Politics
Column: Welcome to Cold War 2.0. It won’t be easy
Regardless of how Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine ends, it already marks a turning level in historical past: the top of a 30-year interval of relative peace in Europe and a return to hostility between Russia and its neighbors — a type of Chilly Battle 2.0.
If we’re fortunate.
The primary Chilly Battle, from 1947 till 1991, divided the world between two hostile blocs. The US and the Soviet Union reached the brink of nuclear battle a minimum of 3 times, most famously within the 1962 Cuban missile disaster, then negotiated a sequence of agreements to cut back the chance of battle. Finally the Soviet Union, burdened by a sclerotic economic system, merely collapsed.
Three a long time later, that thumbnail historical past might sound oddly comforting: All’s effectively that ends effectively. However residing by the Chilly Battle, full with bomb shelters and nuclear assault drills, was something however comfy.
The world is totally different now. Russia is smaller and arguably weaker than the Soviet Union; the North Atlantic Treaty Group, the U.S.-led alliance, is bigger.
However that doesn’t imply the end result is predictable.
“This can be a new state of affairs,” warned John Lewis Gaddis of Yale, the dean of American Chilly Battle historians. “This isn’t a chilly battle; this can be a scorching battle — and it straight includes one of many nice powers.”
In response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the USA and its allies have shortly assembled an up to date model of the Chilly Battle technique of “containment” — countermeasures to discourage Moscow from additional aggression.
They’ve imposed financial sanctions to punish Putin and his oligarchs, deployed troops to bolster Poland and different NATO international locations on Russia’s western border, and stepped up army support to Ukraine.
It’s not clear how efficient these measures will likely be — and all of them may immediate retaliation from Putin.
Take financial sanctions. The US and its allies have blocked most Russian banks from doing enterprise within the West and imposed new controls on expertise gross sales.
In contrast to in Chilly Battle 1.0, nevertheless, the West is susceptible to Russian financial retaliation. Putin can cut back his exports of pure fuel, one in every of Europe’s principal sources of heating gasoline. He can launch cyberattacks on the USA and elsewhere.
NATO’s army reinforcements will possible draw Putin’s anger as effectively. Considered one of his principal complaints about the best way the primary Chilly Battle ended is that it allowed NATO to finally add 14 international locations that the Soviet Union thought of a part of its strategic buffer zone.
“Putin’s reckless conduct leaves the U.S. and its allies no alternative however to reinforce the defenses on NATO’s jap flank,” Charles A. Kupchan, a former Nationwide Safety Council aide within the Obama administration, informed me. “The Russians will not be going to love that and can reply in form.”
Western support to Ukrainian forces may very well be a set off as effectively, whether or not it’s overt assist to Ukraine’s authorities or covert support to resistance fighters.
“I’m guessing that this can occur — army, financial and materials help to Ukrainians resisting a Russian occupation,” Kupchan mentioned.
“It doesn’t come with out threat.… If arms are coming from Poland, does that imply the Russians will begin tinkering with Poland? If Putin is reckless sufficient to enter Ukraine, he could also be reckless sufficient to check NATO.”
Putin has already intimated that he reserves the precise to make use of nuclear weapons if he feels threatened by international powers — a startling escalation of rhetoric.
“Whoever tries to hinder us, and much more to create threats to our nation and our individuals, ought to know that Russia’s response will likely be instant — and it’ll lead you to such penalties that you’ve got by no means encountered in your historical past,” he mentioned in his speech final week asserting the invasion.
Lastly, the map of Chilly Battle 2.0 contains yet another new aspect: a strong China.
Throughout a lot of the twentieth century Chilly Battle, China was a poor nation, a comparatively minor participant economically and militarily.
Now it’s an financial superpower and Russia’s most vital ally.
Fifty years in the past this week, President Nixon wooed China away from its alliance with the Soviet Union. Kupchan argues that President Biden ought to attempt to do likewise now.
“China has seen Russia as an vital ally in pushing again in opposition to the West,” Kupchan mentioned. “However the Chinese language, in contrast to Putin, don’t like disruption. They see Putin turning the whole lot the other way up, they usually’re unsure that’s a good suggestion.… It’s within the curiosity of the USA to reap the benefits of that.”
