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Al Jazeera
2 hours ago
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Marianna Karakoulaki Today's latest from Al Jazeera
Marianna Karakoulaki Marianna Karakoulaki is a journalist focusing on migration and the far right in Europe. She is currently a PhD researcher in Political Science and Int... more ernational Studies at the University of Birmingham researching the life and death at the European borders. She's a Director at E-International Relations and co-editor of Critical Perspectives on Migration in the Twenty-First Century.
Yahoo
20-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Barabak: Here's why Jeffrey Epstein's tangled web is conspiratorial catnip
These are salad days for the likes of Joseph Uscinski, who spends his time peering down rabbit holes and poking in the dark spaces where weird and woolly things grow. There are loads of conspiracy theories out there, the granddaddy of them all being the conjecture surrounding John F. Kennedy's assassination. But most tend to fade and be forgotten, said Uscinski, who teaches political science at the University of Miami, where he studies public opinion and mass media, with a focus on conspiracies. "Only a select few will attract a large number of believers, have movies made... get talked about by politicians," Uscinski said. The Jeffrey Epstein saga has all the elements of one of those top-shelf intrigues, with an added Shakespearean twist — a president whose political rise has been fueled by outlandish conspiracy theories and now faces a backlash from some of his most faithful devotees, as he tries to wriggle free from a deceitful web of his own design. Delicious, especially if you enjoy your schadenfreude served piping hot. Read more: Trump resists bipartisan calls to release Justice Department files on Jeffrey Epstein The known facts are these: Epstein was an eye-poppingly wealthy financier, luxe man-about-Manhattan and convicted sex offender who sexually trafficked women and girls. In 2008, he agreed to an exceedingly lenient plea deal with federal prosecutors that resulted in a 13-month prison sentence, with freedom granted 12 hours a day, six days a week, under a work-release program. A decade later, an investigative reporter at the Miami Herald identified scores of alleged survivors of sexual abuse by Epstein and some of his associates. In 2019, a new federal criminal case was brought against him. About a month after being arrested, Epstein was found dead in his cell at a jail in New York City. Investigators ruled Epstein's death a suicide. An A-list fixture of the upper-crust social scene, Epstein has been linked in court documents with a galaxy of celebrities from the worlds of Hollywood, business and politics. It's an article of faith among some true believers — particularly within the MAGA movement — that a secret list of those serviced by Epstein's sexual enterprise exists somewhere in the bowels of the federal government, hidden by agents of the hated, anti-Trump "deep state." In a Fox News interview in February, Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi said a list of Epstein's clients was "sitting on my desk right now to review," with its public release seemingly just a matter of time. Then, like one of Trump's threatened tariffs, the list — or "list" — abruptly vanished. There was no such thing, the Justice Department announced earlier this month, along with a finding that Epstein had, in fact, killed himself and was not, as some assert, murdered by forces wishing to silence him. A piqued president urged everyone to move on and forget about Epstein. "Somebody that nobody cares about," sniffed Trump, who moved in many of the same social circles as Epstein but now downplays their yearslong friendship. All in all, conspiratorial catnip. "Saying there are files and then saying there aren't files... setting up some expectation for revelations and then insisting that actually there's nothing there" has only deepened the well of suspicion, said Kathryn Olmsted, a UC Davis conspiracy expert who's studied past instances of government deflection and deception involving the CIA and FBI, among others. Unlike some of the crackpot stuff she's heard — like Bill and Hillary Clinton murdering Joan Rivers to cover up Michelle Obama's transgender identity — the conspiracy theories surrounding Epstein have at least some grounding in reality. "He was very rich and powerful and he associated with some of the most powerful and richest people in the world, including members of both the Democratic and Republican parties," Olmsted said. "And he was trafficking girls. There's an actual crime at the heart of this. It's not just something that people have made up out of thin air." That's the thing that gives the Epstein conspiracy theories their distinctly frothy frisson: a blending of vital ingredients, one very old and the other comparatively new. False allegations of child abuse date back to the blood libel of the Middle Ages and the assertion