Europe is awash with worry. Ahead of parliamentary elections widely expected to deliver gains to the hard right, European leaders can barely conceal their anxiety. In a speech in late April, President Emmanuel Macron of France captured the prevailing mood. After eloquently warning of threats to the continent, he pronounced the need for a newly […]
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Trump, Who Celebrated Jan. 6, Cheers Crackdown on College Protesters
Let’s start today’s newsletter with a brief news quiz. Who said this, in reference to the clearing of protests on Columbia University’s campus last week? “The police came in. In exactly two hours, everything was over. It was a beautiful thing to watch.” And who said this, in reference to the attempted insurrection at the […]
Read MoreAssaults on German Politicians Raise Election-Year Worries
A spate of attacks on German officials and politicians has brought fresh worries over political violence and a breakdown of civility ahead of several critical elections this year, including in three states where the far-right Alternative for Germany party could make significant gains. In the latest attack, on Friday evening, four people assaulted a prominent […]
Read MoreMeet Edmundo Gonzalez, the Candidate Challenging Maduro in Venezuela’s Elections
The day Edmundo González was plucked from obscurity and chosen to take on South America’s longest ruling authoritarian leader, technicians were busy making sure his home was not wiretapped. “This was not in our plans,” his wife, Mercedes López de González, said in an interview that day in April in their apartment in Caracas, the […]
Read MoreMost Prominent Voice in Panama’s Election Isn’t on the Ballot
Panama is holding a presidential election on Sunday while facing an odd situation: The most prominent player in the race is not on the ballot. Ricardo Martinelli, a former president of the Central American nation and known to his supporters as “El loco,” or the crazy one, had been a top contender until he was […]
Read MoreRishi Sunak’s Dismal Task: Leading U.K. Conservatives to Likely Defeat
A few days before Britain’s Conservative Party suffered a stinging setback in local elections on Thursday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak recorded a short video to promote some good news from his government. In the eight-second clip, Mr. Sunak poured milk from a pint bottle into a tall glass, filled with a steaming dark beverage and […]
Read MoreSadiq Khan Heads for 3rd Term as London Mayor
Sadiq Khan, the two-term center-left mayor of London, was poised on Saturday to become the first three-time winner of the job by a clearer margin than some of his supporters had predicted. Mr. Khan, from the main opposition Labour Party, was initially elected to the post in 2016, becoming London’s first Muslim mayor, and would […]
Read MoreBiden’s Stance on Marijuana Has a Political Upside, Allies Say
On Labor Day in 2022, John Fetterman found himself in a room in Pittsburgh with President Biden. Fetterman, a Democrat who was then the lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania and in the middle of his successful run for the U.S. Senate, had a simple message he wanted to share: Go big on legal weed. And how […]
Read MoreU.K. Conservatives Suffer Sharp Setbacks in Early Results of Local Elections
Britain’s Conservative Party suffered striking early setbacks on Friday in local elections that are viewed as a barometer for how the party will perform in a coming general election and a key test for the embattled prime minister, Rishi Sunak. Only a minority of the results had been announced by early Friday, but already the […]
Read MoreU.K. Conservatives Hold Their Breath: How Bad Will Local Elections Be?
When voters in England and Wales go to the polls on Thursday to elect mayors and local council members, the outcome will inevitably be seen as a barometer for Britain’s coming general election. Given the sour public mood and the Conservative Party’s dire poll ratings, the storm clouds are already forming. The big question is […]
Read MoreHow Six-Week Abortion Bans Went From Fringe to Reality
Just over a decade ago, six-week abortion bans were seen as too radical even by many members of the anti-abortion movement, who worried they carried too much political and legal risk. On Wednesday, Florida became the latest state to put one into effect. The law, which was signed last year by Gov. Ron DeSantis, a […]
Read MoreHe Won by a Landslide. Why Is He Fighting for His Political Life?
The last time Ben Houchen ran to be mayor of Tees Valley, a struggling, deindustrialized region in northeastern England, he stormed to victory with almost 73 percent of the vote. Three years on, Mr. Houchen, a Conservative politician, faces a re-election contest in which even a narrow win would do. As voters in England prepare […]
Read MoreChad Election 2024: What to Know
Why does this election matter? Chad’s election on May 6 appears to offer voters a choice. But it’s been masterminded, analysts say, to produce a single outcome: to rubber-stamp the rule of the incumbent, Mahamat Idriss Déby, who is seeking to transform himself from military leader to civilian president. Mr. Déby seized power three years […]
Read MoreA Q&A About Latino Republicans
Many people have been surprised by the shift of Latino voters toward the Republican Party. It has happened during the same decade that Donald Trump took over the party, and Trump often derides immigrants, including Latinos. Nevertheless, Latino support for Republicans has risen: I have been talking with my colleague Jennifer Medina about these developments, […]
Read MoreElection Deniers Are Still Shaping Arizona Politics
Two years ago, a group of election deniers ran for office in Arizona, with Kari Lake’s campaign for governor topping the ticket. When many of them lost, it seemed like a convincing rebuke of the conspiracy theory-steeped Republicans who wanted to control the levers of electoral power in 2024. It turned out, though, that the […]
Read MoreNobody Saw Andy Kim Coming. That’s What He Was Counting On.
