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How Beirut is responding to Nasrallah’s death

How Beirut is responding to Nasrallah’s death

Robert F Worth writes: As word spread on Saturday that Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah had been killed in his underground Beirut bunker by an Israeli airstrike, people began quietly reckoning with the possibility that Lebanon’s political architecture might be about to shift for the first time in more than three decades. And that, in turn, raised the prospect that locked doors might soon open across the Middle East. Those who have fought against Hezbollah—not just Israelis but also Lebanese from…

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Far-right Freedom party finishes first in Austrian election, latest results suggest

Far-right Freedom party finishes first in Austrian election, latest results suggest

The Guardian reports: The far right won the most votes in an Austrian election for the first time since the Nazi era on Sunday, as the Freedom party (FPÖ) rode a tide of public anger over migration and the cost of living to beat the centre-right People’s party (ÖVP). The pro-Kremlin, anti-Islam FPÖ won 28.8% of votes, beating the ruling ÖVP of the chancellor, Karl Nehammer, into second place on 26.3%, according to near-complete results. The opposition Social Democratic party…

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Scores of papers by Eliezer Masliah, prominent neuroscientist and top NIH official, fall under suspicion

Scores of papers by Eliezer Masliah, prominent neuroscientist and top NIH official, fall under suspicion

Science reports: In 2016, when the U.S. Congress unleashed a flood of new funding for Alzheimer’s disease research, the National Institute on Aging (NIA) tapped veteran brain researcher Eliezer Masliah as a key leader for the effort. He took the helm at the agency’s Division of Neuroscience, whose budget—$2.6 billion in the last fiscal year—dwarfs the rest of NIA combined. As a leading federal ambassador to the research community and a chief adviser to NIA Director Richard Hodes, Masliah would…

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What Hassan Nasrallah’s assassination spells for the Middle East

What Hassan Nasrallah’s assassination spells for the Middle East

Hassan Hassan and Kareem Shaheen write: The killing of Hassan Nasrallah in Israeli strikes on Friday surpasses in significance those of Osama bin Laden in May 2011, Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani in January 2020 and other towering figures who have shaped the region’s violent modern history. With Nasrallah’s demise, we are witnessing the fall of a figure whose influence extends well beyond Hezbollah, Iran and the “Axis of Resistance.” For both foes and followers, Nasrallah was larger than life, occupying…

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Is the killing of Hassan Nasrallah a game changer?

Is the killing of Hassan Nasrallah a game changer?

  He led Hezbollah for more than three decades and made it into a military and political force to be reckoned with, in the long-running conflict in the Middle East. Hassan Nasrallah’s killing in a massive Israeli air attack in a southern suburb of Beirut is sure to open a new page in the ongoing war. Israel is on high alert and says it is prepared for all options after it announced his death. But will Hezbollah respond – and…

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Israel must end the war and start building a real democracy

Israel must end the war and start building a real democracy

Dahlia Scheindlin writes: Since the war in Gaza began, there have been proliferating signs that Israel’s institutions of state are under severe stress. Netanyahu has ignored repeated warnings from Israel’s attorney general that his government’s actions have violated the law; in response, government ministers have called for the attorney general’s dismissal. Israel’s legal system is in disarray. For over a year, the government held up dozens of judicial appointments, including on Israel’s Supreme Court; and in September, Netanyahu’s justice minister…

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Moody’s lowers Israel’s credit rating for 2nd time this year, amid Hezbollah escalation

Moody’s lowers Israel’s credit rating for 2nd time this year, amid Hezbollah escalation

The Times of Israel reports: US rating agency Moody’s downgraded Israel’s credit rating for a second time this year on Friday, doing so this time by two notches, while citing the increased intensity of the fighting with Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group and the lack of an Israeli “exit strategy.” The prominent credit rating agency cut Israel’s score from A2 to Baa1, raising concerns that domestic political risks have increased alongside geopolitical ones “with material negative consequences for the country’s creditworthiness…

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Timothy Snyder: ‘The moment you believe freedom is given, it is gone.’

Timothy Snyder: ‘The moment you believe freedom is given, it is gone.’

Seven years ago, Timothy Snyder wrote the best-selling book “On Tyranny.” His new book “On Freedom” is a rumination of what it truly means to be free, especially during a time when authoritarianism has been making strides around the world. “Being against things is just the beginning; you have to know what you’re for,” Snyder tells Ali Velshi. “Being angry is not the right first step. Being joyous is the right first step.” He adds, “We have to be rebels…

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The Republican freak show

The Republican freak show

Peter Wehner writes: The GOP is a moral freak show, and freak shows attract freaks. Which is why Mark Robinson fits in so well in today’s Republican Party. Robinson, the Republican candidate for governor in North Carolina, has described himself as a “devout Christian.” But a recent CNN story reported that several years ago, he was a porn-site user who enjoyed watching transgender pornography (despite a history of an anti-transgender rhetoric), referred to himself as a “Black Nazi,” and supported the return…

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A fake government letter in PA appears to be part of anti-immigrant dirty tricks campaign

A fake government letter in PA appears to be part of anti-immigrant dirty tricks campaign

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports: A Bala Cynwyd voter got a detailed letter this week from the made-up Pennsylvania Congressional Office of Immigration Affairs notifying her that her household had been selected to house five migrant refugees. No office exists, nor does such a government-mandated housing program, but the letter, doctored to look like an official government document, provided specific details designed to mislead someone less attuned to a scam — and laid the blame for the fake program at the…

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Is Israel dragging the U.S. into a Mideast quagmire?

Is Israel dragging the U.S. into a Mideast quagmire?

  As long as the US extends “total impunity” to Israel, there’s no way to prevent further genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, and further bloodshed in Lebanon, argues Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace. One of the biggest factors preventing all-out war in the region is Iran’s desire to pursue its own interests and reconcile with the US, according to Iran expert Roxane Farmanfarmanian of Cambridge University. Join Friedman and Farmanfarmanian in their conversation with…

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Why Israelis do and don’t want war with Hezbollah

Why Israelis do and don’t want war with Hezbollah

Ori Goldberg writes: What is Israel doing in Lebanon? Before we delve into the byzantine brew that sustains Israel’s Lebanese “operation,” we must give the one answer we know to be true. Israel is killing Lebanese, nearly a thousand so far this month alone, in a combination of sabotage — the exploding pagers and walkie-talkies on Sept. 17 and 18 — and sustained, unchecked bombing. The indifference with which Israel kills, with explanations ranging from “they shouldn’t have had a…

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Report from Beirut: Israel is ‘targeting everyone’ in bombing campaign, killing 700+ in just days

Report from Beirut: Israel is ‘targeting everyone’ in bombing campaign, killing 700+ in just days

  We get an update from Lebanon, where the death toll from Israeli airstrikes has risen to over 700 since Monday, following a series of explosions involving pagers and walkie-talkies in Beirut and southern Lebanon last week. The Israeli military reiterated its troops were preparing for a ground invasion of Lebanon if tensions continue to escalate. Multiple Israeli tanks and armored vehicles have appeared across Israel’s northern border with Lebanon. As the Biden administration claims it’s working toward a ceasefire…

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Netanyahu’s UNGA speech ‘one of the lowest points of Israeli propaganda’ says former PM advisor

Netanyahu’s UNGA speech ‘one of the lowest points of Israeli propaganda’ says former PM advisor

  A large number of diplomats left the GA Hall once #Netanyahu came to the podium. The people you hear cheering the PM during the speech are in the gallery who he brought for that purpose. #UNGA79 #Walkout pic.twitter.com/bAgiOzztWA — Rami Ayari (@Raminho) September 27, 2024