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Syria: The legacy of the Hama massacre

Syria: The legacy of the Hama massacre

Yazan Shahdawi writes: Hama has a long and storied history. It witnessed massive demonstrations in 2011, involving tens of thousands of protesters, who filled the central Assi Square in defiance of Bashar al-Assad’s rule. Its reputation for dissent dates back to 1982, when it became a symbol of opposition after the infamous Hama Massacre, a brutal crackdown ordered by Hafez al-Assad to secure his regime’s control. Hama suffered extensively under the Assad family’s 54-year rule. Its people endured massacres, arrests…

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We all carrying thousands of genetic mistakes accrued over a lifetime

We all carrying thousands of genetic mistakes accrued over a lifetime

Amber Dance writes: You began when egg and sperm met, and the DNA from your biological parents teamed up. Your first cell began copying its newly melded genome and dividing to build a body. And almost immediately, genetic mistakes started to accrue. “That process of accumulating errors across your genome goes on throughout life,” says Phil H. Jones, a cancer biologist at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Hinxton, England. Scientists have long known that DNA-copying systems make the occasional blunder…

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Gaza death toll has been significantly underreported, study finds

Gaza death toll has been significantly underreported, study finds

CNN reports: The number of people killed in Gaza is significantly higher than the figure reported by authorities in the enclave, a peer-reviewed study by researchers from a leading health research university in the UK has found. According to findings announced by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and published in The Lancet journal, there were an estimated 64,260 “traumatic injury deaths” in Gaza between October 7, 2023 and June 30, 2024. The Palestinian Ministry of Health…

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Inside Trump’s search for a health threat to justify closing the border

Inside Trump’s search for a health threat to justify closing the border

The New York Times reports: President-elect Donald J. Trump is likely to justify his plans to seal off the border with Mexico by citing a public health emergency from immigrants bringing disease into the United States. Now he just has to find one. Mr. Trump last invoked public health restrictions, known as Title 42, in the early days of the pandemic in 2020, when the coronavirus was tearing across the globe. As he prepares to enter office again, Mr. Trump…

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As Elon Musk embraces the far right, some of its prominent figures reject him

As Elon Musk embraces the far right, some of its prominent figures reject him

The New York Times reports: When Laura Loomer, a far-right activist, regained control of her Twitter account in late 2022, she knew whom to praise for her reinstatement. “Thank you, Elon!” she wrote to Elon Musk, who had recently bought the social network. In another post, Ms. Loomer, who had been booted from the platform in 2018 for writing an anti-Muslim message, complimented Mr. Musk’s commitment to “free speech.” Ms. Loomer is now sharing a different message about Mr. Musk….

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Mark Zuckerberg can finally stop pretending that he cares

Mark Zuckerberg can finally stop pretending that he cares

Mathew Ingram writes: Unless you’ve been living on the moon or under a rock, you probably know that on Tuesday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a major change in the company’s policy around free speech and fact-checking. Wearing his new uniform of curly hair and a gold neck chain (and a $900,000 watch) to address his subjects… er, users, Zuck described the changes as a restoration of “free expression” on the company’s platforms and a return to Facebook’s free-speech roots, but what it boils down…

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Canada as a 51st state? Republicans would never win another general election

Canada as a 51st state? Republicans would never win another general election

By Aaron Ettinger, Carleton University Since his re-election, Donald Trump has drawn plenty of attention for neo-annexationist propositions made on social media about the Panama Canal, Greenland and Canada — including in the hours following Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s resignation announcement. A day later, he threatened to use “economic force” to make Canada the 51st American state. For a supposed anti-interventionist, it’s odd that Trump is enthusiastically embracing ideas from the era of intense American imperialism. Maybe that’s what Trump…

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Don Jr.’s visit was ‘staged,’ says Greenland lawmaker

Don Jr.’s visit was ‘staged,’ says Greenland lawmaker

Politico reports: A senior Greenlandic politician slammed Donald Trump Jr.’s visit to the island as “staged,” and warned the United States not to “invade us” given its historical treatment of Alaska’s indigenous people. Pipaluk Lynge, an MP from Greenland’s largest party and chair of the parliamentary foreign and security policy committee, told POLITICO that Greenland wants “our own independence and democracy,” not to be beholden to the U.S. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s eldest son landed on the self-ruling Danish territory…

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Are North Carolina Republicans trying to steal a state supreme court seat?

Are North Carolina Republicans trying to steal a state supreme court seat?

Republicans on the NC Supreme Court blocked certification of a Democratic justice's election win. Her GOP opponent is trying to throw out 60,000 ballots cast in November, citing debunked far-right legal theories. This assault on democracy should be a national scandal. — Robert Reich (@RBReich) January 9, 2025 Vox reports: North Carolina’s supreme court has temporarily prohibited the state’s Board of Elections from certifying the election of sitting Democratic Justice Allison Riggs to the bench on Tuesday, despite her 734-vote…

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Trump will continue his assault on international law

Trump will continue his assault on international law

Mark Lawrence Schrad writes: Jan. 20, 2025, will mark the second inauguration of Donald Trump as president of the United States. Coincidentally, it will also mark my 20th year of teaching international law. Since many of my international politics students—now college juniors and seniors—were still in middle school during Trump’s first inauguration, they are largely unsure of what to expect from a second Trump administration. If history is any guide, the primary target of his foreign policy ire will be not…

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The media isn’t ready for Trump’s mass deportation moment

The media isn’t ready for Trump’s mass deportation moment

Adrian Carrasquillo writes: Imagine this scenario: Department of Homeland Security agents storm a meatpacking plant in the South, a show of force in the largest workplace raid in a decade. Rounding up workers, they target those who appear to be Latinos, without regard for citizenship. They don’t ask for documentation until hours later. A worker, overcome by fear, makes a run for it and is tackled by immigration agents, with one putting a boot on the worker’s neck for over…

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Poking fun at Trump, Mexico’s president suggests the U.S. should be renamed Mexican America

Poking fun at Trump, Mexico’s president suggests the U.S. should be renamed Mexican America

The New York Times reports: Mexico’s president rejected several of President-elect Donald J. Trump’s assertions about her country and even joked that the United States should be called “Mexican America” after Mr. Trump said the Gulf of Mexico should be renamed the Gulf of America. President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico used her Wednesday morning news conference to show a world map dating from 1607. The map labeled North America as Mexican America and already identified the Gulf of Mexico as…

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Americans are now spending more time alone than ever

Americans are now spending more time alone than ever

Derek Thompson writes: Americans are spending less time with other people than in any other period for which we have trustworthy data, going back to 1965. Between that year and the end of the 20th century, in-person socializing slowly declined. From 2003 to 2023, it plunged by more than 20 percent, according to the American Time Use Survey, an annual study conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Among unmarried men and people younger than 25, the decline was more…

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How the Palestinian Authority’s final gamble in Jenin could lead to its demise

How the Palestinian Authority’s final gamble in Jenin could lead to its demise

Middle East Eye reports: The Palestinian Authority (PA) has entered a lost battle with its crackdown in Jenin, which will ultimately lead to its demise, analysts and an insider say. The ongoing campaign against anti-occupation armed groups in the northern West Bank city, which has killed at least 16 Palestinians so far, is doomed to fail regardless of the outcome, a senior Fatah figure told Middle East Eye. Speaking on condition of anonymity, he explained that the PA has been…

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