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How Does Canada’s Level of Democracy Stack Up Globally?

Apr 6, 2026Far Left

Swedish governance experts offer a road map to stronger civic engagement, if we want it.

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"Empire of AI": Karen Hao on How AI Is Threatening Democracy & Creating a New Colonial World

Democracy Now!

12 hours ago

"Empire of AI": Karen Hao on How AI Is Threatening Democracy & Creating a New Colonial World

In our July Fourth special broadcast, we revisit our interview with longtime technology reporter Karen Hao, author of Empire of AI, which unveils the accruing political and economic power of artificial intelligence companies — especially Sam Altman’s OpenAI. Her reporting uncovered the exploitation of workers in Kenya, attempts to take massive amounts of freshwater from communities in Chile, along with numerous accounts of the technology’s detrimental impact on the environment. “This is an extraordinary type of AI development that is causing a lot of social, labor and environmental harms,” says Hao in an extended interview.

Far Left

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For allies and adversaries alike, America at 250 is a solid global citizen gone rogue

US news | The Guardian

13 hours ago

For allies and adversaries alike, America at 250 is a solid global citizen gone rogue

America has long stood for freedom and prosperity, but under Trump insults, threats and unpredictability have become the new norm. As the US marks its 250th anniversary, Guardian correspondents around the world report on how it is perceived elsewhereAmy Hawkins in Beijing Continue reading...

Center Left

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Trump says U.S. keeping current support levels for NATO would be "ridiculous"

Politics - CBSNews.com

17 hours ago

Trump says U.S. keeping current support levels for NATO would be "ridiculous"

President Trump says it would be "ridiculous" for the United States to continue its "one sided" relationship with NATO. His remarks came less than a week before a NATO summit in Turkey.

Center

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Germans must now have doctor’s note to call in sick to work: ‘Extraordinarily high levels of sick leave’

New York Post

Yesterday

Germans must now have doctor’s note to call in sick to work: ‘Extraordinarily high levels of sick leave’

Under Germany’s former policy, workers were allowed to take up to six weeks of paid leave for an illness. That's on top of the six weeks of vacation time that most employees get.

Right

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Trump won’t renew trade deal with Mexico and Canada. He would be foolish not to extend it

Washington Examiner

Yesterday

Trump won’t renew trade deal with Mexico and Canada. He would be foolish not to extend it

The United States, Mexico, and Canada approached the first review deadline for the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement this week. Policymakers faced a straightforward choice. Either extend the agreement and preserve at least some semblance of stability in North American trade, or open the door to years of economic uncertainty and potentially higher tariffs. President Donald Trump has […]

Center Right

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Top MAGA defector says Trump's US 'not a democracy'

Alternet.org

Yesterday

Top MAGA defector says Trump's US 'not a democracy'

According to conservative commentator Tucker Carlson — who used to be among President Donald Trump’s closest allies — the U.S. is “not a democracy,” and he’s now working to “help build a third party” that will uphold the “America first” values he says Trump has betrayed. Carlson made these assertions via an interview with the Columbia Journalism Review, which he gave following his announcement that he had left the Republican Party. While he says that he was a “consistent defender” of the party for 35 years, he now argues he can no longer support the way it has changed under Trump. Central to his criticism of both president and party was the war in the Middle East. While Carlson was instrumental to Trump’s success during the 2016 and 2024 campaigns, explains the New York Times, “he broke sharply with the president after the United States started the war with Iran in late February, declaring Mr. Trump was violating a core campaign promise to avoid foreign conflicts. By April, Mr. Carlson said he was ‘tormented’ by his past support for the president. He told the Columbia Journalism Review that he had not spoken to Mr. Trump since the start of the war.”“I’m not interested in talking to him,” said Carlson.While Carlson has in the past attempted to maintain a public perception of alliance with Trump, texts revealed in 2023 during a defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems showed his true feelings. “I hate him passionately,” texted Carlson in 2020, just two days before Trump spurred on the January 6 insurrection. A few days later, he texted that the president was “a demonic force, a destroyer.” Trump regained Carlson’s loyalty — or at least his willingness to fake it — in time for the 2024 election, but then over the course of the following year, growing daylight could be seen between their policy positions. Then Trump launched conflict with Iran, which Carlson said betrayed the “America first” ethos as well as blatant promises to start “no new foreign wars.” Speaking with the Columbia Journalism Review, Carlson said that there was no longer any contrast between “war and finance.”“That’s not a democracy,” asserted Carlson. “That’s a one-party state posing as a democracy, and it needs to be broken, and there’s going to be a third party, and I’m going to do everything I can to bring that about.” While some have suggested that he may be preparing for a presidential run himself, Carlson has rejected this idea, saying, “I’m not a politician, that’s for sure. I’m not a rival to Trump for power. I have no power. I’m someone who knows Trump, and I know him well, and I’ve known him for a long time.” Carlson isn’t the only prominent figure from the MAGA movement to lose faith in Trump. Former Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene had her own dramatic falling out with the president, and on Wednesday announced plans to create a new political party specifically to oppose the MAGA agenda.

