curated news excerpts & citations
Foreign Affairs: Asia After America
How U.S. Strategy Failed—and Ceded the Advantage to China
The pivot to Asia has failed. A decade and a half ago, in 2011, President Barack Obama committed to rebalancing U.S. strategy and resources to focus on the Asia-Pacific. “Let there be no doubt,” he pledged on a visit to Australia, “The United States of America is all in.” Although the phrasing changed and policymakers and politicians argued about the tactical details, Obama’s successors affirmed the logic behind the pivot, which soon became the core bipartisan assumption of American strategy. In speech after speech, U.S. officials emphasized that the only way to prevent China from dominating Asia was for the United States and its allies and partners to make a major investment in the region’s political, economic, and military stability.
Yet nearly 15 years later, U.S. leaders have still not matched their words with action. American promises to foster greater prosperity and better governance now elicit eye rolls throughout Asia. A perpetually distracted United States neglects much of Southeast Asia, South Asia, and the Pacific Islands. Few today are asking when the pivot will come. Instead, the question in regional capitals is how far the United States will pull back.
With the United States facing divisions at home and distractions abroad, it has become clear that deep engagement across all of Asia is no longer realistic. Yet the assumptions behind the pivot have persisted, as have the calls to finally give the effort priority. …
(Foreign Affairs more…)
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Waging Nonviolence: Rev. Jesse Jackson’s deep commitment to peace
A fierce critic of U.S. imperialism and nuclear weapons, Jesse Jackson helped build a larger and more diverse peace movement.
(Waging Nonviolence more…)![Strong waves crash along the coast in Havana, Cuba, on February 23 [Ernesto Mastrascusa/EPA]](https://kewus.net/yesterday/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/epa_699f4e162261-1772047894.webp "Strong waves crash along the coast in Havana, Cuba, on February 23 [Ernesto Mastrascusa/EPA]")
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Al Jazeera: Cuban border agents fire upon Florida-tagged speedboat, killing four
The Cuban Interior Ministry has said in a statement that it reserves the right to ‘protect its territorial waters’.
Cuba’s Ministry of the Interior has announced that its border patrol forces engaged in a shootout with a speedboat from the United States, killing four people.
In a statement published on social media, the Cuban government described the boat as having a licence plate from the state of Florida, a peninsula roughly 145 kilometres, or 90 miles, from the island.
(Al Jazeera more…)
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Borowitz: Video Reveals Trump’s Sexual Misconduct With Children
Newly resurfaced evidence.
The Epstein files are rife with allegations of Trump’s sexual misconduct with children. The DOJ has tried to contain the damage, reportedly withholding interviews with a woman who claimed Trump sexually abused her when she was 13. But a 2018 BBC documentary, little seen in the USA, lends credence to those charges.
(Borowitz more…)
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Your Local Epidemiologist: The test of open dialogue
In the face of Jay Bhattacharya as the new CDC Director
The federal government has appointed an interim director of the CDC, and it turns out to be the same person who leads the NIH: Dr. Jay Bhattacharya. For now, one man sits atop the two most important scientific agencies responsible for our nation’s health.
It also happens to be the person I debated after the pandemic, about the pandemic. That experience shapes how I see this moment—and why I believe the real test of his leadership has already begun.
(Your Local Epidemiologist more…)
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Emily Atkin: Why is Sam Alito sitting on a major climate case?
Nearly 30 percent of Alito’s individual stock portfolio is directly tied to fossil fuels.
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Texas Tribune: Texas grand jury won’t indict in 2025 fatal shooting of U.S. citizen by ICE agent
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Jennifer Rubin: Trump Stole Our Money
And we want it back.
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James Eagle: Software growth was already slowing before the AI threat arrived
(James Eagle more…)
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – February 25, 2026
At last night’s State of the Union address, President Donald Trump went on offense, seeming to try to set the terms for the upcoming midterm elections. …
…It was a deliberate division of the country into “us” and “them,” a classic authoritarian move, that he followed up by calling the Democrats “crazy” and claiming that “Democrats are destroying our country.” Facing a midterm election in which voters appear strongly to favor Democrats, Trump went out of his way to try to define them, rather than his own administration, as dangerous extremists.
Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times noted that deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller, an adherent of the Great Replacement theory who is the key figure driving the administration’s crusade against migrants, made it “clear that the night’s performance had been built around this moment.” Miller posted: “0 democrats stood for the foundational principle of all government that leaders must serve citizens before invaders. Never has there been a more stunning moment in Congress.”
And he was right, in a way, because it was indeed stunning that Republican members of Congress cheered and applauded at the attacks on their colleagues. In his 1951 The True Believer: Notes on the Nature of Mass Movements, philosopher Eric Hoffer noted that once people are wedded to a strongman, they will cling to him ever more tightly as his behavior becomes more and more erratic. This loyalty is in part to demonstrate their own devotion to the cause, and in part to justify their own attacks on those the strongman has given them permission to hurt.
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)Karl Rove, WSJ: The State of the Union Is Belligerent
Atlantic: President Trump’s State of the Union Variety Show
Guardian: Jobs, gas prices and ending wars: factchecking Trump’s State of the Union claims
USA Facts: 2026 State of the Union: In Numbers
Star Advertiser: Gov. Spanberger, in Democratic response, asks ‘Is the president working for you?’
Ken Klippenstein: Trump Cheers Lethal Doxxing
Bulwark: Pay Attention to What Trump Didn’t Say
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Here are a few terms that President Trump never uttered last night:- Equality.
- Rights.
- The rule of law.
- The Constitution. (Trump mentioned the Declaration of Independence only once, in passing, despite this being its 250th anniversary.)
- Republic (though Trump referred to Republicans six times).
- Democracy (though Trump attacked Democrats nine times).
- Immigrants (“immigration” was used three times, in each case negatively. And when Trump claimed—falsely—that he supports legal immigration, he referred to people “coming in,” but didn’t call those people “immigrants.”)
Other terms central to the meaning of the United States were used very sparingly.
(Bulwark more…)
ICE deaths 2026 – They deserve remembrance and justice.- January 24: Alex Pretti
- January 14: Heber Sanchaz Dominguez
- January 14: Victor Manuel Diaz
- January 9: Parady La
- January 7: Renée Good
- January 6: Luis Beltran Yanez-Cruz
- January 5: Luis Gustavo Nunez Caceres
- January 3: Geraldo Lunas Campos
- December 31, 2025: Keith Porter
Suffering Under President Obama
NACDL Criminal Case Tracker
Texas Tribune: A Walk for Peace: photos of Fort Worth monks’ journey to Washington
Walk for Peace – Dhammacetiya – The Ancient Sacred Buddhist Scripture Stupas
Margaret Chase Smith: Declaration of Conscience
NPR: January 6, 2021: A visual archive
Accountability Initiative ICE List
GriftMatrix
Trump Action Tracker
Timeline: Tracking the Trump Justice Department’s Anti-Voting Shift
Tracking the Lawsuits Against Trump’s Agenda
Trump Pardons Database
Project 2025 Tracker
DOGE Tracker
ProPublica: Elon Musk’s Demolition Crew
Wired: 6 Tools for Tracking the Trump Administration’s Attacks on Civil Liberties
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