Browsed by
Author: From elsewhere

A CEO’s killing echoes the political violence of the Gilded Age

A CEO’s killing echoes the political violence of the Gilded Age

Zeynep Tufekci writes: I’ve been studying social media for a long time, and I can’t think of any other incident when a murder [that of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson] in this country has been so openly celebrated. The conditions that gave rise to this outpouring of anger are in some ways specific to this moment. Today’s business culture enshrines the maximization of executive wealth and shareholder fortunes, and has succeeded in leveraging personal riches into untold political influence. New communication…

Read More Read More

How Trump’s transition delays could end up hamstringing his agenda

How Trump’s transition delays could end up hamstringing his agenda

Politico reports: President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team still has not sent policy advisers to coordinate with the federal agencies he is preparing to take over, delaying preparations that could be key to executing his ambitious agenda. The Trump transition signed an agreement Nov. 26 paving the way for those “landing teams” to begin work in the agencies. But before they can do that, the transition has to submit its lists of people who will serve on the teams to the…

Read More Read More

Adults grow new brain cells – and these neurons are key to learning by listening

Adults grow new brain cells – and these neurons are key to learning by listening

Regenerating neurons may be one way to improve cognition. stanislavgusev/RooM via Getty Images By Aswathy Ammothumkandy, University of Southern California; Charles Liu, University of Southern California, and Michael A. Bonaguidi, University of Southern California Your brain can still make new neurons when you’re an adult. But how does the rare birth of these new neurons contribute to cognitive function? Neurons are the cells that govern brain function, and you are born with most of the neurons you will ever have…

Read More Read More

Trump’s oligarchy

Trump’s oligarchy

Axios reports: President-elect Trump has assembled an administration of unprecedented, mind-boggling wealth — smashing his own first-term record by billions of dollars. That’s even without counting the ballooning fortunes of his prized outside adviser and the world’s richest man: Elon Musk. Why it matters: It’s not hyperbole to call this a government of billionaires. Whether it acts as a government for billionaires — as Democrats argue is inevitable — could test and potentially tarnish Trump’s populist legacy. The big picture: Besides Trump, Musk and his fellow Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)…

Read More Read More

Will Trump have the legal power to impose martial law?

Will Trump have the legal power to impose martial law?

David French writes: [T]here is a statutory basis for military intervention in domestic affairs, and the statute — called the Insurrection Act — is so poorly drafted that I have come to call it America’s most dangerous law. The Insurrection Act is almost as old as the United States itself. The law dates to 1792, and it permits the president to deploy American troops on American streets to impose order and maintain government control. There is nothing inherently wrong with…

Read More Read More

No, Trump can’t just ‘dismiss’ the Senate

No, Trump can’t just ‘dismiss’ the Senate

Akhil Reed Amar, Josh Chafetz, and Thomas P. Schmidt write: Donald Trump has not even returned to office, and already a constitutional crisis may be in the making. Trump has started announcing the people he intends to nominate for positions in his new administration. That is his prerogative. Several senators have criticized some of Trump’s choices. That is their prerogative (and two Trump nominees have already withdrawn under pressure). But rumors have been circulating of a plan to have Trump…

Read More Read More

Incoming Trump administration plans to deport some migrants to countries other than their own

Incoming Trump administration plans to deport some migrants to countries other than their own

NBC News reports: The incoming Trump administration is preparing a list of countries to which it may deport migrants when their home countries refuse to accept them, according to three sources familiar with the plans. The countries on the list have included but may not be limited to Turks and Caicos, the Bahamas, Panama and Grenada, the sources said. The plans could mean that thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of migrants would be permanently displaced in countries where they…

Read More Read More

Syria’s rebel coalition has shaped itself into a nationalist force that aims to overthrow Assad regime

Syria’s rebel coalition has shaped itself into a nationalist force that aims to overthrow Assad regime

Hassan Hassan writes: The stunningly successful offensive by Syrian rebels last week accomplished what years of bloodshed by larger factions could not. Within four days, the rebel group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, captured much of Aleppo, one of Syria’s largest cities, and now controls most of Aleppo Province and all of Idlib Province. Long-entrenched front lines held by government forces and fortified by Russian firepower crumbled. Underlying the success of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham is a crucial development: It has evolved from…

Read More Read More

Inside the Iraqi factions’ decision to stay out of Syria

Inside the Iraqi factions’ decision to stay out of Syria

Middle East Eye reports: Iraq’s Shia forces, including major Iranian-affiliated armed factions, have unanimously decided not to send fighters to Syria to defend Bashar al-Assad from the rebel advance, officials and commanders told Middle East Eye. Last week, Syrian rebels led by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham launched an offensive on Assad’s forces, seizing the major cities of Aleppo and Hama in a matter of days. The advance, which is now bearing down on Homs, has greatly concerned Iraqi leaders, who consider…

Read More Read More

Sick animals suggest COVID pandemic started in Wuhan market

Sick animals suggest COVID pandemic started in Wuhan market

Nature reports: The quest to understand where the COVID-19 pandemic started has revealed fresh clues. Researchers have re-analysed data collected from a market in Wuhan, China, during the early days of the pandemic and found that animals there were infected with a virus – although they could not confirm what exactly caused the infection. “The conclusion is convincing that there was infection in the animals,” says Spyros Lytras, an evolutionary virologist at the University of Tokyo. The results, which have…

Read More Read More

Russia is increasingly open about its national eugenics project

Russia is increasingly open about its national eugenics project

Alexey Kovalev writes: “Spare people” with low “social value” is how Russian parliamentarian Aleksandr Borodai described his compatriots sent as cannon fodder to Ukraine in a leaked tape, the authenticity of which he later confirmed. Expendable manpower, he explained, can be thrown at Ukraine’s “bravest [and] boldest,” and “exhaust the enemy to the maximum.” Borodai isn’t just anybody: He’s a political consultant from Moscow who declared himself prime minister of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic in Ukraine in 2014, and…

Read More Read More

Tulsi Gabbard — Russian asset or just a politically opportunistic sycophant who wants to please Trump?

Tulsi Gabbard — Russian asset or just a politically opportunistic sycophant who wants to please Trump?

ABC News reports: Since becoming President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard’s rosy posture toward Moscow has prompted some Democratic critics to suggest that she could be “compromised,” or perhaps even a “Russian asset” — claims the ex-Hawaii representative and Army officer has forcefully denied. But former advisers to Gabbard suggest that her views on Russia and its polarizing leader, Vladimir Putin, have been shaped not by some covert intelligence recruitment as far as they know…

Read More Read More

Islamist rebels seize strategic city of Hama from Syrian regime forces

Islamist rebels seize strategic city of Hama from Syrian regime forces

The Guardian reports: Islamist insurgents have captured the Syrian city of Hama in a battle to seize a vital location on the road to Damascus, marking the latest challenge to Bashar al-Assad’s control of the country. Militants led by the group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) entered the city from the east on Thursday after surrounding it during five days of fighting with forces loyal to Assad. Video circulating online suggested that the insurgents had captured a military airport outside Hama,…

Read More Read More

Trump’s ugliest threats are stirring surprising GOP resistance

Trump’s ugliest threats are stirring surprising GOP resistance

Greg Sargent writes: There are still nearly two months to go before Donald Trump assumes the presidency again, but Republicans or GOP-adjacent industries have already begun to admit out loud that some of his most important policy promises could prove disastrous in their parts of the country. These folks don’t say this too directly, out of fear of offending the MAGA God King. Instead, they suggest gingerly that a slight rethink might be in order. But unpack what they’re saying,…

Read More Read More