Straitstimes.com:

Governor Ron DeSantis has portrayed his record in Florida as a blueprint for the US as some Republicans see him as an alternative to Donald Trump. In a speech on Saturday night, he told a group of donors and activists “we’ve got a lot more to do, and I have only begun to fight”.
Mr DeSantis didn’t mention the 2024 presidential race he’s widely expected to enter while speaking at the Republican Jewish Coalition meeting in Las Vegas.
But he detailed the extent of his landslide re-election victory on Nov 8 and his record that includes fighting coronavirus restrictions and so-called “woke” ideology.
“When you stand up for what’s right, when you show people you’re willing to fight for them, they will walk over broken glass barefoot to come vote for you,” Mr DeSantis said, drawing a standing ovation. “You can be strong, you can get things done, and you can attract a huge, huge coalition.”
Mr Trump and Mr DeSantis are on a collision course for the GOP nomination race, and both spoke at the coalition’s annual meeting along with other potential Republican presidential candidates. It was billed as an early 2024 event. Mr Trump, who launched his 2024 candidacy last Tuesday, went first with an address via video link that also drew a standing ovation, saying that the GOP is “a much bigger, more powerful party than it was before I got there”.
But several speakers and some attendees called for the GOP to move on from the former president, after candidates he backed performed poorly in key Nov 8 midterm races.
Their weak performance denied the party control of the Senate and governorships in key swing states and barely delivered the House. Under Mr Trump, the party previously lost the House, Senate and the White House.
“We keep losing and losing and losing, and the fact of the matter is the reason we’re losing is because Donald Trump has put himself before everybody else,” former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said in a speech on Saturday that drew an enthusiastic reception.
Mr Christie, a former Trump ally who has said he plans to decide early next year whether to run again after failing to clinch the nomination in 2016, called for the GOP to “get our house in order”.
He said the party should not be afraid to stand up to the former president and “against the lies, to stand up against the pettiness, to stand up against the self-interest”.
Many Republicans and donors are looking to Mr DeSantis, whose 2024 prospects skyrocketed after his landslide re-election while Republicans struggled in other states. Polls show he’s the top choice among GOP voters after Mr Trump because he supports the former president’s policies and adopts his pugnacious style without the political baggage.
Mr Trump is “still the dominant force in the Republican Party”, said Mr Norm Coleman, a former US Senator from Minnesota and national chairman of the Republican Jewish Coalition. But the GOP nominating process is just starting and other candidates will be considered, he said.Meanwhile, state-owned Indonesia Battery Corporation also attracted a major investment from LG this year, along with funds from Chinese companies, with the aim of meeting the growing demand for EV batteries. One reason it makes sense to develop this section of the EV supply chain domestically is that Indonesia is home to the world’s largest deposits of nickel, a key component in EV batteries. Rather than export nickel for battery production and then import the finished product, says Yohannes Nangoi, chairman of GAIKINDO (Association of Indonesia Automotive Industries), “We invite investors, we invite the technology companies from outside the country to make the batteries in Indonesia.”
EVs are an important step toward decarbonization, but if the electricity used to power them is responsible for carbon emissions, they are not even half a solution. Energy generation systems need to shift away from using fossil fuels and renewables are playing a major part in that transformation. and enter into other agreements with the Senate and President Joe Biden,” Dent noted.
The “election outcome has made McCarthy’s task not only more difficult but perilous. McCarthy has no breathing room, as extreme elements within the House GOP conference feel emboldened with their leverage.”
The Senate race in Nevada was a nailbiter that ended with the re-election of Catherine Cortez Masto, guaranteeing Democrats continued control of the Senate. She “campaigned vigorously throughout the Silver State, running a textbook campaign, even earning endorsements from high-profile Republicans throughout the state who praised her bipartisan leadership, work ethic and integrity,” wrote Sheila Leslie, a Democrat and former state legislator in Nevada. “This was in contrast to (Republican Adam) Laxalt, who many viewed as a carpet-bagging Virginian, capitalizing on his grandfather’s sterling reputation in the state.” One Senate seat remains to be decided: Georgia will choose between Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock and Republican football legend Herschel Walker in a December 6 runoff. The state’s outgoing lieutenant governor, Geoff Duncan, a Republican, urged Walker to make three calls – to Trump, urging him to stay out of the contest.

, to Gov. Brian Kemp, seeking his help after the governor’s decisive reelection victory and to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who handily beat challenger Charlie Crist in his reelection.

“If the GOP can’t best a Democratic Party led by a president with an approval rating in the low 40s, something must change because the status quo isn’t cutting it,” Duncan wrote.

As for GOP leadership in the Senate, Rick Scott failed in his attempt to oust McConnell from the party’s top post. Patrick T. Brown, a fellow at a conservative think tank, applauded McConnell’s victory and called Scott “the perfect example of a Republican politician who has seemingly learned all the wrong lessons from the Trump earthquake of 2016.”

