Music: Gianni Brezzo — ‘Capture This’
FCC Commissioner Gomez speaks out on Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension and government censorship
FCC Commissioner Anna M. Gomez issued the following statement in response to ABC’s decision to capitulate to government pressure that violates the First Amendment and threatens free expression: “We cannot allow an inexcusable act of political violence to be twisted into a justification for government censorship and control. First, an ABC reporter was told that his coverage amounted to hate speech and that he should be prosecuted simply for doing his job. Then, the FCC threatened to go after this…
MAGA civil war erupts over Charlie Kirk’s legacy
Sam Stein and Will Sommer unpack the fight over Charlie Kirk’s legacy: Candace Owens vs. Bill Ackman, Tucker Carlson weighing in, Marjorie Taylor Greene stoking antisemitism, and pastors using AI to project Kirk from beyond the grave: “FriendlyHoneyBadger” explores the fractures on the right: Netanyahu condemns rumors tying Israel to Kirk’s assassination:
Some Republicans warn against politicizing Charlie Kirk’s death
Axios reports: While prominent MAGA voices cried “war” and blamed the “other side” for Charlie Kirk’s murder, another coalition is urging its peers to blame the shooter rather than their political rivals. The big picture: Administration officials’ rush to blame the left, coupled with a campaign to name and shame Kirk critics, sparked fears — even among some Republicans — that the government will seize this moment to suppress dissent and exact retribution. Immediately after Kirk’s assassination, MAGA coalesced around a shadowy foe: they. Driving the news: But…
Netanyahu says that Israel must become Sparta, hardened against the world
Ruth Margalit writes: On Monday afternoon, a few hours before the first ferocious attacks of Israel’s ground offensive in Gaza City made buildings tremble as far away as Tel Aviv, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in Jerusalem for an economics conference. With his far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, sitting in the front row, Netanyahu took the stage, looking a little peeved, and berated the event’s organizers for muddling his slide show. Then he turned to the audience: a group of…
Immigration judge orders Mahmoud Khalil deported to Syria or Algeria
Politico reports: An immigration judge in Louisiana has ordered pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, a legal permanent resident of the U.S., deported to Syria or Algeria for failing to disclose certain information on his green card application, according to documents filed in federal court Wednesday by his lawyers. Khalil’s lawyers suggested in a filing that they intend to appeal the deportation order, but expressed concern that the appeal process will likely be swift and unfavorable. The order from the immigration judge,…
Protester found not guilty of assault despite top Border Patrol official’s testimony
The Los Angeles Times reports: A protester was acquitted Wednesday of charges that he assaulted a federal agent during widespread protests against immigration crackdowns in Los Angeles, just hours after one of the faces of President Trump’s enforcement policies took the stand to testify against him. U.S. Border Patrol Sector Chief Gregory Bovino — the brash agent who led a phalanx of military personnel into MacArthur Park this summer — was called as a witness Wednesday in a federal misdemeanor…
The emerging teen-health crisis caused by AI
Kaitlyn Tiffany and Matteo Wong write: On Tuesday afternoon, three parents sat in a row before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism. Two of them had each recently lost a child to suicide; the third has a teenage son who, after cutting his arm in front of her and biting her, is undergoing residential treatment. All three blame generative AI for what has happened to their children. They had come to testify on what appears to be an…
Music: Gianni Brezzo — ‘Il Consiglio’
Bernie Sanders becomes first senator to acknowledge that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza
The Guardian reports: Senator Bernie Sanders said on Wednesday that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, calling the conclusion “inescapable” and becoming the first US senator to use the term. “Over the last two years, Israel has not simply defended itself against Hamas,” Sanders wrote. “Instead, it has waged an all-out war against the entire Palestinian people.” Sanders had long received flak from supporters and protesters alike for avoiding the term, which he previously said made him “queasy” when protesters…
Pam Bondi gets schooled on the First Amendment
Politico reports: Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor appeared to take aim at recent remarks by Attorney General Pam Bondi vowing to “target” anyone who uses “hate speech” following the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. “Every time I listen to a lawyer-trained representative saying we should criminalize free speech in some way, I think to myself, that law school failed,” Sotomayor said while speaking on a panel Tuesday morning at New York Law School. [Continue reading…] In an editorial, the…
Israel’s attack on Qatar failed and backfired
Axios reports: A week after Israel’s missile strikes in Qatar, it’s clear not only that the assassination attempt against Hamas leaders failed, but that it backfired. Why it matters: The strike increased the feeling inside the Trump administration and around the world that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is reckless and has become a destabilizing force in the region. How it happened: Israel’s plan was to take out several of Hamas’ top leaders all at once as they met to discuss President Trump’s Gaza peace proposal. Five…
UAE got the chips while team Trump got the crypto riches
The New York Times reports: This summer, Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s Middle East envoy, paid a visit to the coast of Sardinia, a stretch of the Mediterranean Sea crowded with super yachts. On one of those extravagant vessels, Mr. Witkoff sat down with a member of the ultrarich ruling family of the United Arab Emirates. He was meeting Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a trim figure in dark glasses who controls $1.5 trillion of the Emiratis’ sovereign wealth. It…
Trump’s Harvard cuts threaten a pillar of global basic biomedical research
NBC News reports: For more than a century, the humble fruit fly has paved the way for many critical scientific breakthroughs. This tiny insect helped researchers figure out that X-rays can cause genetic mutations. That genes are passed on from parent to child through chromosomes. That a gene called period helps our bodies keep time — and that disruptions to that internal clock can lead to jet lag and increased risk for neurological and metabolic diseases. Those discoveries, along with…
At Windsor Castle, Trump is haunted by the ghost of Epstein through ‘malicious communications’
The Guardian reports: The arrest of four men after images of Donald Trump alongside Jeffrey Epstein were projected on to Windsor Castle on Tuesday was “Orwellian” and “ridiculous”, the group behind the protest has told the Guardian. The political campaign group Led By Donkeys confirmed that it was behind the stunt, which saw several images of Trump and Epstein projected on to a tower while a soundtrack questioning the relationship between to the two men was played on a…
The struggle for attention in an age of distractions
Nathan Heller writes: On a subway train not long ago, I had the familiar, unsettling experience of standing behind a fellow-passenger and watching everything that she was doing on her phone. It was a crowded car, rush hour, with the dim but unwarm lighting of the oldest New York City trains. The stranger’s phone was bright, and as I looked on she scrolled through a waterfall of videos that other people had filmed in their homes. She watched one for…