that Jews tortured and murdered Christian children as part of their ceremonial worship. From there, a through line can be traced all the way to the 2016 "Pizzagate" conspiracy, which claimed that Hillary Clinton and her top aides were running a child-trafficking ring out of a Washington pizza parlor. Truly vile stuff. Take that ancient trope and marry it to a modern lack of faith in the federal government and its institutions and you're gifted with an endless source of lurid speculation. "The number of threads that you can pull out of [the Epstein] fabric are many," said retired University of Utah historian Robert Goldberg, another conspiracy expert. "And they're going to be long." Read more: Trump slams his own supporters as 'weaklings' for falling for what he now calls the Epstein 'hoax' Democrats, for their part, are eagerly fanning the controversy, as a way to undermine Trump and drive a wedge in his granite-firm base. 'He said he was going to release [the complete Epstein files] and now he's saying there's nothing to see here and appears to be wanting to sweep the whole thing under the rug,' Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, who played a prominent role in the Jan. 6 congressional hearings, taunted on MSNBC. "There is overwhelming bipartisan, popular demand, congressional demand, to release all of this stuff.' Indeed, Trump need only look in one of his gilded mirrors to see what's driven years of fevered Epstein obsession. "He built a coalition of people who have these beliefs," said the University of Miami's Uscinski. "And I think he's learned that once you build a coalition of conspiracy theorists, you can't get them to [stop believing]. They came to him because he was telling them what they want. He can't turn around and do the opposite now." Oh, what a tangled web we weave... Get the latest from Mark Z. BarabakFocusing on politics out West, from the Golden Gate to the U.S. me up. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Solve the daily Crossword
CBC
04-07-2025
- Politics
- CBC
The U.S. turns 249 today. Can Americans still find common ground?
Are Americans feeling united this Fourth of July? 21 minutes ago Duration 1:37 Social Sharing Just a few metres from the Washington Monument and near a view of the White House, tourists from across the United States gathered in D.C. ahead of the July Fourth holiday. The U.S. turns 249 years old on Friday. But the feeling that the country is deeply fractured — both on political issues and on the nation's defining values — was pervasive among those visiting its capital city. "This country is definitely built on division, with having two separate parties," said Andrea Bautista, from Grand Rapids, Mich. "It's kind of hard because you can't really be in the middle. You kind of have to choose a side." Bautista, who was in the capital to celebrate the national holiday and her recent birthday, said she feels like there's little room for nuance in public discourse about U.S. politics — nor does she think Americans share a cohesive national identity. "I can have very conservative ideas, but I also have very leftist ideas as well," she said. "But the problem is that people don't see it that way. And people just like to assume that you're on one side." Poll after poll has shown where Americans are apart: on Trump's presidency, on his administration's immigration crackdown, on U.S. support for Ukraine, and on the minutiae of the massive spending bill just passed by Congress, among other issues. A polarized nation Emily West, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Pittsburgh, said in an interview that she believes there is some common ground. However, "I think that the way that our society has fractured over time along these political schisms makes it harder and harder to be able to find that common ground," she added. Relative to Trump's first term, "I'd say we probably are a bit more fractured," said West, who researches how U.S. political identity impacts democracy and polarization. What's unclear is "the extent to which that's because of Trump or the extent to which that's because we were already on this trend for the last 20 years," she said. "It's likely some confluence of many factors, including both of those." Some Americans visiting D.C. who spoke with CBC News said there was little consensus to be found across political lines. For Sean Edwards, a resident of St. Louis unhappy with the current White House, the best he could do was "agree to disagree." "It's just the way the country's being run right now — there's a divide," said Edwards. What brings Americans together? So what — if anything — still brings Americans together? Many are still concerned about the economy, according to Gallup's economic confidence index. And roughly three-quarters agree that fresh faces are desperately needed in Washington, per an NBC poll conducted in April that surveyed 19,682 adults nationally. The margin of error was +/- 2.2 percentage points. For Luka Netzel, a recent graduate from Kansas