Facing federal charges that he accepted bribes, including cash, gold bars and a Mercedes-Benz, Senator Robert Menendez announced on Friday, Sept. 22, that he would not resign. A day later, Andy Kim, a little-known Democratic congressman from southern New Jersey, gathered his top advisers for a conference call. Everyone present assumed that Mr. Kim would […]
Read MoreThree Questions About Politics and the Campus Protests
The pro-Palestinian student encampments protesting the war in Gaza swept across the country this week, and with them, dramatic imagery of arrests and crackdowns from New York to Texas to Southern California. Soon, the comparison to another protest-filled election year inevitably arose. Is 2024 going to morph into something that feels like 1968? That year, […]
Read MoreWith Inflation This High, Nobody Knows What a Dollar Is Worth
Rising prices have made people grumpy. They have depressed consumer confidence, despite a growing economy and low unemployment. But exactly how inflation is hurting, helping and confusing people is hard to understand. Everyone knows that the cost of living has increased. Yet unless you’re constantly pulling out a calculator, you’re unlikely to know whether your […]
Read MoreMacron, Battling Far Right at Home, Pushes for Stronger E.U.
Challenged by the extreme right and perhaps more vulnerable than at any time in his presidency, Emmanuel Macron of France sought renewed momentum on Thursday through a sweeping speech on the need for a more assertive Europe, a theme that he has pressed with urgency since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The nearly two-hour […]
Read More4th candidate joins race for House District 6
Brent Johnson, currently serving as the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly president, has thrown his hat into the ring for the Alaska State House District 6 primary election. House District 6 includes the southern peninsula communities of Homer, Seldovia, Fritz Creek, Fox River, Halibut Cove, Nanwalek, Port Graham, Diamond Ridge, Anchor Point, Nikolaevsk, Happy Valley, Ninilchik, […]
Read MoreTrump Respects Women, Most Men Say
This month, The New York Times/Siena College poll asked voters how much they think former President Trump respects women: a lot, some, not much or not at all? You’ll never guess what happened next! A majority of men — 54 percent — said that Trump respects women either “a lot” or “some.” Just 31 percent […]
Read MoreWhy Narendra Modi Called India’s Muslims ‘Infiltrators’
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his power at home secured and his Hindu-first vision deeply entrenched, has set his sights in recent years on a role as a global statesman, riding India’s economic and diplomatic rise. In doing so, he has distanced himself from his party’s staple work of polarizing India’s diverse population along religious lines […]
Read MoreCan Biden Make Trump Seem Like Mitt Romney?
President Biden made a populist case for re-election during his swing through Pennsylvania over three days last week, laying out plans on tariffs and taxes and seeking to burnish his working-class bona fides as a son of Scranton. But he also used the trip to sharpen the story he tells about former President Donald Trump, […]
Read MoreModi Calls Muslims ‘Infiltrators’ Who Would Take India’s Wealth
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday called Muslims “infiltrators” who would take India’s wealth if his opponents gained power — unusually direct and divisive language from a leader who normally lets others do the dirtiest work of polarizing Hindus against Muslims. Mr. Modi, addressing voters in the state of Rajasthan, referred to a remark once […]
Read MoreGiorgia Meloni Is Leading the Far-Right Takeover of Europe
“There’s just one question on voting day. Do you want an Islamized Europe or a European Europe?” This stark choice was posed by Marion Maréchal, a rising star of the French far right, at the launch of her party’s campaign for the European elections in June. In an incendiary speech, she spoke of a Europe […]
Read MoreEcuador’s Referendum Vote on Sunday Will Test President Noboa
Ecuadoreans will vote on Sunday in a referendum that could give their center-right president greater powers to combat drug-related gang violence and also gauge how he would fare in his bid for re-election next year. President Daniel Noboa, the 36-year-old heir to a banana empire, took office in November after an election season focused on […]
Read MoreCould the Union Victory at VW Set Off a Wave?
By voting to join the United Automobile Workers, Volkswagen workers in Tennessee have given the union something it has never had: a factory-wide foothold at a major foreign automaker in the South. The result, in an election that ended on Friday, will enable the union to bargain for better wages and benefits. Now the question […]
Read MoreEx-Bernie Sanders Pollster Worried About RFK Jr.’s Appeal Among Crucial Voters
Happy Friday! Today, we’re looking at younger voters and other demographic groups who are generally crucial for Democratic victories in presidential elections — but who may back other candidates or sit out this year’s election in greater numbers than usual. I’ve asked my colleague Shane Goldmacher to kick things off. — Jess Bidgood Like many […]
Read MoreR.F.K. Jr.’s Environmental Colleagues Urge Him to Drop Presidential Bid
As an independent candidate for the White House, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., claims he would be the “best environment president in American history,” drawing on his past as a crusading lawyer who went after polluters in New York. But dozens of Mr. Kennedy’s former colleagues at the Natural Resources Defense Council are calling on him […]
Read MoreIndia’s 2024 Multiphase Election: What to Know
Why does this election matter? Indians began voting on Friday in a multiphase general election that will continue until June 1. The vote, whose results will be announced on June 4, will determine the political direction of the world’s most populous nation for the next five years. The election, for which turnout is usually high, […]
Read MoreModi’s Power Keeps Growing, and India Looks Sure to Give Him More
As he campaigns across India for an election that begins on Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks of his insatiable ambitions in terms of dinner-table appetite. Roofs over heads, water connections, cooking gas cylinders — Mr. Modi reads down the menu of what he calls the abundant “development” he has provided to India’s poor. But […]
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