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Canada celebrates its birthday as Mark Carney battles to keep it intact

BBC News

Yesterday

Canada celebrates its birthday as Mark Carney battles to keep it intact

As Canadians celebrate their nation's birthday, independence movements in two provinces are eyeing the exit from the country.

Center

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'MAGA backlash' against Justice Barrett reaching 'new level of vitriol': conservative

Alternet.org

Yesterday

'MAGA backlash' against Justice Barrett reaching 'new level of vitriol': conservative

Defenders of the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment breathed a major sigh of relief when the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 ruling in Trump v. Barbara, invalidated President Donald Trump's executive order calling for an end to birthright citizenship. The decision found the High Court's three Democratic appointees (Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson) agreeing with Chief Justice John Roberts (who wrote the majority opinion) and Justice Amy Coney Barrett (a Trump appointee) that birthright citizenship enjoys constitutional protection. Many MAGA Republicans are furious with Barrett, and Never Trump conservative David French believes that MAGA hatred of her is growing increasingly "dangerous." As Barrett's critics on the far right see it, the arch-conservative justice betrayed Trump with her vote in Trump v. Slaughter.In an early July conversation with fellow New York Times opinion journalist Emily Bazelon, French warned, "The MAGA backlash against Barrett is out of control. The justices already face threats. She was apparently swatted at her home in May, but this new level of vitriol — including attacking her multiracial family (she has adopted children from Haiti) — is making me nervous. In a word, MAGA has focused its fury on Barrett — some people even call her Amy 'Commie' Barrett — and that can be very, very dangerous."Although Barrett — a self-described "originalist" and admirer of the late Justice Antonin Scalia — is far from a liberal and isn't a libertarian like retired Justice Anthony Kennedy (a Ronald Reagan appointee), she has, at times, showed a willingness to part company with MAGA. Bazelon told French, "Barrett is a staunch conservative, but she has her own ideas. In her own way, she is as resolute about sticking to them as Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who writes a lot of solo opinions." The conservative French and more liberal Bazelon agreed that Trump v. Slaughter was much closer than it should have been. French told Bazelon, "I'm both relieved at the outcome and worried that we won't move on from this debate. I'm concerned that the narrowness of the majority (there were only five justices who upheld birthright citizenship without reservations) will lead to a new Roe v. Wade-style litmus test for judges on the MAGA right. Will they try to nominate and confirm only those judges and justices who agree with Justice Clarence Thomas' lengthy dissent?"Bazelon responded, "That is a truly dismaying possibility. The United States has benefited from the open arms of birthright citizenship in so many ways. It's the Statue of Liberty come to life. It helps immigrants integrate. Once you are born here, you are an American. The successive generations are an amazing engine of social mobility and accomplishment, in a way that other countries don’t match, because we have this rule. It prevents isolated enclaves of guest workers."

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How Does Canada’s Level of Democracy Stack Up Globally?

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How Does Canada’s Level of Democracy Stack Up Globally?

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