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Kamala Harris’s biggest advantage

Kamala Harris’s biggest advantage

Jill Filipovic writes: Of all the reasons Kamala Harris is better equipped than Joe Biden to defeat Donald Trump in November—her relative youth, the fact that she’s a former prosecutor challenging a convicted felon—her biggest advantage may be her record on abortion. Harris served as the Biden administration’s de facto advocate for reproductive rights; it is her voice, not Biden’s, that’s been loudest in objecting to abortion bans and conservative efforts to curtail IVF and contraception. According to the White House, she is the only vice president to…

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Rep. Meeks predicts Black voter turnout could surpass what was seen in 2008

Rep. Meeks predicts Black voter turnout could surpass what was seen in 2008

The Hill reports: Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday said he believes the candidacy of Vice President Harris will drive Black voter excitement to levels higher than what was seen in 2008, when former President Obama first ran. “I thought that what I saw in 2008 could never be duplicated,” Meeks said at a press conference with members of the Congressional Black Caucus and its political action committee, which he chairs. “I thought that that interest would fade away. But…

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The Supreme Court has made the current crisis of American democracy perpetual

The Supreme Court has made the current crisis of American democracy perpetual

Adam Serwer writes: The Trumpist justices on the Supreme Court had a very serious problem: They needed to keep their guy out of prison for trying to overthrow the government. The right-wing justices had to do this while still attempting to maintain at least a pretense of having ruled on the basis of the law and the Constitution rather than mere partisan instincts. So they settled on what they thought was a very clever solution: They would grant the presidency…

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Hostage family members arrested as Netanyahu addresses Congress; half of Democrats skip speech

Hostage family members arrested as Netanyahu addresses Congress; half of Democrats skip speech

The Times of Israel reports: Several hostage family members wearing Yellow “Seal the Deal Now” t-shirts have been removed from the gallery during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to a joint session of Congress and detained by law enforcement. Axios reports: Roughly half of House and Senate Democrats skipped Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, according to an Axios headcount. Why it matters: Many lawmakers, particularly progressive Israel critics, made clear they were explicitly boycotting…

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‘I know we will win – and how’: Ukraine’s top general on turning the tables against Russia

‘I know we will win – and how’: Ukraine’s top general on turning the tables against Russia

The Guardian reports: Sitting on a stack of ammunition crates at a secret military base, Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi was tight-lipped about when Ukraine will receive a long-awaited delivery of F-16 fighter jets. The Dutch and other allies have said they will arrive soon. This week? Or maybe August? “I know. But I can’t tell you about it, unfortunately,” he said, with an apologetic grin, as gulls squawked nearby. Syrskyi is Ukraine’s new commander-in-chief. His unenviable task is to defeat…

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How ‘carbon cowboys’ are cashing in on protected Amazon forest

How ‘carbon cowboys’ are cashing in on protected Amazon forest

The Washington Post reports from Portel, Brazil: Over the past two decades, a new financial commodity known as carbon credits has become one of the world’s most important tools in the fight against climate change. Companies and organizations seeking to offset their emission of carbon have spent billions of dollars on them. The Amazon rainforest, because of its size and global environmental importance, has increasingly drawn those pursuing carbon credits. Here, these people are called “carbon cowboys.” They’ve launched preservation…

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The physics of cold water may have jump-started complex life

The physics of cold water may have jump-started complex life

Veronique Greenwood writes: Once upon a time, long ago, the world was encased in ice. That’s the tale told by sedimentary rock in the tropics, many geologists believe. Hundreds of millions of years ago, glaciers and sea ice covered the globe. The most extreme scenarios suggest a layer of ice several meters thick even at the equator. This event has been called “Snowball Earth,” and you’d think it would be a terrible time to be alive — and maybe, for…

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Kamala Harris inspires young voters (and older voters too)

Kamala Harris inspires young voters (and older voters too)

BREAKING: According to new CBS polling, Kamala Harris has opened up a 62-37 lead on Donald Trump among young voters. The Democratic Party is inspired and ready to defeat Donald Trump. — Kamala’s Wins (@harris_wins) July 23, 2024 NPR reports: In the hours after President Biden announced he would be stepping off the ticket and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, Gen Z voters sprang into action online. From coconut tree and “brat”-coded memes to official endorsements of Harris from youth-focused…

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Trump’s mass deportation plan echoes concentration camp history

Trump’s mass deportation plan echoes concentration camp history

Andrea Pitzer writes: The Republican National Convention hit rock bottom on its third day in Milwaukee, Wis., on July 17, with a sea of signs calling for “Mass Deportation Now.” If former president Donald Trump is elected for a second term, he and his advisers promise to remove from the U.S., via forced expulsions and deportation camps, as many as 20 million people—a number larger than the country’s current estimated population of undocumented residents. Put into effect, this scheme would devolve quickly into a vast 21st-century…

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Major labor unions urge Biden to halt military aid to Israel

Major labor unions urge Biden to halt military aid to Israel

The Hill reports: A group of major labor unions pushed President Biden in a letter Tuesday to stop military aid to Israel as it continues to wage its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. “We believe that immediately cutting US military aid to the Israeli government is necessary to bring about a peaceful resolution to this conflict,” the letter reads. Signatories include the United Auto Workers (UAW), the American Postal Workers Union (APWU), the International Union of Painters and…

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Netanyahu’s visit to the U.S. could be crucial to a ceasefire deal. But does he actually want one?

Netanyahu’s visit to the U.S. could be crucial to a ceasefire deal. But does he actually want one?

CNN reports: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu landed in Washington on Monday to far less fanfare than he would have expected just a day earlier. His highly-anticipated visit – chock-full of meetings with top US officials and a prized address to Congress – will now undoubtedly be overshadowed by US President Joe Biden’s stunning decision to drop out of the presidential race. But as detailed ceasefire negotiations aimed at turning a framework agreement into a final deal stretch into their…

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China challenges West on Gaza by offering Palestinians a new platform

China challenges West on Gaza by offering Palestinians a new platform

Middle East Eye reports: As 14 Palestinian leaders lined up for a photograph in Beijing on Tuesday, they each made sure to shake hands afterwards with one man: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Tuesday’s Palestinian unity talks, where an agreement for a post-war Gaza framework was signed, were an opportunity for China to provide a rival platform to Israel and its western allies on the future of Palestine and the Middle East. “China’s major goal is to gain consent and…

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WHO ‘extremely worried’ about possible Gaza polio outbreak

WHO ‘extremely worried’ about possible Gaza polio outbreak

BBC News reports: The World Health Organization is “extremely worried” about the possibility of an outbreak of the highly infectious polio virus in Gaza after traces were found in wastewater. Dr Ayadil Saparbekov, head of the WHO’s team in the Palestinian territories, told reporters a risk assessment was being implemented and that in the meantime health workers were providing protection advice to Gaza’s 2.3 million population. But, he added, it would be “very difficult” for people to follow it, given…

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Why did Homo sapiens outlast all other human species?

Why did Homo sapiens outlast all other human species?

Mindy Weisberger writes: Modern humans (Homo sapiens) are the sole surviving representatives of the human family tree, but we’re the last sentence in an evolutionary story that began approximately 6 million years ago and spawned at least 18 species known collectively as hominins. There were at least nine Homo species — including H. sapiens — distributed around Africa, Europe and Asia by about 300,000 years ago, according to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. One by one, all except H. sapiens disappeared. Neanderthals and a Homo group known as the Denisovans lived…

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