Category Archives: Global Politics

Masquerading as Reporter, Assassin Hunted Putin Foes in Ukraine – The New York Times – Trump’s friend Putin, whom he admires, ordered the hit.

 

A shot hit Mr. Osmayev on the right side of his chest. But he was not immediately incapacitated and struggled with the shooter for control of the gun. Ms. Okuyeva, however, long fearful of assassination attempts, was carrying a pistol under her coat, as well as a tube of the blood-clotting agent Celox in her purse. She shot Mr. Denisultanov-Kurmakayev four times as he and her husband fought. Both were gravely wounded but survived.“I will always be thankful,” Mr. Osmayev said in an interview of his wife’s quick draw. “Because of her reaction, we are both alive today.”The survival of the assassin could elevate the importance of the case, should investigators obtain his cooperation.In March, a former Russian lawmaker who fled to Ukraine, Denis N. Voronenkov, was gunned down on a sidewalk outside the Premier Palace hotel in Kiev. Mr. Voronenkov’s bodyguard shot and killed the attacker. Last year, a car bomb killed a journalist, Pavel Sheremet, on a central street of the capital, and no arrests were made.After the attack on Mr. Osmayev and Ms. Okuyeva, Ukraine’s Interior Ministry and lawmakers blamed the Russian intelligence services. Ukraine’s SBU intelligence agency, however, has said there is insufficient evidence to determine whether the killer pretending to be a journalist was a Russian agent, but it has not ruled out that possibility.“For the world community, what is important is we have proof Russia is committing terrorist acts in other countries,” said Anton Gerashenko, a lawmaker. “His tongue may loosen to say who sent him here and why,” he said of Mr. Denisultanov-Kurmakayev.

Kansas man indicted on hate crime charges for killing Indian national | US news | The Guardian

A man accused in a bar shooting in suburban Kansas City that left one Indian national dead and another wounded was indicted by a federal grand jury on hate crime charges, the US justice department announced Friday. The indictment against Adam Purinton, 52, comes after a 22 February shooting at Austin’s Bar and Grill in Olathe, Kansas. Witnesses have said Purinton, who is white, yelled “get out of my country” at two 32-year-old Indian nationals, Srinivas Kuchibhotla and Alok Madasani, before he began shooting. Kuchibhotla died and Madasani was injured. A third man, Ian Grillot, was wounded when he tried to intervene.The shooting raised fears of more attacks on immigrants following Donald Trump’s election and his push for a ban on immigrants from some countries. Officials in India also expressed concern about their citizens’ safety in the US, where many work.An affidavit released in March said Madasani told detectives that the gunman asked if their “status was legal” before he opened fire.

Source: Kansas man indicted on hate crime charges for killing Indian national | US news | The Guardian

White House Official Violated Law Banning Political Activity, Agency Says – The New York Times

 

Dan Scavino Jr., the White House director of social media, violated a federal law that prohibits political activity by government employees, the federal agency empowered to enforce the law has concluded, citing the tweet Mr. Scavino sent in April calling for the defeat of a Republican member of Congress who has been critical of President Trump.The United States Office of Special Counsel took no official action to punish Mr. Scavino, but it issued a warning that became public on Friday that “if in the future he engages in prohibited political activity while employed in a position covered by the Hatch Act,” the office could move to enforce the 78-year-old law.

When Did Running for Office Become So Dangerous? | Dame Magazine

the 12th (death threat), well, that’s the one that changes your life; it’s the picture of your home or your office, it’s the one with white powder in the envelope, it’s the one that mentions the hair color of your teenage daughter, or with screencaps of your teenage son’s Snapchats. It comes from a person who is really committed to fucking with you, the kind of crazy person you imagined was behind the first threat you ever received, it’s the one that makes the jaw of the cop who responds to your freaked-out call tighten as he tried to keep his poker face but you can tell he’s worried. It’s the one that makes you take an unscheduled vacation, or break your lease, or drop out of your political race or stop writing on the internet for a while; it’s the one that makes you question whether you should’ve been so sanguine about numbers one through 11, because maybe they’re more realistic than they sounded at the time.They’re the kind of threats that upend the basis of our democracy and our society, by silencing and scaring away and driving out everyone but  the people who would never be silent or scared, no matter how realistic the risk—and, goodness knows, having rational actors who think through risk and reward is reasonably important in government—and by driving out the people more likely to receive the more serious threats. They’re the kind of threats that true public servants, even those who benefit, ought to condemn and discourage, not dismiss and ignore.Or else, you’re essentially guaranteeing that there will be more. And, with 2018 coming, there probably will be.

