| | | | Fareed: Impeachment Is Not the Answer | | "Consider, for a moment, what the growing talk of impeachment among Democrats sounds like to the tens of millions of people who voted for President Trump," Fareed writes in his latest Washington Post column. Impeaching Trump would only feed his supporters' resentment of elites, distract from Trump's actions, and fail in the Senate, Fareed argues.
"The real challenge the Democrats face goes beyond Trump," Fareed writes. "It is Trumpism"—and the best way for Democrats to defeat it is in an election. | | In Libya, America Picks a Strongman | | It was an "unmitigated reversal in US policy" and an "unprecedented position" to take, writes Yousuf Eltagouri at the Foreign Policy Research Institute: Last week, President Trump praised and effectively backed Khalifa Haftar, the rebel Libyan general laying siege to Tripoli, after speaking with him by phone. In siding against Libya's UN-backed government, Trump has chosen Haftar for his potential to crack down on jihadist terrorism, and as a way of cozying up to Haftar's Gulf allies, Eltagouri writes.
It's just the latest example, dating back to the Reagan era, of America siding with an authoritarian out of pragmatism, Steven A. Cook writes at Foreign Policy. "Haftar has won the support of the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Russia, France, and Saudi Arabia," partly through his potential to suppress terrorism, Federica Saini Fasanotti writes for Brookings—but Libyans are caught in the crossfire of his civil war, and they deserve better than "more bloodshed or another military regime." | | Central Bankers Believe in Global Warming | | Though private banks have continued to invest in the profitable fossil-fuels industry, central bankers are going green, writes Gillian Tett of the Financial Times, as nearly three dozen central banks and financial regulators have joined a coalition dedicated to mitigating climate risk.
The US and Brazil are the major holdouts, but central bankers representing half of world GDP now see global warming as a risk to global financial assets. That's important, Tett writes, because investors won't be able to ignore the red flags they're raising—and that could do a lot to change policy and behavior. | | Cause for Climate Optimism | | It stands to reason that as the global economy keeps growing, the world will only burn more fossil fuels. But not necessarily: According to a new report in McKinsey Quarterly, global energy demand will plateau between now and 2050.
The economies of India and China will turn toward services and away from manufacturing, which will require less energy; factories and cars will become more efficient; and renewables will provide more of the world's electricity—half of it by 2035, the authors write—making energy production more efficient. "Absent more aggressive action," those trends won't prevent global warming past the Paris agreement's targets, but they're better than skyrocketing demand. | | How Not to Handle Fake News | | As Russia's neighbor and prime target for political interference, Ukraine offers some valuable lessons for the US. One of them, Samuel Woodhams suggests in the World Politics Review, is how not to handle fake news.
During its recent election, Ukraine banned websites and is now considering a law that would outlaw the spread of false information. Measures like that would have "significant ramifications for freedom of speech, press freedoms and digital rights," Woodhams writes. Ukraine's policies failed to stop Russian disinformation during the election, and they could leave rights infringed and the government with too much power, Woodhams argues. | | | | | | |
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