Music: DJ Cam Quartet — ‘Saint Germain’
Netanyahu is choosing to let starvation consume the children in Gaza
Alex de Waal writes: Mass starvation is unfolding in and around the Sudanese city of El Fasher, where the Sudanese Army and its allies are defending a siege and onslaught by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Both sides are fighting a war of starvation, stealing food from civilians and blocking aid. If the warring parties were to agree to a cease-fire this instant, given the perilous roads and the underfunded aid operation, it would be weeks or months before sufficient…
As Witkoff and Huckabee staged a humanitarian photo op, dozens of Palestinians were killed by Israelis
Abdel Qader Sabbah and Sharif Abdel Kouddous report: President Trump’s Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee toured an “aid distribution” site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in Rafah in southern Gaza on Friday. During the U.S. envoy’s highly stage-managed visit, at least 82 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks across the enclave, including 49 people seeking food aid with more than 270 injured. The visit came as the leading international authority on food crises—the…
Firing the Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner moves us into banana republic territory
The Friends of the Bureau of Labor Statistics issued a statement following Commissioner McEntarfer’s removal: Today, President Trump called into question the integrity of the Employment Situation report that the BLS released this morning. He accused BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer of deliberately reporting false numbers to reflect poorly on this administration. This baseless, damaging claim undermines the valuable work and dedication of BLS staff who produce the reports each month. This escalates the President’s unprecedented attacks on the independence and…
Laura Loomer has emerged as a blunt enforcer of allegiance to Trump
Politico reports: President Donald Trump’s second term White House has been marked by far less palace intrigue and personnel drama at the senior staff and Cabinet level than his first. And yet, the firings are piling up. More than a dozen high ranking officials across the administration have been forced to leave their jobs or had their nominations or promotions derailed in the first six months of Trump’s return to Washington. Nearly all of the ousters have come after individuals…
The silence of DOJ’s inspector general concealed a crucial whistle-blower complaint concerning Bove
The New York Times reports: The Justice Department’s internal watchdog lost a crucial account from a whistle-blower detailing wrongdoing by political appointees for more than two months, prompting criticism that the agency’s inspector general has been inactive and silent during a time of deep turmoil. The complaint, submitted in early May, accused top Justice Department officials like Emil Bove III of overseeing an effort to mislead judges and skirt or ignore court orders, according to people familiar with the filing….
Federal judges say the White House needs to tone down attacks
Politico reports: A group of federal judges decried a series of politically charged attacks from the White House Thursday, saying the broadsides are emboldening bad actors and leading to death threats and political intimidation. “Now, it’s at a level that I have to honestly say is different. We’re seeing things coming out from the top down, from White House spokespeople, calling us crazy, leftist, unconstitutional judges,” Esther Salas, a U.S. District Court judge in New Jersey, said at a judicial…
The controlled demolition of American science
Ross Andersen writes: Roald Sagdeev has already watched one scientific empire rot from the inside. When Sagdeev began his career, in 1955, science in the Soviet Union was nearing its apex. At the Kurchatov Institute in Moscow, he studied the thermonuclear reactions that occur inside of stars. A few lab tables away, Andrei Sakharov was developing the hydrogen bomb. The Soviet space program would soon astonish the world by lofting the first satellite, and then the first human being, into…
Music: Moodorama — ‘Sweet Toffee’
The starvation of Gaza is shameful. Crippling sanctions on Israel are needed, say Israeli public figures
The Guardian reports: A group of high-profile Israeli public figures, including academics, artists and public intellectuals, has called for “crippling sanctions” to be imposed by the international community on Israel, amid mounting horror over its starvation of Gaza. The 31 signatories of a letter to the Guardian include an Academy award recipient, Yuval Abraham; a former Israeli attorney general, Michael Ben-Yair; Avraham Burg, a former speaker of Israel’s parliament and former head of the Jewish Agency; and a number of…
France and Britain’s recognition of a Palestinian state won’t end Israel’s onslaught
Hussein Agha and Robert Malley write: Almost two years into a conflict that has cost tens of thousands of lives, amid an Israeli military campaign and humanitarian blockade that have reached apocalyptic proportions, and faced with their own powerlessness as they bear witness to what growing numbers of experts call a genocide, Emmanuel Macron has announced France’s dramatic next step: it will recognize a Palestinian state in September. Keir Starmer quickly followed suit, stating that the UK would do likewise…
The Columbia deal with Trump is a blueprint. All of higher education should fear what comes next
Vox reports: One by one, elite universities are signing away some of their autonomy to the Trump administration after it has accused them of civil rights violations and withheld federal funding. The University of Pennsylvania banned transgender women from participating in women’s college sports as part of an agreement with the Trump administration earlier this month. Columbia University agreed last week to pay $200 million in penalties and fulfill a laundry list of other demands, from slashing diversity, equity, and…
How Trump’s crackdown on law firms is undermining legal defenses for the vulnerable
Reuters reports: When the Texas Civil Rights Project needed lawyers to help dozens of people arrested during U.S. President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, legal director Dustin Rynders turned to a familiar strategy. He contacted major law firms that for decades had provided free legal services to nonprofits like his. On that April day in Houston, he called his usual contacts, many at firms that had previously handled challenges to Trump’s immigration policies. Before Trump’s return to the White House, they…
Trump is turning the White House into Mar-a-Lago with a private $200 million ballroom
The New Republic reports: Donald Trump is finally getting his wish to turn the White House into the gaudy resort he calls home by adding a $200 million ballroom. The White House announced that it would begin construction in September on a 90,000 square foot ballroom that can seat 650 people. Yes, Trump is laser focused on the issues that matter most to Americans: Replacing the “large and unsightly” tent that typically hosts guests just 100 yards away from the…
What does a cell know of itself? Much more than you think
Claire L. Evans writes: In 1983, the octogenarian geneticist Barbara McClintock stood at the lectern of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. She was famously publicity averse — nearly a hermit — but it’s customary for people to speak when they’re awarded a Nobel Prize, so she delivered a halting account of the experiments that had led to her discovery, in the early 1950s, of how DNA sequences can relocate across the genome. Near the end of the speech, blinking through…
Music: Four80East — ‘In The Hidden Garden’