans, and people around the world celebrated President Joe Biden’s rescinding of the racist Trump-era travel ban that mostly targeted immigrants and visitors from Muslim countries.
This SNA Speakeasy features Brian Hioe on the theme of “Taiwan’s Response to the Hong Kong Crackdown.”
Climate campaigners welcomed a federal court’s decision to strike down the Trump administration’s Affordable Clean Energy Rule—dubbed by its critics the “Dirty Power” rule—which loosened restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions from coal plants.