Browsed by
Author: From elsewhere

Ali Larijani says Iran isn’t looking for war but it’s ready

Ali Larijani says Iran isn’t looking for war but it’s ready

The New York Times reports: In early January, as Iran faced nationwide protests and the threat of strikes by the United States, the nation’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, turned to a trusted and loyal lieutenant to steer the country: Ali Larijani, the country’s top national security official. Since then, Mr. Larijani, 67, a veteran politician, a former commander in the Revolutionary Guards Corps and the current head of the Supreme National Security Council, has effectively been running the country….

Read More Read More

San Antonio Mayor Jones calls for answers from ICE on killing of Ruben Ray Martinez, a U.S. citizen

San Antonio Mayor Jones calls for answers from ICE on killing of Ruben Ray Martinez, a U.S. citizen

  Texas Public Radio reports: Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones is calling for transparency and accountability from U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees Immigrations and Customs Enforcement regarding the March 2025 shooting death of San Antonio resident Ruben Ray Martinez, a U.S. citizen. Jones said the community deserves “a full and transparent accounting” of the events that led to Martinez’s death. Internal records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request show that an ICE agent fatally shot 23-year-old Martinez….

Read More Read More

In Gorsuch’s homage to legislative power, a subtle reproach of a neutered Congress

In Gorsuch’s homage to legislative power, a subtle reproach of a neutered Congress

Catie Edmondson writes: Justice Neil M. Gorsuch’s concurring opinion released on Friday after the Supreme Court struck down President Trump’s tariffs concluded with a paean to Congress that read like a requiem for a bygone era of legislative power. “Yes, legislating can be hard and take time,” wrote Justice Gorsuch, a Trump appointee who is part of the court’s conservative majority. “And yes, it can be tempting to bypass Congress when some pressing problem arises. But the deliberative nature of…

Read More Read More

In France, the far right has its martyr from whose death the Trump regime seeks political advantage

In France, the far right has its martyr from whose death the Trump regime seeks political advantage

Jacobin reports: A French far-right militant was pronounced dead on Saturday morning at a hospital in Lyon, succumbing to injuries inflicted during a street battle last Thursday with anti-fascist activists. Twenty-three-year-old Quentin Deranque was part of a contingent of local neofascist militants that gathered to oppose a talk by a prominent left-wing MP at a university campus in France’s third-largest city. Their counterprotest quickly escalated into clashes with left-wingers, in the latest episode of political violence in a city that…

Read More Read More

With foreign backing, Israel’s solar energy boom is powering apartheid

With foreign backing, Israel’s solar energy boom is powering apartheid

Sofia Fani Gutman, Carolina Pedrazzi and Andrey X report: “How do you charge your phones?” we asked. “With the sun,” Ahmad replied, nodding toward the small cluster of solar panels behind him. For 47 years, the tiny hamlet of Naba’a Al-Ghazzal, part of the community of Al-Farsiya, has survived on the northern edge of the Jordan Valley in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Home to around 20 members of the Daraghmeh family — including Ahmad, the community’s informal leader — all…

Read More Read More

Climate physicists face the ghosts in their machines: clouds

Climate physicists face the ghosts in their machines: clouds

Charlie Wood writes: In October 2008, Chris Bretherton lifted off from the coast of northern Chile in a C-130 turboprop plane. It was too dark to see the sandy hills of the Atacama Desert below, but the darkness suited Bretherton just fine. The researcher wasn’t going sightseeing. Seated directly behind the pilots, he kept his focus entirely on the sky. The plane was stuffed with instruments, and its wings bristled with sensors and other devices. Bretherton’s immediate mission was to…

Read More Read More

DOJ cases against protesters keep collapsing as federal officers’ lies are exposed in court

DOJ cases against protesters keep collapsing as federal officers’ lies are exposed in court

The Guardian reports: Department of Justice prosecutors across the US have suffered a string of embarrassing defeats in their aggressive pursuit of criminal cases against people accused of “assaulting” and “impeding” federal officers. In recent months, the federal government has relentlessly prosecuted protesters, government critics, immigrants and others arrested during immigration operations, often accusing them of physically attacking officers or interfering with their duties. But many of those cases have recently been dismissed or ended in not guilty verdicts. In…

Read More Read More

As corporate America stayed silent, a small wine importer risked his business to challenge Trump’s tariffs

As corporate America stayed silent, a small wine importer risked his business to challenge Trump’s tariffs

CNN reports: When President Donald Trump announced plans to raise the nation’s effective tariff rate to levels not seen since 1930 last year, most CEOs were silent. They’d seen how opposing the president’s ambitions – let alone his signature economic policy – could prove even more costly than the policies he enacted. With billions in annual revenue at stake, the leaders of multinational corporations generally stood still. But Victor Schwartz, the owner of small New York-based wine importer VOS Selections,…

Read More Read More

Democrats demand Trump issue $1,700 tariff refunds to Americans after the Supreme Court ruling

Democrats demand Trump issue $1,700 tariff refunds to Americans after the Supreme Court ruling

Business Insider reports: President Donald Trump previously promised Americans tariff dividend checks, but if Democrats have their way, he could be issuing refunds instead. After a Supreme Court ruling on Friday struck down Trump’s tariffs levied under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, Democratic lawmakers were quick to demand that the president repay Americans through tariff refunds. “Donald Trump should return that money immediately. He has an obligation,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom said on Friday. “$1,751 per family that were…

Read More Read More

From ‘buy America’ to ‘bye-bye America’, Wall Street investor exodus gathers pace

From ‘buy America’ to ‘bye-bye America’, Wall Street investor exodus gathers pace

Reuters reports: U.S. investors are pulling money out of their own stock market at the fastest pace in at least 16 years as Big Tech returns fade and better-performing overseas markets look more attractive. In the last six months, U.S.-domiciled investors have pulled some $75 billion from U.S. equity products, with $52 billion flowing out since the start of 2026 alone, the most in the first eight weeks of the year since at least 2010, according to LSEG/Lipper data. The…

Read More Read More

While fighting against regulation of social media, tech billionaires shield their own children

While fighting against regulation of social media, tech billionaires shield their own children

The New York Times reports: In November, Kim van Sparrentak, a Green Party lawmaker from the Netherlands, grabbed her headphones and headed for the exit of the European Parliament building. Moments earlier, she had participated in a heated debate over whether to bar young teenagers in Europe from social media platforms. Then a statement on a podcast she was listening to stopped her cold. It was a message from Meta opposing the social media ban proposal, Ms. van Sparrentak said…

Read More Read More

Technology is eroding the learning capabilities of children

Technology is eroding the learning capabilities of children

Fortune reports: In 2002, Maine became the first state to implement a statewide laptop program to some grade levels. Then-Governor Angus King saw the program as a way to put the internet at the fingertips of more children, who would be able to immerse themselves in information. By that fall, the Maine Learning Technology Initiative had distributed 17,000 Apple laptops to seventh graders across 243 middle schools. By 2016, those numbers had multiplied to 66,000 laptops and tablets distributed to…

Read More Read More

The Supreme Court’s ruling on tariffs marks a turning point

The Supreme Court’s ruling on tariffs marks a turning point

Noah Feldman writes: It took almost a decade, but Chief Justice John Roberts and the Supreme Court finally found a way to stand up to President Donald Trump’s executive power overreach, striking down the tariffs that are the signature initiative of his presidency. Not since the Supreme Court struck down the first New Deal in 1935 has the court reversed a policy of comparable importance to a sitting president. The 6-3 decision gives Trump two options. He can accept the…

Read More Read More