Yet he argued that some of McConnell’s critics have a point: “McConnell, who was reelected to his seventh term as senator in 2020, will be needing to hand the reins off at some point soon – and the younger voices are right to look for a leader who can tell America not just what the Republican Party is against, but what it is for.”
Many Democrats, especially at a local level, were given a second chance this election: to put paid leave back on the table, to lower the cost of child care and pay child care workers their due, to finally increase access to quality education and health care, and to codify women’s rights to control their own bodies. These policies would ease parents’ financial stresses far more than Republican corporate tax breaks ever could – and history shows that if candidates articulate the value of these policies, their numbers may in fact improve.

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Whitmer is certainly proof of this – but so is Rep. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, who won a toss-up race, in part by linking abortion restrictions and labor shortages; Rep. Katie Porter of California, whose consistent messaging that reproductive freedom is necessary for economic security, clearly hit home in her competitive district; and US Representative-elect Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, who clinched the biggest upset of the season by not only discussing abortion, but also the lack of affordable, quality child care for working parents like herself.

These candidates offer a blueprint for a better nation – and, looking ahead to 2024, Democrats would be wise to take them and their strategy seriously. They’ve shown us a future where leaders talk about these policies as the pocketbook issues they are and prove they can pass them on behalf of the people.

Most importantly, it’s a world in which parents across the political spectrum can be sure that the party they elected is, finally, giving us a chance, too.

PAID CONTENTA leader can’t look weak and helpless.

When Ashok Gehlot’s camp delivered its performance piece in Rajasthan, the party had said it would decide on the consequences for the state in “a day or two. A month later, there’s no sign of change. No wonder Sachin Pilot is fizzing with feedback – even if nobody’s looking for it.

(Swati Chaturvedi is an author and a journalist who has worked with The Indian Express, The Statesman and The Hindustan Times.)
Our activism could also change the calculus for FIFA – which might be less inclined to award the World Cup to countries like Qatar if they know that doing so will result in years of boycotts, protests and damaging press.

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This matters. Because as every football fan knows, the World Cup is more than a tournament. It’s been compared to a global eclipse which strikes the entire planet for a month at a time.

It’s a unique arena where nations can compete fiercely and then shake hands. It’s supposed to represent the best of us – our incredible diversity and our common humanity.

It’s no wonder authoritarian powers want to take over these events for themselves. And that’s exactly why we can’t let them.Trump is worried after FBI search — and he should be
Trump is worried after FBI search — and he should be
Members of the public seem almost inured to such disclosures, selectively voicing their wrath along strictly party lines. Trump pilloried Hillary Clinton for using a personal email server to conduct State Department business as secretary of state, allegedly compromising national security. “Lock her up,” his supporters chanted. But those same supporters seem more aggrieved by the search warrant served at the former President’s Florida residence than the materials recovered there. And that discovery of secret documents at Mar-a-Largo has produced its own unsavory measure of glee from the left.
Ultimately, the security of a nation’s secrets rests not on vaults or code words but on the underlying respect accorded it by those charged with protecting it. A cavalier attitude toward classification among those in command breeds contempt and cynicism among those asked to carry out orders. And, in a nation already awash with thousands of secrets, a level of desensitization is inevitable. Top officials find it all too easy to justify retaining documents they deem wrongly classified or innocuous. “If we guard our toothbrushes and diamonds with equal zeal, we will lose fewer toothbrushes and more diamonds,” warned McGeorge Bundy, former national security adviser to both Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.
But there can be little argument about the sensitivity of top secret documents reportedly found at Mar-a-Lago. Their exposure “could reasonably be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security.” Materials stamped Sensitive Compartmented Information may well reveal sources and methods of intelligence-gathering. They are meant to be reviewed in secure facilities impervious to penetration.
Again, I think of those in the covert ranks or military whose lives depend on secrets kept. They could hardly have imagined such records stored in the basement of a Florida resort or residence that foreigners routinely visit.
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The Mar-a-Lago documents are not tchotchkes with which to impress fawning visitors, foreign or domestic, or, unthinkable as it may be, materials to be bartered for some future pecuniary or political advantage. It is a mistake to think of them as papers in a box. They are the lives of those who risk their all on our behalf.
Stand, as I have, before the CIA’s Wall of Honor with its 139 stars etched into its marble face, each one a covert operative lost in the field, and you will have some measure of what such boxes may hold. Anyone who is found to have treated the nation’s most sensitive secrets as the spoils of office must be held accountable. richest people stay rich? There has been extra financial help in small random bursts. Dad and I both got an automatic payment into our account which will probably pay for a month’s electricity, then we’re back to square one.