Chilly Battle 1.0 lasted virtually half a century. It was costly and painful. Hundreds of thousands of individuals died in proxy wars in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and elsewhere. However the antagonists prevented a 3rd world battle.
There’s a lesson in that have for Chilly Battle 2.0:
Whilst the USA and its allies act in opposition to Putin, they want diplomacy, too — to cut back the chance that this Chilly Battle will likely be extra pricey than the primary.
Politics
Appeals court rules Texas has right to build razor wire border wall to deter illegal immigration: 'Huge win'
A federal appeals court on Wednesday ruled that Texas has the right to build a razor wire border wall to deter illegal immigration into the Lone Star State.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced the ruling on X, saying President Biden was “wrong to cut our razor wire.”
“We continue adding more razor wire border barrier,” the Republican leader wrote.
Wednesday’s 2-1 decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals clears the way for Texas to pursue a lawsuit accusing the Biden administration of trespassing without having to remove the fencing.
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It also reversed a federal judge’s November 2023 refusal to grant a preliminary injunction to Texas as the state resisted federal efforts to remove fencing along the Rio Grande in the vicinity of Eagle Pass, Texas.
Circuit Judge Kyle Duncan, a Trump appointee during the president-elect’s first term, wrote for Wednesday’s majority that Texas was trying only to safeguard its own property, not “regulate” U.S. Border Patrol, and was likely to succeed in its trespass claims.
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Duncan said the federal government waived its sovereign immunity and rejected its concerns that a ruling by Texas would impede the enforcement of immigration law and undermine the government’s relationship with Mexico.
He said the public interest “supports clear protections for property rights from government intrusion and control” and ensuring that federal immigration law enforcement does not “unnecessarily intrude into the rights of countless property owners.”
Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton called the ruling a “huge win for Texas.”
“The Biden Administration has been enjoined from damaging, destroying, or otherwise interfering with Texas’s border fencing,” Paxton wrote in a post on X. “We sued immediately when the federal government was observed destroying fences to let illegal aliens enter, and we’ve fought every step of the way for Texas sovereignty and security.”
The White House has been locked in legal battles with Texas and other states that have tried to deter illegal immigration.
In May, the full 5th Circuit heard arguments in a separate case between Texas and the White House over whether the state can keep a 1,000-foot floating barrier on the Rio Grande.
The appeals court is also reviewing a judge’s order blocking a Texas law that would allow state officials to arrest, prosecute and order the removal of people in the country illegally.
Politics
Rep. Katie Porter obtains temporary restraining order against ex-boyfriend on harassment allegations
U.S. Rep. Katie Porter (D-Irvine) secured a temporary restraining order Tuesday against a former boyfriend, saying in dozens of pages of court filings that he had bombarded her, as well as her family and colleagues, with hundreds of messages that she described as “persistent abuse and harassment.”
Porter, 50, alleged in a filing with Orange County Superior Court that her ex-boyfriend Julian Willis, 55, was contacting her and her family with such frequency that she had a “significant fear” for her “personal safety and emotional well-being.”
Judge Stephen T. Hicklin signed a restraining order Tuesday barring Willis from communicating with Porter and her children until a mid-December court hearing. He also barred Willis from communicating about Porter with her current and former colleagues.
In the court filing, Porter said that Willis had been hospitalized twice since late 2022 on involuntary psychiatric holds and had a history of abusing prescription painkillers and other drugs.
She said in a statement to The Times that Willis’ mental health and struggles with addiction seemed to have gotten worse since she asked him in August to move out of her Irvine home. She said she sought the court order after his threats to her family and colleagues “escalated in both their frequency and intensity.”
“I sincerely hope he gets the help he needs,” Porter said.
Willis declined to comment. He will have an opportunity to file a legal response to the temporary restraining order and challenge Porter’s allegations.
Porter is leaving the House of Representatives in January after losing in California’s U.S. Senate primary in March. She has been discussed as a front-runner in the 2026 governor’s race in California after Gov. Gavin Newsom is termed out, but has not said whether she will launch a campaign.
