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AOC’s Oversight rise marks Democratic generational shift

AOC’s Oversight rise marks Democratic generational shift

Politico reports: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is poised to become the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, punctuating a huge generational shift in the party’s power centers amid a sudden overthrow of senior leaders. Ocasio-Cortez, 35, and Rep. Gerry Connolly, 74, have been canvassing the entire Democratic Caucus as they compete for the ranking position on Oversight next year — making calls, meeting with influential blocs in the party and laying out their vision for the high-profile panel. But according…

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A new theory of placebos reframes the mind-body problem

A new theory of placebos reframes the mind-body problem

Dien Ho writes: When healthcare researchers test potential new treatments, they use randomized clinical trials. Since the 1950s, placebos have been crucial parts of these trials. The placebo is made to resemble the treatment being tested, but lacks the experimental ingredients. For the treatment to be deemed efficacious, it must outperform the placebo, which is given to a control group. Otherwise, the treatment’s positive effects may be “mere” placebo effects. Advocates of evidence-based medicine consider double-blind randomized clinical trials with…

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The state of the Arctic: High temperatures, melting ice, fires and unprecedented emissions

The state of the Arctic: High temperatures, melting ice, fires and unprecedented emissions

NBC News reports: The Arctic just experienced its second-hottest year on record. And concerningly, the region’s tundra has transitioned from being a sink for carbon to a source of emissions as permafrost melts to release methane. That will only amplify the amount of heat-trapping gases that enter the atmosphere, paving the way for further warming. The findings, shared Tuesday in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Arctic report card, show how climate change is scrambling ecosystems and shape-shifting the landscape…

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Israel carries out over 350 air strikes across Syria in 48 hours

Israel carries out over 350 air strikes across Syria in 48 hours

The Times of Israel reports: Following a major 48-hour bombing campaign in Syria, the Israel Defense Forces on Tuesday said it had destroyed most of the former Bashar al-Assad regime’s strategic military capabilities, in an effort to prevent advanced weaponry from falling into the hands of hostile elements. In a statement, the IDF said that its Air Force and Navy had carried out over 350 strikes against “strategic targets” in Syria since the fall of the Assad regime over the…

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Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s designation as a terror organisation may soon be removed by UK and others

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s designation as a terror organisation may soon be removed by UK and others

The Guardian reports: Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the leading group that overthrew the Assad regime in Syria, is not a direct terror threat to the UK, according to western intelligence assessments. The judgment could mean that the UK, along with the US and EU, will soon remove HTS’s designation as a terror organisation. In the British case, that would help justify direct contact with Syria’s emerging leaders. HTS’s principal focus appears domestic, consolidating its grip and helping to rebuild a country…

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Liberation in Syria is a victory worth embracing, yet some observers remain trapped in the past

Liberation in Syria is a victory worth embracing, yet some observers remain trapped in the past

Layla Maghribi writes: The fall of a brutal and inept tyrant should be cause for celebration among a people who rarely triumph over their oppressors. Yet, in Syria’s case, conflicting interests and worldviews have tempered some of the excitement and, in some instances, turned former “freedom-fighting” comrades into questionable allies. No sooner had the rebel Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group approached Damascus, poised to topple the Assad regime, than starkly polarized reactions began to surface worldwide, including among Arabs. While…

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Europeans swiftly initiate repatriation and deportation plans for Syrian refugees

Europeans swiftly initiate repatriation and deportation plans for Syrian refugees

The Guardian reports: The UK and other European countries have said they will suspend the processing of asylum applications from Syrians after the fall of the Assad regime in Damascus, with Austria already preparing a “repatriation and deportation” programme to the country. In London, a Home Office spokesperson said it had “temporarily paused decisions on Syrian asylum claims whilst we assess the current situation”. “We keep all country guidance relating to asylum claims under constant review so we can respond…

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Bill Browder: Collapse of Assad is ‘humiliation’ for Putin and will weaken him on Ukraine

Bill Browder: Collapse of Assad is ‘humiliation’ for Putin and will weaken him on Ukraine

  “He put his, his name behind Assad. He put his resources behind Assad. And now Assad has been humiliated, and I think by by extension, Putin has been humiliated.” The fall of the Assad is a major humiliation for Putin who had been a key backer of the Syrian regime for over a decade, says Bill Browder, human rights campaigner and British financier who fled Russia.

GOP senators’ qualms about Trump nominees are effectively being muzzled

GOP senators’ qualms about Trump nominees are effectively being muzzled

Politico reports: Donald Trump’s transition team entered a critical week of nomination meetings on Capitol Hill with a new head of steam, emboldened by a swarm of grassroots support and a pressure campaign that has revived Pete Hegseth’s hopes for Defense secretary and given them confidence about other controversial nominees, too. In recent days, allies of Trump adopted an approach that is not novel for the president-elect and his followers: Make life extremely uncomfortable for anyone who dares to oppose…

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Who are Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham and the Syrian National Army?

Who are Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham and the Syrian National Army?

Tempest magazine interviewed the Swiss Syrian socialist Joseph Daher: Tempest: Who are the rebel forces and in particular the main rebel formation Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) and the Syrian National Army (SNA)? What are their politics, program, and project? What do the popular classes think of them? Joseph Daher: The successful seizure of Aleppo, Hama, Homs and of other territories in a military campaign led by HTS reflects in many ways the evolution of this movement over several years into…

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For Syrians, free at last, now comes the real challenge

For Syrians, free at last, now comes the real challenge

Charles Lister writes: At long last, Syrians are free of Assad regime rule. After 54 years, the iron grip that Hafez and then Bashar had built based upon fear melted away and a glimmer of light appeared at the end of the tunnel as regime control disintegrated in the north and then the south. The speed with which the collapse took place spoke volumes about the extent to which the regime had decayed from within, its security apparatus fragmented, and…

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‘Assad is gone’: Writer Yassin al-Haj Saleh on Syria, his 16 years in prison and his wife’s disappearance

‘Assad is gone’: Writer Yassin al-Haj Saleh on Syria, his 16 years in prison and his wife’s disappearance

  The release of prisoners from conditions of “hunger, humiliation, extreme despair” is a welcome and hopeful sign for the new balance of power in Syria, says the writer, dissident and political prisoner in Syria from 1980 to 1996, Yassin al-Haj Saleh, but it remains to be seen if others who were disappeared during the Syrian civil war, including al-Haj Saleh’s wife Samira, will be recovered or their fates identified. The Guardian reports: The celebrations in Damascus were interrupted by…

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The J. Edgar Hoover precedent for weaponizing the FBI

The J. Edgar Hoover precedent for weaponizing the FBI

Aaron Rupar and Thor Benson write: After serving in the FBI for more than two decades, in 2011 Frank Figliuzzi became the assistant director of the FBI’s counterintelligence division, where he worked alongside FBI Director Robert Mueller. Suffice it to say he saw a lot in his career. So it should be taken seriously that Figliuzzi, now an MSNBC senior national security and intelligence analyst, describes Trump’s picks to run what are sometimes referred to as the power ministries —…

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Even the Koch brothers weren’t as brazen as the tech billionaires

Even the Koch brothers weren’t as brazen as the tech billionaires

Ali Breland writes: Marc Andreessen has been feeling pretty good since Election Day, and at the end of November, he went on The Joe Rogan Experience to say as much. Sitting in the podcast studio, grinning, Andreessen told Rogan that he was “very happy” about the election and that it is now “Morning in America”—directly invoking the famous Ronald Reagan campaign ad. Andreessen, a billionaire co-founder of the storied venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (also known as a16z), had put all…

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