Illiberal State News Today

Is preparing to set sail for gaza along a new maritime aid corridor. Its been loaded with around 200 tonnes of food and medical supplies. But, without a working port, its not clear yet where the ship will actually dock or how its cargo will be distributed inside gaza. 0ur middle east correspondent Quentin Sommerville is in the Port City Of Larnaca in cyprus and sent us this report. Its a drop in the ocean of gazas need, but this is the first direct aid shipment by sea about to leave cyprus. The ...

Orban scores crushing victory in Hungary polls as Ukraine war solidifies support

Results, a state which donald trump won by more than 5 points. now if you take a step back for a second, there is something darkly comical about all of this. it reminds me of the old quip from william f. buckley who ran a disastrous campaign for mayor in 1965. a reporter asked whats the first thing you would do if you won? buckley fired back, demand a recount. not only did donald trump win texas, texas is the state that i keep holding up as an example of the nile lis stick toxicity of the big li...

A huff. oh, one more thing. the objective in the next month is to get done congressional maps. that is what everyone is obsessed with in this state, and the down ballot maps, not this sort of conversation. on top of that, the letter was very esoteric. it used language about the legislation that seemed very familiar. one of my sources did wonder out loud, it doesnt feel like the former president wrote this. who did? >> yeah, because theres clearly an agenda here whether its the endorsements or it...

Pennsylvania. no, this is now a full comprehensive undertaking. what he wants to do is basically say you cannot trust any election result anywhere. because if he could convince his supporters not to trust any election results, if its all just rigged and fundamentally unknowable, then he has effectively destroyed the epistemic foundations of democracy himself which is what hes really trying to bring about, even if that sounds grandiose. that is what hes doing. cultivating state after state. putti...

Obviously texas is a pretty conservative state so abbott thinks he has nothing to fear from a general election challenger and a democrat because the state is so right of center. as a result, he is trying very hard, you know, to prevent a republican challenge from gaining any traction even if that costs the people of the state tremendously. >> we should say he is under water in approval. >> thats unusual. >> abby, this statement is so out of nowhere. no one in texas is talking about this. people ...

What work is this doing to your mind in the context of the big lie in the context of the failed coup? abbott has thought about possibly losing trumps support. its seen in texas -- hes very conservative. hes not a looney conservative. hes an elder states man, someone who is holding back the much crazier people who want his spot. hes totally mishandled the covid pandemic in the state and now trump has shown it doesnt matter how much fielty you show to him even if you spend taxpayer money to build ...

Easier job of opposing rather than governing, they do continue to be entrenched in a pretty brutal civil war. even if you dont see it on the news every day. so the statements are all over the place. they were airing grievances with everyone from ostensible senators like mike lee and lindsey graham to perceived enemies like george w. bush and liz cheney. today he is taking aim at texas governor abbott. hes calling him to back an election audit in texas. yes, you heard me right, texas. before we g...

Billions of dollars, which then you use to pay for universal child care, universal pre-k, expanding medicare and combatting climate change. >> tester is interesting because hes an interesting player in there. next to manchin, he probably represents the most conservative state but is much less of a kind of caucus contrarian than manchin is. manchin is for his own thing, but working for bernie, what is the approach here because you need all 50 to agree on a number and whats actually in it. >> well...

You would expect, like former florida congressman alan west. he announced his campaign by trying to protect our borders to ensure texas is for texans. chad prather who opposes contact tracing for covid. we cant kill an economy over a virus with a 99% survival rate in a state where more than 60,000 people have died from covid. then theres former state senator dan huffings. he opposes all covid mandates. and hes attacking governor abbott for not cracking down on, quote, local mask tyrants. his cov...