The 53-page court filing, first reported by Politico, included 22 pages of emails, text messages and other communications among Porter, family members and colleagues who had received messages from Willis, as well as messages that Willis sent to Porter’s attorney and to her political mentor Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
The filing also included messages between herself and Willis’ siblings as they discussed trying to help him during his psychiatric holds and while he was staying in a sober-living facility.
Porter said that since she ordered Willis to move out, he had sent her more than 1,000 text messages and emails, including texting her 82 times in one 24-hour period in September, and 55 times on Nov. 12 before she blocked his number.
Porter said in the filing that her ex-boyfriend had “already contacted at least three reporters to disseminate false and damaging information” about her and her children, which she said “poses a serious risk to [her] career and personal reputation.”
The filing includes an email that Porter said Willis sent to her attorney late Monday, in which Willis said he had visited Porter’s son at college in Iowa and told him that he would “bring the hammer down on Katie and smash her and her life into a million pieces.”
Another screenshot shows Willis telling Porter’s attorney that he would file a complaint about Porter, who has children ages 12 and 16, with child protective services.
One of Porter’s congressional staff members received a text message from Willis saying he would “punish the f—” out of him if he did not agree to “cooperate” with a New York Times reporter and Willis’ attorneys, according to a screenshot included in the court document.
Willis previously made the news in 2021, when he was arrested after a fight that broke out at a Porter town hall at a park in Irvine.
Times staff writer Christopher Goffard contributed to this report.
Politics
Homan taking death threats against him ‘more seriously’ after Trump officials targeted with violent threats
Incoming Trump border czar Tom Homan reacted to news of death threats against Trump nominees on Wednesday and said he now takes the death threats he has previously received seriously.
“I have not taken this serious up to this point,” Homan told Fox News anchor Gillian Turner on “The Story” on Wednesday, referring to previous death threats made against him and his family.
“Now that I know what’s happened in the last 24 hours. I will take it a little more serious. But look, I’ve been dealing with this. When I was the ICE director in the first administration, I had numerous death threats. I had a security detail with me all the time. Even after I retired, death threats continued and even after I retired as the ICE Director. I had U.S. Marshals protection for a long time to protect me and my family.”
Homan explained that what “doesn’t help” the situation is the “negative press” around Trump.
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“I’m not in the cabinet, but, you know, I’ve read numerous hit pieces. I mean, you know, I’m a racist and, you know, I’m the father of family separation, all this other stuff. So the hate media doesn’t help at all because there are some nuts out there. They’ll take advantage. So that doesn’t help.”
Homan’s comments come shortly after Fox News Digital first reported that nearly a dozen of President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees and other appointees tapped for the incoming administration were targeted Tuesday night with “violent, unAmerican threats to their lives and those who live with them,” prompting a “swift” law enforcement response.
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The “attacks ranged from bomb threats to ‘swatting,’” according to Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman and incoming White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
“Last night and this morning, several of President Trump’s Cabinet nominees and administration appointees were targeted in violent, unAmerican threats to their lives and those who live with them,” she told Fox News Digital on Wednesday. “In response, law enforcement acted quickly to ensure the safety of those who were targeted. President Trump and the entire Transition team are grateful for their swift action.”
Sources told Fox News Digital that John Ratcliffe, the nominee to be CIA director, Pete Hegseth, the nominee for secretary of defense, and Rep. Elise Stefanik, the nominee for UN ambassador, were among those targeted. Brooke Rollins, who Trump has tapped to be secretary of agriculture, and Lee Zeldin, Trump’s nominee to be EPA administrator, separately revealed they were also targeted.
Threats were also made against Trump’s Labor Secretary nominee, GOP Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, and former Trump attorney general nominee Matt Gaetz’s family.
Homan told Fox News that he is “not going to be intimidated by these people” and “I’m not going to let them silence me.”
“What I’ve learned today I’ll start taking a little more serious.”
Homan added that he believes “we need to have a strong response once we find out is behind all this.”
“It’s illegal to threaten someone’s life. And we need to follow through with that.”
The threats on Tuesday night came mere months after Trump survived two assassination attempts.
Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman contributed to this report
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