As the trial of sixteen pro-democracy figures began yesterday in Hong Kong, the global human rights group Amnesty International blasted what it called the “politically motivated” charges against the defendants, urging authorities to drop the case.
US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar on Sunday contended that some of her Republican Party critics—led by US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy—are trying to oust her from the US House Foreign Affairs Committee because she is a Muslim refugee from Somalia.
Although US President Joe Biden vowed on the campaign trail to phase out federal leasing for fossil fuel extraction, his administration approved more permits for oil and gas drilling on public lands in its first two years than the Trump administration did in 2017 and 2018.
The recent efforts to encourage cooperation between Washington, Tokyo, and Seoul in diverse fields, from science and technology to diplomacy and security, comes as welcome news, especially in light of the decline in collaboration during the Trump administration. Even before that time it was never particularly vibrant.
Pushing Japan to remilitarize was never, and still is not, a good idea. This is not just because an arms race in Asia is the last thing the region needs. But also because Japan, consistently unable to face up to its own history, is simply not the country to represent the world’s liberal democracies in Asia, especially as a military power.
Senator Elizabeth Warren and other US lawmakers are demanding that the Pentagon stop its systematic undercounting of civilian deaths after more than two decades of the so-called Global War on Terrorism.
Noting the pain and suffering of the Ukrainian people and the risk of nuclear war that threatens the entire world, progressive lawmakers have called on US President Joe Biden to make a decisive shift in his approach to the conflict by initiating a “proactive diplomatic push” seeking “a realistic framework for a ceasefire” through direct negotiations with Russia.
Largely outside of the public view, the United States has been prosecuting an intermittent, fifteen-year-long bombing campaign in Somalia which has killed an estimated 2,000-3,000 people, including dozens of noncombatants. US actions could be considered tantamount to a secret war about which most people are unaware.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has outlined what appears to be a sincere effort to realign Japan’s position on nuclear weapons–from one that supports the maintenance of the US “nuclear umbrella” to one that aims for gradual global nuclear weapons disarmament.
US Representative Ilhan Omar narrowly fended off a Democratic Party primary challenger whose campaign was bankrolled in part by a Republican Party operative, corporate lobbyists, and prominent Minnesota businessmen.