City, Mo., whose work takes him across the country, affordability is a major concern that seems to transcend political division. "I think a lot of people right now are nervous about: 'What does the future look like? What do the next five years look like if I can't even think about affording a house or an apartment? What is it gonna look like with the climate continuing to change?' "I think there's a lot of unease, and that's something that a lot of bad actors want to capitalize on and use for their own advantage," said Netzel. Houston resident Shawn Broadhead, who was bicycling along the National Mall, agreed about the polarized political climate — pointing to the intense debates that were underway at the Capitol building this week as lawmakers wrestled over Trump's controversial spending bill. "I feel there's a lot of division, and not enough open-mindedness to where our country's headed right now," explained Broadhead. What can Americans still agree on? The economy, Christmas, and the Fourth of July, he said. Then adding: "I try not to bring up politics or religion." Community, opportunity, equality Setu Shah, a Seattle resident who immigrated to the U.S. from India to work in the tech industry, said she couldn't speak to the country's political divisions. But she said the country is rightly called the land of opportunity. "It's a country going in the correct direction, in terms of taking steps [to make] it better and better for the American people, and I think that should count for something," she said. Some gathered near the country's most famous landmarks were hoping that the Fourth of July would bring out a sense of national pride. Jim Dupree, a member of the American Legion, took in a view of the White House and its South Lawn from the public park on its border. He was there to see the new U.S. flagpole that Trump had installed last month. "I'm hoping to see a lot more patriotism about the country," said Dupree, who described himself as a Trump supporter. "I'm hoping [that] American patriotism can be reignited because the country lasting now, for [almost] 250 years, holding onto their same constitution without significant changes — it's pretty remarkable," he said. Vincent Langan, a New Jersey resident who was visiting Washington while on a road trip to see friends, said the U.S. political climate breeds "really powerful hatred that enters a lot of different arenas of public and private life that makes things very difficult here." But Langan adds that he still believes in America's "unique model of democracy," and that the country still has shared values across partisan lines. "I think community — wanting to be in community with each other, hard work, the pursuit of happiness [are] an important part [of life] here," he said. "And also the ability to speak your mind and to be free about who you are and what you wanna do and what you believe in."
South China Morning Post
24-06-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
Japan's revolving-door prime ministers: is Ishiba next?
A stinging electoral rebuke has left Japan 's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) reeling and Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba 's leadership in jeopardy, intensifying doubts about his future and raising the spectre of a broader collapse for the ruling party ahead of a national vote next month. On Sunday, the LDP secured just 22 seats – one fewer than its previous record low in 2017 – amid mounting public anger over political funding scandals and growing economic anxieties. The result has fuelled rumours that Ishiba could be compelled to step down should the party's fortunes fail to recover in the coming upper house election. 'This is a very severe result for the LDP and even worse than many were predicting,' said Hiromi Murakami, a professor of political science at Temple University's Tokyo campus. 'Unfortunately for Ishiba, the results of Tokyo metropolitan elections statistically tend to be precursors of national elections,' she told This Week in Asia. 'If he does as badly in the upper house election, then it is very probable that he will have to resign.' Ishiba, who has occupied the prime minister's office for less than a year, could trigger fresh political instability if forced to resign so soon. Such a move, Murakami warned, might plunge Japan back into the familiar pattern of revolving-door leaders, each serving scarcely a year. In Sunday's vote, the LDP lost eight of its seats, while its coalition partner Komeito claimed 19. Meanwhile, Tomin First no Kai – a regional party founded by Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike and long a thorn in the LDP's side – secured six additional seats, bringing its total to 32 in the 127-seat assembly.
Al Jazeera
14-06-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Iran is 'relatively geopolitically isolated'
Hamed Mousavi, a political science professor at the University of Tehran, explains how Iran is geopolitically isolated compared to the support Israel receives by the US.
