Новости за 24.02.2021

Speaking to The Nation in 2014, Ehab Al Shihabi, then the CEO of the recently launched Al Jazeera America, made the case that Americans were desperate for serious, unbiased, old-fashioned hard news. “If we do the kind of reporting that is considered ‘back to the future’—the hardcore journalistic reporting, not biased, not for entertainment, but fact-based—do we have a place? All the research indicates yes,” he said. A year earlier, Shihabi suggested that there were as many as 50 million Americans seeking what Al Jazeera America had to offer.

Arizona, California, and Nevada will need to cut their use of Colorado River water by nearly 40 percent by 2050. A study by researchers at Utah State University, which the Arizona Daily Star reported this past Sunday, noted that Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming—the Upper Basin states—will have to reduce their usage, as well, though not by as much as those pulling water from the Lower Basin.

Last week, Democrats introduced the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021—a comprehensive immigration bill that will evidently be one of the Biden administration’s first major legislative battles after the coronavirus relief fight is finished. If passed, the Act will be the culmination of decades of efforts from both reformers and restrictionists to fundamentally reshape the American immigration system, including abortive attempts at crafting a path to citizenship for the undocumented during the Bush and Obama administrations and... Читать дальше...

Every year, my colleagues and I get to go through “libel training.” Every year, I also make the insufferable joke to my co-workers that we’re going to be trained to commit libel. Unfortunately, it’s not quite that exciting. A lawyer who’s worked with The New Republic for many years presents a PowerPoint on the basics of American defamation law. He describes what counts as defamation and what doesn’t, what can insulate us from liability and what can increase it, and some of the gray areas where caution might be warranted. Читать дальше...

In early December, conservative commentators tried to drum up social media controversy over a sweatshirt. The shirt, merchandise for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s congressional campaign, read simply “Tax the rich” and was branded with the initials “AOC.” It sold for $58. “Only the rich can afford this idiotic sweatshirt,” tweeted Ben Shapiro, evidently unaware that adult-size sweatshirts at midmarket retailers routinely sell in this price range. Ocasio-Cortez had a swift rejoinder: Unlike the cheap imports sold by Donald Trump... Читать дальше...

Halfway through a recent New York Times story about Governor Andrew Cuomo’s long (but perhaps not widely known) history of governance-by-bullying, an ally tried to defend his signature political style. He didn’t say that Cuomo’s behavior was ethical, or reasonable, or even responsible. He just said that people liked it. The governor’s pugilistic personality is “well-worn territory for the press and the public,” Josh Vlasto, Cuomo’s former chief of staff, told the Times. “Those traits are there... Читать дальше...

Law enforcement ably played the role of both problem and solution at Tuesday’s Senate oversight hearing on the January 6 riot at the Capitol. “Was this an intelligence breakdown,” asked Senator Jacky Rosen from Nevada, “or a resource issue?” A litany of failures had already been offered: an FBI report that wasn’t flagged well enough, according to acting chief of the Metropolitan Police Department Robert Contee, or a lack of appropriate training, said former chief of Capitol Police Steven Sund... Читать дальше...