Section: US & Canada
Vox Sentences: The US is officially no longer down with TPP
Vox Sentences is your daily digest for what’s happening in the world, curated by Dara Lind and Dylan Matthews. Sign up for the Vox Sentences newsletter, delivered straight to your inbox Monday through Friday, or view the Vox Sentences archive for past editions. Some of the biggest demonstrations in US history; President Trump’s first...
The mystery that is Rex Tillerson
Rex Tillerson’s nomination for secretary of state has been advanced by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee by a margin of 11-10 — every Republicans voted for him, and every Democrat opposed him. His final confirmation by the full Senate is all but assured, as three Republicans widely seen as the key swing votes — Marco Rubio, John...
Estonia Supports Russian Sanctions, Visa-Free Travel For Ukrainians
Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid has told visiting Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko that she supports continued sanctions against Russia over its involvement in eastern Ukraine. …read more Source: Radio Free Europe / Radio...
Britain’s Leader Faces Difficult Balancing Act When Meeting Trump
Britain’s power since 1945 has depended on hugging the United States as hard as it can — the trans-Atlantic partnership between Washington and London has magnified Britain’s global clout. The country’s politicians and press fret when there’s any perceived chill. Comparisons are made inevitably to the strength of the...
Putin’s Russia: A Moderate Fascist State
On June 24, 2016, the State Duma (the lower house of the Russian parliament), in its final session before the September elections, endorsed a highly controversial bill drastically expanding the capacity of the secret services to intervene in citizens’ private lives and introducing extrajudicial persecution of “extremist” acts. Even Edward...
With Marco Rubio’s vote in the bag, Rex Tillerson’s confirmation is all but assured
The last wall of opposition to former Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson’s confirmation as secretary of state has come tumbling down. Early on Monday, Sen. Marco Rubio, the lone Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who might plausibly have voted against Tillerson, posted a statement on Facebook saying he plans to vote for...
Dutch Elections Overtaken by Populist and Anti-Establishment Parties
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and his right-liberal People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy ran a full page newspaper advertisement Monday calling for people to “act normal or leave” the Netherlands if they do not like the country and its values. The message is seen by critics as targeted at Dutch citizens of a non-Western...
Foolish GOP Warmongers want to Make Russia the Enemy: It isn’t the Soviet Union Reborn
No position taken by President-elect Donald Trump more upsets leading Republican legislators than his desire to reconcile with Russia. GOP propagandists routinely assert that 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney was right when he declared Russia “without question our No. 1 geopolitical foe.” Perhaps in Neoconservative nightmares. But...
Creative Types Learn to Shoot Guns
No. 20 West Twentieth Street looks like an ordinary office building, but go down to the basement and you’ll hear an unusual sound—gunshots, frequent and close. On a recent evening, a group of around a dozen creative types—funky jewelry, high-minded tote bags—arrived at Westside Rifle & Pistol Range and nervously milled about as they...
Rubio’s Grandstanding on Tillerson
Rubio is the last Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee whose final position on Tillerson still isn’t known. He was the senator doing the most grandstanding during the confirmation hearing earlier in the month: “In order to have moral clarity, we need clarity. We can’t achieve moral clarity with rhetorical ambiguity,” Rubio...