Source: When Did Running for Office Become So Dangerous? | Dame Magazine

A White Gay Male Faction of White Nationalism is Rising and No, That’s Not a Joke | Race Files

I have no sympathy for white nationalist queer movement leaders. People like Jack Donovan, featured in the article, require none of our compassion. Rather than try to reason with the leadership, I strongly believe that we should use compassion as a wedge between people like Donovan and the people he is trying to recruit.And, believe me, there are plenty of potential recruits. I was recently recalling my years of working with the National LGBTQ Task Force while on the road with Tarso Ramos, Executive Director of Political Research Associates, preparing rural pro-democracy activists to fight right wing paramilitary groups. While on the road in the 1990s traveling from state to state with my white gay male (and former corporate guy) colleague, we would occasionally be consigned to what amounted to segregated housing. He would be bunked with A-List white gay men, and I would be bunked with lesbians (wonderful lesbians!). And in every community, a marginal but no less real minority of activists we encountered would complain about “P.C.” lesbians, talk sh*t about trans people, and refer to people of color by ugly, overt racist terms that are best not repeated. Queers, like everyone else, are by no means immune to bigotry.There’s a potential base for the Jack Donovan’s of the world. But that potential base ought not be characterized in terms that foreclose on the possibility that they might choose against white nationalism and, as they do, may become the best defense against it among white gay men.

Source: A White Gay Male Faction of White Nationalism is Rising and No, That’s Not a Joke | Race Files

Climate deal: PM Modi’s US visit still on despite Trump rant against India on climate change | India News – Times of India

Trump’s claim that India was seeking “billions and billions and billions” was also typical of the hyperbolic falsehoods he often indulges in. Total foreign aid to India in 2015 was only $ 3.1 billion, with US aid to India only around $ 100 million. This is being whittled down to $34 million in 2018, pocket change for India which now itself gives out $ 1.6 billion in foreign aid, mostly to neighboring countries.

Source: Climate deal: PM Modi’s US visit still on despite Trump rant against India on climate change | India News – Times of India

The Fake News Photos Justifying the Return of Martial Law to the Philippines · Global Voices

Wrong photos. Wrong Countries. Some officials of the Philippines defended the martial law declaration in Mindanao by posting photos of the Vietnam War, Thailand’s 2014 coup, and the Honduran police.

Source: The Fake News Photos Justifying the Return of Martial Law to the Philippines · Global Voices

Rebecca Solnit: The Loneliness of Donald Trump | Literary Hub

The man in the white house sits, naked and obscene, a pustule of ego, in the harsh light, a man whose grasp exceeded his understanding, because his understanding was dulled by indulgence. He must know somewhere below the surface he skates on that he has destroyed his image, and like Dorian Gray before him, will be devoured by his own corrosion in due time too. One way or another this will kill him, though he may drag down millions with him. One way or another, he knows he has stepped off a cliff, pronounced himself king of the air, and is in freefall. Another dungheap awaits his landing; the dung is all his; when he plunges into it he will be, at last, a self-made man.

Source: Rebecca Solnit: The Loneliness of Donald Trump | Literary Hub

Noose found at African American history museum in D.C. | Reuters

“The noose has long represented a deplorable act of cowardice and depravity — a symbol of extreme violence for African Americans,” Director Lonnie Bunch said in an email to museum staff sent to Reuters by a museum spokeswoman.Bunch said museum officials do not know who was responsible and told staff the incident “is a stark reminder why the work you do is so important.”A U.S. Park Police spokeswoman confirmed the agency was investigating but declined to provide any further details.The incident comes less than a week after a noose was found hanging from a tree outside the nearby Hirshhorn Museum, Smithsonian.com, an affiliated news organization, said.

Source: Noose found at African American history museum in D.C. | Reuters

LeBron James Responds to Racial Vandalism: ‘Being Black in America is Tough’ – The New York Times

 

“Hate in America, especially for African-Americans, is living every day,” he said. James said that when he was first notified of the incident, he was reminded of the mother of Emmett Till, who insisted that her son, who was lynched in 1955, have an open coffin at his funeral, so people could not ignore the brutality of the killing.“No matter how much money you have, no matter how famous you are, no matter how many people admire you, being black in America is tough,” James said. “And we’ve got a long way to go for us as a society and for us as African-Americans until we feel equal.”